#pointlessaesthetics

[sometimesalwaysmusic]

POINTLESS AESTHETICS 

We caught up with Pointless Aesthetics (PA) band member Jesse Seheult (vocals, guitar) to talk about the band’s influences, singing in Danish, Ottawa, and favourite shows.

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PointlessAesthetics/

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jesse-seheult-880379192

BandCamp: https://pointlessaesthetics.bandcamp.com/releases

Latest Release: Eleutheromania (LP, June 2019)  https://pointlessaesthetics.bandcamp.com/releases

Upcoming Shows: Stay tuned! 

SA: How did Pointless Aesthetics start as a band? PA: When I first came to Carleton University in Ottawa I had recently left my previous band from high school and wanted to start with something fresh. Mutual friends introduced me to a few guys that I would jam with and they introduced me to Mitch. Then when those other guys left it was just Mitch and I for a while and then we slowly grew back finding Jeff and then later Declan to fill out the rest of the bands roster.

SA: Who are your biggest influences, musically or otherwise? PA: Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard inspired me to be a songwriter, the way that he tells stories within his songs helped me develop my lyricism. Musically I look to bands such as This Town Needs Guns and Delta Sleep in the way that they play intricate melodies within interesting rhythms. There are also many other different influences, not all of us are into the same type of music. Mitch is actually more into Avicii and stuff like that than modern rock bands, Declan is really into blues style bands like The Arctics Monkeys, and Jeff has different tastes as well, but nonetheless we take all of those outside influences and use them to create our own unique sound, our own unique voice.

SA: Thus far in your career, what has been your biggest success? PA: I would say finishing this record. We have played sold out shows in smaller venues throughout Ottawa and we have had success bringing people out and providing them with a good time, but there is nothing more gratifying than taking all the work that we have accumulated over the past four years and grinding it out in the studio for the world to hear.

SA: On the other hand, what is the biggest challenge you've faced, and how have you dealt with it? PA: One of the biggest challenges that we faced was when Mitch went away on exchange to The Netherlands. We were happy for him of course, but taking a semester to try and find a replacement to still be able to play live shows was a chore and when we did find a guy he could barely keep up with what we were doing. So, after that failed experiment we did take some time to focus on school and I ended up writing a bunch of other material for when he got back, songs such as The Sun Reaches and Atlas.

SA: How do you approach the songwriting process? PA: For me every song is different in the way it gets finished. For the most part it always starts with a guitar line and I take a long time to keep refining it until it is exactly how I want it to be. Then the lyrics come and I guess I always either write what I am thinking about in the moment or I take a line from a song I like and recontextualize it into something I want to say, because usually a line like “creating a substance while you get high” just resonated with how I was feeling in the moment I was writing Atlas. I guess subconsciously I ended up writing a cohesive story as well. With Eleutheromania the entire album’s lyrical themes all revolve around the idea of introspection. From “Headphones (A Leitmotif)” to “Hygge” everything that I went through an amalgamation of my inner turmoil and failed past relationships are all looked back upon to show where I have been and where I got to. 

Another little inside look the lake that I refer to throughout the album was actually a poster of a dock that I had in my bedroom and when re-working Pass On Passion thought that it would be cool if the character was a songwriter as well who went “to the lake to fantasize” and I thought that from Headphones which was already finished at that time I could create a location for the narrative to take place.

SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? PA: Ottawa was absolutely one of the best things I could have asked for as a member of an indie band trying to get his music out there. There is a comradery between all of the other acts that you play with, unlike when I spent time mostly in Toronto with my other band. Everyone genuinely loves music here and the sounds of the city are exemplified through a diverse cast of bands such as Lost at Sea, XiL, Lessons in Crime or Siberian Breaks, just to name a few. And honestly we noticed that our age demographic, the university students, were always looking for something to do and loved supporting the growing Ottawa music scene. 

SA: If you had to choose, what is your favourite moment off of Eleutheromania and why? PA: I am super biased about my favourite moment on the record because obviously I wrote it to be my favourite moment. But for me, it would have to be when I attempt to sing in a poorly google translated Danish towards the end of Hygge. When I was writing it I thought it was so clever to write maybe the most depressing lyrics in another language to embody what the whole song was about. Hygge translating to comfort / comfortability, I wanted to make the listener comfortable with what I am saying but not understanding a word of it. I guess it came from listening to a band like Sigur Ros and not knowing the language but obsessively translating the lyrics to discover their deeper meaning. However, people have been reaching out to me about the album and saying a bunch of different things, most people like songs that I wouldn’t expect them to like and each answer is different, so Pierce which is yours?

SA: What is your favourite show that the band has played, and why? PA: My favourite show would have to be the first one that we played with Declan, mostly because we were kind of throwing him into the wolves, he had only just learned how to play Headphones, Pass On Passion, and other songs that didn’t make the cut of the record like Memento Mori, Skyline and Sad Songs in Sadder Tones. It was also the first show we ever sold out at Live On Elgin, opening for an amazing Canadian band from Kingston called Kasador. The other one would have to be our album release show where almost 2 and a half years later we sold out Live On Elgin again. 

SA: What comes next for you guys in 2019? All the best this year! PA: Honestly, there is nothing planned yet. Three of us have just graduated from Carleton University and are moving on with our lives. We are spreading around the record and there have been murmurs amongst the band members that we may do a reunion show sometime next year but I think that we have accomplished so much in a short time. I have been sending the album around to some local radio stations and I am constantly writing music, and I know the other guys are not done playing either, so maybe there are some future projects you may see us in the future. But for now Pointless Aesthetics lives on through Eleutheromania.

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