partygirl’s Pagona Kytzidis talks new single “fine, fine, fine”

Date:

Photo Credit: Lauren Baliscao

On January 31, maximalist indie rock group partygirl dropped their latest single “fine, fine, fine.” A live show staple for the Brooklyn-based outfit, the release is the band’s first showing of new music since the release of their 2022 self-titled EP. Through their incredibly artistic methods of storytelling and diverse range of musical influences, partygirl bring forward an incredibly refreshing and unique artistry in their work.

Composed of Pagona Kytzidis (vocals/rhythm guitar/keyboards), Francesca Pastore (lead guitar), Claire Lin Jenkins (violin), Jonathan Ashley (drums/percussion), Andrew Jordan (bass) and Jenna Love (saxophone), partygirl portray extensive levels of sonic growth within their latest release. Embodying a more straightforward yet eclectic songwriting style, “fine, fine, fine” is an exciting glimpse at the band’s upcoming debut full-length album.

The band’s debut LP, titled I’m So Charming, I Forgot Who I Was, was recorded in 2023, mixed in 2024 and is now slated for a 2025 release. The album will be released in two parts, both of which will focus on a variety of themes, including feminism, youth, and what it’s like to exist in America in your twenties. With this age comes a realization that the country you grew up in is one filled with misogyny, systemic violence and political turmoil all in the middle of a global pandemic. A strikingly vulnerable yet compelling body of work, there’s no doubt that partygirl’s debut full-length album will heavily resonate with listeners.

“Fine, fine, fine” was released along with a cinematic music video, portraying the band as indoctrinating lead singer Kytzidis into a cult-like group. In light of the single release, Kytzidis sat down with Melodic Magazine to discuss the inspiration behind the single, as well as what fans can expect from the band’s upcoming debut LP.

I know “fine, fine, fine” is kind of a live show staple for the band, but now that it’s finally being released, how does it feel to have it out there after performing it for so long?
It feels so crazy. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but with the way I write music, I’ve been sitting on parts of some of these songs for like 10 years. It’s very precious to me and I’m perfectionist. Things take a lot of time. But we’ve been working on this album in this way for the past two and a half to three years. So the fact that now it’s happening and feels unreal, it feels like I have this baby I have to protect that’s going to come out into the world and I just want to make sure we get across in the way that we have been working hard to do. It’s finally happening and it feels like this moment of reckoning, even though people put out music every day. It’s not a particularly spectacular thing, but for me my whole post-college life has been working towards this progress, this project, this album. But four years later, here we are.

As a perfectionist, how do you reassure yourself when it comes to releasing music and putting out your work?
We’re an independent band. We do everything ourselves, booking the whole shebang, and that brings me an intense amount of stress. And like so many other musicians in this economy, we’re not really set up to succeed, especially if you’re doing something that’s different. That’s hard in terms of the anxiety I have over my art and the music itself. We were shopping this record to labels and they basically just told us, “The music’s fantastic. You guys are unique. You’re just too risky of an investment.” Which is very difficult, and I was like, “I wish they would just tell me that the music was bad. I don’t need to be held gently.” So I do have those moments of self-reflection, where maybe this isn’t as good as I thought it was and maybe that’s why we haven’t gotten as far as I would like us to get at this stage. Maybe that’s also not the way we should be thinking about things. When I actually am able to connect with the music when it’s just me in my spirit and the art, I feel very confident about it.

A couple things from that, I know you’ve talked about how your music is very unique. You’ve even described it as maximalist rock. How would you describe that genre or the sound that you guys have?
It’s hard because there’s six of us in this band and we all have really different influences. It’s really just rock music, in a very broad sense. We like to experiment from different genres and we like to try new things, and I think that I use the term “maximalist” to show that we’re trying to make sure there’s a sound element. Lots of people think we’re a prog rock band. I don’t think we are in any way. We’ll change keys and time signatures and all of a sudden this becomes our label, and I really don’t think that’s appropriate. Ultimately, this is pop songwriting. People are dancing to our songs. I think we just like to experiment and we like to do a little bit of everything and we all have different backgrounds. My favorite musicians are the ‘90s alternative women: Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, Björk. My guitar player [Francesca], she also produced and mixed the album, she comes from a pop-punk, emo metal background. Jonathan, who plays drums, his favorite band is Phish and he loves jam bands. Our violin player Claire never played commercial, pop or rock music until this band. So I think that’s what maximalist rock is getting at, but I don’t think it’s ultimately successful as a label.

Going back to the single, it is your first music to come out since the band’s 2022 self-titled EP. How do you think your music has changed since then?
It’s changed a lot. First of all, the only two people that are still in the band that’s on that EP is me and Fran who plays guitar. The people have completely changed. That’s a huge part of it because of that sound and that ambition that I think is there in our music and the commitment that we have to each other and to exploring these new things. I think of the EP almost as demo tapes of what the project is now. The four songs that we’ve rearranged and we still play live, we’ve built to be kind of in the vein of the band that we are now, which is really exciting and feels really special. And I think there’s a beauty to hearing these early versions that I recorded at 23 and that came out that year, and that’ll always mean a lot to me. It was the first project Fran and I ever did, so I think it really built the basis of our working partnership. And it’s changed a lot because the music’s just gotten bigger. Now it seems very straightforward. I think that we’re really interested in taking a bit of risk and seeing what we can do with ourselves and how we can push ourselves to do things that are hard.

