Review Fix Exclusive: Pearls & Bones Talk Cool Uncles And More

Review Fix chats with Pearls & Bones’ Jake Oliveira – Vocals, Lyrics, Harry Warshaw – Production and Keenan Lazich – Guitar, who detail the band’s origin and their new record, Cool Uncles.

About Pearls & Bones:

Pearls & Bones is an alternative hip-hop band based out of Toronto and Montreal. The trio write and perform music inspired by discordant influences, from metalcore and PC music to backpack rap and pop-punk. Since forming in 2012, the band has released five EPs and two full-length albums. Their third record, Cool Uncles, culminates a two-year period of technical and aesthetic development just dropped on May 28.

https://soundcloud.com/pearls_bones/sawed-in-half/

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Keenan Lazich: Whether it was being forced to play piano at an early age, being in a hardcore band in high school, or being told the tuba was not a good long term investment, we all had different ways of starting out with music. It wasn’t until university that we all found each other and our collective interest in multiple genres of music inspired us to write together to see what came out. Year after year our songs have become a stronger amalgamation of our three very different personalities and we can continue to refine it today.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Harry Warshaw: Our creative process usually starts with a small idea, whether that’s a melody, a guitar riff, a lyric, or even just a song title. From there we’ll get together and Jake and Keenan will sit in silence while Harry fleshes out the idea into something that usually sounds nothing like what the other two had in mind, but is dope regardless. Then it’s a lot of back and forth, recording and re-recording parts until we get to the “curing” stage and let the track sit for 1 week to 2 yearsbefore final edits, mix, and master.

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Jake Oliveira: We’re inspired by lamb barbacoa, laggy zoom writing sessions, the Bee Movie, and botched

home renovations.

Review Fix: What does music mean to you?

Lazich: Like most people, music is an escape and a way to express ourselves with the mutual goal of enjoyment and pushing ourselves artistically. And if you listen to some of the music we listen to, it’s also a great way to make your parents think you haven’t grown up at all.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Oliveira: Pearls & Bones sounds like a hacksaw attached to the arm of one of those Boston Dynamics robots while it slices through a pack of Kraft Singles. There is sheer adrenaline in the form of sharp lyricism, futuristic and cutting edge production, and guitar work that is slick and melts your damn soul.

Review Fix:  How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Warshaw: It used to be that our live shows were the only place you could hear Keenan play guitar. But now we’ve convinced him to plug the ol Line 6 Pod into his computer and record his parts. We like to adapt our live show to the audience, so we’ll often play covers or change parts of our songs to make the performance feel fresh and tailored.

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?

Oliveira: Our latest single “Sawed In Half” was inspired by Kill Bill’s bloody casualties and hyper-saturated colours. We wanted to touch on a pop-punk sound without leaning too hard into some of the lyrical tropes. We decided it’d be a cool challenge to write a track that sounds sugar sweet and easily approachable, but is packed with gnarly visuals. Just your standard run of the mill slasher slapper – split ligaments, haymaker punches, and being cut in half. The works.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2021?

Lazich: Besides being able to get a haircut at some point, we want to use the momentum from Cool Uncles to continue to build the P&B name in the independent music scene. We hope to return to playing live shows and showcasing our music for new people. It also isn’t out of the question that we will have our next album fully written by the end of the year.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Warshaw: We’re working on a ton of new music. We feel we’ve really hit the sweet spot with our current sound and we’re going all in on it. The new music is heavy, viby, and makes Harry do his “ew gross” grimace everytime (which is good).

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Go stream Cool Uncles now! We need them pennies! Also, get at us on Instagram @pearls_bones and on Facebook

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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