Rick Maguire has fronted Pile for nearly 15 years and in that time he’s written a whole lot of songs. Last year, he intended to embark on a tour as a solo act (something he does occasionally) but the pandemic had other plans. Instead, Maguire went into the studio to revisit some of his older songs, picking them apart and putting them back together again as an exercise before the next full-band Pile album.

That’s resulted in a full-length called Songs Known Together, Alone. “This was an opportunity to revisit the format of performing alone but with material that has been fleshed out by the group,” Maguire explained in a press release. “And while solo performances have been a part of the identity of the project throughout its existence, up until this record I hadn’t given it much studio attention in the past 12 years.”

Today, he’s sharing two songs from the new project. “I Don’t Want To Do This Anymore” turns an instrumental from 2017’s A Hairshirt Of Purpose into a more traditional song with lyrics. “The idea of adding words to a song that already existed made it seem like a blank canvas,” Maguire said. “Once I started going down the road, it became almost an entirely different song but I could still use some of the elements of the instrumental track to anchor it.”

The other track is “Build A Fire,” the first song that Maguire ever wrote for the Pile project. It originally appeared in demo from on 2007’s Demonstration. Check them both out below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Touched By Comfort”
02 “Worms”
03 “Other Rooms”
04 “I Don’t Want To Do This Anymore”
05 “Keep The Last Light On”
06 “Steve’s Mouth”
07 “Rope’s Length / My Employer”
08 “Afraid Of Home”
09 “No Bone”
10 “Fidget”
11 “Hair”
12 “Milkshake”
13 “Dogs”
14 “Mama’s Lipstick”
15 “Build A Fire”

Songs Known Together, Alone is out 8/20 via Exploding In Sound. Pre-order it here.