Interview: Pink Sky & irreplica Dish On The Hot Collab “Crystalline”

Beyond the mind-blowing sound of the drums and synthesizers, “Crystalline” is one of those songs that reaches deep into your soul. It also serves as a reminder that we shouldn’t feel obligated to pretend to be perfect all the time.

In this interview, Angelica and Ryan Hay from Pink Sky, along with Christopher Morse aka irreplica, spill all the details. So, sit back, relax, and let’s dive into it!

1 — How did the collaboration between Pink Sky and irreplica come about?

Christopher Morse: I had known Ryan for several years after having worked with him on a couple of other projects. That was entirely in a capacity as a drummer which is all most people knew me for. Then I ran into him and Angelica at a Low show and I mentioned that I was producing some music on my own. They were excited to hear it so I shared some tracks with them the next day. Things transpired fairly quickly after that although it took a while to complete the full album.

Angelica Hay: Ryan and I ran into Chris at a Low show, and he mentioned that he was working on some electronic stuff and we asked him to share. When he sent over what he was working on, we were blown away and immediately inspired, so much so that Ryan decided to add some lyrics to one of the songs and send it back to Chris. Chris was into it, and as Ryan started working on more of the songs, I couldn’t help but jump in too. Ryan let me have at his pile of lyrics, and we both added melodies to the songs without the other person present. After we each had a chance at a blank slate, we would show them to each other and pick the bits we liked. Then Ryan produced what was left.

2 — What did each one contribute to the production of the new single, “Crystalline”?

Angelica Hay: This was an interesting song, because both Chris and Ryan didn’t think it would end up on the album. They really weren’t vibing with the initial production, feeling that it didn’t go with the rest of the songs. But I liked it from the beginning and saw a ton of potential in it, so I added melodies to the song using Ryan’s lyrics. So, Chris provided the initial song idea and music, Ryan wrote the lyrics, I wrote most of the melodies, and then Ryan added piano and produced the rest.

Christopher Morse: I provided the stems from a mostly finished song which is the case for most of the tracks on the album.

3 — What kind of feelings or emotions do you think this song will stir up in listeners when they hear it?

Angelica Hay: To be honest, I’ve never thought about this song in that way, but I hope they just enjoy and bop to it.

Christopher Morse: Tension is a theme throughout. I almost always try to bring that about in my music through some level of dissonance and abrasiveness. Pink Sky really understood that and capitalized on it with their added production and lyrical choices. Beyond tension, the song waxes between somberness and angst or rage.

4 — I’ve noticed that the style of this composition is eclectic. Is this due to a sporadic creative process or improvisation?

Angelica Hay: It’s probably a combination of both. Neither Ryan nor I are trained musicians, and my foray into music has been relatively recent, so I’m not always aware of the conventions and am mostly led by my emotions and what feels/sounds good in the moment.

5 — Is there any message hidden in their lyrics?

Angelica Hay: This is a better question for Ryan since he wrote them. But for me, it’s become about not having to be so fucking perfect all of the time. It feels like Ryan is reminding me that I don’t need to be on all the time and I don’t have to be everything to everyone.

Ryan Hay: All of my lyrics are either for Angelica or for me, things that I want to tell her or that I wish I would’ve told myself when I was younger, or things that I want to believe. Sometimes I write lyrics from an antagonist, oppositional point of view, as if to clear the thought from my head.

6 — Will your upcoming album ‘Everything You Feel Is Real’ have a similar style to this song, or can we expect much more variety?

Angelica Hay: There’s a bit of variety in this album, especially compositionally, though it’s definitely poppier than our previous albums. Sonically, the tonal palette is super cohesive. Chris chose such perfect tones initially, and then Ryan really tied everything together with his final production and stylistic decisions.

Christopher Morse: I think the album offers a good bit of variety from a general standpoint while keeping with themes of tension, somberness, and rage. It’s a dark, gothic-sounding album but it has a lot of range from creative and production standpoints.

