A Chat with Pisgah (09.12.25)
Pisgah is the solo project of London-based American singer-songwriter Brittney Jenkins, whose music blends alternative rock, indie folk, and dream pop into intimate yet cinematic soundscapes. Since teaching herself guitar in 2015, Jenkins has crafted a distinct voice, releasing her debut, Call Louder for Me When You Call, in 2022. Her new album, Faultlines, expands her sonic palette and deepens her lyrical focus, marking a bold step forward in her evolving artistry.
OSR: How does Faultlines differ from your debut Call Louder for Me When You Call in terms of sound and songwriting?
Pisgah: When I made Call Louder for Me When You Call I had no idea how to make an album, and was so ‘green’ that I spent all my time steeped in the learning of figuring out rather than thinking more broadly about exactly what I wanted it to sound like and how I wanted it to feel. I’m really proud of the storytelling in those songs, particularly considering some of them were among the first songs I ever wrote, but for me, the album doesn’t have a strong or cohesive sonic identity. Faultlines does, and I’m so happy about that. It sounds the way I want Pisgah as a project to sound, and I’m already excited to build on the sound in my next album.
OSR: Which track on the album was the most challenging to write or record, and why?
Pisgah: ‘Bone to Pick’ for sure, and it was challenging because of the subject matter. I wrote about my own experience of being sexually assaulted in my early 20s, and the slow-building realisation of what happened to me through my 20s and early 30s. Only realising years later is an experience that so many survivors have, and I wanted to capture that feeling that you know something’s wrong – it’s pushing at the edges of your mind – but it only gradually comes into view. I really laboured over the end of the song, which is the ‘aha moment’ that reveals what it’s about, because I didn’t want it to feel overwrought or shocking for the sake of shock value. What finally unlocked the structure and pace of the outro for me was listening to Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Ruiner’ from The Downward Spiral on repeat, particularly the break that starts around 2:44, where most everything that fades out besides the bass. NIN may not be the first band that would come to mind when people listen to my music, but thank god for Trent Reznor.
OSR: Can you talk about the influence of artists like Big Thief, Indigo de Souza, and Julia Jacklin on this record?
Pisgah: All of these women are musicians I deeply admire, but for different reasons. In my opinion, Adrienne Lenker from Big Thief may be the best lyricist writing today and I would die on the hill if I had to, but I don’t think I will because I’m sure a lot of people agree with me. I love Indigo de Souza’s songs because they’re so playful and off- beat, while feeling so emotionally honest, and Julia Jacklin’s songs really strike a balance between being funny and poignant that I’d love to capture going forward. Every artist I love teaches me something different about writing songs.
OSR: How did your home studio environment shape the creative process for Faultlines?
Pisgah: I’m a deeply introverted person and something of a loner creatively, so recording everything in my home studio on my own time was heaven for me. The studio I have now is the first dedicated studio space I’ve ever had, and it’s pretty magical because it’s an attic room that can only be accessed by a telescope ladder that I pull down. The only presences I can see and hear when I’m up there are trees and birds. It’s a really peaceful space, and I needed the safety of it to make the record.
OSR: What role did co-producer Dan Duszynski play in shaping the sonic identity of the album?
Pisgah: Dan understood what I wanted the songs to sound like intuitively, without me having to over-explain the feeling I wanted them to have. After I recorded everything I sent all the tracks to him with minimal processing and just gave him a few lines about what I wanted each of them to feel like. For ‘Bend to Break’, as an example, I told him I wanted it to feel like a storm gathering across a wide open flatland, that’s getting closer and closer to you. It was important to me that, despite the geographical distance and the fact that we weren’t going to be in the same room together, he felt creatively free to add sonic texture/atmosphere where he felt like it could elevate the songs, and he did. His additions really blew me away.
OSR: Faultlines explores themes of generational trauma and personal loss. How do you balance vulnerability with musicality in these songs?
