On To Wit:, the new album from Collisionville, the Bay Area trio continues to merge various strains of American music—folk, blues, country, R&B, ragtime and more—into their own unique style. The group has been together for 20 years, experiencing the usual ups and downs of an indie outfit.
“We started out as a post-punk band, with none of the rootsy stuff,” said Stephen Pride, the band’s lead singer, guitarist and producer. “Our original drummer, M. E. Miller, came to the band from the world of No Wave. He’d played with John Zorn, Arto Lindsay and the Golden Palominos. He didn’t like rootsy styles. That’s been part of my thing for a long time, but I put it to the side when working with him. After he left the band, we returned to my original inspirations, using banjo, pedal steel and acoustic guitars to fill out our sound.
“We’ve come a long way over the years, in terms of growing musically and coming up with cool stuff,” Pride added. “The main goal these days is to make records that sound like no other band. I think To Wit: is very successful in that respect.”
The process of making To Wit: presented the group with several unexpected hurdles. “Like other bands, we had to contend with Covid, when everything shut down. Then Conor, our bass player, who joined the band almost 20 years ago, let us know he was moving to Wisconsin. We had to hurry to get his parts for the songs recorded before he left. Our session at Sharkbite was the last thing he did, before he left town,” Pride recalled.
The band went into Oakland’s Sharkbite Studios, with engineer Scott Evans. “We recorded drums, bass and guitar simultaneously, in the studio, and overdubbed a bunch of other stuff later,” Pride said. “Scott takes it very seriously and has snacks on hand for the band, if you get hungry between takes. He’s encouraging, records our songs really well and has a supportive vibe to help us capture exactly the sound we want.”
Once the basic tracks were done, Pride went back to his home studio to do a few overdubs. “We also added some stuff at our rehearsal space and piano at Oakland’s Soundwave studios, with our pal, Tommy Carmine. David Phillips, who played with Tom Waits, added steel guitar to ‘Why Can’t We Always Be Falling in Love,’” he noted.
The album has the feel of the soundtrack of a film noir. Pride’s darkly humorous lyrics are complemented by his inventive guitar work and the rhythms laid down by Conor Thompson’s bass and Cory Snavely’s drums. There’s a hint of zydeco in “Give Back the Rose,” with its rolling bass line and bluesy two-step rhythm. Pride sings the lyric, a detached farewell to an unfaithful lover, in a superior manner, while admitting his own failings.
Pride’s banjo strumming, and a slow kick drum pulse from Snavely, provide the introduction to “Hospital Bill.” It’s an ironic meditation on mortality, with a lyric full of puns, describing a cure that’s worse than the disease.
“Why Can’t We Always Be Falling in Love” is a spritely country rocker, driven by a distorted melody line played on Pride’s guitar and Phillip’s steel guitar fills. Pride sings the lyric with a forlorn air, describing the tension one feels in a barroom, in the space between a fleeting infatuation and the reality of going home alone.
This is the first music the band has released since 2018’s double LP, Stones, Keys, Flat Ninths, & Salvage. “We released that one on our Bandcamp page, one side at a time, pretending they were independent EPs,” Pride said. “This was an extremely ineffective marketing strategy. I don’t recommend anyone else try it. Since I’m not terribly prolific, after putting out that collection, we were spent for a while.”
That said, the band is looking forward to their upcoming record release party at Albany’s Ivy Room. “Live, we’re freer and looser than on the records, but sometimes with more mistakes, you know,” Pride said, laughing. “Vinnie Reeder, our new bass player, fits right in, so we can let it fly. I never get through a show without screwing something up. But there’s something about the spontaneity of having people there, watching and reacting, that gives the music a different kind of energy.”
Collisionville’s record release party for ‘To Wit:’ will be at the Ivy Room on Thursday, May 15, at 7pm, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany, 510.526.5888; ivyroom.com.
