It’s All Just Pretend finds the Seattle outfit Ivan & Alyosha expanding from a quartet to a quintet, with drummer Cole Mauro joining Pete Wilson (bass), Tim Kim (guitar) and founding members Tim Wilson (lead vox, guitar) and Ryan Carbary (guitar, piano). While the allusion to The Brothers Karamazov in the band’s name might suggest a certain highfalutin literary pretension about their music (a la the Decemberists), but such is not the case. Nor, however, is their music All Just Pretend. As the album cut “Modern Man” (stream it below) evinces, these five musicians are in the business of writing straightforward and honest music. It helps that it rocks, too, as the ’70s classic rock tone on “Modern Man”‘s guitars evince.
Wilson tells PopMatters, “I wrote ‘Modern Man’ a long time ago. I used to park cars in Los Angeles, and met a lot of interesting people. This song was inspired by my time there. Seeing some very attractive people on the outside, yet they seemed extremely empty on the inside. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but it’s mostly about the idea that a long lasting relationship doesn’t need to be a thing of the past.”
It’s All Just Pretend is out on 5 May via Dualtone.