Winter Wedding Party fuses sounds of 3 nations on debut album

Hallie Pritts entered the Pittsburgh music scene 10 years ago when she moved to the city from nearby Scottdale, Pa., and created the alt-country Americana band Boca Chica, the fulfillment of a dream conceived in her college days. This year, she pursued another dream, one that began 12 years ago when she met a young DJ named Jules Etienne while studying abroad in Marburg, Germany. The immediate music bond from their six shared months developed into a prolonged dialogue of intermittent emails about projects and ideas that lasted 10 years. On Oct. 11, the two released their first collaborative project, Winter Wedding Party.

The band’s self-titled album is a product of perseverance and spontaneity. Pritts and Etienne had discussed collaborating during their back-and-forth sharing of music and ideas. But Pritts had settled in Pittsburgh and was busy with Boca Chica while Etienne was working on projects and making a life in Berlin. When Boca Chica went on a break, Pritts realized that she could carve enough time into her schedule to make it to Europe. From there, the whirlwind project began.

“I emailed [Etienne], ‘Maybe we should make that record now?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, sure, you have to come now, I’m having a baby,’” Pritts said.

Pritts spent 30 days preparing, holed up in her Pittsburgh apartment scribbling songs, before flying to Berlin for a 10-day intensive recording session that produced nine songs. During her month-long writing session, Pritts and Etienne shared ideas via email for what their album could become, many of which included a lot of Marie Laforet inspiration. Then this January, Pritts joined Etienne and his wife in their apartment-turned-recording studio in Wedding, a borough in Berlin. She spent her mornings exploring the city while Etienne was at work, playing tourist before playing music into the late hours of the night.

For Pritts, Winter Wedding Party was a departure from all she was used to working with in America: plenty of time to write and record, a full band of musicians and almost entirely Americana folksy country music. When she arrived in Germany, she entered Etienne’s world of music, an apartment full of keyboards and synthesizers. After laying down a rhythm track, they could add layers — something Pritts had never done before. 

“We’d record a rhythm track and play around with sound,” Pritts said. “We’d have something down, listen to it and I’d be like, ‘Can you make me sound more like a robot?’”

The layered beats and synthetic additions fit the multifarious nature of the project and give the album a character fittingly difficult to categorize in one word. The disparate elements, American folk and French electronic music, create an equally chill and upbeat sound. Neither Pritts nor Etienne could choose one genre or word to describe the album: folk-electric, French pop, lo-fi lite rock.

“When we met, I had no idea what would come out,” Etienne said. “It sounds like Beach House. We used normal instruments and it became more modern during the process of recording.”

Pritts’ sunny, feminine voice carries the melody of each song, while Etienne’s electronic additions give them depth. The result is a twangy sound that offers enough elements to stray from the pigeonholing of genres. Difficult to categorize but easy on the ears, it is a successful mix of sound.

Since their months in Germany as teenagers, Etienne had always exposed Pritts to the new and different. Working as a DJ, Etienne would bring Pritts along when he was able to book a club or when he did his radio show. 

“He is the person who introduced me to indie music … or I should say hip, cool, underground music,” Pritts said. “We were listening to Sigur Ros’s first album. I had never heard anything like it.”

During this time, Etienne helped Pritts discover artists such as Goldfrapp and Cat Power, whose voice is reminiscent of Pritts’ own. But Etienne was also drawn to folk artists such as Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Bob Dylan, whereas Pritts was a fan of Serge Gainsbourg and all-female French groups from the 1960s. The album is a derivative of this composite inspiration. It is the product of two people from different places with different tastes and perspectives. 

On the album, there is a cover of the playful “Tu Veux ou Tu Veux Pas,” originally sung in the 1960s by French singer Brigitte Bardot. Other tracks, such as “Lying on the Grass,” slide from slower, drawn-out synth sounds to lighter, sweet vocals.

There is even a track, “Your Heart has Teeth,” that represents the genre of Italo-disco. Etienne’s longtime friend and musical partner Jules Valeron played the keys for this particular song, which also included synthesizers, organs and hand claps.

“We didn’t take years to conceptualize it. We just got together and had fun,” Etienne said.

Pritts prefers the more organic method of making music, as well. It is what has allowed her to release this more pop-electronic album despite years devoted to Americana-folk music. She does not alter the way she writes music depending on genre —  the difference depends on who she has surrounding her. Etienne’s and Pritts’ shared openness and eagerness to experiment are what guest artist Valeron attributes to how well the two work together.

“[Etienne] can connect to other people very fast and understand the direction they want to go,” Valeron said. “On the other hand, he puts his own touch, tries something new, something fresh.”

Etienne and Valeron became music mates in 2006. Since then, they have continuously collaborated on each other’s projects and jammed over beers. Valeron’s involvement in Winter Wedding Party was just as spontaneous as the conception of the project. After Etienne proposed an Italo-disco track, and after Pritts Googled the term to understand what he meant, Pritts wrote out lyrics and Valeron popped in to play keys for one night’s recording session.

“[Etienne and I] have the same approach to music. We want to make beautiful songs and don’t have boundaries,” Valeron said.