Summit Indie Fest Featured Artist: Gretchen & the Pickpockets

Summit Indie Fest is an inaugural event happening at Book and Bar in Portsmouth, NH on Saturday, May 19th. The ideals behind the fest are two fold, to present great bands within the greater New England music community and also to foster a spirit of philanthropy and giving back.

The bill is a wide spanning cross section of what could be considered (on broader terms) “roots” music in and around the New England area. In the course of one evening you will get hot bluegrass licks and harmonies alongside punk infused folk. Soul and funk rhythms dovetailing with lyrically driven folk rock. We decided to catch up with the bands leading up to the event, one by one, to highlight their distinct sounds, what makes them excited for an evening that is focused on these themes and of course: just what they are up to in general.

Our next band that we caught up with is Portsmouth based Gretchen & the Pickpockets. Its been a little while since we have featured the band here on RLR, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been on our radar and keeping busy. The band may better be described by the feeling and energy that they give to the listener, but the blending of soul, jazz and straight up rock n’ roll attitude is a sure win for anyone who gets to see them and just as sure to make them fall in love with their music.

We caught up with Mike, Richie and Gretchen from the band to chat a bit about what they have been up to, how they describe that blended sonic quality of the band and why they are pumped to be a part of Summit Indie Fest this May.

RLR: For those who have never heard your group before, how would you sum up your sound in a sentence long phrase?

Mike: Soul/Rock/Jazz, a blend of horn lines, riffs and improvisation.

Richie: Soul/jazz rock featuring smooth horns, powerful vocals, and engaging improvisation.

RLR: I think what is pretty cool about this particular event is that it is really highlighting how different folk or roots music really is and the sonic breadth that it spans from punk influenced folk to bluegrass and indie singer-songwriter vibes. I mean “Indie” really means independent at the core, but perhaps has come to represent a certain sound in modern times. What are you most excited about in regards to the Indie Music Fest?

Mike: Book n Bar is one of our favorite places, Troll 2 is one of our favorite bands to play with, and Joel is such a force it’s hard not to go all in with him.

Richie: I agree, I think the variety featured in the festival is really special; there’s gonna be something there for everyone. Plus, it’s at Book and Bar – the atmosphere at every show there is electric, I can only imagine how a festival will be!

RLR: Festival can have a certain connotation about “huge event”, outdoors, sun, so on. But this particular show is really focusing on the intimacy of catching a show in a great setting with highly curated and high quality music. In the life of your group do you find you can take a moment and appreciate that intimacy of a show where every one is zeroed in on the performance? Do you find you strive in that atmosphere?

Mike: Listening shows are our favorite types of shows. That’s why we love playing places like book n bar and club passim. Everyone’s priority is to listen to music, so we can really play with dynamics which is an important piece to our music.

Richie: I think that’s our favorite kind of setting to play in, and it’s a setting that Book and Bar curates in spades. We spend a long time in our practices focusing on the subtleties in our music, and those kinds of environments really helps us showcase what we’re so passionate about.

RLR: Two questions: the event is at the Book & Bar in Portsmouth. So, A) what are you reading right now? and B) What is your beverage of choice when on stage (or off)?

Mike: A. Just finished Ulysses/James Joyce, and now it’s time to catch up on comics (southern bastards, black hammer, paper girls, space riders, darth vader’s been pretty good, saga…) B. I’ve found a mix of coffee and beer (specifically anything from garrison city or great rhythm) to be a mighty combination for the pocket.

Richie: I’m reading Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch, my beverage of choice is iced coffee, all year round. You can take the man out of New England, but you can’t take New England out of the man.

Gretchen: Just finished reading a lot of books on tour but some favs that I recently just read were a Gentlemen in Moscow and Lilac Girls. My usual drink in hand is kombucha that I brewed myself.

RLR: The mission of the show is really to celebrate philanthropy and the spirit of community through music. Being a part of it, I would assume that is also important for you all. What does community support and that philanthropic ideal mean to you as artists?

Mike: As artists, we started this band in college trying to figure everything out, and a lot of the community helped us as much as they could avoid the mistakes they made and help us progress. We are grateful and always try to pay it forward in the same way. We are just trying to be the best musicians and people we can be.

Richie: We’re a band that loves making one-on-one connections with listeners and Portsmouth is a town that really supports artists. We were lucky enough to get our start here and it’s awesome to still be a part of this community.

RLR: Anything you really want to plug coming up?

Mike: We are playing with Marco Benevento the night before at 3S artspace (5/18), and most importantly, our new album out 4/25

Richie: Ditto to what Mike said.