Full Pockets: Popular indie duo adds musicians, releases new album

September 14, 2024 12:38 pm • Last Updated: September 14, 2024 12:38 pm

By Rick Koster
Day Arts/Features writer

Pocket Vinyl is, from left, Eric Stevenson, Tim O’Donnel, Alex Glover, Jay Silva and Elizabeth Jancewicz (submitted)

Since forming 13 years ago, the New London duo Pocket Vinyl has built a substantial following playing over 1,000 gigs across all 50 states.

Through the distinctive husband/wife dynamic of Eric Stevenson (piano/vocals/songwriting) and Elizabeth Jancewicz (onstage painting), Pocket Vinyl is one of the most interesting and, frankly, charming stories in indie rock. In addition to over a dozen releases and numerous tangential projects including a graphic novel, a tour film and truly creative spins on homemade merch, Pocket Vinyl continues to develop and expand their original concept.

And now, Pocket Vinyl — with bassist Tim Donnel, drummer Jay Silva and guitarist/producer Alex Glover onboard — have broken new ground with the release of a full-band album. Titled “Rabbit On Fire,” the nine-track recording is an exhilarating blend of Stevenson’s quirky, sophisticated pop with a joyous, vitamin-strength infusion of muscular rock.

The band plays a release party Saturday in New London’s Telegraph Autonomous Zone. The recording is available on all streaming services as well as in vinyl ($22), CD ($12), and cassettes ($12).

“It’s still Pocket Vinyl, but at the same time, we’re taking it in a new direction. It’s almost like a new band’s first album,” Stevenson said in a phone interview last week. “It all started slowly, but Tim and Jay were friends from other projects (Straight to VHS, the Weird Beards, et cetera) and we did a few songs now and then live and it was a lot of fun. Someone brought up the idea that we could do a full band show at some point, and Elizabeth and I thought, ‘Yeah, why not?’”

After a few casual onstage experiments, Pocket Vinyl went out on a short East Coast tour with friends from another New London band, Straight to VHS — the group comprising Donnel, Silva and Jon Young. Each night, Silva and Donnel performed with Pocket Vinyl for their set. The shows were well received, and it was another step in the direction of a full-blown collaboration.

Not so fast

That junket took place in February 2020, right before COVID, and necessarily the pandemic short-circuited any momentum created by the tour. Still, the experience was something Pocket Vinyl thought a lot about — and they had a lot of time to think. At the same time, PV spent the down time as prolifically and productively as possible, and when folks began to emerge from the plague, they had plenty of plans ready to put into play.

“I can have a problem with too much on my plate,” Stevenson said, “and we had so much we wanted to do and catch up with, but one thing led to another, and we started getting back together with Tim and Jay and Alex and bringing new songs into practice. It was awesome. And eventually, like I think we knew all along, I just said, ‘Why don’t we do an album together?’”

It took a few years of jostling everyone’s musical, day-job and personal schedules — Donnel and Silva are relatively and respectively new to fatherhood, and Glover is an award-winning and in-demand producer in Boston — and Stevenson and Jancewicz finished other recordings, projects and tours. In 2022, though, the expanded unit began writing, rehearsing and recording what became “Rabbit on Fire.”

Nine stories about...

As Stevenson described “Rabbit on Fire,” “It’s nine stories about seven people, four mental breakdowns, three deaths, two swords, and one lovingly crafted macabre piece of furniture.”

That’s a typically compelling bit of Pocket Vinyl PR, which fans appreciate and expect: A sort of offbeat and humorous approach to music that balances Stevenson’s longtime penchant for writing songs about faith, death, sex, anxiety — and now, apparently, a poor hare that meets the same fate as Joan d ’Arc.

Listening to the new album, the Bigness of the material is immediately apparent and provides a rich and powerful dimension to Stevenson’s signature approach to songcraft. And while Stevenson is superb at presenting soft/loud, pretty/harsh dynamics as a solo artist, the “this is a ROCK band” vitality on “Rabbit” is gleefully exuberant.

In fact, while Stevenson’s voice, playing and penchant for hooks are familiar on shape-shifting tunes like “Camera,” “Death’s Favorite Daughter,” “Bleed Like a Victory” and the ballad-turned-anthem “No Turning Back,” the whole effort does sound very much like, as he said, “a first album by a new band.”

