On today’s episode of In Conversation, we welcome Chad Clark and Erin Nelson of the shapeshifting DC band Beauty Pill to talk about their most recent EP Instant Night, released last December on Northern Spy Records.
As a producer, Clark has left his mark on so many classic records over the past few decades working with bands like Fugazi, The Dismemberment Plan, Lungfish, Mary Timony and Bob Mould. He first made an impression with his band Smart Went Crazy in the mid 90s, which had a guitar forward sound that fit in with the Dischord Records scene. After that band ended he started his current project Beauty Pill which has focused primarily on experimenting beyond the scope of what a traditional rock group could achieve on record. With rich orchestral textures and electronics, their recent 4-song EP continues the group’s willingness to mutate and surprise, sounding both completely different than what came before it and also unmistakably, Beauty Pill.
In this conversation we discuss Instant Night, the influence of Andrew DeYoung’s short film Rachel on Beauty Pill’s track “You Need a Better Mind,” the difference between local and global political messaging in music, Beauty Pill’s classic albums The Unsustainable Lifestyle and Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are, a recent performance with Laurie Anderson at Joe’s Pub in New York City and so much more.