Nate Grace is looking on the bright side. Their band Pure X (Grace uses they/them pronouns), an Austin-based rock project with a cult following, are releasing their self-titled fourth album and first in six years in the midst of a global pandemic.
Tour plans are on hold, and that’s “kind of a blessing,” Grace says. Neither they nor their co-lead songwriter Jesse Jenkins, who joins us on the call, have any desire to return to the band’s relentless performance schedule.
Then again, Pure X were never going to do a traditional 2020 album rollout; like true aesthetes, they would rather let the work speak for itself than push a viral TikTok challenge. “We're not trying to force this down anyone's throat,” Jenkins says empathically.