Listen: Saintseneca - "Beast in the Garden"

photo by Olga Pavloska

While Columbus folk collective Saintseneca has largely made a career of encapsulating the various incarnations of folk - be it punk, pop, or rock, singer/songwriter Zac Little sought in the recording and production of their upcoming fourth full length album Pillar of Na to more obviously incorporate different elements of the genre into the record's sound. First single "Frostbiter" saw Little weaving electronic elements into the band's already lushly layered textural palette while "Ladder to the Sun" was a much more straight forward pop-rooted affair. "Beast in the Garden", the third single from the forthcoming record, is a heady dose of 60s inspired psychedelica with Saintseneca's harmonic mesh of stringed instruments effortlessly replicating the Eastern recalling sounds most Bay Area psych bands sought to emulate. Unlike the battering ram that is "Ladder to the Sun", "Beast in the  Garden" is a more meticulously plotted bloom - shifting from sparse guitar to euphoric gang vocal dense choruses. Of the three singles, it's probably the most tied into the album's religious influence. Little is no stranger to weaving the secular with the more evidently biblical, but for "Beast in the Garden" he leans fully into it as he conjures up vibrant images of a life locked out of Paradise. There's a sense of nostalgia, true but there's also an optimism for the new paths ahead and even strange sense of compassion for the solitary sentinel preventing their return. Little's lyricism, through pulled from sacred texts, are less an attempt to pontificate and more an attempt to know, to connect with the idea of a life laid bare in front of you with a daunting amount of freedom. It features stellar arrangements of both traditional and unconventional strings: mandola, hammered dulcimers, violins, viola, and cello. It's another slice of bold musical experimentalism that continues to upend expectations as to what Pillar of Na might sound like as a whole and that to me is terribly exciting.

Pillar of Na, Saintseneca's fourth full length album is out August 31st on ANTI-.  

Listen/Watch: Saintseneca - "Ladder to the Sun"

photo by Nick Fancher

When Columbus, Ohio folk pop collective Saintseneca previewed their upcoming fourth full length album Pillar of Na with first single "Frostbiter" the most immediately noticeable thing was the synths. While Saintseneca are no strangers to the use of synths having utilized them on previous album Such Things, there was a level of prominence that seemed a little jarring. Known for their harmonic mesh of various exotic string instruments, "Frostbiter" saw singer/songwriter Zac Little expanded the band's textural palette as he experimented with sounds not typically associated with folk. The result was a shimmering, found sound featuring ballad that hinted at an assortment of new compositional options for the band.

"Ladder to the Sun", however, places the band right back into their exuberant, infectious folk pop. Unsurprisingly, for as much as Little struggled with the creation of much of Pillar of Na, "Ladder to the Sun" sprung forth from him pretty easily. Some of that frustration - of continuously trying different options and trying to make sense of ideas that are floating around you make their way into the song. When I first heard "Ladder to the Sun", I was immediately taken with how the lyrics had a sort of conversational, stream of consciousness quality to them. They didn't entirely feel like they belonged to different songs but Little had little problem interrupting himself to offer up another thought. The songs is a casual glide through ideas - beginning at first as self-given eulogy: "Tell my sister when I'm gone, I built a ladder to the Sun" before Little focuses on the present. Where "Frostbiter" was an amalgamation of memories and anecdotes - both his and others, "Ladder to the Sun" is a somewhat more assertive criticism of memory and who dictates what that is. "Who says you're right?" Little and band continuous ask and while it's delivery never reaches a tone of confrontation, it's does express a sincere amount of doubt about who gets to dictate what is happening in the moment. It's a song filled with these little moments of truth-seeking that are wonderfully presented.

Little asks questions but seems less concerned with definitive answers and more the feeling that accompanies those questions - the chasm of either doubt or bridge of certainty those questions open up. Another curious moment - probably the more so than anything else that happens in the song's rather short duration is between right before the recap both of the chorus and the song's initial phrase is a one-and-done moment Little affords himself. "I did the best you can, you did the best I can", Little sings and that moment - essentially defining the self through another is so strangely wonderful. It's ambiguous at best but feeds into the song's main theme of someone other than the self getting to tell the story; to set the parameters and provide context.

