On Wednesday, 3/4, Ex Pilots–Pittsburgh scene stalwarts who ply their trade with jet-fueled guitars and hazy melodies–played a sendoff show at Bottlerocket to kick off their first California tour, a joint venture with fellow shoegazers Gaadge; it starts Saturday, 3/7, in San Francisco, and ends Saturday, 3/14, in Oakland. In advance of the big departure, Ethan Oliva, who fronts Ex Pilots and drums for Gaadge, answered a few questions.
Pittsburgh Manifold: Who is/are Ex Pilots? A catchphrase or tagline, if you will.
Ethan Oliva: We are a Pittsburgh based band trying to put out as much quality material as possible. We play out a lot and would like to play as much material from our catalog as we can. We have a lot of stuff, both released and unreleased. A good tagline might be "guitar music".
PM: How did you get your start as a band?
EO: I would consider this band to have started in 2015 with the first Ex Pilots release, Findlay. It wasn't a band then, it was mainly me with some occasional collaborators. I don't think I had any intention of playing the songs live, but eventually I got asked to play a show and I had to quickly throw together a band. We had all been playing in bands together for years anyways, so we kept going and now everyone is on each recording, and we are an actual group.
PM: You’re about to embark on a California tour. Any stops that you’re especially looking forward to?
EO: No, and that's a cop-out but I'm really excited for every single date out there.
PM: You share several band members with your tourmates, Gaadge. What is the interplay between the two projects? How do they compare and differ?
EO: There are six of us in this band, everyone minus Mary [Komondy] and Ralph [DiLullo] are also in Gaadge - Mitch [DeLong] and Nick [Boston] write the bulk of Gaadge material, it really just comes down to switching personnel I think. In my opinion Gaadge is historically a more straight up shoegaze band, while Ex Pilots is more of an indie rock band with elements of shoegaze or something. Outside of that I think we are sonically very similar.
PM: Your latest album, Motel Cable, was one of my favorite records of 2024. Who/what were some of your influences on that release?
EO: Thank you! I think my influences haven't changed drastically over the band's lifespan, but for Motel Cable I was probably listening to more Swervedriver and Flying Saucer Attack. Both huge high-school influences of mine that I revisited in recent years. Mezcal Head has an unparalleled presentation. I was also listening to a ton of late era Boredoms but that might not be evident in the music.
PM: Motel Cable was released on Oakland’s Smoking Room label. How did you link up with them?
EO: In 2022 Gaadge played a show with Toner, fronted by Samuelito Cruz who runs Smoking Room - I forget the exact conversation we had, but it culminated with Sam reissuing the first Ex Pilots record, which I had self released in 2019. I sent demos for Motel Cable and he was down to put it out. I have a great deal of gratitude for Smoking Room and a lot of this tour was made much easier thanks to them.
PM: Is there a track you’ve recorded that you’re especially proud of?
EO: On Motel Cable I was happiest with a song called “Spirits Up.” It's basically just one long verse that repeats itself once with a drastic dynamic shift; I've tried to do that before but this time I think I finally got it to work. Ralph came up with a great lead in the second half.
PM: Who are some other Pittsburgh artists that you’ve been listening to?
EO: Some great newer bands we've seen lately are Madman, Switch Hitter, Dizzier, Forty Winks, United Stare and Velvet Overkill.
PM: Is there anything that I forgot to ask or that you’d like to let people know about you, your music, or anything in general?
EO: It's trite for a band to say "big things coming" but we actually do have a very, very large amount of new material in the works. At this point it's mainly deciding which releases they will go on, which release will come out first, etc. We've been testing some of the new stuff at shows and we will continue to do so. We hope you're into it!
Featured Track: Muzzle Tung - “Greed”
Off-kilter pop trio Muzzle Tung recently released Painted World, their first album since 2020’s Gannet. The latest collection contains ten playfully morose tracks–built around sighing harmonies, hangdog guitars, and toy chest electronics–whose hooks sneak into your brain and linger like bad colds, those strangely comforting maladies that kept you home from school as a kid. “Greed,” a steady, melancholy sway written and sung by bassist Karley Parker, features slide licks that drift like lonely tumbleweeds across a parking lot. There’s mention of dreams and sunshine, but they seem like mere memories, a fact also suggested by the sad backward glance of a guitar solo that ends the song. Make sure to catch Muzzle Tung live at The Government Center on Friday, 3/13, in support of Baltimore indie-rockers Little Lungs (also joined by Nashville emo act Virginity Club and Pittsburgh’s own lo-fi troubadour Shay Park). Doors at 7, music at 8, $12 advance, $15 door.
Upcoming Shows and News:
On Saturday, 3/7, TAAKAT–a volume-cranking trio formed from the rhythm section of acclaimed Tuareg rock artist Mdou Moctar–will be playing at Spirit Lodge, with support from local psych band The Garment District, whose leader, Jennifer Baron, was a founding member of late-90s/early-aughts indie-poppers The Ladybug Transistor. Doors at 5, music at 6, $20 advance, $25 door, 21+.
On Saturday, 3/14, at The Mr. Roboto Project, celebrate the release of Needle Beach, a standout new EP from prickly punk act sorry face. The band will be joined by fellow Pittsburgh pummelers Одно Окно and wheretheforsythiablooms, as well as jagged Baltimore/Brooklyn quartet Powerwasher, whose own Pressure EP is out 3/6. Doors at 7, $15, sober event.
The annual Millvale Music Festival, taking place this year on Friday, 5/15 and Saturday, 5/16, has released the first two “waves” of its lineup announcements. Some sets I’m especially excited to catch are those by psychedelic explorers Different Places in Space, heart-on-the-sleeve trio Histrionic, merry pranksters Scrum Force, sludge slingers Tony From Bowling, Bloomfield Beach surfers Century III, jazz experimentalists THAT LIKE THIS, Rust Belt rocker Lindsay Dragan, and hip-hop motormouth Saiko Kastelliano. Stay tuned for the third and final wave of announcements on Sunday, 3/8.
