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‘LORDS of the DUNGEON’: Guitarist Ellis Roundy on The P.A.’s band
The universe of The P.A.’s is filled with orcs, golems and goblins.
By Grace Doh | published 10/01/24 10:00am
As the singer and guitarist of the Lowell, Massachusetts based band The P.A.’s, Ellis Roundy’s role within the group exists at the intersection of music, storytelling and graphic design. With a distinct focus on world-building that is largely grounded in Hebrew, Tolkien-esque and other mythologies, Roundy and his bandmates — Joe Milia (drums), Ian Miller (synth and keys) and Liam Asselin (bass) — have weaved a continuous narrative throughout their last few projects.
In a Sept. 29 interview with The Justice, Roundy shared insights into the band’s creative process and the inspirations that drive the artistry behind their “dungeon psych” sound. Sonically, The P.A.’s have been compared to garage and psychedelic acts like Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but they view their music as more than just a collection of songs — it’s a holistic experience that follows a continuous and thoughtfully crafted story arc.
Roundy emphasized that their creative journey begins with establishing what events will unfold with their characters in the lyrics. “We develop sort of the outline for what the lore is going to cover on each record before we start writing,” he explained. This commitment to storytelling allows for flexibility during the recording process. Roundy noted, “If something just doesn’t come across the right way, I can just change the lyric and it’s fine. It doesn’t change the meaning of the song really, because I know what the meaning is supposed to be.”
This adaptability makes it so that the lyrics maintain alignment with the overarching narrative, as the group remains committed to coherence in both meaning and sound. “There’s a greater purpose than just the music and how things sound to us,” Roundy said.
While Roundy’s interest in Hebrew and other kinds of folklore is integral to the project’s aesthetic identity, The P.A.’s’ songwriting process is highly collaborative. Roundy described a dynamic with his bandmates where all members contribute ideas during rehearsals. “A lot of the time, we’ll be like, ‘Okay, today we want to do a lot of writing,’ so everyone kind of comes with an idea prepared,” he noted. This collaborative structure can manifest in various forms, and can also fluctuate depending on the day and the inspiration that strikes the band.
Sometimes Roundy will present fully formed songs, while at other times the band develops ideas collectively. “We’ll flesh it out together,” he added. “Joe will come to rehearsal with an idea for a drum part, and then we’ll turn that into part of a song.” Their back-and-forth process creates a rich, layered sound that, over the years, has expanded in range.
“It’s a bit of give and take,” Roundy explained, describing the process as an organic blend of individual contributions and group decisions. “Sometimes I’ll bring them completely written songs, and we’ll go from there. It is truly a collaborative writing experience.”
The P.A.’s are currently navigating changes within their lineup, as their former bassist left to pursue personal projects and their new bassist, Liam Asselin, has joined the group. Roundy spoke about maintaining their creative momentum, saying, “We’re getting him acclimated to the band and rehearsing with him, but also writing at the same time.”
Amid this transition, The P.A.’s are staying consistent with releasing new projects. “We have an EP that’s probably going to be released the Friday before Halloween,” Roundy said. Looking ahead, he mentioned plans for another record to be released sometime early next year.
The P.A.’s are also eyeing touring opportunities. “We’re looking at touring the South soon,” Roundy said. While they are still finalizing details, the group is continuing to play shows around the Boston and New England area. “If you look at our Spotify, you can see if we’re playing near you,” he noted.
Performing live has been an integral part of The P.A.’s’ journey, and Roundy recounted one fond tour highlight from a show held at an art gallery in Elgin, Illinois: “We got a circle pit going which is where people just run in a circle as fast as they can and it just spreads.” During this performance, Roundy had stacked his cabs — which are essentially speakers housed in wooden enclosures — secured them with a ratchet strap and climbed on top of them. “Watching the circle pit go as I was playing from on top of the cab was a really wild experience,” he recalled fondly.
Roundy’s artistic inclinations extend beyond music into his work as a graphic designer and illustrator. “Communication and world-building are kind of inherent to both of those things,” he explained, referencing diverse influences from Swiss design to 1970s airbrush fantasy art. “Every time you create something, you’re building a world, whether it’s a graphic design project or a song.”
With The P.A.’s, Roundy combines his talents, handling the graphic design work for album covers and promotional materials. “To be able to have a project where I can do all of the illustration and all of the design work, and write the music and record it, and write all the lore around it — it’s an ideal project for me,” he said. This multifaceted role allows him to immerse himself in every aspect of the project, creating an original blend of audio and visual elements.
He points to bands like The White Stripes and Tame Impala who are known for taking control of their unique aesthetic choices. “When you get a White Stripes record, it doesn’t look like any of the other records because they’re following a very strict guideline about how they want their stuff presented,” Roundy noted. He believes that a band’s image should complement its musical output. “It creates its own sound,” he asserted, noting the interconnectedness of visuals and music.
Roundy’s storytelling is informed by various artists he personally engages with. “Concept albums are obviously a major influence on me,” he stated, citing artists like Grimes, Xiu Xiu and Pink Floyd as inspirations. “They’ve informed what the scale of an artistic project can be.” The level of depth and complexity of these concept albums motivate Roundy to push the boundaries of his own ideas.
As The P.A.’s prepare for their upcoming releases and continue to refine their collaborative process, Roundy’s vision remains clear: to build a discography grounded in an expansive fictional world that is uniquely their own. While the group has plans to continue performing across the country, they are still playing shows in the Lowell area, with their next show scheduled for Oct. 18 at The Valley.
ANTI-STANDARD #34
Introducing Lowell’s very own: The P.A.’s & Their Lore-Driven Dungeon Psych Magic
Riley Halliday
“We’ll just steal power from, like, a bar or something.”
One long extension cord and an argument with the cops later, the P.A.’s was born.
