Roses and Cigarettes

Today we bring you , Roses and Cigarettes. Let’s just say , I think Emmylou , Stevie and Joni would be instant huge fans . The range of these two is something you have to listen to yourselves. If you are not convinced Roses and Cigarettes are the real deal, I would be shocked. The voices are so dynamic , you can picture this big expansive scene of the West, rolling out before you. Laurel Canyon sound updated for a new Generation that’s a big takeaway. I’m glad that we are in a time that Singer-Songwriters are starting to be heard again, I’m so sick of what Corporate America passes off as “good” music. Good music . comes from the heart and soul of the artist that are making it and when it’s real, unique, and authentic , that shit can move you, give you Goosebumps, tear you up a little….Meet, Roses and Cigarettes

Hi our name is….

Roses and Cigarettes

People say we sound like…..

AP: That’s kind of a tough question for us to answer, really. Jenny and I have so

many musical influences that our songs really take on bits and pieces from each

of the artists we love. We don’t like to put ourselves in a box, musically speaking.

We have so many musicians, singers, songwriters, and bands who deeply inspire

us and our craft, and we like to keep our horizons open to whatever calls us

creatively when we decide to write music together. So many people who come to

our shows really don’t know what genre to place us in, and we like that. We like

to sound like us, but we also like to give our respects to those artists who have

inspired us to be the artists we are today.

We are….

Jenny Pagliaro (lead vocals) and Angela Petrilli (guitars and backup vocals)

We are from…….

Los Angeles, CA

Can you tell us a little about your debut album that came out

this week, ideas behind some of the songs, how long did it take

you to record and anything else that you would like to share with

us…

JP: We are so proud of our self-titled debut, it was definitely a labor of love. We

started tracking drums last August and wrapped up recording in March. We did

all the recording at our producer, Michael Lyons’ home studio. We really pushed

ourselves to record as often as possible. We are releasing this album ourselves

without any financial backing so we really had to work hard at our daytime jobs

and our music to make it all possible. The first song that was written for the

album was “Laurel Canyon.” It really came from a place of feeling stuck and

writing my way out of it. We wrote “Driving” together after a day of drinking

margaritas! We just sat down with the guitar and it came out! We feel like these

songs take you on a journey. They are all very different but they kind of tell a

story of where we were at when we wrote them.

AP: Our song “Another Way” first started as an idea I had on the guitar. I am a

huge fan of Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page’s approach to the guitar, especially

his open tunings. I remember playing their song, “Going to California,” and I just

loved the Double Drop D tuning, which is when you tune your guitar to DADGBD.

It makes your 6-string guitar sound like a droning 12 string, which I love. I really

wanted to write a song in that tuning, so I put a capo on the fourth fret of my

Martin guitar, and the song really just presented itself to me, which as most

songwriters know, can be a very rare thing. Right away, I recorded it on my

phone and emailed it to Jenny. Little did I know that around the same time Jenny

had come up with some great lyrics about the passing of time and watching life

slip by. We met up the next time, combined our ideas, and the song was born.

Who are some that have an influence on you

JP: Ray Lamontagne, Patty Griffin, Fleetwood Mac, Bonnie Raitt, Miranda

Lambert, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Heart

AP: Definitely Ray Lamontagne. We both just love his voice and his way of

writing. His imagery never ceases to inspire me. Guitar player wise, I’m a huge

fan of Stevie Ray, Jimmy Vaughan, Buddy Guy, BB King, Lindsey Buckingham,

Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Duane Allman, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., John

Mayer. So…obviously I’m a sucker for the blues.

How old were all of you when you started to play and who plays

what in the band

JP: I came out of the womb singing!

AP: I started playing guitar when I was 9.

Can you tell us about the process you use, from writing the

songs all the way through getting the songs out

JP: A lot of times with writing, either Angela will record something on guitar and

send it to me or vice versa where I will sing an idea and send it to Angela. Then

we start coming up with ideas for it. We start filling in lyrics and then get together

and discuss what we have come up with. It really is a collaborative effort on how

we decide the song is going to go. Once all the demos were done and our 10

songs had been decided on with our producer, Michael Lyons who was also a

co-writer on our album, we went into the studio to start tracking the real deal!

First was drums, then Angela recorded every guitar track on the album, that took

a while! Then we just started layering the rest on there! We started our recording

in August and the release date was May 1st! It was a long process that we are so

proud of.

AP: We write very collaboratively. We love bouncing ideas off of each other. It’s

really worked for us because Jenny may hear something I may miss or disregard,

and Jenny may sing a certain note or sing her idea a certain way that inspires me

to play the song a different way. It’s exciting and always keeps us on our toes

creatively. We try not to get stuck in a rut of having all our songs sound the

same, or writing the same album twice. For our song “Giving Up on Love,” it was

just a chord progression I wrote that I really liked. Again, I liked it so I sent it over

to Jenny so she could come up with some lyrics to go over top of it. I remember

the next time I went over to her place to rehearse, that the song was almost

done. The words were so haunting yet so beautiful and heartbreaking. For a

while we were going back and forth if a bridge was needed with our producer,

and finally we came to the realization that a key change was needed to build the

song to its climax after the guitar solo. We’ll always be thankful for Mike with that,

really brought the song where it needed to go.

