Indie Music Artist PRONOUN Announces Spring Tour
By: Macon Prickett Feb. 02, 2018
Boston native and self-confessed emo kid, pronoun today announces a string of summer dates, touring with Turnover and Summer Salt, Cape Francis and Charles Fauna, as well as Michael Nau.
"It's a heartbroken girl in her apartment in Brooklyn," Alyse Vellturo, aka pronoun, says of her Rhyme & Reason Records debut, "There's no one new around you." Recorded in solitude in a cramped corner of the artist's bedroom, the four-song EP is both personally charged and sonically inventive, matching richly layered guitar textures and insistent lo-fi beats with vivid, uncompromisingly personal lyrics.
NYLON, Stereogum, Boston Globe, Billboard and other tastemakers were quick to praise her shimmering and emotive sound, reminiscent of early Tegan and Sara with a nod to Julien Baker. pronoun was quickly scooped up to tour with Andrew McMahon and the Wilderness and Manchester Orchestra. Making appearances at Billboard's Hot 100 Fest, SXSW and Wicker Park Fest in 2017, her 2018 is set to be just as busy, with a packed touring schedule and new music on the way.
"It was literally just me in the corner with my little computer, recording guitar through a tiny practice amp through the headphone jack," she explains of her new EP. "Every night after work I'd go home, buy a six pack, and sit at my computer with my electric guitar. Once I felt the song had its bones I would go have a cigarette in my backyard, write a verse, go in and record the verse, go out for another cigarette, write a second verse, etc. All the verses are written in about three minutes."
pronoun began playing guitar and recording her own compositions in her early teens. While studying at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, she gained technical experience producing and engineering friends' recording projects and turning her attention towards the business side of the music industry. In 2012, she moved to Brooklyn to take a music-biz job, putting her own creative efforts on temporary hold. Eventually, she felt the urge to write and record music again, and her renewed creative spark gained additional momentum in December 2015, when a three-year relationship abruptly ended.
"I started to write songs and record again, but I didn't have much to write about," she recalls. "Then we broke up, and it all came pouring out. The tracks on this EP are all from that period. The whole thing was done in three or four weeks, every night after work. It was an instinctive process, and it kind of grew on its own."
Vellturo adopted the performing pseudonym of pronoun, in acknowledgement of her status as a one-person band. "I want to keep it that way, at least for now," she says. "This music is so personal to me, and it's kind of hard to do that with other people. I have done some gigs with a drummer, a bass player and a guitarist, and I have a vocal pedal that does harmonies with me, so it kind of sounds like the record.
3/6 // Songbyrd // Washington, DC +
3/8 // Cat's Cradle // Carborro, NC*
3/10 // Savannah Stopover Festival // El Rocko Lounge // Savannah, GA +
3/18 // Deep Ellum Arts Co. // Dallas, TX +
3/19 // Growlers // Memphis, TN +
3/20 // The End // Nashville, TN +
3/21 // Big Room Bar // Columbus, OH +
3/22 // Union Transfer // Philadelphia, PA ^
3/23 // House of Independents // Asbury Park, NJ ^
3/24 // Warsaw // Brooklyn, NY ^
3/25 // Toad's Place // New Haven, CT ^
+ w/ Cape Francis and Charles Fauna
* w/ Michael Nau
^ w/ Turnover and Summer Salt
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