riffs + "jorts season." with Pale Sailor

Summer hit me like a semi truck last week. I was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants, went out to run an errand, and was like, oh shit...it's happening. Suddenly I wanted a popsicle. I wanted to go for a long drive and blast some summery music. I wanted to plan a beach trip. And I wanted to exchange my now-invalid temperate outfit for a t-shirt and some jorts.

Summer is jorts season—that's a consolidation of jean and shorts for those of you unfamiliar with jorts lifestyle, if there's anyone left who hasn't participated in jorts culture—and for a long time it began rather ceremonially for me. When I was younger and on a miserly budget, I was in no position to buy brand-new jorts, so the beginning of the summer would arrive with a sartorial assessment: were any of my current jeans at the end of their lifespan? If my wardrobe produced a pair of especially exhausted (or otherwise unstylish) jeans, I would then sacrifice their length in a traditional Jeans Haircut and turn them into the season's jorts. Real waste not, want not hours.

I've since caved and purchased a couple pairs of premium jorts (Levi's ribcage shorts, if you're into both feeling the breeze on your legs and also never seeing your belly button ever again) but I remember my Jeans Haircuts fondly as the start of a summer of inevitable measured hedonism.

"jorts season." is also the name of the second single from Sheffield, UK-based emo band Pale Sailor. This band (Eamonn Hall on guitar, Anya Bellamy on bass and vocals, Henry Veitch on drums) is somewhat fresh on the scene, having played their first show a little over a year ago, and they already sound crisp and confident on this zippy tune about being nostalgic for a former home.

jorts season., by Pale Sailor

track by Pale Sailor

Pale SailorBandcamp New & Notable Nov 4, 2020

riffin'

Pale Sailor post a regular "riff of the week" video on TikTok and I wanted to know a bit more about their riffsmanship, so I emailed them a couple questions and guitarist Eamonn Hall responded.

[Molly] How do you pick out yr weekly riffs?

[Eamonn] At first I was trying to always pick riffs from classic emo songs although after a few weeks I kinda ran out of options without wanting to repeat bands or play riffs that require a second guitar or backing instrumental. Since then I've relied mostly on just making up a riff each week which can be a helpful exercise to keep me from stagnating creatively. It's also just more fun and motivating seeing people engage and react with an original riff over a cover.

How do you write your own riffs? is there a secret to riff-writing, or do riffs come at random?

Usually when writing a riff, either for TikTok or just in general, it goes one of two ways. Sometimes I can just pick up the guitar and a riff comes out like a random stream of consciousness and others it's a lot more methodical where I might come up with a chord progression first, then think of a rhythm and then think of ways to put melody or little twinkly bits in between. The riff of the week series has been helpful in forcing me to write regularly and keep the riffs somewhat unique. It's also useful because posting riffs on TikTok can work like a little trial run of songs, so if one is received particularly well we are way more inclined to evolve that into a full track.

Thanks Pale Sailor! Check out their link aggregation.

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