Between their tireless D.I.Y. work ethic and constantly evolving sound, Pile have earned both a large homegrown following and the respect of their peers. Led by singer/guitarist Rick Maguire, the band evolved with a string of increasingly complex albums released throughout the 2010s, bringing a varied instrumentation to their often-aggressive sound on albums like 2017's A Hairshirt of Purpose or 2019's Green and Gray. The band took a different approach to their 2021 album Songs Known Together, Alone, which saw Maguire refashioning the band's older material as a group of solo songs. Pile returned in 2023 with a retooled lineup and another sonic shift on the texturally dense All Fiction.

Pile was initially the solo project of Boston-based singer/guitarist Rick Maguire. He issued a pair of rough but engaging lo-fi albums (2007's Demonstration and 2009's Jerk Routine) that segued between experimental folk, jagged indie rock, and elements of post-rock. Transforming Pile into a collective, Maguire assembled the full-time lineup of guitarist Matt Becker, bassist Matt Connery, and drummer Kris Kuss in 2010 and released Magic Isn't Real, establishing the dark and noisy tones that would become one of the group's hallmarks. Following a 2011 EP titled Big Web, Pile signed with Exploding in Sound and made their label debut with 2012's widely touted Dripping. The 7" release Special Snowflakes/Mama's Lipstick preceded 2015's You're Better Than This as the band continued a daunting touring schedule, hitting North America and Europe. With each release, Pile's sound continued to evolve, adding piano, banjo, and strings on 2017's A Hairshirt of Purpose, which ran the gamut from slow, orchestrated tracks to massive noisy assaults. Jack White's Third Man label issued Pile's first live album, Live at Third Man Records, in late 2017. Between albums, the band collected singles and other miscellaneous tracks on the appropriately titled 2018 collection Odds and Ends before returning with seventh studio album Green and Gray in the spring of 2019. By this point Maguire had moved from Boston to Nashville and enlisted new member Chappy Hull (guitar) and Alex Molini (bass) to join him.

After releasing 2020's Second Other Tape, a set of experimental sketches, Maguire began revisiting Pile's earlier catalog and approaching it from a new angle. Recorded entirely on his own over the course of a three-day session, 2021's Songs Known Together, Alone, consisted of 16 reworked compositions that went as far back as 2007's Demonstration. It was followed later that year by the fully improvised In the Corners of a Sphere-Filled Room which, like its predecessor was self-released. 2023's All Fiction marked Pile's return to longtime label Exploding in Sound and was seen as a proper follow up to Green and Gray. Kuss, still living in Boston, rejoined the band for these sessions, which featured a more textured and complex sound.

Biography by Timothy Monger

There are other artists with the same name:

2.) Pile is a Japanese Singer and Seiyuu, Her real name is Hori Eriko (堀絵梨子) and she was born in 1988. She released a indies solo single in 2007 called "Your is All... " but didn't make a major solo debut until 2014 with the single "伝説のFLARE", which was used as the third ending song for the anime "Tenkai Knight".

3.) Tech house duo consisting of Markus Nikolai and Thomas Franzmann, founders of the Perlon label. Mainly active in the late 1990s, Pile produced a handful of tracks, first on the Epic label and finally on Perlon. Their unique style blended irregular, stripped-down house beats and distorted techno melodies with unorthodox vocal samples and characterized the early tech house sound. The group is no longer active, but Nikolai and Franzmann continue to work under different aliases.
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