To be clear, depending on scheduling and individual obligations, Stevenson and Jancewicz will continue the original duo version of Pocket Vinyl in addition to the five-piece. But for now they’re celebrating the majesty of “Rabbit on Fire.”

There are many sonic but piano-based touchstones — some obvious and some more obscure — from Elton-ish “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” to Ben Folds and Billy Joel duel-to-the-death and Coldplay joins Jo Jo Gunne.

A communal effort

The ensemble’s contributions are huge: Unison background vocals, Glover’s Cheap Tricky guitar splashes, Donnel’s galloping high-end bass and Silva’s master-cylinder percussion. It’s the sort of artistic collaboration that suggests what would happen if Alexander Calder, Frederick Remington and Henry Moore dropped by Michelangelo’s studio and said, “Hey, we’re here to help you finish that David statue you’ve been talking about.”

Cordially invited to take part, they indeed help conceptualize and finish the project, and the happy result was, “Not sure that’s David, but I damned sure like it!”

In terms of the construction of the songs, Stevenson said, “When we started playing with Tim and Jay live, they made up their parts to existing songs. For the album, we built the songs together. I wasn’t so much the captain of the ship, and everyone had input. I was surprised and really pleased by a lot of stuff they came up with.”

“It’s been such a fun ride being on the Pocket Vinyl train,” Silva said in an email. “Even though I do feel the band’s sound starts strongly with Eric’s piano playing and lyrical stylings — and the songs started with concepts he presented to us — the collaboration within the band has felt very natural and has organically blossomed. The more we play, the more we push ourselves to explore. This came together so easily and in such an enjoyable fashion but, man, we put in the work, too. We played unrestrained, then dissected, discussed and recreated with new mindsets and little fine-tunings. And it worked.”

Donnel agreed. He said, “From the start, Eric made it a point for us to feel creative … and he was especially excited to embrace the idea of group songwriting. He asked for our opinions and suggestions regularly. I would still call ‘Rabbit on Fire’ Eric’s musical vision, and I would defer to him in moments of critical decision making, but I feel like Jay, Alex and I had the quite enjoyable opportunity to serve as a multi-layered filter for Eric’s ideas to work through.”

Ready? Let’s rock!

Now comes the time for the new Pocket Vinyl to celebrate “Rabbit on Fire” live. Expect the sort of onstage intensity and joy each of these players is known for – with the added chemistry that comes from Being In A Band.

As for Jancewicz, she will absolutely remain a major creative and visual focus. O’Donnel said, “Elizabeth is the not so secret weapon of Pocket Vinyl. Her talent is apparent and undeniable and her work is the actual coal to the fire that keeps the whole band going. And I love having the opportunity to be awed and inspired by her art regularly during live shows.”

There are obviously ongoing adjustments. Jancewicz and Stevenson have traveled well over 100,000 miles playing music — but it’s just been the two of them. Meanwhile, O’Donnel and Silva have spent their adult lives playing in bands together — but never one that might frequently tour outside New London County.

“In the past I’d think about having a full band but it’s taken a miracle for Elizabeth and I to make it work, financially and logistically, and a bigger group adds about another 100 considerations,” Stevenson said. “But there’s something special about this. We’ve all become really close friends and sometimes it’s more fun just hanging out together than just playing music. It’s invigorated Elizabeth and me. We’ve played 1,000 shows and it can be a routine. But the guys have now done a longer tour with us and we’re seeing it all with fresher eyes, like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is really great!’”

Donnel said, “(A proper tour) is something I’ve always wanted to do. So far, I don’t mind the long drives, the weird sleeping arrangements, the whirlwind days and so on. Granted, we’ve only done two- to-three-weeks swings at a time, and I still come home to a regular job for a while, but I’m geared up to do as much as possible. It’s a new experience and adventure every day.”

And Silva added, “Touring with Pocket Vinyl is a wonderfully fulfilling experience. We get to share the music and art with incredible people in diverse communities, and Elizabeth and Eric are so professional and organized and super sweet. Amazing, creative people. It’s a privilege to say I’m part of such a unique band in the middle of a new experience for all of us —and a nice new chapter for the fans and show-goers, as well.”