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| Michelle talks to San Francisco gonna-be's The Pleased |
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San Francisco band The Pleased (formerly The Please) have been around for a couple of years now, gigging incessantly up and down the west coast of America playing with the likes of Clinic, The Walkmen, The Music, Von Bondies and The Vines. They’ve self-recorded and produced their own EP’s and an LP and have been hailed as ‘one to watch’ by The Face magazine. A five piece who, by their own admission, convey a feeling of tense beginnings, awkward timing and sideways glances, a simple yet compelling sound of weighty hooks, hidden melodies and skewed stories, they have yet to be signed. However after an astonishingly brilliant show at Spaceland in LA this is all set to change….
For the readers who have yet to hear your songs can you describe yourselves and your influences?
Rich: as usual the influences are really too numerous but... the only ones, roxy music, new order, drowning in a gently whipped cream of scattered clang tone and tight melody.
Noah: Our songs are buildings made of small twigs. Sometimes they fall apart, sometimes they keep expanding and fill the air like a swarm of tiny birds.
Joanna: Jerry Harrison (from the Talking Heads and the Modern Lovers) is a big influence on my keyboard style. Is Rich allowed to talk about whipping cream on tight clang tone? [erm, not entirely sure what hes on about… so lets leave him to it eh!]
Luckey: Cynicism, irony, urban legends, J.D. Salinger
Genaro: Misfits, Stone Roses, Beach Boys
How did you all meet – seeing as though Rich is from England…
Rich: got caught in the jetstream and followed a lady from south London to the west coast. It was tough.
Noah: We all just wanted to be in the sunshine and we ran into each other.
Genaro: Noah's right.
So had you all been in other bands previously?
Rich: just messing around in bedrooms.
Noah: Just messing around on stages.
Joanna: Did my time in a few orchestra pits...
Luckey: It happened in the summertime....
Genaro: I played keyboard in New Jersey for about 3 practices and drums for about 2.
So why did you have to change your name (from The Please)
Rich: why do you think? And why not again?
Noah: Yes, let's change it again.
Genaro: Well, we knew we couldn't use The Please Please Please. It would have been just too much right now.
You were recommended as a “band to watch” in the Face magazine. Did it really make a major difference to the attention you receive(d)?
Rich: more people wearing sunglasses tuned in thinking we were the Strokes. Now they don’t understand.
Luckey: There was an attitude towards us like congratulations on making it, and I was like thanks, would you like me to clear that plate for you. Some people thought we were really making it, but we still had regular lives and jobs.
Theres this big Detroit scene going on at the moment, we’ve had the Greenwich Village scene with The Strokes, is there going to be a big SF scene with you leading the way?
Rich: SF has a fairly confused music scene that seems less intent on supporting itself than scrambling to be seen. We seem to be the ghost in the corridor of the SF music scene - no-one sees us but they're all scared. Gold Chains rock on.
Noah: The Bay Area has a good hip hop scene, a good electronica scene, and a good folk scene, but the rock scene is bad news. There are bands trying to fix it, and I suppose we are one of them. There have been some good SF bands in the past : Jefferson Airplane, Crime, Dead Kennedys, Blue Cheer, etc.
Luckey: there needs to be an audience first to have a scene. There aren't alot of people left living in SF that really go out to shows. I'll add The Grateful Dead and Huey Lewis and the News onto Noahs list.
Joanna, you’ve got a side project going on - can you tell us about that?
Rich: it’s the coolest. Jo?
Noah: I wouldn't call it a side project?
Joanna: I play the harp, I sing. It's a little influenced by Appalachian folk and a little influenced by 60s British folk. I wish someone else had described it, because I'm no good at describing such things. You can hear some MP3s at <a href="http://www.walnutwhales.com" target="_blank">http://www.walnutwhales.com</a>
Luckey: I have to hold back the tears when listening.
Genaro: Joanna's music could be the soundtrack for a documentary on dreaming of traveling by hot air balloon.
And as the only female in the band, how do you cope on tour with all that testosterone !? Are there any vile habits you’d care to share!
Jo: They're very un-vile. Genaro gets on my case for biting my fingernails; they're all very hygenic. We make dinners together and listen to records and hold footraces, and have all sorts of tournaments. Touring is pretty easy, anyway, because I sleep the whole time. I bring an inflatable pillow and fall asleep between stops, and Luckey gets serious and looks out the window and Rich or Noah drives and Genaro fidgets a lot and picks out CDs.
You recently toured with The Raveonettes (and have supported the vines, hot hot heat and more in the past) how did that go and have you got any good stories to spill?
Rich: Its all a blur of frenetically smashed guitars and speeding tickets for me. I don’t think we’ve played with a single band we didn’t like at least as people… there are no rock stars anymore - though the singer from the Music jumps around farting before going on stage.