The video for the single, directed by Jon Washington and Little himself, introduces the "Ladder to the Sun" as an actual concrete thing and Little spends the video's duration chasing it. The ladder proves to me more of a concept than a thing you actually want to come in contact with though as Little finds when he grabs the ladder and experiences both an intense psychedelic vision and what looks like a great deal of pain. There's subtle references to Pillar of Na itself - "Moon Barks At Dog", and the strawberry heart from the album cover but the star of the video is the ladder that Little pursues with a hunter's acumen. It's hardly surprisingly "Ladder to the Sun" was a moment of catharsis for Little considering how effortlessly and swift the ideas both lyrically and visually the ideas seem to come from it. "Ladder to the Sun" may end up being the outlier in terms of a sprightly folk pop jam but it's certainly appreciated.



Saintseneca's fourth full length album Pillar of Na is out August 31st on ANTI-. Pre-order the record now.

Listen: Saintseneca - "Frostbiter"

photo by Nick Fancher

Aside from the odd show and a brief tour opening for Philly outfit Hop Along, Columbus, Ohio folk rockers Saintseneca have been laying rather low. These things happen though: a band retreats to their homelife to resume the act of actually living like normal people and also work on newer music. "Frostbiter", the new single from Saintseneca's new forthcoming album Pillar of Na, gets the band back together to once again ruminate on life's offerings. "Frostbiter" follows previous singles "The Wandering Star", "Moon Barks at Dog" and "Book Of The Dead On Sale", but has both the distinction of being the first to actually be confirmed on the new album ("Moon Barks At Dog" will also be on Pillar of Na according to the tracklist) and also to represent a much more obvious stylistic shift for the band since previous album Such Things. "The Wandering Star" saw the introduction of more electronic elements to the band's already pretty eclectic blend of instruments and "Frostbiter" continues to lean into it.

"When granddad died, I got his knife//I cleaned the kitchen and I didn't know why" singer/songwriter Zac Little drawls above a stark, atmospheric hum before the chorus arrives with beats, the entrance of the rest of the band and featherlight vocals from new member Caeleigh Featherstone. Saintseneca songs have always reveled in a sort of pervasive melancholy before giving way to more exuberant arrangements but "Frostbiter" luxuriates in its sparsity. A rumination on memory, "Frostbiter" finds Little offering a series of seemingly unrelated anecdotes with fairly minimal arrangements before the chorus gives way to a recording of a woman and child talking. It's a more experimental composition but one that ultimately doesn't forget the band's propensity for catchy pop hooks. The electronic touches are treated as a spice instead of part of the main course.



Saintseneca's fourth full length album Pillar of Na is out August 31st on ANTI-. Pre-order is available now. The band will also embark on a headlining tour later this year to support the album, you can check dates here.

Listen: Saintseneca - "Book Of The Dead On Sale"

Saintseneca's Zac Little has always been drawn to big ideas. He's spun big philosophical moments and catchy folk pop out of the kind of weird thoughts you might have right before sleep comes. So when a video of his friend's narcoleptic cat Remi went viral, it's hardly surprising that Little's first thought was how much time is a million views? It's a big thought that no one ever really thinks about when they're watching silly internet videos but Little did the math and it equated to something like three years. And unsurprising to anyone familiar with Saintseneca or Little's knack for combing through these wonderfully random thoughts and attaching them to bigger revelations, he wrote a song about it. "Book Of The Dead On Sale" is a song inspired by the adding up of all the seconds and the value of that time. Time has different value to everyone and Little essentially ponders that. Not just time but money as well. "$38 on the Book of the Dead felt steep oh but then again how do you put a price on ancient wisdom?" Little sings and essentially questions the value of anything. How do you know how much something is worth? Is it the buyer or the seller who decides? Do people realize how many seconds they're devoting to this video of a cute kitten falling asleep? Do they realize enough people have watched it that it adds up to more time than the kitten's been alive? These are all questions that Little offers in sometimes direct and in other times roundabout ways. "The Book Of The Dead On Sale" is short but sweet. Aiming for the philosophical fences without taking itself too seriously. I mean it's hard to write a song about a viral cat video and not find a way to have fun with the conceit.



