The band Pink Neighbor have stayed busy since the release of their first full-length album in 2019, including solo projects and a move to Illinois. Now, they’ve released a new EP and a music video for the song “Vignette.”
At its core, Pink Neighbor is the duo of Erik Jarvis and Katie In. They met in Grinnell in 2010, where they were both members of Grinnell Singers while attending college. They work with a “rotating door of collaborators,” so they say Pink Neighbor doesn’t strictly feel like a duo. Both also have solo music projects: In has released one album under the name Katie Sin, and Jarvis has released an album and multiple EPs.
Jarvis and In both come from musical families, and learned various instruments and experimented with songwriting from a very early age. Both were classically trained, but also grew up with classic Baby Boomer music.
“Part of the Pink Neighbor sound is coming from those two paths,” Jarvis says. “Studying how music is formed and being able to use formal techniques and language, but also the spirit of the Woodstock era, being free and writing songs that explore human nature, and just good old love songs.”
Between Pink Neighbor and their solo projects, Jarvis and In have produced over 50 songs together in the past 5 years. “We learn more each time - about engineering, songwriting, arranging, and collaboration,” said Jarvis. “There has been a clear evolution in our processes and in our sounds, and we feel that we've become more mature and wiser producers.”
“Having an awareness of all the existing sounds out there, and all the possibilities, and then being able to pull out all those sounds, is really appealing to us,” said In. “We like working in the studio because it’s such a fun space for experimentation and collaboration with other musicians.”
Jarvis and In are currently living in Dekalb, Illinois while Jarvis studies Recording Arts at Northern Illinois University. However, they returned to Grinnell to record “Vignette” last year at their home studio. “This project felt a little like bringing those processes and sonic worlds together, which is something we have wanted to do for a while, “said Jarvis. “The result feels satisfying to us, like we're actualizing our ‘vision’ of the Pink Neighbor universe more fully with this set of songs.”
The song features Iowa musicians Ryan Steir and Amanda Gibbons on vocals and Abe Miller on saxophone. “The composition and production of this song brought many of our favorite elements together in a new way: playful imagery, vintage keyboard sounds, group vocals, saxophone,” said In. “Part of the Pink Neighbor ethos is finding opportunities to create a community, musically or otherwise, so we've been excited about how that's come together in ‘Vignette.’”
“Vignette” can be found on Pink Neighbor's new EP “Organic/Plastic,” which is available at Bandcamp and major streaming services. Pink Neighbor also recorded a show for Englert Stages that will run on Wednesday, April 21. Tickets are available now on the Englert Theatre website.
