Pageant Share “So Close to Home,” Announce New Album

Nashville indie rockers Pageant are back with a new single, “So Close to Home,” off their forthcoming self-titled album. It’s a stirring, guitar-driven number that sees the four-piece outfit building momentum as they grapple with pain and growth.

“The song is all about finding the best ways to grow and change–to get home–when often that seems like the hardest thing to do,” Pageant tells American Songwriter.

Lyrically and musically, the track starts small before swelling in the second half.

“The structure of the song is fairly simple, with a verse and chorus structure doubling itself,” explains the band. “The differences between the first half of the song and the second half of the song show how things can stay the same but can also be drastically different. The first verse says ‘I’m a mess / This is hard / And a break won’t come easy,’ while the second verse answers ‘Who am I to ignore / Only love keeps me breathing.’ The entire song is an exercise in reflection and change that comes with pain and growth.”

“So Close to Home” premieres today on American Songwriter with an accompanying video, which shows lead vocalists (and siblings) Derek and Erika Porter, guitarist/vocalist/producer Stephen Allbritten, and bassist/vocalist Kevin Harvey performing the song in their studio.

“The video was a ton of fun to film,” says Pageant. “We wanted to keep things simple and show the band playing the song in our rehearsal space,no frills, but also wanted to spin things a bit.”

For Pageant, the video demonstrates their willingness to try new things and fail in the process. Director Andy Tomlinson helped illustrate this concept by having the band members swap instruments midway through their performance. 

“Halfway through the song, every band member switches instruments, injecting a sense of unpredictability into the video and giving everyone a chance to not only try something new but potentially fail at it, too,” explains the band. “Andy did a great job capturing the process of seeing the band members teach each other the separate parts and then all of our attempts to pull them off, with varying degrees of success. The overall effect serves a song with a message of growth and change, even if it means failing a little.”

The video offers all the intimacy and immediacy of your friend’s band practice, but unlike your friend’s band practice it actually sounds good.

“So Close to Home” will appear on Pageant’s forthcoming self-titled album, which follows their 2014 debut full-length Royal Blue. The folk-leaning four-piece has also released two EPs–2012’s Lost Ourselves and, more recently, 2015’s Endless Sun.

Recorded by Jeremy Ferguson at Nashville’s Battle Tapes, Pageant’s 10 tracks were mixed by Allbritten and mastered by Justin Perkins at Milwaukee’s Mystery Room Mastering. The album arrives April 17.