What are some of the challenges you face as musicians and how

have you overcome those challenges

JP: I think our biggest challenge as a female duo is people don’t know what to

expect from us. Every time we walk in the door we have to prove ourselves as

musicians.

AP: Absolutely. We have found that there will always be a level of proving

ourselves at shows, especially because we are two female musicians. To

overcome it, we just own what we do. Jenny’s a kick ass singer. I love playing

guitar. It’s my favorite thing in the world to do. Of course it’s annoying sometimes

to have to prove yourself just for the fact that we are young women. But our

favorite way to overcome it is to give people a show they didn’t expect.

If you could pick any time to travel back to for music, where

would you go and what year would it ….

JP: 1970s FOR SURE!

Who are all of you currently listening to ….

Both: Some new artists/albums we both have been listening to a lot lately are

Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves, Foo Fighters, and Ray Lamontagne.

What do you think of “the state of rock n roll”…

JP: I think it’s coming back! People seem to want more real rootsy music right

now.

AP: I agree with Jenny. I really believe people are starting to yearn for real music

that’s played with real instruments by real people. I find it hard to believe when

people say rock is dead. It isn’t. I’d like to think it just hasn’t been the

mainstream. We believe guys like Dave Grohl, who’s a huge inspiration to Jenny

and I, is bringing rock back to the place it once stood. I believe he’s inspiring

people to grab and instrument and learn how to play it. He’s inspiring people to

go support local musicians and record stores. He’s doing a lot of good for the

rock movement. As musicians, we can truly attest to the way playing music

makes you feel: it’s the best feeling in the world.

Some albums that you have played on repeat over the years……

JP: Bonnie Raitt: Nick of Time, Ray Lamontagne: Trouble, Any album by James

Taylor or the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac Rumours

AP: I’m a huge Incubus fan, so Morning View and Make Yourself definitely. Pearl

Jam’s Ten, Norah Jones’ Feels Like Home, Ray Lamontagne’s Trouble, Led

Zeppelin I and Houses of The Holy, Bad Company’s Bad Company, Rumours for

sure…and SRV’s Texas Flood.

If you could open for any Band right now who would that be

JP: There are so many bands we would love to open for!! Heart for one…really

get the girl rock band thing going! Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, and Zac

Brown Band.

My youngest son is 13 and in a Band, what advice would you

offer him…

JP: Keep practicing!!! Go out to your garage with your friends and just practice

and jam. Observe as many great musicians as possible and expose yourself to

every genre old and new even if you don’t think it’s for you….you will always learn

something new if you keep exploring!

AP: Don’t be afraid to suck. Mess up. Sound shitty for a while. Be the worst

musician in your band. All of that will allow you to learn from those around you

and will make you a better musician. Always surround yourself with musicians

who are better than you. Always.

80’s or 90’s???

Both: 90s!!!

Plans for 2015

JP: Our plans for 2015…..To keep getting our names out there. Hopefully do

some shows in New England this summer and maybe a mini acoustic tour up the

California coast in August. And to continue writing, now that album one is done

we gotta think about album two!

a few tunes… - 50thirdand3rd

When Roses and Cigarettes performed at South Bay Customs in October, they were accompanied by a percussionist and an artist who created a bird portrait at the rear of the stage while they played. This Saturday, when New England-raised vocalist Jenny Pagliaro and native Angeleno guitarist Angela Petrilli return to the offbeat El Segundo venue to celebrate the release of their self-titled debut album, they will be joined by a full band. It’s a measure of how quickly things have moved along for the enterprising duo.

Pagliaro and Petrilli say they had been working together in a cover band for about three months when they decided to do a couple of acoustic shows as a duo, playing a mix of cover songs and original material that Pagliaro had been writing with bassist pal Mike Lyons. According to Petrilli, they swiftly realized that what they were doing “had a vibe.”

“We played certain songs we like by artists we like, and once we started to practice together we realized it wasn’t going to be a one-off thing,” she says. “We decided to start a band and play original material.”

For Pagliaro, it was sweet validation. Growing up in a musical household, she says, “I always wrote, but I never really thought I could write a whole song; I was just a singer. I just learned basic guitar chords a few years ago.” She credits Lyons with pushing her to leap out of her comfort zone. “Once I started, I thought, ‘I’ll do a three-song demo,’ but it didn’t stop. I was fortunate once I met Angela to find another person I could feel comfortable writing with and putting that out there.

“We started writing together and started booking more shows, and more shows, and then the Mint,” she recalls. “We thought we’d be doing open mics or something, but by last summer we were tracking drums with Dave Raven in the studio.”

