A Conversation with Pit Stop: Radio K Short Circuit Event Headliner
The Short Circuit concert series, hosted by Radio K and held at 7th Street Entry, is off to a roaring start to its four night artist residency. The opening show on January 9th featured headliner Pit Stop and opening bands Buffalo Galaxy and Gut Czech. This event, described by Radio K as a “love letter to the local music scene and the people shaping it”, granted the audience an unforgettable music experience comprised solely of local artists. Minneapolis’s iconic venue, 7th Street Entry, set the tone for an intimate night filled with musical energy—particular that of the bluegrass, country rock, and acoustic indie varieties.
Pit Stop performed various songs from their self-titled debut album: from their lively and upbeat song “I’m Smiling”, to the melancholic “Good at Being Alone” (which highlighted the harmonies of lead singers Sarah Mevissen and Jake Balistrieri particularly well). Midway through the show, the band hosted a raffle for the crowd, where a bottle of the band’s signature hot sauce–“Hot Slop”–was awarded to one lucky audience member. From the moment the band set foot onstage to the closing song, Pit Stop’s concert at 7th Street Entry was both sonically engaging and lively. Golden was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to engage in a thoughtful conversation with the band and various aspects of their musical career.
Golden: So, Pit Stop—where did you get your start? Where did you all meet?
Jake: Sarah and I met in a punk band we played in together briefly a couple years ago…that was how we met. When we started doing this project, the guitar player Pat and I kind of started jamming a little bit. And I was like, hey, my friend Sarah would be a great addition to this team. And that's kind of how we started.
Golden: How would you describe your style of music to someone who’s never heard it before?
Sarah: Normally, I just start by saying it's country rock music.
Jake: Yeah. It's like country with like—it's like rock with a little twang of country.
Golden: Who would you say are some of your musical influences?
Jake: Some of my biggest country influences are Kitty Wells…from the 70s, Townes Van Zandt is a big one. And then old country stuff like Wilco and The Uncles—big influence for sure.
Sarah: We all listen to a very wide variety of music, so I think that helps and comes across in our music. For me, Fred Neil is a huge influence. His whole catalog—his guitar playing, his vocals, songwriting, all of it. I also really like The Stranglers, which are a post-punk band from the late 70s. You know, a combination of that kind of stuff.
Jake: The two part harmony thing—I got into The Louvin Brothers kind of early on. They were a big influence, doing the close harmony type work.
Golden: How would you say your musical style reflects in your clothing or what you wear for shows?
Jake: Well Sarah and I do a lot of the close harmony type thing and we're almost always singing together, so we kind of try to coordinate our outfits a little bit to match color-wise. We used to wear strictly, like, oh, she wears a blue dress, I wear a blue shirt, just to kind of emphasize the two parts together—to kind of draw people's eyes to that set of facts.
Sarah: The style that we have collectively really does match the sound in a way, because we’re not straight-up country and we have that alternative side to it. And, I guess, the way that we dress too—we don't do like the straight up country look or, you know, always in hats or cowboy boots, but have some sort of hint of that in the style. Just more of an alternative kind of look.
Jake: Like, in the same way that we're not completely just straight country, we don't dress straight country. We don’t do rhinestone cowboy hats.
Golden: What has been your favorite band highlight so far?
Jake: Our favorite highlight was probably when we played at First Avenue main room. We opened for Mdou Moctar and Parquet Courts—that was a pretty big milestone. It was the biggest crowd I've ever played…and the most nervous I've ever been for a show.
Sarah: And playing at such a historic place, being there before the show and seeing the whole staff—everyone's just really on point. A well-oiled machine.
Golden: What is your favorite song to perform to an audience?
Jake: I kind of prefer the more rockin’ ones. They're just more fun, you can move around more. People know that we're a country band and come in with that mindset of, like, oh, it's gonna be more mellow, but when we play a more high-energy song I think it catches people off guard, which makes it a lot more fun.
