Soul-Pop-Latin American? Pegasis Say They are Genre-Less – Shepherd Express (Hillman and Rissel Peguero met at UW-Green Bay and are alumni)

What do gospel-singing sisters do when they want to sing about more than God? “We decided to become genre-less,” say siblings Marvellis, Yaina and Rissel Peguero (’17, Music), along with Rissel’s jazz guitarist husband, Matt Hillman (’17, Music), in a collective voice in an interview conducted online about their group, Pegasis. The WAMI-nominated quartet travels from Green Bay to celebrate the release of their second EP, Two, at Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. (224 W. Bruce St.) for an 8 p.m. show on Thursday, June 16. Going from the Pegueros’ previous work plying their sumptuous sibling harmonies to a unique hybrid of soul gospel, Southern gospel and their Dominican roots to no genre at all may be a bit of an overstatement. When I suggest that their current amalgamation of smooth jazz, soul, pop and Latin American flavors is easily accessible but difficult to categorize, they concur.

“You said it perfectly! We decided our sound doesn’t fall into one category, and it doesn’t have to. We write what we feel, and it comes out how it comes out.” But how does it come out for the quartet in the home of the Packers, a city not really known an incubator of musical innovation? “The advantage is that we’re one–of-a-kind,” they proclaim, “but that’s also the challenge.” As for tendencies toward musical closemindedness in Northeastern Wisconsin, they observe, “People haven’t really heard our style before, so they are wary of listening. In our experience, people tend to say they only listen to one type of genre, so that creates an environment not conducive for different and new experiences.”

Source: Soul-Pop-Latin American? Pegasis Say They are Genre-Less – Shepherd Express