When Andrea And Pete Connolly moved from North Carolina to Tucson,
their folk music roots quickly mixed with
the desert rock of the Southwest. Their
band, Birds and Arrows, now wields a
unique combination of psychedelic rock
that still maintains a bluesy foundation.
This style is even further developed on their
forthcoming album, Electric Bones, which
features a throwback ’70s sound thanks to
a studio band style despite two years of
isolation.
Although Electric Bones doesn’t officially
release until this summer, Birds and Arrows
are performing a special album preview
show on Friday, Feb. 25, at Hotel Congress,
where they will play the new album in
its entirety. The show will feature the full
studio band, including multiple Tucson
musicians, and other bands on Hookworm
Records, which is releasing the album.
Recorded throughout the pandemic,
Electric Bones was essentially recorded in
two separate segments: half the songs in
spring 2020 and the other half in fall 2021.
However, Andrea and Pete maintained
their artistic momentum between the two
periods by releasing videos, singles and
participating in a compilation of Tucson
musicians. Despite the time between the
two halves, the album sounds cohesive in
its blend of space and emotion.
“All of our records have sort of had
different feels to them. There’s usually a
bit of play where we don’t get stuck in the
same sound. And I think that worked in our
favor,” Andrea said. “Since it was written
during the pandemic, the lyrics naturally
tell stories about it. For instance, the song
‘False Star’ was written during the heart of it
and it represents how musicians were in a
very depressed state about music. But there
is one thing we didn’t want to do: Popular
music is already taking a dive into the bedroom pop world, with everyone recording
at home and having electronic drums, so
things sound very small. That’s why we
waited it out to make sure we could have
big production in-studio and live drums.
Pete is such a great, groovy drummer, and
to take that away is to take away half our
sound.”
The core of the album is fairly straightforward rock songs with Andrea and Pete trading off singing, which is often surrounded
by walls of guitar and drums. What really
sets the band apart isn’t the music structure,
but the texture. Songs jump between intricately layered rock songs with synthesizers,
moody nocturnes, and loud jams perfect for
diving through the desert. Pete describes
the large, colorful production as a “kind of
protest” after years of pandemic quietness.
“Sometimes the production of the ’70s
records is what we’re going for, less than
maybe the instrumentation or songwriting,”
Pete said. “But there wasn’t a pressure to
have a Southwestern feel. It just naturally
occurred. If you sense a Southwestern vibe,
it was likely just by osmosis. It wasn’t something that was planned.”
The desert certainly has a presence on
the album, from a saguaro on the album
cover, to the song “Truth or Consequences”
named after the New Mexican town, to
guest performances from Tucson rock band
XIXA.
“The ’70s sound, we really leaned into for
production ideas. Certain things like builds
and places where we wanted drums to be
big,” Andrea said. “We’d seek through some
of our old favorites for inspiration.”
An article about Birds and Arrows would
be incomplete without mentioning the
couple’s visual element. Both Andrea and
Pete also work in the visual arts, and their
music videos can be feasts for the eyes. The
video for “Dark Watchers” is a sci-fi odyssey
through the Sonoran Desert, opening with a
title card: “Tucsonia, Pima District, 2064.”
With the album complete, Andrea and
Pete shopped their music around for a
record label. While the release was delayed
due to the pandemic, an additional delay
comes with printing it on vinyl, set to complete in August.
“It was definitely a weird time to shop
it around, because everyone was backed
up with projects they meant to release two
years ago. So that was a process, but we
managed to have it going to be released
by Hookworm Records in Tempe,” Andrea
said. “We’re really excited about it, because
they’ve only done compilations before. So
we’re the first band to do a full album on the
label. And it helps working with a label from
the area, because they’ve seen us live and
understand the whole feeling of our sound.
That probably gave us a boost.”
The album preview show on Friday, Feb.
25, at Hotel Congress will feature Tucson
musicians Gabriel Sullivan, Ben Nisbet,
Brian Lopez and Martha DeLeon performing with Pete and Andrea. In addition, other
bands signed to Hookworm Records will
also play at the show.
After years of uncertainty around live
music, Birds and Arrows are taking this
opportunity to perform with many of
the Tucson musicians who helped make
Electric Bones sound as large as it does. As
Andrea puts it, this show is planned to be “a
real event.”
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2022.