I spoke with Lowell resident Ellis Roundy, vocalist, guitarist and visual mastermind behind the Dungeon Psych lore band The P.A.’s. Roundy was working on a flyer for a friend’s band when we hopped on a video chat.
“I do lyrics and I do guitar and vocals. I also do all of the art and the visuals for the band. Joe Milia he’s on drums. And then Brad Presta is on bass. Ian Miller is on keys. That’s the band as it exists now. Most of our photographs come from Sam Schofield, a photographer who’s a close friend.”
I was amazed by how many albums they have in the three years they’ve been playing together. So I got to asking, what was the process of putting out your first album like?
“The process has kind of changed a lot over the few years that we’ve been around. [For the first record], I would write an entire song and then bring it to the drummer. It was just a two piece at that point, so we would just flesh it out in his garage, and it was like, oh, that’s a song. Every week, we would have another song. So I would just do that every week until we had an entire record. Then we talked to my friend Dan McDonald, who’s actually [produced] every record since, except for Novo, about recording. We would write an entire song and move on to the next one, and then not really look back, just kind of rehearse through it and make slight changes here and there. Second record was more jam oriented, and then we trimmed it down.”
Then came the lore-driven record.
[“The third one, Novo,] was completely story driven, with a plot that chronologically aligns with the songs in the record. Actually, we made a lore booklet (Are you kidding that’s incredible!) for that record that details it song by song. [We’re] currently in the midst of writing the lore for the most recent record, Gevurah. The iconography and I guess, mythology that we pull from is a lot of Tolkien [and] Dungeons and Dragons.
Bancroft’s castle was about the desolation of an entire kingdom because the king made a bad deal. Novo was about the Orc people going into this mountain and creating a city atop the mountain, which is called Novo. [It’s also] about the Glowing One and the Magi, who stole one of their babies in the night and turned it into this deity that defeated Sobbh, which was one of the demons.
(SPOILER ALERT INCOMING)
We later find out in the most recent record the baby is the Glowing One. So Sanguinex had been sending his stuff since the second record and destroyed Bancroft’s kingdom. The third record, Novo [features] Sobbh, which is this cat beast. You can actually see him on the album cover. He’s kind of like Garfield with a third eye. He doesn’t look that frightening on the album cover just because of the style, but he’s supposed to be this horrible entity. And then for the most recent record, the Halberd (type of weapon) that was used to vanquish was taken past the arch into the Green World. They took it down into these caverns. And so it’s about all these bounty hunters who are going down into these red caverns to retrieve the Halberd and defeat Sanguinax.”
Let’s recap.
Bancroft’s castle = an entire kingdom was desolated because the king made a bad deal
Novo = the Orc people go into a mountain and create a city there called Novo. Novo features the Glowing One and the Magi who stole one of the Orc people’s babies in the night. The baby turned into a deity aka the Glowing One and defeated Sobbh, a cat beast. He destroyed Bancroft’s castle
Gevurah = The Halberd (weapon) was taken past the arch into caverns in the RED World
So do you all, as a band, play dungeons and dragons together?
“We really want to do a Dungeons and Dragons campaign based on Gevurah. Because it is kind of modeled after a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Where it’s in these caves and there are different rooms [that] have challenges and enemies in them.”
Did music come first? Did visual art come first? Was it kind of a joint coming together?
“I think in the beginning, it was mostly a musical thing. I went to school for graphic design. So I was obviously doing design work for the band just because, you know, I figured, why not use it if I have the skills? So it was kind of both. But then as it went on, I sort of started to really consider how using visuals to communicate audio and lyrical themes could all coincide together.
For bands like the Grateful Dead, which I know; as hokey as their music […], has been characterized recently, they sort of have created a culture and a look to their sound. [They] created something that is more reminiscent of an art movement, rather than just a band that makes music. And I think that there are other bands that have done really great things. I was just talking to Amber (vocalist of the PinkLids) about this, and she was saying she thinks The Cure [is] really interesting how they were part of the goth culture and how throughout their discography, you can actually track the visuals of their band and how it coincides and using that as inspiration. And also kind of not thinking about how you’re perceived in the art world as, you know, as sort of an overblown Prog thing. I think there’s sort of this assumption that if you have all of this stuff on the stage, if you do these theatrical things, if your art style is a certain way, then you’re kind of taking away from the music. But I would discourage that line of thinking or don’t pay any mind to it, because I think that music and bands are capable of creating that culture without diluting anything.”
Absolutely. In a way, there’s making music and then there’s world building, which you all are doing. And the music is a soundtrack for that world.
So I wrote down in my notebook here the word synth-spo. Like inspo, but synth.
“Absolutely. Ian rocks the Korg Minilogue right now.”
What’s your synth-spiration? Who inspires you in the techie music space?
“So I think a lot of Prog [rock] bands, I guess, use synth a bit, like Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk has a lot of sounds that we’ve definitely pulled from. Vangelis, too. And his work, especially on Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire . I think Ian really likes doing the more soundscape-y stuff, too. When a synth isn’t essential to the sound, he’s sort of creating moods. I’ve often thought about that. A lot of the music that I listen to at work is soundscapes and video game soundtracks, like original soundtracks, especially Skyrim and stuff like that. I’d love to see what that would be like with The P.A.’s. How would we approach that? I’d love to do that.”
I would love to play a P.A.s sound-tracked video game. If that happens though, the P.A.s will have done it all. Is the world ready? Compelling initially was the P.A.s genre invention, Dungeon Psych, and now that we’ve entered the start of their world I think I’ll stick around for the magic. Meet me in Novo, we can all go the P.A.s tour together.
Ellis left us with this inspiring message from Nardwuar.
“Keep on rocking in the free world doot doola doot doo.”