Fort Worth Star Telegram - Octber 2005
Title: Texarkana art rockers 'drift into view

By CARY DARLING

STAR-TELEGRAM POP CULTURE CRITIC


There are two rather odd things about Pilotdrift, the symphonic art-rock indie band whose new album, Water Sphere, came out recently on Dallas-based Good Records.

The first: The quintet makes its home in Texarkana, the city of 130,000 in East Texas' Piney Woods region that's not exactly known as a hot spot for quirky, neo-classical pop.

The second is that chief Pilot Kelly Carr says he's not heard even one note from the likes of Yes, Rush or just about any of the '70s progressive-rock that would seem to be an influence on his band's brocaded style.

In fact, the whole prog-rock subculture, in the midst of a revival, leaves him a little mystified. "I'm from a small town. I'm not really well-versed on all that kind of stuff," says Carr, 23, by phone from his home in Texarkana. "Around here, people listen to rap or [mainstream] rock. People don't know what emo is."

Instead, Carr seems to reside in his own musical world, one tethered neither to his immediate geographic surroundings nor to the stylistic single-mindedness that dogs most other bands. This comes across in his music which, over the course of Pilotdrift's two albums, sweeps from plaintive, Coldplay pop to theatrical, orchestral Queen-style bombast.

If anything, Carr says he's more intrigued by the film scores of Thomas Newman (Finding Nemo, American Beauty) and Danny Elfman (The Simpsons, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Desperate Housewives) than a lot of what other rock bands are doing.

"Orchestras have always been a big interest of mine as well as film scores in general," he says. "There are so many different sounds outside of a regular, five-piece rock band . . . Honestly, with a lot of [our] songs I wasn't thinking of a band when I wrote them. I wrote them before the band was even together but scoring is something I've always been interested in."

But vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Carr, who grew up playing piano and drums, discovered that a few of his childhood friends shared similar, exploratory musical tastes. "We went to the same schools and church, we liked the same kind of music," he remembers. "There aren't many people [here] who listen to this genre of music."

So, Carr pooled his talents with drummer Ben Rice, bassist Jay Budzilowski, guitarist/keyboardist Eric Russell, guitarist John David Blagg and guitarist/keyboardist Micah Dorsey (who helps out but is not a regular member of the band) to form Pilotdrift. The band channels the spirit of '70s prog through the prism of such 21st-century experimentalists as Radiohead and Sigur Ros.

Reviewers have cited Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, Muse, and, yes, Andrew Lloyd Webber, when writing about Pilotdrift but the one group that comes up the most may be Radiohead. Carr says he was blown away by the British band's High and Dry video he inadvertently saw while in high school. "[Radiohead] was when I first started listening to [rock] music," says Carr, who half-jokingly admits that if he'd seen an equally striking video by Seattle hard-rockers Alice in Chains instead, his musical life might have been different.

Now, he considers himself a fan of a variety of musicians, including the Beatles and such cult favorites as Elbow, Goldfrappe and The Eels.

Hemmed in by Texarkana's limitations, the members of Pilotdrift broke out to build a fan base in the Fort Worth-Dallas area ("we were curious how it would go over in a bigger city"), recorded a self-released CD (2004's Iter Facere, which is Latin for "to make a journey"), and got opening spots for Fiona Apple/Kanye West producer Jon Brion, Dallas' The Polyphonic Spree, former Soul Coughing singer Mike Doughty and played a packed gig at this year's South by Southwest.

Tim DeLaughter and Julie Doyle, the husband-wife team who front the Spree and operate the Good Records label and retail operation, were so impressed that they signed the band. "A couple of guys at the store turned me on to them and [Pilotdrift] played at our store and I really like the scope of their music," says DeLaughter. "I got [Iter Facere] and I found it very interesting and cinematic . . . It's really different from what's going on right now. They're such a young band. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with these guys."

DeLaughter is especially moved by Water Sphere's most epic track, the near 10-minute Jekyll and Hyde Suite, a song that Carr says is about the "frustration of two wills" that exists inside everyone. Including everything from avant-garde soundscapes to operatic crescendos, musical-theater verses to classical piano runs, it's symbolic of Pilotdrift's heady musical ambitions.

"That track just floors me every time I hear it," DeLaughter enthuses.

In fact, DeLaughter was down front shouting enthusiastically like a kid at Christmas after Pilotdrift finished Jekyll and Hyde at the group's recent show at the Cavern Club in Dallas.

But for all of his attempts to stretch beyond his hometown's perhaps constricting borders, Carr doesn't see himself relocating any time soon, to Dallas or points beyond.

"Growing up, everyone hates where they live. But, recently, since last year, I've grown to appreciate being able to live in a small city," he explains. "It's not crowded, and everything that's important is here, like Best Buy."