L-R: Kip (guitar, vox), Peggy (keyboards, vox), Alex (bass)
Picking up with the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Catbirdman asked them about their songwriting process:
Peggy: We hang out a lot, so I feel like it kind of comes out of that, in a way, you know.
Kip: Yeah, the songs are just mostly about us, our lives and stuff. Like, I come up with maybe an idea for a song…. I mean like in between jacking off in my bedroom I write some songs and then I bring them to the band … and if they think they suck …
Kurt: We change them around.
Kip: It’s kind of like a seed, then everyone waters it, rakes it, and worships it. And then it’s like it grows.
Peggy: It’s democratic in all the right kind of ways, I think.
Kurt: It has to pass the Peggy dancing test, because if Peggy doesn’t dance then we don’t play the song.
Alex: That’s true. It helps to have Kurt too, ’cause Kurt like knows stuff about music. Cause if he’s like “we have this song literally already; you didn’t have to write it again,” then we throw it out.
Kip: Honestly, it’s like….It becomes so much like… I feel like that’s the thing… Who writes the song… It doesn’t matter who writes the songs; it’s like who actually plays it and the way they play it. If all the songs were about how I wrote it, it would all be the same drum beat and it would suck. But the fact that we did play it all together and like everyone working on their own parts, it makes it a Pains song. You know, it’s like not like some dudes like, Kip and the so and so’s. It’s like, everyone like writes their parts and the fact that it’s good is not because of my demos, my demos suck. You guys listen to my demos. They’re like pretty crappy, and if you listen to the real songs, they’re actually good. It’s not because of me, it’s because everyone says, “Oh, it sounds good but it would be better if I did this and stuff.” It’s like a cool democratic process where everyone kind of contributes their own.
Alex/Kurt: It’s like there’s a template in Kip’s ear. (laughter) There’s a template on Kip’s computer and it’s up to us to break out of the template. Destroy the template. (laughter) We break the template and we make it good.
Kip: I listened to Piebald the other day. They were like trying too hard to have like 87 different parts of the song.
Alex: We don’t have that capability.
Kip: It’s like sometimes bands try too hard. I’m gonna write like “Bohemian Rhapsody” but in Emo. (laughter) And I’m kind of like “Oh that first part of the song you were playing was really cool. Why did you have to go into like the 17 other parts of the song?”
Peggy: Yeah, we only have 3 parts.
Kip: I mean like, seriously, it’s kind of fun to joke about it, but what makes our songs good is that the people in the band are just open and like, friends, and there’s not an awkwardness about it. If Kurt starts playing a cool drum beat, everyone is pretty receptive to it because we all know Kurt’s much better at drums than I am. So it’s kind of like a general respect for each other, and the musical vision, the outcome, is kind of a product of all of us.
Catbirdman: So when you take over, and you tour all the arenas of the world, what are you going to do for the environment?
Kip: We’re definitely not gonna tour all the arenas of the world – ’cause that would hurt the environment.
Peggy: Oooooh.
Alex: Trick question.
Kip: Oh, we’re biodegradable.
Kurt: We’re not going to play any Cablevision shows.
C: How do you feel about the reception you’ve had?
Kurt: It’s so good. It’s fun. Honestly, it’s fun.
Peggy: Yeah, it’s more than we ever expected.
Kip: It totally exceeds our expectations. And some of the bands we love, that weren’t really appreciated in their time… Now it’s like The Vaselines get like reissued in triple LPs and stuff, and everyone appreciates them, but when they were making music, its like, most people didn’t. Same with most of the bands like Rocketship or … I don’t know, it’s like the stuff that’s considered canonical now…..They didn’t get to experience the joy of playing to a packed group like tonight with everyone being so psyched.
Alex: I mean like honestly why are you in a band? You’re in it to have fun with your friends, and to have people care about and respond to it. A: It’s like a given, that’s why we do it.
B: It’s like so much of a bonus. It’s so fun to see anyone just showing up and caring and dancing. It’s like the most fun you could have.
Kip: I could totally imagine us playing these same songs, the same set, in rooms to nobody. It’d still be fun. It’d still be awesome.
C: I hear in your songs a yearning to get to a place that’s like a perfect moment and a moment of elation. I think of “Come Saturday” where you’re expecting a lover to come into town and everything’s perfect right now. I think of “Hey Paul” …
Kip: Ah “Hey Paul”’s a really cool song. It’s about my friend Paul. He used to be in this really cool band, Cocaine Unicorn, and all of the lyrics are just kind of like Cocaine Unicorn songs. It’s kind of like all his song lyrics and we just made a song about him. They’re really good (Cocaine Unicorn). They kind of had a little problem with drugs, Cocaine Unicorn. When I lived in Portland they were my favorite band of all time and they were too much … they’re a little too like wasted to record all his songs … I made a song about him with his lyrics. I don’t know. I don’t know what a perfect moment is. I was looking out the window today and it was like overcast and rainy and all the trees were green and I was thinking how that was just great.
C: And I was looking at the withered wisteria on my deck and the clouds, knowing it was perfect as well.
Kip: There you go.
Will the Pains find their perfect moment? Tune in for Part 3 of this interview early next week.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Hey Paul
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Come Saturday (Live KEXP 2-9-09)
