by Chandler Christopher
June 14th, 2022
Pelvis Wrestley is the alt-Americana musical project of 33-year-old Austin, Texas native, Benjamin Violet. Their debut record, Vortexas Vorever, was released mid-pandemic in September of 2020. The record has gone mostly undiscovered on an industry scale, but I’d be really surprised if it stays that way for much longer. Each track is uniquely crafted, creating western-infused synth music that goes oh so well with the low-ranging voice of Violet. On top of their innovatory sound, the band is a supergroup of Austin talent in Santiago Dietche (daphne tunes, Central Heat Exchange), Sarah Schultz (Sun June), and keyboardist Hannah McVay. Pelvis Wrestley Interview
As a young artist, Violet made the decision to move to the Pacific Northwest and attend Seattle Pacific University, where they majored in illustration. While Violet has been playing music for almost their entire life, it wasn’t until returning home to Austin in 2016 that they became inspired to embark on a new journey as Pelvis Wrestley.
Speaking to Benjamin and hearing their profound, introspective thoughts was extremely refreshing. It was early on in our nearly hour-long interview that I realized this project has so much more to it than amazing music. The way they spoke about their connection to the music and how much of a direct parallel this project has been with their life really awed me. The original idea behind Pelvis Wrestley was to challenge the American identity. And many times, what genre do we immediately tie the words American music to? Country music! So, that’s what Violet set out to do, challenge this stereotypical country music in their own, personal way and see what kind of identity that music took on.
The really fascinating thing is that Benjamin’s creative process directly synchronizes with the individual path they are on. When Pelvis Wrestley was conceived, it was at a time in Benjamin’s life where they were looking outward rather than inward, having gone through some difficult and influential experiences. There was a new excitement for Benjamin as they moved back to Austin to reengage themselves with a new but familiar community. While at the dawn of a path of their own self-discovery, Pelvis Wrestley was simultaneously at its own, reflective origin. Check out our Q&A below to learn more about Pelvis Wrestley’s story and what they’ve got cookin’! Support Pelvis Wrestley through their Bandcamp here! Pelvis Wrestley Interview, Pelvis Wrestley Interview
Q: Tell me abut your musical beginnings, were you in any bands before Pelvis Wrestley?
Pelvis Wrestley: I come from a fairly musical family and most of my musical beginnings were oriented around the church. I had a band in Seattle called Andy with two of my friends there, it was a high concept synth trio. When I moved back to Austin in 2016, we stopped doing stuff as Andy… I was in a place in my life where I was looking outward, while my partners were looking more inward.
Q: Is this when you began to transition your focus to Pelvis Wrestley?
Pelvis Wrestley: Yeah, I was craving a different kind of songwriting. At the time I was saying more direct lyrics and not relying too much on metaphor. I started just hitting it on the nose with my songwriting, which was really refreshing.
Q: This project seems to be a very personal one surrounding your own identity, can you tell me more about that?
Pelvis Wrestley: So the band was kind of coming together midway through Trump’s presidency, and I think I was talking a lot about what being an American means, especially when you feel perpetually hurt by being an American. It’s about digging into American culture, finding little nuggets for this.
Q: How does that tie into this project’s link with country music?
Pelvis Wrestley: It wouldn’t be too much to say that country music is the national forum. I got into this line of thought about how identity is a two way street. When I say I’m an American, there’s the history and the culture, but the other thing is that when I say I’m an American I’m redefining that identity. So, I tried to transfer that into genre. Kind of trying to transform national identity and relate it to that. I went through a divorce after 7 years, so I had to find a way to tolerate my existence and feeling this changed narrative within my own life. Thinking, well, I’m a part of my family and I’m also changing them by being the person I am. That had a ripple effect into national identity and relating my personal journey to that.
Q: Tell me about your writing process for your record, Vortexas Vorever…
Pelvis Wrestley: It’s always a little bit different, especially after the lockdown. Vortexas Vorever has more collaboration on it, which I wasn’t used to. And that was cool because during my 20s I was trying to do everything myself and be the best at everything. It was a therapeutic exercise to let other people come in and make significant writing contributions. I do most of the writing and now the project has become more collective.
Q: What’s your experience been like in the Austin music scene?
Pelvis Wrestley: I played in bands around the Red River Cultural District when I was in high school. When I came back to Austin from Seattle, I was starting from square one. I’ve experienced Austin as a very friendly, open, and fun-loving scene. Especially coming from Seattle and seeing how much more people were enjoying themselves in Austin. We loved Cheer up Charlies with Trish Connelly booking us and giving us our first shot with the Andy days.
Q: Do you have any stories about any tracks on Vortexas Vorever?
Pelvis Wrestley: Hmm, no, not really a specific song that comes to mind I guess. The beautiful thing was being surprised by letting people in and experiencing the record that way. The other cute thing about the record is that Jake Miles (SMiiLE) and I grew up on the same street together as kids, and we’d play kickball and stuff and roughouse, etc. I actually hadn’t seen him in 15 years before running into him! I had asked him to be in a producer role and that worked so well for us in working together.
Q: Tell me about any projects you have coming up, what can we expect to hear?
Pelvis Wrestley: I can paint you a hazy horizon of it. We’ve been writing a bunch of synth, dream-poppy tracks, and we’re doing some flute ensembles and different pieces like that. We are, I’d say, about a little over halfway done with our second record. It’s been worked on in a handful of studios, so it’s been cool seeing different people’s approaches to the album in the seperate studios. We’ll also be doing a bit of a revisitation of Vortexas Vorever and some media and content around that so look forward to that. We’re pushing toward some new stuff and hope to have some tour opportunities in 2023.
