Polyphonic Spree - Mark Pirro Interview

by Tina Whelski

If a rainbow exploded, you'd have Polyphonic Spree, the 25-piece band led by former Tripping Daisy frontman Tim DeLaughter. The orchestral pop ensemble consisting of a choir and players on keys, guitars, strings, percussion, bass, trumpet, trombone, French horn, flute and theremin, recently traded their old white robes in for colorful ones and re-assembled for their sophmore album, Together We’re Heavy.

Like on the previous effort, The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree, the band is still “reaching for the sun,” but the updated palette on stage should warn you not to expect the same journey. In fact Polyphonic Spree have a much darker imagination on Together We’re Heavy.

“An album is like a snapshot of where a band is at a particular time,” says Polyphonic Spree bassist and founding member Mark Pirro. “…Anybody that’s heard the first record is going to be shocked by this record.

No matter how dramatic the jolt however, you’re still likely to catch that contagious smile that covers faces at Polyphonic Spree shows. For some reason the bands gotten a lot of slack in the press for being “happy” on stage. But the air of hopefulness has been a little misinterpreted. The grins you see are a triumph over pain, not an ignorance of it.

“There’s like this beautiful melancholy working underneath it all,” says Pirro. “It’s like that kind of feeling you get sometimes on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Nothing’s really bad, but it’s like you look at the clouds and somebody goes, ‘God what an ugly gray sky that is’ and you kind of think to yourself, ‘Oh what a pretty shade of gray.’ It’s more like that. Live it’s definitely energetic. Maybe when you combine those together people interpret that as happy.”

Polyphonic Spree is opening upcoming dates with “We Sound Amazed,” the first track on the new album. Re-creating studio sounds live was a bit tricky, but putting 25 heads together they figured out how to pull it off for a great effect.

“I don’t want to give too much away,” says Pirro, “But it seems like it’s (the music) going to go one direction and then it totally comes out of nowhere and hits you in the face with this overwhelming sound…We definitely enjoy opening the show that way. It’s very dramatic and suspenseful.”

The visual volume of 25 vibrantly outfitted players unleashing tone before you is also overpowering. If you question the reason for the robes though, it’s actually quite practical. Wearing robes prevents all the members’ different clothing styles from being a distraction. Though it definitely enhances an already surreal experience.

The Polyphonic Spree moves into Irving Plaza for two nights on August 24 and 25.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 8/19/04.

Polyphonic Spree performing "Light And Day" on TV show Scrubs.


Polyphonic Spree "Light And Day" Video.