Austin-based duo Pike & Sutton will release their debut full-length album Heart Is A Compass on April 3rd.
Led by “hometown favorites” (Austin American-Statesman) Patrice Pike and Wayne Sutton, the band has evolved out of the longtime alternative rock band Sister 7.
Today they shared the video for their new single “Let The Music Get You High,” which Austin Chronicle called “a testament and ode to friendship, collaboration, and an abiding mission.”
“Let The Music Get You High” is both an ode to music helping us all transcend our challenges in this life and lift each other up no matter how hard things get.
The young dancer Azula who is featured in the video, along with her sister May May, represent one of the recipients of the Step Onward Foundation (co-founded by Pike) who is now getting her masters degree and raising a family.
The video depicts a couch which represents the furniture at-risk families take with them from place to place as they try to establish a home in a world that is constantly becoming less and less affordable. Azula expresses through her dance the myriad of feelings teens experience through the frustration of just wanting to turn 18 and have rights to be on their own and take control of their path. This is represented in the 18 marks on Azula’s forearm.
As co-founder of the Step Onward Foundation, Pike has collaborated in raising over $1 million for supporting education, housing, and sustainability for young adult survivors of homelessness and children surviving critical illness in the last 10 years.
Pike & Sutton is a partnership, a creative evolution, and a promise fulfilled. Equally anchored by the powerhouse vocals of Pike and the deep textured guitars of Sutton, Heart Is A Compass is both a transformative celebration of the pair’s R&B, soul, and roots influences and an exhilarating call-to-arms for the faithful. Co-produced with Grammy-winner Jim Watts (Emmylous Harris, Jenny Lewis, Kelly Clarkson), the album crackles with passion, vision, and undeniable hip-shaking rhythms.
As Little Sister/Sister 7, Pike and Sutton ruled clubs and festivals throughout Dallas, Houston, and Austin as the most melodically riveting jam band in the southwest.
With their two major label albums – 1997’s This The Trip and 2000’s Wresting Over Tiny Matters on Arista Records – the band’s musical evolution took national stages alongside artists such as The Allman Brothers, Sarah McLachlan, The Nevill Brothers, Ray Charles, Chris Isaak, and Dave Matthews Band.
Rolling Stone called Pike “Tina Turner, Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin, and Robert Plant all rolled up into a tiny but explosive package,” while Billboard said she is “One of the finest new contemporary rock singers in America.”
In 2007, Pike was inducted into the Austin/Texas Music Hall of Fame alongside Lucinda Williams and other notable Texans.
