If “Not Giving Up” by Pleasure Pill sounds more refined than most bands’ third songs, there’s a good reason for that. Even if they’re technically “new,” the San Diego quintet has been around the local and regional punk and indie scene for a decade at this point all in different bands.
Lead singer Jonah Paz put the group together after cutting his teeth with DIY bands, bringing in his brother and rhythm guitarist, Ethan Paz, longtime friends Luke Blake (lead guitar) and Ivan Delgado (bass), and Dom Friedly on drums. The outcome was a cleaner, catchier, and more professional group than anything that any of them had ever played on before — and thus with a ceiling that they hadn’t even dreamed of.
“The transition into a band for us was pretty smooth, because we all knew the way things work in a band,” Paz says. “I had a good chunk of the songs ready before we were even a band. I think we all just realized that the songs were of a different caliber than the other stuff that we’d been a part of, so why not give it the attention that it needs?”
“We really put our heart and soul into rehearsing these songs, so I’m super psyched about how they’ve come out,” Blake adds. “I think it’s the moment in our music careers that we’re all most proud of and feel the most confident about, just because we know how good it is. We’ve all been playing music for over 10 years in many bands, but this is definitely the thing we’re most excited about.”
Pleasure Pill is equal parts timeless pop and modern rock, that grew up on ‘90s and 2000s punk and indie, tracks like “Not Giving Up” could be played opening stadiums just as easily as they could fill the air of a sweaty smaller venue packed with crowd surfers.
The Fat Angel Sings 