stream "You & Your Friends" by Peach Pit for clear skin and eternal good luck :)
Mikko: What got you into music? Was there a certain defining moment where you decided you wanted to pursue music, or was it always something you wanted to do?
Neil: Well, since I was a pretty young kid, my dad played guitar, he plays harmonica and stuff. Whenever we’d go camping, my dad would always bring out his guitar and like sing songs together, so my family was always really into singing and playing music. And then as I got a little bit older, my dad actually had a book of Cat Stevens guitar music, do you guys know Cat Stevens?
Mikko/Emily: Yeah
Neil: Yeah, it’s the best. Anyway, so I had this whole book of Cat Stevens songs and one summer with my dad we learned a bunch of these Cat Stevens songs and he kinda taught me how to play guitar and then from that point on I was super into playing guitar and music, so that was probably when I was 15 years old, something like that. But before that I was really into, I was kind of a nerd, so I was really into like juggling, and magic tricks, and so I always wanted to be a performer, and I guess I just wanted to be one, what I was doing didn’t matter. And then, yeah, once I got into guitar I realized that that was really the shit, so I guess just kind of the influence of my family, the influence of my dad being musical and that’s kinda what got me into it.
Mikko: Sick
Emily: Wait, don’t write this down but like, is my music too loud, like can you hear the music
Neil: No, no, it’s good, it’s fine. You should include that in the interview though
Mikko: I will, definitely
Emily: Mikkooooo
Mikko: It’s going in, Emily, you can’t stop me
Emily: i’ve accepted my fate, anyways, so “You and Your Friends” was released in early April, which is obviously really cool! What’s your favorite song off of the album and why?
Neil: I think deep down my favorite song on the album is the second to last one on the album. It’s called “Your Teeth” and I like the song because it’s kinda weird, it doesn’t really sound necessarily like something that we would’ve written before and it’s like a really personal song to me. I wrote it after a relationship that I was in, so it means a lot to me and then also judging by the streams of the record so far it seems to be everyone’s least favorite song on the album, so it kinda makes me like it even more, you know?
Mikko: So, is there anything about the music industry that you didn’t realize until Peach Pit started gaining popularity, or is there anything you previously thought that turned out to not be true?
Neil: Oh, I mean, so many things. When we first started Peach Pit, I had played in a band before with a friend of mine when I was in high school and stuff, so I kinda knew what it was like to play shows, and like I did a couple little tours in that band, but honestly me and the guys really had no idea what we were doing and so all of it was totally new to us, you know? We didn’t know how to get a manager, how to get a booking agent, how to get on a record label or anything like that, so it was all completely new. As far as things like being different than I expected them to be, I don’t know. One thing that I find interesting is that especially when you’re starting out being in a band, the idea of playing for 100 people is like “oh my god that’s crazy”, and then the idea of playing for 500 people is like “i can’t believe this would ever happen”. But like the way that it works with playing shows kinda all happens gradually, so by the time you get to play in a theater or something like that, you feel totally ready for it, or I felt totally ready for it. So that’s like one thing I didn’t really expect, you know, you’re always like “I don’t get how anyone can do that, how could they perform for so many people”, but as it happens gradually you kinda get more comfortable with it, and so that’s kinda cool.
Mikko: Awesome
Emily: Wait, the questions disappeared ahaha
Mikko: I can get the next one if you want
Emily: No, it’s ok I got it
Emily: What are you favorite and least favorite parts of being in a band/being a musician?
Neil: Definitely my favorite part is getting to go on tour and play shows, for sure, 100%. That's like, like when me and Chris, and Peter and Mikey when we get to tour together we just, we have so much fun. We’re really good friends and we just get to travel all over the place and play, you know, big concerts with tons of people and everyone's excited. It’s so much fun. And just like yeah definitely the best part of being a musician is going on tour. The least favorite part, ummm, you know there's some stuff that comes along with it you just have to do. You know you have to market yourself. With quarantine there's a lot of pressure to be creating extra content for the internet all the time because, you know, people are afraid you're going to get forgotten about. Especially when you can't go on tour and you can't go play for your fans. That’s kinda my least favorite part I don’t like doing that kinda stuff. Like I enjoy making the funny videos we make but then anything kinda past that as far as social media stuff is not really my favorite. I think if I was not in this band then I totally wouldn’t have instagram or anything like that. It gets me anxious. Yeah.
Mikko: That kinda ended up leading into our next question. Anyway, so what besides touring changed with music or being in a band because of quarantine?
Neil: Oh yeah no yeah definitely. So no touring. Yeah it’s just all that extra content creation they everyone sorta seems like they feel like they have to do right now. Which I don’t love. Yeah more than anything just the fact that we can’t go on tour. It really hit me hard today, like I’ve kinda been okay with it this whole time. Just because it’s like, all my family’s okay, my friends are okay. I live in Vancouver and our city’s doing pretty good so that’s sweet. So I was kinda looking at the silver linings of the whole situation but today I got really bummed out. We were supposed to be playing a show in New York tonight at a music venue called the Bowery Ballroom
Emily: Oh wait I’ve been there!
Neil: Oh you’ve been there?
Emily: Yeah
Neil: See I’ve never been, but it’s like one of those bucketlist venues for me. I’ve always wanted to play at the Bowery. And we were supposed to play there tonight and so I was feeling pretty bummed today that we don’t get to be there.
Emily: Are you guys gonna reschedule your tour, for like after quarantine?
Neil: Yeah, yeah for sure it’s already being rescheduled right now. We’ve had to move it twice. We already rescheduled it and were going to announce and then we had to reschedule it again. So it’s been a pain in the ass for sure.
