Pile have shared a new video for “Poisons,” a track off their forthcoming album All Fiction, available February 17, 2023 via Exploding In Sound. The album tackles concerns about self-awareness, substance use, and music’s environmental impact. “It’s about trying to abstain from participating in things that aren’t really good for anybody but also feeling very unaware in general, and the frustration of trying to hold both of those sentiments,” Rick Maguire explains.

For fifteen years, Pile’s evolving take on rock has earned the group one oft-repeated superlative: “your favorite band’s favorite band.” Ceaseless touring took its members from Boston’s basement circuit to international festivals.

“I’ve been trying to get out of what I think is ‘the rock band format,’ and I was also tired of what I saw as our identity as a band,” explains Maguire, citing the profound impact he’s drawn from Mt. Eerie’s unusual timbres, Kate Bush’s ambitious singularity, and Aphex Twin’s irreplicable soundscapes. “The confusion about identity combined with existential anxiety led to exploring my imagination as a means of escape.” As far back as 2017, Maguire’s songwriting gravitated toward more obtuse influences, with a Prophet X synthesizer eventually replacing guitar as his primary composing tool. But when Pile’s lineup changed after his move to Nashville, Maguire was hesitant to stray far from the band’s established heavy sound, lest his newer bandmates take critical heat. Squirreling away that material for a later record afforded him time to explore deliberately. “I’ve been more drawn to recordings where it’s difficult to identify what’s happening,” offers Maguire of the albums that impacted All Fiction; the list is vast, touching on the sounds of Portishead, Broadcast, Penderecki and Tinariwen. “I also wanted to use different instruments and recording techniques to highlight the songs, rather than creating the visual of a band performing them,” he says.

“Poison” lyrics

Humming much too loudly for it to be on purpose
Oh how and with such grace we move
Stepping firmly down on the rake of best intentions
End up doing the deal around the side with you
It’s safe to hide now
Only a handful of giants watching you

Now heaven’s a place where no one else
The poisons I’ve tried without knowing
And the voices subside but their eyes close in
Neither surprise that their size growin
I belong to the ground but I’ve been groomed by a dream I bought
Might’ve been misplaced
Might’ve need to
All those days been worked wrong
They will all be old soon
They’ll be kept all on recall

Pile 2023 Tour Dates

2/28 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
3/1 – Ridgewood, NY @ TV Eye
3/3 – Somerville, MA @ Arts at the Armory

Pre-order All Fiction by Pile HERE