Winterpills is Dennis Crommett on electric guitar, Dave Hower on drums and percussion, Philip Price on vocals, acoustic guitar and keyboards, and Flora Reed on keyboard and vocals. Occasional members include José Ayerve on bass, who also produced the bands debut and co-produced their new CD, and Brian Akey, also on bass.

The band members all had earlier and have concurrent solo projects: Reed released one solo disc with 2002’s Settle Down on Soft Alarm Music. Price released two solo records: 2002’s 13 Songs for Right Now and 2003’s Honey in the Chemicals (a screenplay), both on Listen Here Records. Crommett and Hower worked together in Spanish for Hitchhiking with their debut, The Starling, in 2004 on Captive Ring Records. Crommett released The Evening Sorrow in 2006 on Pigeon Records, which also includes musical performances by fellow Winterpills. We’ll get to hear some samples from these other projects in the interview. The band members have also performed in a variety of other bands, including Feet Wet, Gay Potatoes, The Maggies, Memorial Garage, and The Nields.

This group of musicians found themselves crossing paths and sharing the stage in different incarnations and, or so the story goes, Price and Reed found themselves playing music in someone’s living room and discovered the way their two voices intertwined and complemented each others. Likely not something anyone would have thought listening to their solo efforts, but it is at the crux of what makes the band’s sound so alluring.

Winterpills does what all great bands do, bringing together some disparate and perfectly-matched skills to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Carefully crafted, somewhat timeless songs are the result.

Their 2005 release received a number of critical rave reviews in The Washington Post, The Big Takeover, No Depression, and others. Their new CD, The Light Divides, was produced by Dave Chalfant, José Ayerve, and Winterpills. It was released by Signature Sounds and Soft Alarm Records in late February. The band is out on a tour in March and April 2007 of the east coast, midwest and several shows at SXSW.

For me, it didn't quite click at first listen as their debut did, but upon a number of listens, The Light Divides started to pay off as an even stronger album, showcasing how both Price's songwriting and the band's interplay of musical elements can work together seamlessly to establish different moods. You can currently stream the full album from their site.

Winterpills don’t get reviewed without people like Elliot Smith, Simon and Garfunkel, Low, and Iron and Wine getting discussed. When I hear the band, I tend to think of the late 60s, as if Winterpills could have played alongside the Los Angeles music scenes that brought us Love or The Byrds or the San Francisco scene that fostered Jefferson Airplane. Were they playing then, they’d likely be considered folk-rock, a phrase that today seems to mean something very different…

On Winterpills’ myspace page, they also cite influences such as The Innocence Mission, Stars, Elliott Smith, X, Joni Mitchell, Bjork, Stephen Merritt, Neil Young, George Harrison, ABBA, Sun Kil Moon, Harry Nilsson, Leonard Cohen, Elton John, and Sam Beam of Iron and Wine.

Winterpills are based in the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts, which includes the college towns of Northampton and Amherst. The area is known for its musical roots from the 1980s as the birthplace of indie rock bands Dinosaur Jr., Buffalo Tom (including Bill Janovitz; check out his Well-Rounded Radio interview), and in the 90s the Scud Mountain Boys (Joe Pernice’s first band; check out his Well-Rounded Radio interview), but over the last ten plus years, The Pioneer Valley has become a regular home for a wide variety of musicians from folk and indie rock, to noise and metal. There’s no Seattle or Minneapolis or San Diego sound here (luckily for them), but it clearly is a place that musicians and a wide range of artists find it easy to call home and hopefully will stay that way.

I recently met with the band outside of Northampton to discuss:
* what it is about the Pioneer Valley that makes it such a good place for musicians
* where and how the band recorded their two CDs
* and discover a few of their favorite things from some random questions I throw their way…

Photo: Ana Price-Eckles

Highlights of songs featured in the Winterpills interview include:
1) Winterpills: A Ransom (The Light Divides (in preview)
2) Winterpills: July (The Light Divides)
3) Winterpills: Laughing (Winterpills)
4) Philip Price: Man Down (Honey in the Chemicals (a screenplay))
5) Spanish for Hitchhiking: Tonight We Take the Place (The Starling)
6) Flora Reed: Settle Down (Settle Down)
7) Winterpills: Threshing Machine (Winterpills)
8) Winterpills: Found Weekend (Winterpills)
9) Winterpills: Pills for Sarah (Winterpills)
10) Winterpills: A Folded Cloth (The Light Divides)
11) Winterpills: You Don't Live Long Enough (The Light Divides)
12) Winterpills: Hide Me (The Light Divides)
13) Winterpills: Shameful (The Light Divides)
14) Winterpills: Hankerchiefs (The Light Divides)
15) Winterpills: Broken Arm (The Light Divides)

If you enjoy Winterpills, give a listen to past interviews with Joe Pernice, Blake Hazard, Francine, and Great Lake Swimmers.

Winterpills recommends Kamikaze Hearts, Spouse, José Ayerve, Rose Polenzani, and The Fawns. Other favorites linked to from here.

Well-Rounded Radio recommends 41pounds.org, Shut Down Day, and OpenCongress.