by Riley Kirk / Photography by Joe Praksti
It’s Halloween in South Oakland– an annual Pittsburgh pilgrimage for twenty-somethings in costumes of varying effort. From the street James Castle’s cover of Dinosaur Jr.’s cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” is audible. Inside Hammer House, a DIY seasonal house venue recently reopened after closing last summer, James Castle is acutely aware of the irony of their cover of a cover. Dressed as Snoopy, lead vocalist and guitarist Joel Warchol (as J. Mascis) is center stage. Dinosaur Jr.’s occasional use of distortion and experimental noise is not far off from James Castle’s usual sound.
The majority of the audience has already seen James Castle perform a non-cover set in some capacity at one venue or another around Pittsburgh over the last two years, with the likes of Valleyview, Rex Tycoon, Fib, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, and Ex Pilots. Just a few weeks prior to Halloween, the band announced the official accumulation of their first works with the release of their debut EP, spenser.
Clocking in at around 25 minutes, spenser consists of four previously unheard tracks sandwiched by previously released singles “dead bugs” and “This House.” Throughout spenser, James Castle stays true to their earlier noise-pop influences while exploring new, more raw punk. Slow builds rip into choruses of catchy riffs with lyrics that range from dark whispering to fervent screams, twists and turns with no warning. “This House” is a natural-born conclusion that makes listeners feel as if they are watching credits roll to an early 90s rock film, while “shoe” is immediately darker and seeks resolve until the end dissolves into a stomach-drop climax toeing the edge of hardcore. Listening to spenser with your eyes closed, you can almost smell the sweat of a cramped basement full of people shoving against each other on top of crushed Pabst Blue Ribbon cans.
Born in the depths of Monroeville at Gateway High School, James Castle started as a project between vocalists and guitarists Joel Warchol and Jack Praksti in 2021 and quickly expanded to include Ed Haberle on drums and his cousin Sean Haberle on bass. James Castle debuted live in 2022 on a bill opening for Tetchy on tour at The Government Center, the first of many lineups they would join at the venue over the next two years.
The band name originated from a Catcher in the Rye character by the same name, who commits suicide in the book by throwing himself out of a window in refusal to submit to his prep school bullies. His character is theorized to have been a physical manifestation of authenticity and vulnerability, and despite being a side character who is mentioned but briefly, had a lasting impact on both Holden Caulfield and in another universe, a teenage Warchol.
The more well-known James Castle, an American mute and deaf artist in the twentieth century, remained unknown to the band until later Google searches. Despite being only coincidentally homonymous, Castle’s art values run parallel to the band collective. The artist was born deaf and never learned sign language, or how to read or write. His art, his only form of communication, is described as “detritus”, or an accumulation of matter. In the artist’s instance, this was usually repurposed material, but the term is also applicable to the sonic texture of James Castle’s debut EP.
All of the art used for the band is created by Praksti, who graduated with a visual arts degree after redirecting from music school, with graffiti graphic elements layered on by Ed Haberle.
“When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a cartoonist and animate stuff,” Praksti says. “I always wanted [James Castle] to be an art collective, not necessarily just music, but putting together an entire aesthetic. I think that music and visual art go hand-in-hand. If you are making music and not also supplementing it with art in a really thoughtful way, that’s like, evil.”
“It was weird because after [Praksti and Ed Haberle] started making art for the band, it kind of felt like it fit with the [original James Castle’s] art. It’s kind of architectural, but a little bit creepy and liminal,” Warchol says.
The single covers for “dead bugs” and “Barbed Wire” (not on the EP) lean into a textural component in an unintentional homage to the late Castle, while the art for the EP cover and “This House” single are more reminiscent of drag-and-drop softwares and modern aspects of abandonment.
“When I’m trying to make something, I lean into the vibe of being in a large field with nothing around,” Praksti says. “I really like how that feels, which goes into the EP cover. I imagine that cover as a super large field where you can’t see anything else around, and there’s just those weird spheres above you. For some reason, I think that would be incredibly comforting.”
