Zach Pietrini loves to write songs.
“I wrote a lot—mainly because it’s my way of making sense of my world,” Pietrini says. “As a result, there are tons of songs that I finish, but don’t always feel like they have a place.”
Following the release of last year’s Holding Onto Ghosts and at a time where the world around him wasn’t getting any less confusing, Pietrini quickly amassed a fresh batch of new songs. He admits those demos probably would’ve remained untouched when it came time to making another album. That is, until he received an especially generous offer from a friend. A listener living in Denver asked Pietrini if he’d like to fly out to lay down some songs as part of a recording project.
A kindhearted engineer named Kevin and Pietrini eventually decided a full-band recording would be best for this material that didn’t yet have a home. “He just wanted to be generous and give us some space and resources to create,” Pietrini says. After a total of about 20 hours spent in a studio, the band was able to knock out seven songs that would finally have a rightful place on Pietrini’s Denver Sessions EP.
Though the project started as a way to give life to B-sides, Denver Sessions is far from a demo. The high-caliber recordings perfectly capture Pietrini’s songwriting chops and the musical prowess of his backing band as they work through songs with themes that range from scraping by, dealing with depression, working through love and tough times, and holding onto hope. Pietrini considers this material to be “little snapshots of different parts of [his] life.” Somehow, Denver Sessions manages to maintain the personal and inviting aspects of what started off a bunch of homespun songs that were unlikely to see the light of day, while also taking Pietrini’s catalog to exciting new territory.
Before The Zach Pietrini Band formally releases Denver Sessions in January, you can pre-order the album here and stream it in its entirety below.