Pisgah: I always want the form to meet the content, and often think of that in terms of dynamics. I really love lush, full production (like shoegaze full) and a full wall of sound, but I also recognise that sometimes going quiet can say more than the noise can – especially if I want to really emphasise a particular lyric or phrase. So, in the case of a song like ‘Bone to Pick’, it felt necessary to strip away the lush instrumentation in the outro in order to leave space for the gut-wrenching return of the memory. It’s the same in ‘Bend to Break’ after the line about trying too hard to hold something… after that emotional build it’s important that the quieter voice, which I think of as the intuition that comes through when the noise clears, comes in to gently remind you to stop trying so hard. I have to credit the band Brand New and their 2006 record The Devil and God Are Raging Inside of Me for being one of my most important teachers in this regard. I wouldn’t be making the music I’m making without that band or album.
OSR: Which song on the album feels most personal or cathartic to you, and why?
Pisgah: It changes for me. At the time I was writing them it was definitely ‘Bone to Pick’ because that’s the emotional centrepiece for the album, but now that I’ve had more time to sit with them the one that’s been feeling the most personal to me is ‘5ft2’. It’s a song I wrote in memorial to both of my grandmothers, but honestly, its catharsis goes beyond that. I’ve lost seven family members in the last 10 years and there’s something about this song that feels like it’s for all of them.
OSR: Can you explain the inspiration behind the album title Faultlines?
Pisgah: The album title came to me while I was on a road trip through the southwestern States in the US. The landscapes out there are jaw-dropping in their beauty, and they’re so beautiful because of how cataclysmic the geological processes in that region of the country have been. I started thinking about the role of fault lines as the source of the breakdown in the earth’s stability and as the progenitor of rivers that suddenly have a path to flow through. It felt like the right metaphor for the songs on this record. I also love the play on the word ‘fault’. I’m a chronic people pleaser and highly-sensitive person, so I’ve spent my life thinking I’m at fault for everything. Now I’m trying to find the balance between the fault that’s mine to own and the fault that isn’t.
OSR: How did visual art and your art history background influence the album’s aesthetic and mood?
Pisgah: So much more directly than I even expected it to! The photo on the album cover was taken at the site of Spiral Jetty, a large-scale earthwork by an American artist named Robert Smithson that I’ve been obsessed with since I was in my undergrad. Spiral Jetty is all about entropy – the idea that time and natural processes cause everything to dissolve into chaos and disorder – and that feels so relevant to the themes on the album. Spiral Jetty is in a very remote location on the north shore of The Great Salt Lake, and otherworldly isn’t a strong enough word to describe the magic in that place. We drove out to it on the road trip I mentioned above, and it felt like a real pilgrimage for me. What I love even more is that I wasn’t thinking about it being the site for the album cover image, or having anything directly to do with the album, at the time. My husband, George, just candidly took a photo of me walking along the shoreline, and I only saw it a few days after he took it. I knew it was the album cover as soon as I saw it. It surprised me because my original idea for the cover was inspired by a mood board I made that features some of my favorite artists and photographers like Francesca Woodman, Gregory Crewdson, Ana Mendieta and Leonora Carrington. They all use/used shadow and darkness in their work in interesting ways, so I was anticipating the cover image would be composed of black, charcoal, dark green, rust brown, etc. But I think both light and dark are really present in my music, and I love the idea that an album about fractures in a life has an album cover that’s so effervescent and bright. For me, it’s the visual representation of coming out on the other side.
OSR: Are there any lyrical or musical motifs that recur throughout the album that listeners should pay attention to?
Pisgah: There are always lots of storms or harbingers of storms in my lyrics – hurricanes, tornadoes, cumulonimbus clouds – and those motifs repeat throughout the album, even in terms of the ambient sounds I chose for the beginning and end. There’s a lot about emotional weight as well, the things that we’re given to hold by our families and experiences that we didn’t ask for but become our responsibilities to work through. That’s why I love that I got to end the album with the line “I never wanted this weight”. What’s implicit in it is that, though I didn’t want it, I wouldn’t be who I am without it, so ultimately I’m grateful for it.
Many thanks to Pisgah for speaking with us. Find out more about Pisgah on her Instagram, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Bandcamp.
