Peach Pit: 2025

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Peach Pit’s lead singer Neil Smith never knows what might turn into a song — but he always takes notes.

When the Canadian indie-rock band was on tour in Australia, following the release of their third album From 2 to 3, they kept coming across flocks of magpies. Smith filed the sighting away, and later, when reading up on the birds, his interest was piqued by a particular, and peculiar, poem: “One for sorrow, Two for luck, Three for a wedding, Four for death; Five for silver, Six for gold; Seven for a secret, Not to be told; Eight for heaven, Nine for hell, And ten for the devil’s own sell.”

This versatility of virtue — the idea that these birds could be both good and bad omens — struck a chord for Smith. The magpie became a metaphor, and ideas for songs found flight. The result is Peach Pit’s fourth studio album, Magpie, an 11-track album that bends and fuses sounds and styles while featuring lyrics written from a variety of viewpoints, real and hypothetical, ranging from Smith’s first love to his alternate-reality, worst-case-scenario self.

Following the release of Magpie, the Vancouver quartet — Smith, Christopher Vanderkooy, Peter Wilton, and Mikey Pascuzzi — swung by Studio A to show off their songwriting skills. Peach Pit exhibited that classic Canadian kindness, posing for photos and chatting with FUV's student interns, and performed three tracks from the new record: ”Magpie,” “Am I Your Girl,” and “Every Little Thing.”

The band of best friends also sat down for an interview, where we dove into the making of the album and talked birds, friendship, and the creative power of perspective.

[Recorded: 10/28/24; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Nadia Garriga and Matthew Ellersick; produced by Meghan Offtermatt. Videographers: Therese Burgo, Adithi Vimalanathan, Bella Lipayon, Anna Fahy and Nikki Phillips.]