Montreal Mirror - February 2006
Title: Picture perfect - Pilotdrift produce widescreen sounds

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

"It's the first time I was star-struck," says Pilotdrift guitarist John David Blagg, recalling the band's initial encounter with the leader of the Polyphonic Spree. "When we played our first in-store at Good Records, the place was packed, there were so many people there, but it didn't even matter when one person walked through the door: Tim DeLaughter. We were all looking at each other thinking, 'Crap, are we even gonna be able to play?'"

Luckily, they did, and the performance at DeLaughter's store led to a deal with its namesake label, Good Records. DeLaughter's celebrity status in his home state of Texas dates back to his '90s alt-rock band Tripping Daisy, and now revolves around the internationally acclaimed, joyous big-band ensemble, the Polyphonic Spree. Pilotdrift, who hail from the tiny Texas/Arkansas border town of Texarkana, share the Spree's vast sound and orchestral inclination, if not their love of white robes, but Pilotdrift's ambitious compositions evoke symphonies and film soundtracks, classic pop and progressive rock.

"When I was in seventh grade, my step-dad introduced me to Pink Floyd," says Blagg, "and that's when I fell in love with synthesizers and weird sounds and experimental music."

The band's singer-songwriter, Kelly Carr, pairs his widescreen creations with narratives, such as the true near-tragedy of explorer Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, told from several points of view following meticulous research, in "Elephant Island." Like a big-budget score, the music shifts tremendously with each plot twist, and the band's Good Records debut, Water Sphere, is full of them. Their next album, to be self-produced and home-recorded, like most of its predecessor, is already underway.

Despite earning reams of praise, Pilotdrift is on the defensive in the face of frequent comparisons to Radiohead, who they don't really resemble at all.

"You can't describe Radiohead," says Blagg. "Gosh, they completely created a genre in the late '90s and ran with it. It seems like any music you can't describe nowadays, people put a Radiohead tag on it."

Even stranger? "We get compared to Tom Waits. We were kinda baffled by that one."