POST ANIMAL // PIE IN THE SKY: Big Cheddar, Bigger Feelings
Kismet, yearning, and cosmic timing— Post Animal’s latest single finds its way into personal cosmic maps
Written by: Syn Devereaux
Photo: Alyssa Bardol
I was 30,000 feet up in the air at the strike of midnight when Post Animal dropped their latest single, Pie In The Sky. Hilariously ironic at first, deeply kismet and serendipitous when I hit play. I was Jimmy Neutron level brain-blasting ideas for the band-aid mixtape across the country post a 24-hour jaunt in LA. To pass the time, I was eye-deep in my notes app rereading old poems and musings and other incoherent thoughts from 4 am nights.
One poem I came across and randomly just read twice was, fomo or something— something I wrote in the middle of the night on the C train going uptown to my hostel– a temporary housing before I got my place in Brooklyn. It was sibling day, a day charged with mixed emotions for my younger brother and our fractured relationship. But we’re not here to talk about that. Not really anyway. In that poem I said, “i’ve been told i’m a ‘straight shooter’/ you see, subtlety isn’t my forte/ also been told i’m,/‘as subtle as a gun’” We’ll circle back to this.
When I landed, tired and bleary eyed with two cats in a carrier at Newark Airport at 2am, I checked instagram and saw everyone posting the new song. Naturally, I hit the spotify link and let the music rush through me as I walked my aching bones to the nearest lavatory. I was in the bathroom washing my hands when I heard, “Straight shooter, lunar or bust (ha!)/ Big dreamer, pearl of the sky (ow!)/ This schemer is the star of my life”
Hi. Yes, we’re back here. When I tell you I laughed so loud, people were looking at me when I came out of the bathroom (still laughing, mind you). I was so in the moment I didn’t even care. The ridiculousness of the moment coupled with my 2am delirium was sky high. Pun fully intended. With “straight shooter” still fresh from my poem reread, it was instantaneous that I drew the connection. And doing so while I was literally in the sky? Unreal. I was looking up at the sublime holiness, shaking my head at Gloria and her silly timing once again.
A hilarious little side bar of personal lore added to this is, according to Ancestry.com, “The name Cynthia has its origins in ancient Greek and derives from the Greek word Kynthia, which means from Kinthos. In Greek mythology, Kinthos was a mountain on the island of Delos, and it was believed to be the birthplace of the ancient Greek goddess of the moon, Artemis.” If you were wondering, yes, my legal name is Synthia. Yes, with an S. Potato-potahto. But this lunar/moony connection? It feels more adventitious and personal, like a cosmic wink from the constellations connecting us all— my own personal myth woven into the song. Lets not forget I’m a self proclaimed schemer, okay? Insert a feral Batsy Head cat doodle here. IYKYK.
As a sagittarius sun, cancer moon and gemini rising, this song feels like it was written for me– or at least for my own personal cosmic trifecta. My big three: the fiery archer (Artemis) of my sun, the protective moon goddess (see also: Artemis) within me, and the airy storyteller rising all collide here. This song is a meditation on the duality of light and dark– literally. A literal straight shooter, as a person and cosmically– she never misses. The duality of my sun and moon signs have always felt confusing and frustrating due to their stark contrast, add the gemini rising’s wistful airiness with her head always in the clouds (hello, “Big dreamer, pearl of the sky”) and penchant for storytelling, we’ve got an agent of chaos on our hands. Aka: me in sonic form of three minutes and forty seconds.
Pie In The Sky is an unexpected wonder, and even more unexpectedly personal, in my humble opinion. Different from the rest of their discography, but a great sibling to Last Goodbye. Trading crunchy, psychedelic guitars for a more relaxed and vintage feel as seen on their last single, it’s evident that their sound is evolving as they are growing as men in their thirties.
This song is dripping with yearning and nostalgia in sepia tones and polaroids of grassy knolls with your lover. Dalton (Allison)’s wavey bassline can be felt throughout the track alongside Wes (Toledo)’s steady drum beat, creating a dreamy yet strong spine to the song. With full band harmonies, we hear Keery on lead vocals with switch ups you don’t realize until after its over. This song isn’t any one members specifically— yet all of theirs, just as much as it’s ours, the listeners, lighting up and shining on in your ears.
Just when you think you’ve settled into the song’s mellow atmosphere, zappy guitar licks and Muppet voices swoop in, adding just enough unseriousness, making me feel like I need to be somewhere upstate New York with the windows down exploring abandoned barns or forests or rolling down a hill, giggling the whole time with my lover. It adds something nostalgic to the song you wouldn’t think to add, pairing nicely with the cheddar and bat imagery.
The absurdity is a perfect break in the clouds. It reminds me of the simplicity of having a crush in school. It’s the kind of song that transports you to that sweet, silly feeling of a school crush— the one where you’re doodling in the margins while your teacher drones on about the Pythagorean theorem. Physically, you’re in pre-calc, but in your mind? You’re up in the clouds with that pie in the sky.
If Last Goodbye had me feeling a wistful, sad yearning for my hometown, Pie In The Sky is the perfect balance for that hometown melancholy and ache. The guitars feel western in the soundscape they create, mirroring the steel guitar in Last Goodbye. It’s light, it’s fun and brings a happy-go-lucky attitude that counters the heavier narrative of Last Goodbye.
The two days before the song was released, the Post Animal Instagram stories were filled with images or references to vampires. I was confused as the rest of us and had no idea what was happening. Personally, I thought (was hoping) the song was about pizza. Though, with the cheddar reference, maybe theres a world where it is. (Grandma’s One Pizza on Bleecker if you’re in NYC. Go get it. Shameless plug.) I was trying to figure out how Pie In The Sky linked to vampires and upon its release, it all makes sense now.
The pie in question is the sun— “the great pie of the sky” if you will. I feel like I've heard that somewhere; where, I don't exactly know. The vampire theme though? Suddenly it all clicks: vampires are creatures of the night, ruled by the moon’s shadows. Yet here, the pie in the sky— THE great pie of the sky— is in fact, the sun itself, the very light the vampire craves but cannot touch. It’s a metaphor for longing between light and dark, fire and water. If we’re lucky we may find ourselves in the liminal, yet even more rarely, both.
“Great beauty, pie in the sky/ Yours truly, light of my life/ I miss you half of the day (aye)/ Big cheddar, lighting my way” opens the track with some equally brilliant and ridiculous songwriting. “Big cheddar, lighting my way” still makes me giggle. The imagery works well without being too…cheesy. (I had to, ok. Sue me.) It feels like this song is a love letter to a person, or maybe a place or idea of someone who’s equal parts sun and moon— with a razzle dazzle dash of stars with, “This schemer is the star of my life”.
With every listen, I feel my own celestial sky– sun, moon, stars– colliding in harmony, wrapped in this song that’s as much about the vast universe outside as the intimate universe inside me. Because after all— as above, so below; as within, so without; as the universe, so the soul.
As we always say here at the band-aid mixtape, music=memory. Music is deeply personal for the past, present and future. This track has actively created new memories and sensory experiences in real time. Weaving together within my own personal narrative and celestial map. I wish I could say this is an isolated incident where the strange and unusual experiences find me like this, however, that simply would just not be the truth of the matter. Just another vampire living by the moon, laughing with the stars, and crawling into bed at 5 a.m. Some call it chaos— I call it just a peculier Wednesday.
Stay in touch with Post Animal:
Website | Instagram | TikTok | Youtube | Twitter
Bandcamp | Spotify | Soundcloud | Songkick | BandsInTown
Stream Pie In The Sky by Post Animal here.
