Home of prolific record labels such as Merge Records, dozens of small music venues and many nationally-touring bands, the Triangle’s abundant music scene is hard to fully comprehend. There are rarely moments when dozens of the Triangle’s musicians come together under one roof. And there has yet to be an album that showcases the diverse talent that calls the area home.
That will change on April 20—National Record Store Day—with the release of Pet-Tich-Eye. More than thirty musicians, photographers and artists have converged to create an album that celebrates the thriving artistic community. Some of the scene’s biggest names have contributed to the project, including Bon Iver’s Matt McCaughan, Heather McEntire of Mount Moriah and Phil Cook of Megafaun. The album is composed of ten singles, each written by three or more musicians. Every track has inspired album art created by local artists, and the studio sessions have been photographed and filmed in order to visualize the unusual creative process through which the album was created.
Ashlie White, a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill, started the project after she was inspired by high-profile collaborations that have gained national attention. In particular, Converse sponsored a recording that included James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Andre 3000 and Gorillaz, which White notes as a model for the project’s inclusion of many different genres. “The coolest part is a fan of Lost in the Trees now gets exposed to The Love Language and Toddlers because they want to hear the song Ari [Picker] is part of and the links are all there,” White said. “We want cross-pollination—Stu McLamb said that—and [the album] encourages the musicians to push themselves.”
Other constraints forced the artists to work in unconventional ways. Musicians were asked to partner with people with whom they had not previously worked, and each track was recorded in a day or less. Joe Hall of Hammer No More the Fingers and Blanko Basnet called the recording process “very organic.” For some artists, components of songs were exchanged by email to other band members, and many of the songs were only finalized on the day of studio recording. “We all got together as friends and threw some ideas out there and it all worked,” Hall said. “It’s like starting a whole new band.”
The studio also presented opportunities for musicians to utilize advanced professional equipment. Christopher Hutcherson-Riddle of Motor Skills, who played at Hopscotch Music Festival last year, took full advantage of the studio’s resources. “[White] put us in a facility that was beyond the means of most involved with the project,” Hutcherson-Riddle said. “It was a pretty professional setting, and we were all nervous and excited about that.” In addition, on “No Hesitate,” Hutcherson-Riddle and his track-mates used a full drum kit that they never would have had it not been in the studio.
Pet-Tich-Eye served as a catalyst for interactions that White said “wouldn’t exist if we didn’t put them [together] in a studio.” Mike Dillon, who is a part of Motor Skills as well as Gross Ghost, appreciates the vast scale of collaborative effort involved. “Ashlie believed in the talent,” Dillon said. “I was pleasantly surprised with what I heard because I didn’t know what to expect. The album took a lot of people to step out of what they know.” For Dillon and others the project was impetus to experiment with different genres and new musical styles. On his trio’s track, “Don’t Start Believing,” Dillon noted that he wanted to stay true to the visions of his collaborators. “Matt [Park] and I both cared a lot about doing right by Autumn [Ehinger] and had to write outside of our safety zone. It was a fun challenge.”
Chris Boerner, the co-founder of Sound Pure Studios, mixed eight out of the ten tracks, with the goal of threading together an album out of the ten singles. It was a challenge to reconcile the variety of artistic styles but, as Dillon confirms, it was meant to be an album rather than a compilation. Though no single band’s aesthetic dominates, Dillon said that he was able to keep it “different enough but not too different that it didn’t work.”
When considering a title for the developing project, Ashlie White chose a name that stayed close to the project’s Durham roots. “Pet-Tich-Eye” was the nickname of a 19th-century Durham innkeeper’s son that White first heard about in Jim Wise’s Durham, A Bull City Story. “I love the name and [its] three parts,” White said. “It was obscure, but if anyone Google searched it, they’d find only results for our project and the history of the Triangle.”
White launched a Kickstarter campaign to help cover the costs of the project and benefit the non-profits chosen by the artists involved in Pet-Tich-Eye. Though the record is complete and will certainly be released, the Kickstarter campaign has until March 31 to raise the entire goal of $14,000, or else the project will receive none of the funding pledged thus far. As of 9 p.m. on March 20, the Kickstarter still had nearly $9000 to go. The perks that contributors receive are dependent on the amount they pledge. Perks range from a spot on the release show guest list, to private guitar lessons with some of the musicians, to an exclusive listening session with the artists and engineers at Sound Pure Studios. Especially dedicated contributors have the opportunity to fund a second vinyl pressing for $5000.
Though some have questioned the need for a Kickstarter campaign, Dillon believes that it was the right move for White. Though the project is already paid for, “Kickstarter gives her a foundation,” Dillon said. “If [donors] could help, it’ll be a much smoother process.” White and others hope that the process will sustain beyond this initial venture. Hip-hop and spoken word artist Kane Smego, who collaborated with Jenks Miller and Phil Cook on “Somewhere In Between (Breathe),” looks forward to future opportunities made possible as a result of the precedent set by Pet-Tich-Eye. “The long-term project goal is to have [the] website be a way for artists to come together in the future,” Smego said. “[We want] to make [the website] something that can be used any time by artists who want to collaborate.”
But above all, the project serves as another opportunity to promote and recognize the Triangle’s successful music scene. As White said, “we [Triangle music fans] know about the folk bands and indie bands and the punk and hardcore bands. We know names even if we don’t go to the shows because it’s all in our community. This was a way to let the national scene know.”
The Pet-Tich-Eye album will be released on National Record Store Day, April 20. The release will coincide with a concert at Motorco Music Hall at 8 p.m. that evening.
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