Emily: So if you had to choose one song that would play everytime you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Neil: Oh easily it would be Sandstorm by Darude. Na Na Na Na Na na na Na Na Na Na Na, You know every time. That’d be sick.
Mikko: I love that. Okay umm vinyl , cassette, CD, or digital and why?
Neil: Definitely vinyl but I wouldn’t say… everyones goes “Oh vinyl just sounds so much better.” But like I’ve got good earphones like my Spotify sounds really good too but I just love having the like sleeve with the art on it and like you get to look at the track list all close up. A lot of bands put a lot of work into the artwork on their albums and the sleeves that you get inside with all the lyrics and everything, I love that stuff. So definitely vinyl.
Mikko: Awesome
Emily: What was the first live show that you played with Peach Pit and what was that experience like?
Neil: Oh man I can remember it so clearly. It was, what year would it have been, I think it was probably… it was… errr.. it was like 2015 it was in 2015. Uhh me and the boys got to play at a house show that was happening. There was a house party and there was a band on the bill that I actually know now but at the time I didn’t know them personally, but they were a Vancouver band that I had heard of. So the fact that we were on the bill of a band that like, I knew the name of, I was like so excited about it. And it was on Valentine’s Day, a saturday night at this house. And this was before Mikey was our drummer, we had a different drummer, and Mikey actually was there. He was playing in a different band and they were on the bill as well. He was at that show with us but he wasn’t in the band then. And yeah we got to play this house show and we got all our friends to come. And like my sister came and my cousins came. And it was this packed house, the house party was packed. And we had been practicing for a year. Kinda before that we hadn’t played any shows, we practiced really hard for a year. And we were so so excited but we only had like five songs we could play. So we played peach pit, we played seventeen, we played alrighty aphrodite, drop the guillotine, and maybe one more, we didn’t have any other songs besides those. And it was awesome. I had like thought about what I was gonna say on stage for like weeks leading up to it. And I had like jokes and stuff and my jokes landed and people thought I was funny. And then I remember we went out to the alley of the house afterwards and I was like hugging the guys. We were so excited. The show went we, we were like “we’re gonna make it, we’re gonna be famous!” And uh I cried hahaha. So yeah anyway I definitely miss those times for sure cause we get to now play all kinds of cool shows all over the place. But not many are as fun as that first show we ever had together. So yeah that was pretty cool.
Emily: House shows are always really fun, honestly.
Neil: yeah it’s the best, just playing in someone's living room, its so fun
Emily: or like the backyard mock stage where they just like set aside that awkward little corner.
Neil: Yeah yeah for sure
Mikko: Okay so what is one thing you want your audience to take away from listening to your music?
Neil: I think uh, I don’t have any specific intentions for what I want people to take away from the music. What I want is for them to be able to relate to it. Because all the songs that we write are pretty personal, like about stories that actually happened to me and stuff. And so anytime that I can write a song and someone can relate to the experience, I really like that. So whenever I hear someone being like “Aw this reminds me of this” or “this helped me through this” kinda stuff, thats what I like. But like yeah honestly, if people wanna listen to it just because they like how it sounds thats good too, I honestly don’t care.
Emily: Last, but very important question, does pineapple belong on pizza?
Neil: What do you guys say?
Emily: Sometimes
Mikko: I think it does
Neil: I personally don’t like pineapple on pizza, but I’m not a picky eater. If there’s a hawaiian pizza I’ll be fine to eat it, like I’ll enjoy it. But yeah, I would have to say, I would never order it on pizza.
Mikko: I can respect that.
Emily: That was all the questions
Neil: Yeah if there’s anything else you wanna ask, just off the top of your dome.
Emily: Yeah, wait, actually, were you involved in the Vanvouver local music scene before you started Peach Pit.
Neil: Yes, for sure. But like, to a different extent. So like I played before Peach Pit, you guys can look it up on like youtube after this it’s pretty funny, but uh I was in a folk band duo with my friend Sydney when we were 16 or something like that. And so it was back when… how old are you guys?
Emily: 16
Neil: So you’re 16, okay so like back when I was 16, Mumford and Sons and just come out and like it was the most popular thing ever, and so like everyone was playing folk music. So I played in a folk duo with my friend. It was acoustic guitar, I played, and she played banjo, and we were called Dogwood and Dahlia. So I’d been playing shows with her but we were kinda in the “folk music scene” in Vancouver. And it kinda is a bit different than the rock scene or the indie scene that we ended up playing with in Peach Pit. So I knew how to book shows and stuff in Vancouver, but I didn’t know cool bands that I liked so it was all pretty new to me when we started Peach Pit.
Emily: That’s really cool.
Neil: So that’s it?
Emily: Wait I got one more question. Your instagram bio says wedding cover band, have you guys actually played a wedding?
Neil: We have, we actually have. We played at our friend Andrew and Stephany’s wedding in October we were the wedding cover band at their wedding. So we learned, so this guy Andrew it was his wedding, back when I first started playing music in this folk band he was older than me and he kinda took me under his wing a little bit. And so we’ve been friend for ages and then the very first tour that we did with Peach Pit we did with his band. And uh and so we’re really good friends with them. So he asked us if we would play at his wedding and we were like “hell yeah.” So we learned like 15 covers and we were the entertainment at the wedding and it was actually so much fun. It was like the best, it was great.
Emily: That’s really cool.
Neil: So when you guys ever get married you can hire us.
Emily: Yay!
Neil: Okay well, nice to meet you Emily, nice to meet you Mikko.
Mikko: Yeah thank you so much.
Neil: Yeah good luck with school and everything.
Emily and Mikko: thank you
Neil: Alright take care, bye
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