Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Lexington, Kentucky’s Picturesque have gained a strong following within the scene thanks to their pop-infused brand of post-hardcore. With the band’s release of the IYKYK EP on Equal Vision Records, the band is looking to extend that reach. The band spent some time today with TGEFM to discuss the new EP and what the future holds.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on the release of IYKYK! What can you tell us about the recording process and new songs?
Really appreciate it! We recorded the EP in Sightglass Studios in Lexington, KY with a few friends of ours. We brought on Jared Gaines (artist name Vaines) to produce and Drew Sullivan to engineer the EP.
Which of the new songs are you most excited to bring to a live audience? What can fans expect from Picturesque’s live shows?
If I had to guess, probably the song “Dance With the Devil” is going to be a favorite for live. It’s an energy that fans of our previous releases will appreciate and it has some parts that should be great for crowd interaction.
What stood out most to you with this recording compared to 2020’s Do You Feel OK?
When we began the process for writing and creating this EP, we created a graph to see what we wanted it to sound like. I believe the axises were upbeat, dark, pop, and rock. We all ended up in completely different spectrums of this graph. That wasn’t entirely the case with Do You Feel O.K?. We all started in a direction with a modern approach to our old sound and it ended up being night and day from Back to Beautiful. This EP gave up on bridging that gap from release to release and it gave us a new sense of freedom that Do You Feel O.K? didn’t provide.
The world has been going through some shit over the last few years; What affect, if any, have the cultural and political landscapes of the last few years had on your music?
I don’t feel like cultural or political landscapes have changed our music. We’re pretty much a storybook band and we’ve never written about politics or things outside our immediate bubble.
The music world has also changed a lot over the last few years. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve come across in your time within the scene?
In my time, the scene has all but died and then seems to be slowly resurrecting itself. People seem to care about rock music right now and shout out to MGK (Machine Gun Kelly) for making us all cool again.
As far as song writing, song structure and transitions in general seem to have improved. There was a time that seemed like there were no transitions and it was all parts butted up against each other.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
I’m just going to plug some friends here. So, Vaines, Stranger Club, and Soft Spoken. All great music.
Now that the world will soon have its hands on IYKYK, what’s next for Picturesque?
More music! We’re already booked to go back into the studio this year. The goal is to release a second EP by the end of the year.
What do you wish I asked about or that you had more of an opportunity to speak about during this interview?
Why was Taco Bell so underprepared when they relaunched their Mexican Pizza item? Or, where can you pre-save the new EP “IYKYK”? Follow our Link Tree in any of our social media bios for more information! Thanks for having us! 🖤
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
