Supplemental Pills
Volume 1
BIO

Most bands set out with a goal in mind: to make that debut album. That is not the story behind Volume 1, the debut album from Portland, Oregon-based drone-psych-rock four-piece Supplemental Pills. What started out as friends getting together and jamming at a recording studio during quarantine turned into one of the Northwest's heavier, unrestrained, psychedelic offerings.

At the start of the pandemic, Deer Lodge Studios' owner/engineer/producer Ezra Meredith's longtime project, the psych-folk act Hearts of Oak, decided to put the brakes on the band in the name of quarantining. But, with music in his veins and a studio at his disposal, he eventually brought together a new quartet featuring his brother, guitarist/pedal steel player Joel Meredith, Hearts of Oak's bassist/synth player Aron Christensen, and drummer/backing vocalist Mark Folkrod.

As they watched the world descend into madness, their regular Monday night sessions turned into something they jokingly referred to as "Recording Club". They'd get together in the studio, spark up a few and improvise for hours on end. Later on, they'd go back through the recordings, pick out their favorite ideas and then build them out as complete songs. From there, they whittled it all down to seven distinct songs.

Volume 1 was born.

"The album is a collection of songs we built out of nothing," says Ezra. "We are like-minded friends that got together at my studio and jammed on some musical ideas, in a very collaborative effort, with no plans to release anything or to become an active band."

Volume 1 had different plans.

After completing the record and really digging their newly-crafted sound, the group decided to name themselves Supplemental Pills and pursue playing out as a live band.

"Each lyric paints a beautiful picture and has its own rhythm; each song has its own highlight and reveals itself with repeated listens," adds Meredith.

When asked how he feels the album fits in to the musical landscape of today, Meredith is quick to quip, "It doesn't."

That doesn't mean the band isn't excited about its April 4th release. Quite the contrary. Coming out exactly how they heard it in their heads once they committed to making an album, the band was pleased with the result and wanted to enthusiastically share it.

However, they're not trying to fit in or contend with any genre. Even calling them psychedelic-drone-rock is a stretch, as the band feels they're just a band, "on the outside, not looking in," as Meredith puts it.

A powerful forty-seven minute collection of pounding drums, driving bass, and layer upon layer of droning guitars, the seven songs on Volume 1 take you on a psychedelic journey of loud, powerfully undulating grooves that hit you as hard in the chest as they do the mind.

Opening track "Run On" kicks the album off with a legion of buzzing guitars over a booming rhythm section, while the sexy groove of "Feel It" goes straight to your cerebral cortex with its swirling, druggy vocals that exude Stones meets Velvets coolness.

"Freedom March" is built on a wicked-heavy riff that never varies while the song continues it's descent into a nightmare swirl of primal rhythms, cult-like chants and layered waves of chaos. 

"Floating Mountains Over Rivers" is a nine minute plus meditation in the vein of bands like Pink Floyd and Ash Ra Tempel, offering up a trippy journey where all the instruments meld into a stream of conscious flow.

"The Wizard is Right" showcases the band's ability to expand onto another plane, while introducing their ability to incorporate a melodic spin, delivering one of the album's catchiest offerings, right alongside the eleven-minute Opus "Gonna Be Alright." Proving you can write a hook-laden song that spans over ten minutes, "Gonna Be Alright" may be the album's most powerful number, encompassing everything this band is about, incorporating everything from Spacemen 3 reverberations to Butthole Surfers-esqe psych sludge to twangy lap steel guitar leads played through a million fuzz pedals and lead by Meredith's floating lead vocals and ethereal group harmonies.

Ending with Brian Jones-inspired "Mary Marrakesh," the band finishes Volume 1 with a seductive, sedated song that lazily builds to a fantastic, droning crescendo punctuated by the Eastern-influenced flourishes of Mellotron and electric sitar played by guest Aaron Folkrod.

Asked what the band plans to do once this record is out, Meredith simply says, "make another album." 

Supplemental Pills are currently in the studio finishing up their second record, but are excited to see Volume 1 get released and to bring their hallucinogenic live experience to audiences willing to turn off their minds, relax and float downstream.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Alex Steininger AT IN MUSIC WE TRUST - 503-557-9661 or alex@inmusicwetrust.com