Artist Primer: Project Film

I could tell from the first listen that Project Film is the kind of band I could love. You see, I have a weakness for a certain kind of indie rock band that they play to with a vengeance. It’s a sound that I associate with the mid-‘00s, a sort of mid-fi, mid-tempo rock with inventive, guitars that tread that careful line between shimmery and spikey, maybe with some acoustic strumming and keys thrown in for good measure.

Project Film, is comprised of singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Sam McAllister with the assistance of Megan Frestedt (the two also run the band's label, Tandem Records) hit that sweet spot perfectly with their first album, 2010’s Chicago. I love the fact that McAllister apparently recorded the whole thing in his Chicago apartment, save for Frestedt’s vocals because there is a warmth, intimacy and slightly ramshackle quality to whole affair which that origin story would account for perfectly. It was good timing for me because this record worked its way into heavy rotation for me this January and February and it’s great hibernation rock. As a product of Minneapolis and Chicago, McAllister knows a thing or two about surviving a Midwestern winter and it’s no coincidence that a group of songs he holed up in his apartment to creates sound really good while holed up in one’s apartment.