Rehearsing at Pagliaro’s Santa Monica home and naming themselves after her favorite Ray LaMontagne song (“I’m a sucker for a sad song,” she admits with a laugh), they initially drew on their broad repertoire of melodic cover tunes — not top pop radio hits, necessarily, but music by artists who inspire them as singers and players: LaMontagne, Marc Broussard, Fleetwood Mac, Patty Griffin, Norah Jones, Miranda Lambert, Alannah Myles, Tom Petty, Grace Potter. Their songs are regularly tucked into Roses and Cigarettes sets.

Their mashup of Hall & Oates’ “Can’t Go for That” and Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” illuminates their taste in classic pop and country, and the way they build engaging arrangements around Pagliaro’s commanding vocals and Petrilli’s soulful, percussive guitar riffs. Those cover arrangements sit comfortably alongside Roses and Cigarettes originals like the driving anthem “Another Way,” the plaintive “Broken Down in Barstow” and the Pistol Annies-style rocker “Whiskey Down,” and provide introductory context for listeners.

“Musicians don’t just come up with the style they play,” says Petrilli, who lives in Hawthorne. “It comes from what they’ve been listening to. In my house the blues is always on. My dad was really into Stevie Ray Vaughan. My earliest memories as a kid were hearing that, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, a lot of that ’70s rock, and a lot of James Taylor, Jackson Browne. I enjoy playing covers. It really enables me as a musician to put my own spin on a song, especially musically. It’s always a blast. I see them as a way to express creativity in a song people already know. In our show, it works in our favor that we play these songs the way we hear them.”

Positive word of mouth about Roses and Cigarettes has started to circulate as they’ve worked a circuit of Westside and South Bay watering holes like Sonny McLean’s, the Cinema Bar and the Lighthouse Cafe, as well as more eclectic roots and songwriter nights at clubs across LA. Pagliaro says they feel like they’re plugging into a genuine artistic community.

“We’ve met, collaborated and played shows with a good amount of different bands,” she says, “really creative people that we’ve been able to be good friends with: the Roustabouts, the Deltaz, the Golden West, a ton of songwriters. It’s felt nice to be surrounded by a lot of artists like that. We have no problem being known as a cover band as well, but we’re definitely connected with songwriters.” - The Argonaut

A few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a band called Roses & Cigarettes, who were playing over at The Mint, here in Los Angeles. The duo consists of vocalist, Jenny Pagliaro and guitarist, Angela Petrilli. I have been seeing their names around the social media world, as they’ve been opening up for some great acts around these parts. I checked their music out and although I’m usually not a huge fan of country music, there was something about these ladies that resonated with me. They were more than just a country act, they were playing some good ol’ rock n’ roll. Seeing them in a live setting was a must, and boy did they not disappoint.

So here we are with their debut, self-titled album, Roses & Cigarettes. Their fierce live performance only solidified what I had heard on their record. This album roars with intensity. Jenny’s vocals are some of the strongest I’ve heard in a while. And this girl is legit. I thought surely her voice might falter once I would see them in a live setting, but it didn’t in the slightest. She is blessed with some amazing pipes. What’s even better is that the lyrics she’s coming up with are not your typical or mundane country lyrics. I have to say that this is most prevalent on the track, “Laurel Canyon”. This song is actually one of my favorites and resonates a lot with me. That could be said for actually a lot of people who have picked up and left their hometown to come to Los Angeles. This city is a lot to take in, a lot to get used to. A lot of us out here are transplants to this city, myself from Chicago, Jenny Pagliaro from New England, and I’m sure a lot of other people here could name various other cities around The United States. We came out here for a reason, usually some far-fetched dream. Some of us make it, and some of us don’t. But what we all have in common in that struggle, missing friends and family back home, missing something familiar. That’s exactly what this song talks about. It is completely relatable and something that was put in a beautiful little song by these two ladies. And I’m certainly glad neither one gave up on their dream and are starting to enjoy some success, because it is very well deserved.

That one track stood out more to me than the rest, but I should also point out that most of the lyrics and subject matter are actually all pretty approachable. Probably one of things I like most about this record. It’s always great to find female artists that you can relate to. What’s even better, is when those female artists are making strong, powerful, and kickass music. Roses & Cigarettes does exactly just that. Don’t believe me? Check out their lead single, “Whiskey Down”, and I think you’ll be pretty blown away. Guitarist, Angela Petrilli, has been playing guitar for a good majority of her life, and it shows. She is super talented, and the perfect anchor for Jenny’s commanding voice. I really wish all of you guys could come out to L.A. and check out one of their sets to really see how skilled these women are. This record is a great introduction in the mean time. And who knows, hopefully soon, they’ll be playing a town near you. I can only hope. Wishing them all the luck!

Favorite Tracks:
02. Shelter
08. Whiskey Down
01. Driving
10. Laurel Canyon - The Original D-Rose