My Politic is an indie-folk duo who specialize in telling stories through their songs. Their newest release “Signs of Life” is a reminder to stay curious, connected, and engaged with the world especially in these difficult and uncertain times.
Kaston Guffey from My Politic recently spoke with WYEP's Joey Spehar.
What’s your musical history up to this point?
My Politic is an Indie-Folk duo created by myself (Kaston Guffey) and Nick Pankey when we were around the age of 15. We grew up together in the Ozarks in Missouri, started writing and recording albums in high school. This new album “Signs of Life” will technically be our 11th album to date. We left Ozark after high school, lived in Boston for three years and made two albums in our apartment there, got to where we were singing a lot more harmony and then we moved to Nashville in the fall of 2013. I lived there for nine years; Nick is still there.
We made four albums in those nine years, a big studio album (“12 Kinds of Lost”) a home recording during Covid (Short Sighted People In Power”) and two albums at our good friend Josh Washam’s home studio (2015’s “Anchor” & 2022’s “Missouri Folklore”).
We’ve been touring the house concert circuit for well over a decade and have hit the road with some of our road dog pals Adeem The Artist, Margo Cilker and have an upcoming run with our friend Jamiee Harris. We made our Woody Guthrie Folk Festival debut in 2023 and have been lucky enough to keep coming back to Okemah in July.
I moved to Millvale with my wife Georgia English, a songwriter and music educator, in the fall of 2022 and wrote this new album long distance with Nick still in Nashville. We recorded it back at our friend Josh Washam’s home studio and got the musicians from our last album “Missouri Folklore” back together. We’ve done our fair share of playing, writing and traveling over the years and hope to keep after it.
How do you describe your sound?
I’d say it’s lyrically Indie-Folk with influences spanning the “American Roots” genres (especially songwriters and storytellers.)
Tell us more about the song "Signs of Life." What inspired you to write it and what does it mean to you?
I wrote “Signs Of Life” as a kind of reminder to stay curious, engaged and connected with the world, especially in these difficult, uncertain times. The song and the entire album are kind of a post-Covid, exploration of a new (to me) home. It’s about getting older and trying to keep the creative flames & inspiration burning so to speak. Since moving to Pittsburgh, I’ve been going on really long walks and bike rides through the city and a lot of the songs were at least partially written on these treks.
What was the first album that really changed your life?
“Times They Are A Changin’” Bob Dylan changed my life when I was a teenager. That was the first time I really thought about trying to write my own songs. There are “songwriting moments” on that album that taught me so much about how to creatively convey information. It’s a beautiful and very dark album.
Who are some other Pittsburgh artists you think more people should listen to?
Since moving here I’ve been running around a lot with other songwriters… my wife Georgia English, Brad Yoder, Mark Dignam, Mirabelle Skipworth, Juila Nora, Cody Piper, Distelfink, Julia Warner, Tucker Muetzel, Chet Vincent, Adam Burrows & my buddy Derek Johnson who just moved to town recently... There are more! It’s been wonderful to find so many songwriters in town so quickly.
Any other super interesting things about you we should know?
When I’m not playing music i’m usually teaching music through my wife’s music education non-profit “You Be You Inc.” We love our neighborhood, this city and the community that has embraced us! Nick has been learning to design & cast jewelry for the last few years. Nick and I both love British comedy, particularly the character of “Alan Partridge” (IYKYK) I love baseball & play in my spare time (go crows!) and have recently caught the pinball bug. We are big John Prine fans. Love to drive and eat lunch. We listen to a lot of physics, philosophy and comedy on the road. Maybe these are just merely interesting things and not SUPER interesting but that's about all I know.
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