Noah: I'm a big fan of everyone. Everyone's nice. Craig from the Vines was very sweet.
Jo: It's interesting; the biggest jerks we've played with have all been in smaller, less established bands...most of the big bands, even the ones famous for unruliness, were mellow and personable.
Luckey: Without their masks a few members of Clinic look suspiciously like the Gallagher brothers. hmm...
Genaro: We aren't really the kind of band who trashes dressing rooms and rages all night at the hip spot, but Luckey has been known to get out of control from time to time.
So from your tour here last year, which was your best UK gig (I saw you played the freebut in brighton with the mutts, I was down there at the weekend and that place is minute!!! It’s a brilliant place to see bands, well only for me cos I like the small venues….)
Rich: That was one of the best shows; a sweaty t-shirt swap with the cheeky Mutts. Soundhaus with High Drivers, Coventry craziness. Generally the more shambolic ones end up being my favourites. Leeds!
Noah: They were all absolutely perfect to the very smallest detail.
Luckey: I would say the Freebutt show with The Mutts.
Genaro: The Freebutt in Brighton was really fun cause there were many people there including Rich's parents and the Mutts crew.
Do you have any plans to come back to the UK soon? Any festivals coming up?
Rich: the plan is always yes but the reality is whatever we can get on our own.
Noah: UK Festivals dont know that we exist, and the US doesnt know that festivals exist, except for all of the fake-metal ones.
Rubbish ! lets get that changed, Glastonbury next year yeah !
Is there much difference in playing UK audiences verses US ones?
Rich: the UK ones easier because they are generally more inebriated.
Noah: People move their arms more in the UK.
Joanna: You can see across the room in the US on account of the no-smoking laws. And I'd always get in trouble for trying to tip the bartenders in the UK.
As a band that puts links to your new/unreleased tracks on your internet site, what do you think of the EMI decision to allow people to download their artists albums from the internet for a fee?
Rich: it's cool - they need to make money - but how can we live without album covers? Album covers become PC desktop wallpaper from here on.
Noah: I would like it if the artists actually get the money.
Joanna: I reckon at this point it's good for us if someone downloads a song without paying, because at least they want to hear the music, right? EMI can do as they like, but I would think that charging a fee would put something of a damper on the whole word-of-mouth, "check out this band" phenomenon.
Genaro: Joanna's right.
Do you think that letting a big company use one of your songs on one of their ads is wrong and selling out? This is an argument Ive had with loads of people, especially since the vodafone/dandy warhols ad. I dont consider it bad at all, the only thing that might happen is the song gets annoying because of overkill…
Rich: take the money and run. The Walkmen just did it and I still love them. Especially for smaller bands, why not? Unless its goes completely against your morals or something.
Noah: it depends for me. If the product or company is evil I wouldnt do it. That doesn't leave much, though, I'm afraid.
Joanna: I would definitely allow a song on a food ad. I can wholeheartedly stand behind foods, food products.
Luckey: It would have to be something we all believed in. Or someone we believed in.
Genaro: It could be really cool or really bad. The
Walkmen thing was cool.
So what bands are you listening to at the moment, come highly recommended from you
Rich: right now? suicide, the fixx, gold chains - I sometimes change the channel though.
Noah: Alvin Curran, Devendra banhart, Lee Hazlewood.
Joanna: Texas Gladden, Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Donovan...and a bit of Suede, these days, and the Talking Heads (always)...
Luckey: Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Adam Green
Genaro: Mamas and the Papas, House of Love, Tahiti's new pro tools creations, Snoop's new single "beautiful"
Is there anyone you’d get star struck in front of?
Rich: bryan ferry, michael caine, elvis
Noah: Abraham Lincoln, John Cage.
Joanna: Bowie, Dylan, Bjork, Justin Timberlake.
Luckey: Woody Allen, John McEnroe, Dylan
Genaro: Eric Koston, Marcel Duchamp, David Bowie
Talking dead or alive here, who would be your ideal band to tour with?
Rich: the walkmen
Noah: T- Rex
Joanna: Pentangle
Luckey: Blur
Genaro: Duran Duran [what can I say, the man has taste!]
Who designs your album/ep covers?
Rich: all of us are in on that but I am the genius who orders the rubber stamps.
And finally, can you give us your porn names - your first pets name + mothers maiden name... mine is
splish paterson, theres a wicked film out there waiting for me!
Rich: Snowy Lamb could be my new stage name. Rich Good was pretty porno itself but Snowy Lamb... thats quality
Noah: It's the same as my real name, because I kept myself as a pet and my father took my mother's last name.
Joanna: Muffin Mueller.
Luckey: Max Dean
Genaro: Lucy Fallwell
So there you go - or even better you could go here http://www.theplease.com
michelle |
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