7 — How many tracks will this album have in total? What makes it different from your previous productions?

Angelica Hay: 11 tracks. It’s quite different in that Chris composed most of the music to the album—all of the chord progressions—so it definitely has a lot of his voice, but we wrote all the melodies, so it also has a lot of our voices. And this is the first time we’ve written an entire album with another musician. It’s also the first album where our initial contribution was lyrical, which seems so odd because we started out as an instrumental band—our first three albums were totally instrumental. Getting to work with Chris’s music as the initial source material really freed us and allowed us to explore and play with our voices. For me, it was a real period of discovery with what I could do with my voice sonically and melodically.

8 — Did you compose these tunes for a specific audience in mind?

Christopher Morse: I definitely get into my own head when I compose/produce. I’m really trying to craft moments that just sound cool. Songs that I just can’t stop listening to… I’m the opposite of a lot of artists who say they don’t listen to their own stuff after they finish it – I love listening to my own music.

Angelica Hay: I’d say I definitely had my younger self in mind—I grew up listening to bands like NIN, Blonde Redhead, and Radiohead, and I imagine people who like synthy, industrial, experimental, or alternative music would be into it, but you never really know who’ll gravitate towards the thing you made. I think that the album is kind of thrown back to the late 90s/early 2000s, with a modern production style.

9 — As a married couple, how do Pink Sky navigate the highs and lows of the music industry together?

Angelica Hay: It can be difficult, because it becomes challenging to separate work and personal life, and it’s so easy for the dream and the work to really eclipse everything. We’ve been navigating it by always keeping channels of communication open and checking in with each other during all the high points and low points, to make sure that we are pursuing what we really want and to kind of re-remember why we started making music. Revisiting our reasons for making music has really anchored us during most of the highs and lows because this all just started as a way to spend time together, share a new language, and give ourselves an outlet to process all the shit happening in our lives

10 — How do you see your music careers in the next 10 years, and what changes do you think are coming in the industry?

Angelica Hay: I see us returning to the way we made music in the beginning of Pink Sky, but with some of the tricks we learned along the way. I think we both want to reclaim an exploratory and freeform way of making music with analog gear, with less computer interfacing. We are both missing making instrumental music and so I see us continuing to make music but it being more of a split between loose instrumental compositions and tighter lyrical compositions. Where our careers will be, who knows, but we will always be making music and hopefully, always growing. I think Rock music is making a comeback, and that the more challenging emotions like anger and frustration are resurfacing in music. We live in a wild time, both terrifying and exciting, and real life is messy. I think that music will reflect that messiness, though the algorithm doesn’t always favor that. I’m hoping that people will get fed up with the algorithm and that there will be a way for music that reflects how people actually feel (which doesn’t always fit in a nice and tidy box) to shine and get heard.

Christopher Morse: Prior to producing my own music I played drums with a number of different bands – wrote, practiced, gigged, recorded, toured, etc., etc… It was hard work – especially as a drummer being that you have to bring a kit with you everywhere you go. I don’t really want any of that anymore. It was fun at the time but I’m older and have kids now so my time feels a lot more valuable. I love crafting on my own. The collaboration with Pink Sky worked really well because they had such great vision for what they could do with the material I handed off to them. It all came very easy. I’m gonna keep pushing down that road and see where it brings me. The industry seems to be in a very weird place right now. There has been so much disruption – MP3s came, then platforms like Spotify, and now TikTok. It’s getting harder and harder to be an actual artist and to make a living off of it. It feels like something has got to give but I can’t even imagine what would have an impact at this point. American culture as a whole seems to have progressed down a path from art to entertainment to distraction to addiction as Ted Gioia pointed out. It feels a bit hopeless. As with anything though, my optimism largely lies in the youth. There are some amazing kids out there. I’m excited to see how their perspective motivates them to bring about change.

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