Chime School To Celebrate New Album With Record Release Party Friday at the Make Out Room
Photo by Britta Leijonflycht
Andy Pastalaniec can write a pop song.
All it takes is one cycle through the self-titled debut album of Chime School—Pastalaniec’s creative vehicle—to see that he has an almost preternatural feel for the craft. A joyful tableau of breezy urban life, the album is a janglepop journey through San Francisco—a synthesis of the Kinks’ ability to uplift the minutiae of everyday life with the catchy sensibilities of Sarah Records’ bands.
For his much-anticipated sophomore album, “The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel,” Pastalaniec expands on those effortless pop ditties with a newfound pathos, incorporating emotive, vulnerable elements to his songwriting. It makes for an even more rewarding and enriching listening experience.
“The first record is so inspired by my love of pop music,” said Pastalaniec, who will celebrate the Friday release of the album with a show that night at the Make Out Room. “I was just so ecstatic to be writing those songs. I tried to stuff as many little tricks and fun things as I could to make those feel like pop songs. For this second album, I wasn’t trying to make a sad record or anything, but I just wanted to be more thoughtful.”
“The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel” features plenty of Pastalaniec’s penchant for buoyant earworm masterpieces, with singles such as “Give Your Heart Away” and “Wandering Song” feeling like lost B-sides to the debut album. There are familiar touchpoints for the record—80s UK rockers East Village and Glaswegian legends Teenage Fanclub, for example—but tracks such as “The End” and, in particular, album closer, “Points of Light,” offer a tantalizing new direction for Chime School, one imbued with melancholy and jagged dissonance.
Pastalaniec, who also drums for San Francisco shoegaze act Seablite and hushed folkers Flowertown, cites the influence of local musicians for his expanding aesthetic.
“I definitely have drawn from the cluster of musicians here,” said Pastalaniec. “I am inspired by artists like Mike Ramos from Tony Jay and Karina Gill of Cindy and Kevin Linn from Paisley Shirt Records. Right around the time the first Chime School album came out, I started playing in the live formulation of Flowertown, which is Mike and Karina’s band. I really respect how they kind of bring a pensive and thoughtful element to all the creative work they do. I think some of that rubbed off on me.”
Unlike most of the Chime School catalog, “Points of Lights” is deliberately paced and features feedback-laden guitar. Pastalaniec’s vocals on the take feel particularly exposed and forlorn. It recalls all the greatest Britpop balladry from the 90s, replete with a searing guitar solo midway through the track.
“I actually wrote the song originally back in 2020 and at first it had this tempo that’s more along the lines of ‘This Charming Man,’” said Pastalaniec. “But that just didn’t feel right for this record. I started listening to a bunch of stuff that was a little slower and had kind of a more baggy beat. I was sort of thinking in terms of the last song of Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Bandwagonesque,’ that track called ‘Is This Music,’ which has this crazy distorted guitar and is the last song on that album. So, I repurposed the original guitar, which was very clean and jangly and just made it as big and distorted as possible. I knew it was going to be the last song after that.”
From the track sequencing to the artwork to the album title, (an ode to Linn’s Paisley Shirt record label and Biff Bang Pow's "The Girl Who Runs the Beat Hotel," among other inspirations), everything about the record feels very deliberate and thoughtful, a reflection of Pastalaniec’s expansive creative vision.
Although Chime School has now morphed from a one-man creative endeavor into a solid four-piece live band (Phil Lantz on drums, Josh Miller on bass and Garett Goddard on guitar) Pastalaniec still wrote all the songs and played all the instruments for the “Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel.” He also recorded the album from his apartment.
“That wasn’t the result of me being some kind of control freak,” said Pastalaniec. “I put the band together in 2022 and we were playing a lot of shows and I thought it made more sense for us to really focus on honing that live sound. I thought it would be better to make the record again on my own and kind of just go creatively nuts, and not really worry about wasting other people’s time.”
For the past several months, Pastalaniec has been incorporating songs from the new album into the live Chime School experience, and on Friday night, the new tunes will likely comprise more than half the set. Later this year, Chime School will bring those tunes to an international audience, with the band slated to go on a tour of the UK in October, following an appearance at the Paris Pop Festival on September 27.
In addition to the band’s international tour—something Pastalaniec has made a primary goal of the group—Chime School has plans to embark on West Coast and East Coast jaunts in the future as well. This year will mark the most extensive live schedule yet for the band, which is also receiving a bevy of positive reviews from influential music blogs. In June and July, the band got a series of glowing write-ups in Stereogum, a national outlet with a sterling reputation for championing up-and-coming indie bands.
“The response has been amazing—I’m completely humbled by any attention we get,” said Pastalaniec. “But one of the things I’ve learned from this process is that it’s really important to focus on your priorities. We aren’t the least bit famous by any means, but once you start getting attention, you do get a little distracted and sidetracked. At the end of the day, what matters most is making art and being surrounded by people who are part of a community that you care about.”
Show Details:
Chime School with Hits and The Telephone Numbers
When: 7 p.m., Friday, August 23
Where: The Make Out Room
Tickets: $12, available here.