Interview conducted by Andrew Benzinger Introduction by Hunter Craighill

Friday Pilots Club, an Alt Pop duo made up of Drew Polovick and Caleb Hiltunen, recently released a new single called “Breaking My Bones.” The single will be part of their upcoming album to be released later in the fall. The Nuance Team was able to speak with them about their new single, their upcoming plans, and a plethora of other topics.

You’ve mentioned bands like The Strokes, Nothing But Thieves, Royal Blood, and Highly Suspect as big inspirations. What other bands or musical artists have influenced you? 

Drew Polovick: There’s a ton [of inspirations], and I think that’s a big part of our sound. Always listening to new music, always turning out new music. Caleb and I recently got into hiphop. I know Caleb really likes Roddy Ricch, Denzel Curry and robin jewels band (?). And also, coming from listening to a lot of metal. Both very much students of pop music. Tulisa, she’s a regular part of our band van rotation music. I know Caleb and I are both fans of The 1975. It’s like all over the place and ever changing.

Caleb Hiltunen: Definitely… Spotify has some great algorithms. I just like people that are doing things that aren’t normal. Kerry showed me Not To Lose which is a metal band. And i… they’re just so left field and so crazy. And I got to listening to The Beatles growing up. And having one love… a band that changed a little bit over time, but they always sounded like The Strokes.

What’s your favorite part of “Breaking My Bones”?

Caleb: I really like the second verse. “Happiness or vanity… pretty people like the pages of a dsm”. And it’s just very tongue in cheek…. It’s stream of conscious talking, but the point of it was really, really cool, especially in relation to the purpose of the song.

Drew: I definitely second that. And I think it’s funny, that second verse was such a surprise. I had never heard Caleb sing like that… And when he showed me the lyrics with him singing it, I was like holy shit, this is sick. Snaps for Caleb. But personally, my favorite part is the bass. It’s this aggressive, destructive thing. It sounds like Michael Bay and Transformers going buck wild. [laughs]

Is there a personal experience or story behind the creation of “Breaking My Bones”?

Drew: It is kind of a funny story… Just in terms of how the song came to be. Caleb handles a lot of lyric writing, I handle a lot of production stuff. So there’s a lot of time to make a short instrumental, in the case of Breaking My Bones, it was the first thirty seconds. I just remember I had this really strange experience with somebody walking up to me on the street and babbling about Jesus Christ, and he was saying things like, ‘Jesus Christ was the f-ck who gave us death’ and I recorded it all on my phone. And I was like, I gotta go back and try to make something that encapsulates this feeling. So I made the original beat, and I sent it to Caleb, and I said, ‘I know this sounds f-cking crazy, but hear me out, maybe this could work.’ And then Caleb brought in the idea of lyrical concept, and it became what it is.

Caleb: Drew is being very giving with the lyrics. Drew writes a ton of lyrics. A lot of the things he brought, “give it a taste… you got nothing to lose”. That whole section was his…. We can all identify with this message. It’s just being online and trying to keep up with everything that’s going on, and feeling hopeless sometimes. You think of comments, you make up… you share something, you… And for some reason we lose the real human purpose, which is ultimately to help each other out. And we switch over the narrative to make it all about us. And this song is about contorting yourself for the likes of other people online and looking back on it and being like, ‘I can’t live this way forever; I’m letting this become a problem.’

Was the making of “Breaking My Bones” and your upcoming EP impacted by coronavirus, and if so, how? 

Drew: I don’t think the making was impacted by anything. We finished the record the last week of February, into the first week of march, which coincidentally was Caleb’s birthday, so it was a very big hurrah… But the release was definitely affected. Going forward, trying to figure out how to put out content when you can’t tour. Or you can’t meet with labels in person, so it’s been difficult trying to figure out a plan. But Caleb and I are very self-sufficient. The labels do a lot for us and they’re great, but Caleb and I still talk regularly, write stuff and trade demos back and forth, making plans for the future. So we’re trying to not let COVID slow us down too much.

Caleb: Which is definitely hard to do. The impact is to be taken seriously. There was someone I saw recently, a very orange man, who stated, “If we just stop testing, then it’ll go away. Then no one will be getting COVID,” which is just mind blowing. And that’s unfortunately not our reality, me as a type one diabetic. And all of us have some health concerns.… Everyone listens to the music… maintain the structure… It is hard, but we have a big label behind us which we’re very lucky to have… But people are getting creative. People are doing drive in concerts and live stream concerts, and we’re trying to get with that.

If Friday Pilot’s Club could only be remembered by one song, which one would that be? 

Caleb: I know this is a surprise for Caleb, but “Glad to be Here”… I’m really proud of it. 

Drew: Yeah, personally, I’d say another song on the record, “Looked Better in Gold”. I just feel that song kinda encapsulates… We as a band are ever changing and trying to evolve, but the song “Looked Better in Gold” is a perfect snapshot of who we are as a band now, just in terms of kinda witty, snarky lyrics, being kinda big - it has what we refer to bigness [laughs] - and it was one of these songs that Caleb and I sat down and it just came out of us over the course of a couple hours. That’s fpc 2020, but I promise the answer would change in the next day. [laughs]

“Breaking My Bones” is part of your upcoming EP with Big Machine Label Group. Do you have any details about the full EP you want to share? Or any other future projects?

Caleb: Drew and I are currently building a space program… Spectre is going to be in opposition to the space force. I’m sorry that sounds dumb. [laughs] We have nothing right now to announce simply because we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen down the line.

Drew: I will say there are more singles coming, and a record is gonna come out by late fall, so keep your eyes and ears open.