Saintseneca are about to go on a North American tour with Tiger Jaws and are an amazing live band so definitely make sure you catch them on tour.

Listen: Saintseneca - "Sleeper Hold"

photo by Nick Fancher

One of the most popular misconceptions in music seems to be the expectation that the space between albums is reserved almost exclusively for an extreme reinvention of a band's core sound. True, there's something refreshing about an artist who continuously pushes themselves to incorporate elements to keep challenging themselves but most of the development of a band's sound happens in slight increments not leaps and bounds. Columbus' Saintseneca has been slowly evolving their group sound for years and years from member to member. As the figurehead of the crew and arbiter or its creative vision, singer/songwriter Zac Little has had

In a sense "Sleeper Hold", the band's latest single from their upcoming album Such Things continues on a path charted as early as their 2013 debut full length Last. But ultimately "Sleeper Hold" focuses in on the poppiest moment of Dark Arc and both isolates and expands them. That's how you end up with these galvanizing, bliss-inducing harmony laden choruses. Zac Little and Maryn Jones tag team the vocal duties and in doing so provide the band's normal timbre play reserved for their multitude of stringed instruments.  In the same way that it's almost more of the same, it's a different approach to the band's absolutely infectious brand of folk pop as the group intentionally try to build on those elements. And with the focus being on these knee-jerk moment of pop euphoria, it's easy to miss the fact that Zac Little's songwriting remains at an absolute high able to embed these complicated philosophical questions into his song while drawing little attention them. It's smart lyricism that doesn't insist on how smart it is and is all the more better for it. Instead these little phrases pop out at you in a way that's exciting enough to make you deep dive into the song's less surface elements.




Saintseneca's forthcoming record Such Things is out October 9th on ANTI- Records.

Pitstop: Saintseneca

The path to my discovering Columbus, Ohio folk rockers Saintseneca is as nonsensical as it is winding. After seeing their ANTI- records debut Dark Arc streaming on NPR earlier this year (which I ignored for seemingly no good reason), I kept coming across them on the internet - from news articles, to show calenders, after months of hovering at the periphery of my consciousness I finally decided to give their records are spin and was delighted at them being exactly what I was in the mood for. It's been awhile since I've fawned over a good folk band and Saintseneca providing a quick solution to that problem.



Where bands nowadays are often described by what they're not doing; how they're challenging previously conceived notions of genre - Saintseneca's major strength is just being damn good at what they do. If you had to pick a thing that sets Saintseneca apart from the multitude of folk bands though it would definitely be the timbral palette that their diverse instrumentation allows them. Whether with guitars, ukuleles, banjos, or the multitudes of other string instruments the band have at their disposal, they're no doubt aided by the fact that singer/songwriter Zac Little's voice pairs astonishingly well with stringed instruments. It's not the sort of thing you'd normally notice without the context of the mass of various instruments strummed and plucked, bowed and hammered but Little's distinct voice has a unique timbre of its own - one that lends itself incredibly well to the band's full, intricate folk pop sound. Yes, Saintseneca's talent lies in its ability to align all of its various moving parts and blend them soundly without obscuring anything and speaks to the musicianship of the four musicians who fills its ranks.



That Zac Little is also an incredibly gifted songwriter also helps. Little combines Saintseneca's knack for soaring melodies and catchy choruses with an ability to affix his sincerity-tinged ruminations just so. It's almost startling precise with just the right balance of poetry and prose. Not wholly unlike Mutual Benefit's Jordan Lee. But where Jordan Lee directs his songwriting towards striking the heartstrings by means of the accessible pop medium, Little's wordiness flows with a conversation ease and those unabashedly upbeat moments a natural extension of that.



Saintseneca are one of those bands whose records makes you want to seek out their live set. Not that the recorded output isn't satisfying but the sound is so expansive, so grand that you just know that they also rule in a live setting. Luckily Saintseneca seem to be quite the fans of touring so if you don't catch them on their current North American tour, there's likely to be another in the immediate future.