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Artist
Pillow Army
8+ albums
cello
about
Bandleader and songwriter Tim Franklin moved to Seattle from Boston in the fall of 2007. Tired of playing in two guitar alternative rock bands, he sought to expand his songs with more diverse instrumentation. When he was offered his first Seattle show, Tim assembled and arranged his rock songs for a string quartet. The result was instantly liberating. After the show, cellist John Simpson and violinist Ben Hawthorne stayed on and Pillow Army became a folk punk trio. This is what attracted drummer Paul Culala to the band. Over the summer, the foursome began the task of balancing a heavy, aggressive rock sound with the dynamic richness of the strings. Distorting the traditional acoustic guitar and cello allowed the Army to bridge these extremes while Paul drove the songs with minimal, non-standard beats. Eager to capture this sound, the band started a covert recording operation at John’s parents’ house while they were on vacation; moving the furniture and rolling up the carpets to record, then putting everything back before they returned. Recording progressed slowly as they worked around the unexpected comings and goings of John’s parents, but by February 2009 the tracks were completed, and friend Marc Lacuesta flew in from Nashville to mix the songs at Two Sticks Audio. The result is “To Comfort and Destroy”. Since the completion of the EP, Pillow Army has evolved further by replacing Ben with Mara Sedlins and adding flautist/vocalist/guitarist Kaitlin Morrison. Their
