5 Questions with Institutional Green on upcoming album Deep Pockets, releasing April 2 at The Schooner

I love to see (or hear!) a pandemic silver lining and I think Institutional Green‘s upcoming release of Deep Pockets qualifies. It gave the band members time to play and fodder for songs. And now we have something to enjoy. Big thanks to Dan Leary for answering a few questions about the work. You can catch them at the album release on April 2 at The Schooner.

Please tell me about Institutional Green and how you all got to playing music together.
Prior to the pandemic shutdown guitarist Kevin Henretta and I-singer/bass player Dan Leary-played with a local outfit called Ringout! The current ensemble formed with Dan’s neighbor drummer James ‘Billy’ Dankert in late spring 2021. Between then and now the group has metamorphosed through several different line-ups, ultimately emerging as a trio in late summer 2023. Us ‘Greens are all dads and full-time professionals so have a finite amount of time to commit to rehearsals but nearly always have at least one in person practice a week. These occasions are chronicled by Dan in the band’s Facebook feed by the piculauare conveyance of a Certificate of Participation, otherwise known as a c]o[p and/or a proof of practice. These are small record cover-looking images including (since 2022 at least) an internal band email component where the events of the recent rehearsal are reviewed and planning future events is schemed upon. A ring-side seat to the Institutional Green, if your will. For whomever’s consideration here: https://www.facebook.com/share/1J34CBVZB3/?

Oakley Avenue is like a ballad with more a danceable tempo and the Midwest theme of fine. It’s an intriguing story. What was the inspiration?
So our pre-pandemic rehearsal spot was located on the corner of Prior and Oakely in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul. The area was mostly zoned industrial and had warehouses with truck bays scattered in every direction. One day I arrived to see an ambulance parked up on the sidewalk near a side door that led upstairs to what I’d imagined were some pretty hard-scrabble second level apartments above some abandoned storefronts on Prior. There was a gurney with a body on it sitting against the wall and a bored paramedic looking at his phone nearby. I recall the paramedic particularly well because he still had his blue rubber gloves on.

So _Oakely Ave_ is sort of an imagined retelling of the events leading up to the melancholy scene that greeted my arrival to band practice that day. Our down-on-his-luck protagonist tells his little sister-and by extension his whole family-that everything is fine during the song’s chorus, when everything is clearly not fine. Lots of losses from suicide and OD’s for older folks in that part of town and I guess I wanted to give voice to one of these lost people. One of the unfixable. One of the doomed. Maybe also to their families too. Bit of a bummer certainly, but that’s a ballad for ya.

I love the sneaky way you fit in local MN music lore into the songs. Can you tell us more about the Two Pauls and what made you want to write a song about them?
Sneaky! Ha! So yeah, _On These Two Pauls_ features tributes to the heroic efforts of ‘Front Row’ Paul Engebretson, his oft-times wingman photographer Paul Lungren and scissor-man scene-booster Jon Clifford. Clifford’s HiFi’s Loring Park Alley shows being the inspiration of the verses while the two Pauls, Lungren and Engebretson, being the inspiration for the choruses. Song was born out of a great deal of respect and appreciation for all three of them fellas and their relentless scene boosterism. Intended as a ‘thank you fellas’.

The ‘on these two Pauls’ line is a riff off the bible verse of Jesus saying, “I tell you that you are Peter, and it is on this rock that I will build my congregation, and the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Drummer Billy-one time classics PHD candidate-had to remind me that it was Peter the rock and not Paul the rock-ha!-but I think it works out nicely anyways. Chorus line “On these two Pauls we’re gonna rock this church” features the Paul’s congregation & the church being both Clifford’s now sacred alley-facing loading dock & the Basilica of St. Mary (John Ireland’s fundraising palace).

I’m of the opinion that one should write songs about worthy things and them Pauls and HiFi are certainly worthy. That one’s our single and we made a video for that you can check out on or after the video RELEASE date March 18th.

Deep Pockets was created during and post-pandemic. The pandemic gave us all more time, which likely helped make the album possible. But I’m wondering about the impact of the pandemic on the themes in the album. From Pandemic Robe, to Pause, to Darkness Outside (which may be my favorite!) seems like a more natural grouping or progression after going through the pandemic.
Well you’re certainly correct that COVID as much as any other factor made Institutional Green happen and most deeply influenced this recording. Band practice has always been critical to my mental health as that sort of ensemble teamwork requires being ‘present.’ It’s as close to meditation as I’ve been able to find and the loss of those 3 hours of weekly rehearsal time we’re pretty terrible to endure. That said, a year and a half of solitary band practice-free quarantine led me down some unexpected roads starting with a project to reinvent my electric guitar right hand technique to somehow-over the course of 5 years-morphing myself into a becoming a pretty decent singing bass player. Many of the songs on the recording as you point out were inspired by the events of 2020-21. _Pandemic Robe_ being a nod to a friend’s Facebook post about how she was gonna ‘burn the bathrobe’ her daughter’d worn for the entirety of the quarantine; _Pause_ about the struggles of trying to restart a band post pandemic-having to stop and restart every time someone got a runny nose; _Darkness Outside_ an imagined mass break-out from some sort of unjust confinement.

When and where is the album release?
On Wednesday April 2nd 2025, the band will celebrate the release of _Deep Pockets_ at the beloved Schooner Tavern in Minneapolis. For this live performance, Institutional Green will be co-billing with terrific friends of the band and tremendous local original rock colleagues Annie and the Bang Bang. NO COVER, Music from 7-10, 12 inch records available for purchase. Social Media card attached below. Also on Wednesday April 2nd 2025, _Deep Pockets_ will be available on Bandcamp, as 12 vinyl LPs at Twin Cities record stores as well as on your favorite streaming platforms.