Banner Pilot

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Souvenir by Banner Pilot Follow @bannerpilotband In all the years that mankind has been using the wheel, nobody has been able to effectively reinvent it—only to refine it—and that’s exactly the approach Banner Pilot took when writing and recording their new album Souvenir . “The idea was to do something that sounds different from previous stuff but not to overshoot: make sure it’s still recognizable as Banner Pilot record, but not totally out there,” says bassist Nate Gangelhoff. “On one hand, you don’t want people to say “You guys only do one thing,” but you also don’t want What are you idiots doing, you changed your sound! There’s a sweet spot in the middle, and we wanted to do what bands like Against Me! and Superchunk do, where it’s obviously still that same band but they’re always doing a few different things they didn’t do before.” When their previous group Rivethead disbanded shortly after the dawn of the new millennium, Gangelhoff and singer/guitarist Nick Johnson started toying with drum machines and melodies, writing songs they confess were initially terrible. Their Midwestern work ethic made them keep plugging away, though, and eventually—along with a fleshed out band lineup—the two hit upon an eminently toe-tapping sound and introspective lyrical approach reminiscent of ‘90s post-hardcore greats from Jawbreaker to Knapsack to Samiam. After several years of establishing themselves in the musical hotbed of Minneapolis and recording a debut album they describe as “kind of a mess,” they decided to step up their game and asked their friend Billy Morrisette of Dillinger Four if he could get their demos into the hands of the team at Fat Wreck Chords. With that punk rock imprimatur, and sensing the untapped potential shown in their songwriting, the label welcomed Banner Pilot to the fold starting with their splendid second album Collapser in 2009. Touring the States and Europe on that album, the band built a passionately devoted fan base and continued honing the