Here's your introduction to Plastic Nudes, a jangly, psych-laden project featuring James Collette (Câlisse, Hawkeye) on vocals and Kevin Hoffman (Câlisse, Hawkeye, Ancient Oak) on guitars. The pair have played in several studio projects together, but "after our stint with Câlisse, we started working mostly in the studio experimenting with different influences," Collette says. "We’ve developed a certain amount of musicianship we typically weren’t able to accomplish with most people."
They also found a similar collaborative energy with the fuzzy rock trio Motorcoat when the pair produced the band's second EP. Finding friendship and a passion for artistic growth, Plastic Nudes also found an opportunity to "take these songs to a new level that feels right," Collette says. Live, the duo are joined by Travis Lent (Hawkeye, Pricks, Hannah Yeun, Mirthquake) on drums, Alex Fulton (Motorcoat, Vinnie Mustang) on bass, Michael Vincent (Motorcoat, Vinnie Mustang) on guitar, and Matias Morel (Motorcoat, Hostal Riviera) on keys, percussion and harmonies.
Plastic Nudes will play their first show ever at the Portland PsychFest on Saturday, August 19!Your first ethereal taste of Plastic Nudes is "Butter," an airy shoegazer, that like everything else on their forthcoming debut effort, was "written in a stream-of-consciousness sort of way," Collette explains. "It’s just two people in the studio typically writing the songs with one another, but we have started bringing in guests from different backgrounds. It’s fun to make music with friends or even with strangers because you connect rather quickly over a studio session that forces instinct as opposed to being concerned with who or what we sound like. The song is the most important thing at the end of the day. Either we fail or we don’t. It’s kind of up to our capacity for vulnerability on which way it goes."
Recorded in the Troy Laundry Building—"a beautiful early 1900s building that was once an industrial laundry facility," Collette says—this past winter, there were no preconceived ideas brought into the studio. "Going with our gut feeling is what’s most important at this time. The future of the band is rather nebulous, which is reflective in the music because it’s a more honest representation of the city that we live in."
