Review Fix Exclusive: Pretty Archies’ Colin AP Gillis Talks ‘Stay the Same’ And More

BReview Fix chats with Pretty Archies’ Colin AP Gillis, who discusses the band’s origin, goals and new track, “Stay the Same.”

Review Fix:How did the band get together?

Colin AP Gillis: Pretty Archie is a group of friends that have known each other for a long time, In the summer of 2011 we all basically abandoned what we were currently doing and decided to move to Cape Breton Nova Scotia where we all grew up to pursue a music career. We had played together for years around the fire or in the kitchen and we loved the idea of putting that party feeling into a show and into our music.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Gillis: We have written songs in various set ups but typically it boils down to someone coming with an idea that they’ve written some lyrics for, then we try and decide between us and our sounds how to direct the song musically. so take our song No one to Blame, It is about losing a friend or loved one and realizing that there’s no one to blame life happens so enjoy the time we have. So with that idea we knew it would be a slower more serious song. Then Colin came up with a guitar part that made it sound like a country song. and before you know it the song takes shape. 

Review Fix: What makes “Stay the Same” a special track?

Gillis: Stay the Same is a special track for us because of the message in the lyrics.  moving away ,Touring around , Life in General can separate us Stay the Same is  about meeting up with an old friend you haven’t seen in  while and even though time has passed you can still pick up right where you left off and there are some things  that never change. 

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

Gillis: We have been calling it Sea-Billy Rock lately LOL Its like Great Big Sea  meets the Old crow medicine show ~ We have some low down raunchy country sounds from the electric guitar then we have some quick picked up beat traditional sound from the mandolin, The vocals meet in the middle of  soul country and blues. Its best to just Stream or download Hanging On And give it a listen then you can decide for yourself!  

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

Gillis: We have a lot of fun at our live shows. The energy the crowd singing along it cant really be replicated on a record, at the same time we love the studio albums. You can really pick every spot apart and make the song exactly the way you want it and all in all we love both but the live show is where you really get what we are about.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2019?

Gillis: 2019 has been amazing to us so far, we played in the U.k Had a great show at Celtic Connections in Scotland. Released our latest record and are headed out across Canada again at the end of the summer  so at this point our goals are just to bring it every night and keep working hard , writing and performing  and making some new fans.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Gillis: We are always looking for new opportunities to share our music and our stories, we are writing new songs and working on expanding our audience . We have a few great shows coming up -The ECMAS and the Calgary Stampede and we also have a great team working hard to get us booked all over the world so life is good we are just trying to make it happen!

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

Gillis: You can check out our website for any concert details , www.prettyarchie.com you can also follow us on face book and instagram @prettyarchieband  and have a listen to our new record Hanging On on apple music or Spotify.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 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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