Interview with Pittsburgh’s Ennui

Pittsburgh’s very own Ennui is coming back to his hometown to release his first ever solo album Telepathic Beat. Behind Ennui’s infectious synth-pop beats is musician and producer Jim Doutrich. His first single “Summer of Love” has already created a substantial buzz around the full-length LP which drops on September 23 via Mush Records. He’ll be performing the entire album for the first time at during the Cultural Trust‘s Fall Gallery Crawl at SPACE on September 26th. Music starts at 8:30 and there will be a cover charge of $5 at the door. NakYouOut got the chance to talk with Ennui about his process and inspiration, check out what he had to say below!

I try to get my musical ideas into demo form fairly quickly. I come up with a lot of the ideas on my piano but others can start from a drum beat or bass line. Once I have a bunch of demos together, I get to work on structuring the songs. I re-do vocals at the end and add in the lyrics.

The hardest part of working alone is that you lose perspective on your music after being alone with it for a long period of time. Making music with other people also helps to add flavor to the songs. The easiest part is just being able to rely on yourself. There’s no working around other people’s schedules.

There are a ton of talented musicians in Pittsburgh which is a bit surprising given the small size of the city. It’s too political to name a favorite.

What was your inspiration behind “Summer of Love”? Why did you choose that as the single for the album?

“Summer of Love” was inspired by contemporary synth pop and the setting/mood of late summer. The song structure was more suitable for a single and the timing happened to be perfect for an early August release.