Melding indie-rock and folk influences, Tricia and Danny Turner of The Young Pixels capture an enthralling sense of childlike wonder with their tunes. The duo takes inspiration from their travels and life experiences to create and connect the world around them.
We spoke with Tricia about the band’s beginning, the evolution of their sound, and the lasting impact of building bridges between city and rural life.
Can you take me through how The Young Pixels came to be?
We met in 2006 at a musical gathering hosted by my brother. Danny saw me playing drums, told me he liked the way I played and offered to give me a drum lesson if I ever wanted one. He had been drumming in bands since his early teens. I had really just started on the drums and had never played in a band but had been jamming for a few years and creating music by layering overdubs on an old 8-track recorder.
I took Danny up on the drum lesson about a week after and the lesson turned into a jam featuring me in the drum chair and Danny on guitar and vocals. Little did I know, it was the first time he'd had the opportunity to play with a drummer, even though he'd been playing guitar and writing songs since his teens. We both felt excited by the possibilities of the situation, and it gave us both courage to be in company where it was safe to be a beginner. We understood one another's musical language right away. We enjoyed spending time together so much that we eventually became a couple, went travelling, bought a little acoustic guitar and I started to learn how to play it. We would both write songs as we travelled.
When we were tired of travelling, we returned to my hometown of Kenton to root down and soon became pregnant with our first child. We bought an electric guitar a few months after the baby was born and started jamming in the garage while the baby slept, switching back and forth between guitar and drums. That's where we really discovered our sound and realized we could be a band.
Around that same time, we discovered two childhood drawings I made of myself singing and a drummer playing beside me. The drummer looked just like Danny. We needed no other encouragement after that. We took the songs we'd been writing and recorded our first album over the course of the following year, calling ourselves Spirit of Play. Our first show was an open mic in Brandon. We were so excited to be a band!
After a few years, we changed our name to The Young Pixels. It came about in a casual conversation about how we would probably describe our sound at the time as a cross between Neil Young and The Pixies. Danny blurted out ‘how 'bout Young Pixels?’ and that was that. We also liked the meaning behind each of those words. To us, "Young" described the beginner’s spirit and heart so crucial to creativity, and "Pixels" represented what we felt we were trying to do with our music – light up our small piece of the whole.
We spoke with Tricia about the band’s beginning, the evolution of their sound, and the lasting impact of building bridges between city and rural life.
Can you take me through how The Young Pixels came to be?
We met in 2006 at a musical gathering hosted by my brother. Danny saw me playing drums, told me he liked the way I played and offered to give me a drum lesson if I ever wanted one. He had been drumming in bands since his early teens. I had really just started on the drums and had never played in a band but had been jamming for a few years and creating music by layering overdubs on an old 8-track recorder.
I took Danny up on the drum lesson about a week after and the lesson turned into a jam featuring me in the drum chair and Danny on guitar and vocals. Little did I know, it was the first time he'd had the opportunity to play with a drummer, even though he'd been playing guitar and writing songs since his teens. We both felt excited by the possibilities of the situation, and it gave us both courage to be in company where it was safe to be a beginner. We understood one another's musical language right away. We enjoyed spending time together so much that we eventually became a couple, went travelling, bought a little acoustic guitar and I started to learn how to play it. We would both write songs as we travelled.
When we were tired of travelling, we returned to my hometown of Kenton to root down and soon became pregnant with our first child. We bought an electric guitar a few months after the baby was born and started jamming in the garage while the baby slept, switching back and forth between guitar and drums. That's where we really discovered our sound and realized we could be a band.
Around that same time, we discovered two childhood drawings I made of myself singing and a drummer playing beside me. The drummer looked just like Danny. We needed no other encouragement after that. We took the songs we'd been writing and recorded our first album over the course of the following year, calling ourselves Spirit of Play. Our first show was an open mic in Brandon. We were so excited to be a band!
After a few years, we changed our name to The Young Pixels. It came about in a casual conversation about how we would probably describe our sound at the time as a cross between Neil Young and The Pixies. Danny blurted out ‘how 'bout Young Pixels?’ and that was that. We also liked the meaning behind each of those words. To us, "Young" described the beginner’s spirit and heart so crucial to creativity, and "Pixels" represented what we felt we were trying to do with our music – light up our small piece of the whole.
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