Q & A with Pretty Good Dance Moves

Fresh off the release of a self-titled EP, and a successful stint at SXSW, Pretty Good Dance Moves took time out of their busy schedule to talk music, television, and rather good dance moves. The duo, Jimmy Giannapoulos and Aaron Allieta, have recently added the talents of lead female vocalist Angelina Lucero to wonderfully complement their chilled-out synth jams.

The first song we ever did was back in 2006, and it was actually quite different than what we do today.  Jimmy had a couple guitar based songs, and I had a couple Rhodes based things and we would try to play them live or at least in rehearsals which didn’t work too well.  I then had the idea to try to work them in a studio based environment and that’s how we got the first few songs like P.G.D.M. and The Color Blue which we still have the video up somewhere with the horse as the focal character.  Eventually we got ‘Demons Dancing’ not too long after that.

We still play ‘Demons Dancing’ and P.G.D.M. in our live sets. I guess for me I think of those songs as being part of a different era, so it’s kind of a contiguous thing.

It’s really not, a lot of people ask about that.  We literally talk every day even if were not working on anything new at the moment.  It’s easy when we are working cuz we bounce stuff back and forth via email.  Jimmy just got a new computer so we will be able to do more direct collabs using the same software.  Up until this point, I would work on stuff after after Jimmy would come in for a week or two or three to start new material and polish it up and send daily drafts to Jimmy that we would try a bunch of different things.  Living at the studio makes that a lot easier- Tim Sandusky who also lives here would often be a final decision maker on things that we would be unsure about.

I am very comfortable in our studio in Chicago, i think Jimmy would agree with that also.  We do some vocal tracking in NYC, but the Chicago studio is like our home.

We just finished a new song with Lissie Trullie that we are really excited about!  Think female Depeche Mode- haha!  I just finished a few new remixes im really excited about (Skybox and Mazes (1900’s off-shoot band)).  There’s always new stuff in the works.

We definitely don’t like to over think lyrics-  the new record has more of a feel good sexiness i think too it.  We like to have that boy-girl back and forth that creates a chemical balance (or in-balance) that reflects relationships.

Jimmy had met PB and J in New York and they would have a lot of late nights listening to music.  He had played them some new tracks we were working on and mentioned we were looking for collaborators and Bjorn really liked the stuff, so he jumped in and it turned out great!  I think he tracked also the stuff himself in his studio in Sweden.

Angelina is our live singer, but when we can have the original vocalist sing their song we always love to have that.  We just came back from SXSW and Sydney Wayser did a couple shows with us down there on her songs.  That’s fun, cuz Angelina can sing the harmonies with her.

Jimmy had given her a copy of our old EP when she was in the Living Room in NYC.  She came back a week later and was raving about the record and Jimmy said “You wanna be in the Video?” and the next weekend we shot the Demons Dancing video.

Love it!

It really needed another season or two- too bad!

I’m really into this new internet radio station based out of Chicago called CHIRP.  We are actually playing this CHIRP Record Fair in Chicago on April 10th – we’re very excited!

I wouldn’t say i’m a good dancer, but it is more likely to see me dancing than Jimmy once I get a couple drinks in me-

We thought it was funny to say that something was “pretty good” rather than “bad” or “excellent” for example.  Maybe Excellent Dance Moves would have been a better name, i don’t know…   Band names are always a weird thing-  I don’t like when people dwell too much on the name.

We’re getting ready for some Chicago shows in April and some east coast stuff in May/June- i think the plan is too have a more comprehensive tour in the late summer/early fall which we are working on now.