Peach Pit Interview Part II: The Commodore, Funky Dudes & Good Vibes
October 27, 2017
From left to right, Chris, Mikey, Peter, & Neil
All of my articles for WVAU can be put into this one single tweet by the Tyler, The Creator:
Un-Follow Me Now, This Is Gonna Be the Only Thing I Tweet About For The Next Week. Ive Wanted This For Years Fuck. What The Fuck.
— Tyler, The Creator (@tylerthecreator) July 21, 2011
Enough said. This is the second installment of the Peach Pit Interview as I was charmed by the wits of Neil, Mikey, Chris, & Peter and the original was over twenty pages, much too much for your short attention span. So here it is!
How did you guys get into playing bass and drums?
Peter: Like many bass players there were already two guitars in the band so … no I’m just kidding. Not really, that’s the truth actually. I did take up bass because of that. I was mostly playing guitar before and some bass. I basically started learning the bass for this band. And Mikey’s been playing drums since he was really young.
Mikey: I was a hyper kid. I was kinda rambunctious and needed a good outlet for that since I was constantly moving my arms around and like hitting things.
Peter: What did you parents try to do before that to chill you out?
Mikey: I don’t know
Peter: Tap dancing!
Mikey: Oh yeah, my mom was a tap dancing teacher and tried to get me into that.
Photos by Rosa Pyo
Favorite drummer or drum performance?
Mikey: Classic answer for me is John Bonham from Led Zeppelin, pretty inspirational for a lot of drummers.
Peter: For me now I’m not really into any new drummers, there aren’t any.
How about any classic drummers?
Peter: Ringo Starr was cool, he had his own style.
Neil: We were actually arguing last week in a hotel room, some of us were polarized whether Ringo Starr was a good drummer or not.
Peter: Ringo Starr was definitely cool. He had a lot of flavor.
Mikey, did you think Ringo Starr was a good drummer?
Mikey: For me it was actually more about whether Ringo Starr is the most famous drummer in the world because he was in The Beatles or because he was a good drummer. For me I think it was because he was in The Beatles.
All in all, what is your album, Being So Normal, about?
Neil: It is about, across the board, personal stories of mine where times are secret anger towards friends and I actually think some of the stories are kinda embarrassing, like when I tell the people the back story they don’t necessary paint me in the best light. I seem a bit bitter I think. All the songs are definitely melodramatic. The way things actually played out weren’t actually as dramatic, but in my mind they were very intense.
Peter: Neil’s a dramatic kid.
Neil: I had bad acne in high school. I’m scrawny now, but I was really scrawny back then and I always just felt unwanted which was not really true but that’s just the high school feel. And it’s okay because when I was writing these songs I really felt that way and now that I’m twenty four I’m like it hurts being a little bit of a drama queen.
Do you have a dream venue you want to play at?
Mikey: yeah, our hometown’s Commodore in Vancouver
Peter: It’s this special legendary venue, where everyone has played at. If you pass through Vancouver, they played at the Commodore. Its cool because it’s- well the thing is it has a twelve hundred cap venue but it’s Vancouver’s most legendary, nostalgic venue.
Neil: I have a picture back home in my bedroom wall of my great grandparents, 1925 or something like that, and they are at the Commodore ballroom when it was having a dance night. They are all dressed up in suits around a big table drinking scotch. So it would be really sweet to play there.
Photo: Never Radio
I’m going to name three people and you have to chose two who cease to exist. All their music influence. Everything. Neil Diamond, James Brown, and Rick Springfield.
Neil: Oh shit
Peter: I don’t think I know anything by Rick Springfield
Neil: What’s that song he’s famous for ?
Born To Be Wild?
Peter, Neil, & Mikey singing in unison: Born to be wildddddd
Neil: I know who I have to pick to kill. James Brown
Mikey: Springfield? Dude Neil. Neil Diamond is the coolest Neil. I think we got to keep Neil Diamond. He inspired the world. He’s beautiful.
Peter: Dude, James Brown.
Neil: He did bad stuff though.
Peter: He’s a funky guy
Mikey: James Brown and Rick Springfield
Neil: Same
Peter: Neil Diamond and Rick Springfield.
What would you describe your band’s aesthetic, not just music wise but the entirety?
Neil: Oh I know. This is how we describe ourselves. We look like five year olds going to someone’s birthday party and their mom dressed them for the birthday party. We look like little gentlemen. You know when you’re six years old and you’re going to your cousin’s birthday party or something and your mom puts you in a little turtle neck and everything
Peter: She wants you to look adorable for the birthday party.
Neil: You got you turtle neck, a bowl cut, you got your gold shirt, Osh Kosh overalls, a nice yellow shirt with a little cap and a short little mustache.
Last Question (that is a lie), what is your favorite venue or gig you’ve played?
Peter: Our album release definitely.
*A wild guitarist, Chris, appears*
Photo by Rosa Pyo
Chris: My favorite gig was in a parking lot in L.A. and we did it in a parking lot because the show was 21+ and a lot of people wanted a show for all ages so twenty five people showed up just because we posted on twitter and instagram about it and we played a really simple acoustic set with Mikey on drums, Pete had a shaker and back up vocals, it was really intimate.
Neil: that was cool too because that was our first time in LA and first time playing in the states and we didn’t know who was going to come to our show and then all these people showed to our actual show and parking lot thing and we were like wow.
Peter: Parents drove their kids up from san diego to la to see us play just five songs on the street and was cool.
Coming from Vancouver, Canada, how do the crowds differ in the states?
Peter: Differs from city to city big time.
Neil: It really depends. We played in New York the other day and that was really fun but the crowd wasn’t super, maybe it was our fault maybe we weren’t rocking out hard enough but they weren’t that responsive. Where as yesterday in Boston was really sweet. People were like dancing and singing. Giving us good responses and what about Vancouver.
Chris: I have to say Vancouver is usually our best crowd and that’s cause we got really good group of friends that come to our shows and just dance and mosh and have the best time ever and it really ignes the whole crowd.
Mikey: Vancouver can get real cold
Neil: Yeah, we just have friends that get just wasted and at our last show at the album release there were three of our best buds stacked on top of each other in like a three man totem pole and it was crazy.
Mikey: They were all shirtless.
Chris: We love Vancouver and we’re hoping we can get other cities to get as into it as Vancouver.
Stay connected with the band:
https://www.instagram.com/