I’m very excited to see how that future music looks and sounds for sure. I really like the message behind the new song as well. It’s about almost shutting down after pretending everything is fine and just becoming numb so you don’t really face the emotions head on. What kind of inspired you to write a song about that concept specifically?
This band started out of the wake of a lot of personal crises for me that were gendered in lots of different ways. Also, I think a lot of it is the whole album. This is a coming of age story for young people that are thrust into this world and it’s not what they thought it was. Then they’re faced to reckon with navigating new dynamics and a structure that doesn’t work. It’s a lot about confronting truth and what do you do when people lie to you. This is my story about coming to terms with that. “Fine, fine, fine” came at that point where it was a bad time, and I was really numb from having these things happen to me and not being able to confront them. This song is also smack dab in the middle of the new album. It’s the last song on the first half. This first half is about a real earnestness that I think comes with youth, especially being a young woman in New York City and just having that tear you apart. I finished college during COVID-19, and a lot of the time it felt like the end of the world. The song came at that point where I was really deep in myself and I didn’t know how to crawl out because I kept myself on this loop of performance. And I think that I wanted to put that theme to this music that I feel like is so upbeat.

What advice do you have for listeners who might be going through a similar situation, or who might heavily relate to the song’s message?
One of the takeaways from the album that I think is the most important, but I don’t think it communicates this clearly to people, is that your real friendships are so special. The only way I got through any of this was with my friends, and those are the people you can trust. I know that Gen Z is suffering from a loneliness epidemic. I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently and how it connects to art, performance and showing up. Even my dearest friends, we got through all of our stuff together and we did it by being together all the time and going out moving all the time. We did it by moving, but through our movement I mean our spiritual movement, our commitment to being there for each other, standing up for ourselves, claiming our selfhood and taking risks. I wouldn’t take that back for anything. I think that’s the biggest piece of advice, is cultivate those friendships and that community. There’s going to be people who you think you can trust and you can’t, and that’s really hard and devastating. But that’s just growing up.

When it comes to those friends you were able to grow with or take risks with, I imagine that might have affected you as an artist or as a musician. How did that go together?
I guess there’s two categories of my friend. There’s my bandmates who are my family, and that’s probably self-explanatory. It’s funny, we’re like six siblings and that feels really special. Also, there’s so much trust that goes into that. That is the vehicle for our friendship and that is how we bonded and that’s how we relate. I think that was really important to all of us, but it’s different from my friends I’ve had for years and who are outside my band. Most of them are artists of some kind. So they’re always there for me to bounce ideas off of and share the deep personal stories that maybe I don’t share with other people as intimately. They make me feel really safe and held and supported and they always show up for me. I rely on them so deeply to keep me steady and grounded and be my compass.

This concept of friendships, relationships and rejoicing, I feel like that’s very evident in the music video for “fine, fine, fine” as well. Was this intentional?
That’s so interesting. I don’t think that was intentional, but I do think it’s intentional in the sense that — we’ve been told this before, that my band and I seem like a group of friends or a family. When we play a show or we’re all hanging out together there’s a sense of friendliness and a warmth to us. I don’t think it was intentional in the way that people think imagery is. I think that is our energy that we have with each other, because we were having fun. We’ve never made a music video before. It was a real active community. All those masks we wore were made by my drummer, his wife and my bass player’s fiancée. We all brought the different food. It just really felt like we were all hanging out and having fun, but also filming a music video. And I think that the story of the video, the intention is that the character that I am is being inducted into this society or cult of weird creatures. And I think that’s to talk about the numbness and who will see you through or who will give you the power to get angry, get gross and be real and we wanted to do that in the video.

As we’ve discussed, you talked about a variety of themes and topics in your music. What do you want people to gain from your music the most?
I was talking about this with my friend. One thing is that, despite all this confusing stuff that’s running around you as a young person losing yourself, especially for survivors, you are not alone. What happened to you did really happen. And it is crazy. It is crazy that you just have to go on and pretend like it didn’t happen. You might not be the same after it, and that’s fine. It’s an opportunity to transform and demand change, which is really important, I think, for anything to get a little better than the hellscape that we are currently living in.

Stream “fine, fine, fine” here.

Photo Credit: Natalie Tischler

Keep up with partygirl: Instagram // Spotify // YouTube // Bandcamp // Website

Justice Petersen
Justice Petersen
Justice Petersen is a music journalist, music PR writer, and freelance reporter. As the editorial coordinator for Melodic Magazine, Justice regularly contributes artist interviews, On Your Radar features, and news articles for Melodic and is a regular contributor to Melodic Magazine's quarterly print issues. She also writes for several other online magazine publications, including New Noise Magazine and Ghost Cult Magazine, and her work has been featured in Illinois Entertainer, the Chicago Reader, and Sunstroke Magazine, to name a few. Her favorite band is Metallica and her go-to coffee order is an iced vanilla oat milk latte with strawberry cold foam on top.

Leave a Reply

Share post:

More from Author

More like this
Related

Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Short n’ Sweet (Deluxe)’ is a sultry mix of romance, glitter pop and irresistible country charm

Recommended Tracks: "Busy Woman," "Couldn't Make It Any Harder" Artists...

David Kushner wonders where will love be in 20 years from now

Recommended Tracks: “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” “Love Worth Saving,”...

Audrey Huynh is sick with love and heartache

Audrey Huynh has been in love once or twice...