Sarah: Yeah, yeah. Patrick says "I'm Smiling,” and I like playing that one too, because every time it's different in the delivery. There's more openness to change.
Jake: More theatrical.
Sarah: Yeah. And changing up the vocals or the emotion on whatever I'm feeling at that moment. We have a lot of new songs too that are always fun to play.
Golden: Do you have any pre show rituals that you do as a band?
Sarah: We did start listening to bird sounds.
Jake: We like to all get our phones out in the green room, and we all play bird sounds from our phones and create a beautiful atmosphere. I love that great mediation in the jungle.
Golden: What's your process for writing songs like? Do you do it separately and come together as a group, or do you really collaborate on them one at a time?
Sarah: Jake and I write a lot of songs separately, and then we'll send them to each other, send them to some other members in the band. And sometimes we'll practice together beforehand, just like figuring out the structure of it or figuring out harmonies, that sort of thing. Sometimes we just bring it to the whole group. And everyone just fills their parts in and then contribute to how the song is going to progress.
Jake: In other bands I’ve been in, the vocals or the lyrics are the last thing to come, but because Sarah and I are doing harmonies pretty much the entire time, we have to work that out first because you can't just jam on harmony – well, you can, but everyone needs to know the words and stuff. So that needs to be squared away from the get-go.
Golden: What has been your biggest challenge you have had to face and overcome as a band?
Jake: Well, we had our first show two weeks before the pandemic really first started. So the biggest challenge, I guess, was deciding what we were even going to do, if [the band] was ever even going to happen. Yeah…it was just a confusing, tough time. And if we didn't have that first show, we might not have even kept going, but luckily we had one really good go to kind push us through, momentum-wise, when we were still excited about the band—even though we didn't know when we'd ever play a show again.
Golden: What did you guys do during the lockdown to stay connected as a band?
Sarah: We met, that was our pod sort of thing…or that's what people were calling it back then. And, just to stay sane, to have that release, and to see other people in a small, obviously concentrated, group. Having that outlet really helped us a lot with everything everyone was going through mentally during that time. So, yeah, we just played.
Jake: It was something to look forward to—that's when we really wrote our first record. We would just get together a lot, piece by piece, and it was different writing the first record without playing any shows at all. You know, it's kind of an unusual way to go about it. You don't really know how things are gonna go over, but it worked well ‘cause we had unlimited time.
Golden: How has your experience in the Minneapolis music community been and how has it influenced you guys as artists?
Jake: It's been really positive, people have been really cool. And, really, they've embraced us quite a bit. Like, it's cool that we're not the only other country players around—I'm from Milwaukee originally, and I didn't know of too many country bands at the time but, living here, there are several other country players and there's lots for us to do.
Sarah: I've been going to shows for a long time, so it feels really cool to be playing the stages of venues that I've always been going to. There's always been a really great music community here.
Jake:A lot of different genres of band and musician have taken us in, and no one's really pigeonholed us. Our band has been able to do a lot of different kinds of music, punk and all sorts of stuff.
Sarah: I've also been thinking a lot about how a band’s success is not just their own…it really has been a community effort. With people, with other bands reaching out to play with us, like promoters or venue programmers or Radio K reaching out to us. And so, I've been thinking about that a lot and how great it feels to have a bunch of people that really like [the band]. Yeah. That wouldn't exist without other people, you know, believing in it.
Golden: Are there any other upcoming projects that we should keep an eye out for?
Jake: We're hoping to do a little EP in the spring and release some stuff from there, maybe some music videos and whatnot. We're also gonna record our second full-length album this fall!
Sarah: We want to put more out there. And then hopefully a music video for “Smiling”.
Many thanks to Pit Stop for being as wonderful a group to interview as they are to see perform!
Golden Magazine will be featuring an artist from the Short Circuit event on January 23rd as well! Because Radio K promotes local music of all genres, this event will particularly highlight rap, trap and hip-hop. Come find us in the audience there—and get your ticket here.
All images captured by Ash Gustafson.