Stereo Embers The Podcast 0181: Pynkie

“Freaking Love Songs”

I kind of developed my musical style in a vacuum,” Liz Phair once said. “Even though I listen to a lot of stuff, the way I wrote was in my bedroom, really privately.” Our bedrooms are private places—not in the way your thinking—I mean, that’s true but that’s not what were talking about today. Today we’re talking about the fact that there is something about our bedrooms that inspires creativity. Maybe it’s the privacy or the comfort or the familiarity of the space—who knows? But one thing is for sure: we kind of crush it in the bedroom. Not in the way you’re thinking, but you know what we mean. We do good work there. Work that is personal, vulnerable, but also strong and assured. And that work, intimate as it may be ever now and then, to quote Joseph Campbell, goes from the private to the public. Like our pal Liz Phair, for example. And our new pal Pynkie, who you’re about to meet today. So the New Jersey born Pinkie is cut from that very same Liz Phair cloth. Her bedroom creations are wistful, knowing and wise and her observations about the world are delivered in a subtle but swift pop fashion that brings to mind everyone from The Softies to Ben Lee to Yumi Zouma. The 26 year old singer songwriter’s compositions are both confidential and conversational—and they are as revealing as they are revelatory. Her new album #37 is a series of portraits that are moving, odd and oddly affecting. In this conversation, Pynkie talks to Alex about working as a Nurse during a pandemic, how she got into writing songs and the ghost that haunted her in college. They also talk about their mutual love of the movie Midsommar, Julie Doiran and the importance of not making the same record twice…