“I always associated hanging out with these guys with going to abandoned places, because there were a few key places that we would go [in high school]. When we made the EP cover, I had this idea in mind of a room from one of these houses that was densely packed with stuff,” Warchol says. “Then [Praksti] showed me the EP cover and it was like, an open field with absolutely indiscernible items. At first, I hated it. But actually, in the exact opposite sense, it encapsulates the same thing.”
A sense of abandonment has always been a creative comfort to Warchol, a psychology alumnus from Pitt. “There’s a weird whirlwind of art versus doing a professional field– I’m kind of in the art time of my life. I’ve been more a participant in studies rather than getting another research job. I went and got an MRI last month,” Warchol says, laughing. Stemming from his psychology major, Warchol keeps several stream-of-consciousness style journals from which he draws inspiration for his lyrics, in combination with videos, traumas, and others’ writings.
“The most logical base for me is what comes out of me without me putting any thought into it,” Warchol says. “You show yourself the path you want to go down without thinking about it actively.” Songwriting for Warchol is a long process: Even past the point of a song’s completion, his lyrics are ever-evolving until they are externally published. All six tracks on spenser have been written for over a year now, but now have been “mixed up and produced the Jack way, and feel fresh in a brand-new way.”
As something that comes from Warchol’s immediate natural thought, he is admirably protective of his words. “Punk is about making things that are absolutely representational of yourself,” Warchol says. “There’s no compromise for my lyrics; they are what they are. They are punk in a sense that it’s my shit, and it is real to the stuff that I care about.”
While Warchol’s writing process stems from key phrases at the foreground of his mind and then evolves to mesh with music parts he has written, Praksti’s songs originate from chords and melodies and then add the lyrics as “the cherry on top”. However, both writers agree on the importance of organic flow.
“Whatever feels the most right is what is going to come out,” Praksti says. “When I’m making a demo or a song, I mumble over the melody and then go back and try to figure out what gibberish I’m saying. I usually end up saying some words anyway, and they always end up playing a part in what I end up writing [the lyrics] about.”
Sitting at the top of the hill of their first record cycle, it would be easy for the band to be overwhelmed. However, if anything the pressure seems to motivate them into “killing ten birds with one stone.” Music videos, physical media, and out-of-town shows are all within reach for James Castle, who are patient in letting any outside collaboration happen organically.
“It makes sense that artists would shit on music videos back in the day, because you don’t want to have to implement other people into your art to represent you. But now, we’re at a point where we can make our representation internally,” Warchol says. This internal collaboration is not necessarily limited to just inside of the band, although the members do self-promote, make all of their own art, and mix their tracks at home. Over the course of just two years active in the DIY scene, James Castle has forged multiple meaningful connections with other bands, house venues, and artists. As spenser is released and the James Castle universe inevitably expands outside of the Pittsburgh sphere, the members remain consciously grateful and passionate for their work.
“I’m just really excited for everybody to hear it. It’s a much larger picture than the music–although obviously, the music is the most important part,” Pratski says. “But just having people talk about the stuff that we have made is such a great, amazing thing to happen.”
“We’re very excited for these songs to finally be out so that we can take the next step,” Warhol adds with a sideways smile, alluding to a promising next year for James Castle.
spenser was recorded by the band, mixed by Jack Praksti and mastered by Chicago Mastering Services. The EP release will be celebrated at a house show Nov. 30–it will not be a “Magnum-Opus type thing”, rather a “DM for address type thing”, so reach out to a band member on social media
@jamescastlepgh or email jamescastleband1@gmail.com for more information. And in the meantime–spenser is available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp as of Nov. 15.
Riley Kirk is a multimedia creative and journalist. She loves finding inspiration in the DIY scene, music, and this beautiful city. She has published pieces with Grain of Salt Magazine (archived) and the Pittsburgh Independent, all of which you can read from her instagram @noneofusaregoingback
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