Stephen McBean is in an entertaining mood when we meet him on a late May-afternoon at the Arena venue. Pink Mountaintops is the solo project of the Vancouver-based songwriter, who also leads the psychedelic rock band Black Mountain. Everything is running a bit late, so there is not much time for doing a little acoustic session. While we are still thinking where it would be best to do the filming, Stephen has already made himself comfortable on a couch in the bar room of the venue, which he wouldn’t leave anymore for the next 30 minutes. His band mates on guitar, violin and – later – plastic bag join in and Pink Mountaintops start into stunning acoustic versions of “Vampire”, “Plastic Man, You’re The Devil” and “Leslie” – each song is from another of their three albums -, interrupted only by the omnipresent giggling and joking of Stephen. He switches moods easily, makes funny comments and the next moment strums the intro chords of a melancholic song such as “Vampire”, only to stop after a few seconds, burst in laughter again and then restart. So we get treated with a highly enjoyable, yet musically and emotionally very intense session.

pinkmountaintops.com