The upbeat earnestness of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart can feel like a breath of fresh air, but the poppy sensibility of so many of their songs belies a dark and contemplative emotional core.
“I was always interested in this contrast between pain and happiness,” say vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Kip Berman. “I think this theme always returns in our music. Sometimes the music can sound very positive, but the lyrics are dark. For me it's always a big challenge to find the right balance between these two contrasting atmospheres.”
Formed in NYC in 2007, the indie pop band got its start through a group of friends who decided to play a few songs at a birthday party. Though their long, dramatic name calls to mind early 2000s emo bands, Pains has much more in common with shoegaze and dreampop.
While the band’s acclaimed debut had a scratchy punk ethos running through its songs about young love and relationship angst, their sound became crisper and poppier on their later albums, while maintaining its poignancy and emotion. For their fourth effort, The Echo of Pleasure, which was released in September 2017, Berman wove in even more electronic elements, so that in some ways the record sounds like it comes from a completely different band than their 2009 self-titled debut.
“I think every musician will evolve over the course of time,” Berman says, explaining how the fact that his bandmembers are spread across the US has caused him to compose songs on his computer, experimenting with different music programs and changing the way he writes. “I've also been listening to quite a lot of electronic producers the last few years, and probably this has affected the way I write songs as well.”
"I was always interested in this contrast between pain and happiness."
The first single from The Echo of Pleasure, ‘Anymore,’ has a haunting undercurrent of sadness beneath its catchy hook, while the album’s most upbeat track ‘When I Dance With You’ is fizzing with joy about trusting a long-term partner despite imperfections and changes over time. Jen Goma of fellow New York dream pop band A Sunny Day in Glasgow provided vocals on several tracks on the album, best illustrated on standout song ‘So True,’ in which she belts out resonating lyrics like “If you don’t lose some skin for the things you believe, how do you know that you really do?”
Between 2014’s Days of Abandon and this latest work, Berman became a father, which played a major role in the ideas and themes that preoccupied him as he composed the album. “A friend of me told me once that having a child will change your life and I can only agree with this,” he says. “I try to spend a lot of time [with my child], so probably this also had a deep impact on my songwriting. I have much less stress writing things right now, because I know what things matter the most.”
Listening to the album through the lens of Berman’s fatherhood sheds new light on many of the songs. In the album’s opening track ‘My Only,’ which begins with a rapturous build-up of synths, Berman’s devotional lyrics could as easily be about a first child as a significant other.
Berman first toured China with Pains’ previous line-up back in 2012, and though he’s returning now with a new backing band and a revamped sound, that authenticity of emotion remains from their earliest efforts, keeping the band’s themes running in the same vein from 2007 to today.
“We have great memories from our tour in China in 2012,” says Berman. “I can't believe it has been more than 5 years already. Travelling all over the world has also had a big impact on our writing, so hopefully we will get inspired by playing these China shows.”
Shanghai: Jan 26, 9pm, RMB150 presale, RMB180 door. Bandai Namco Shanghai Base, see event listing.
Beijing: Jan 28, 9pm, RMB150 presale, RMB180 door. Yugong Yishan, see event listing.
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