Text: Vania Almira
Photo: Atwood Magazine

The performance of Peach Pit has been one of the most eagerly awaited concerts within the Noisewhore Live Day 2. Combining a chill indie pop music with witty attitude and unique style, this Canadian-based band which consists of Neil Smith (lead vocalist/guitarist), Peter Wilton (bassist), Christopher Vanderkooy (guitarist), and Mikey Pascuzzi (drummer), managed to amaze their fans through their performance last Sunday. Their performances succeeded in bringing up the joy amongst the audience. During their preparations, Peach Pit made time to answer several questions for our mini-interview session, where we talked about their whole tour experience and their music.

You finished European tour in early 2018, and now you’re in your Asia tour before going to UK in May. Having gone far away from home, how would you describe this whole tour experience?
Neil: Really crazy. For us, it’s been fun, but the biggest thing is we started this band 3 years ago in Chris’ bedroom and we always wanted to go places to play music. We kind of believe that maybe we could, but we didn’t expect this to happen so soon. So, being here and playing a sold out show – it’s just insane to imagine. It’s hard to comprehend.

Peter: The world of the tour is kind of been surreal, we played in London, Amsterdam, and Paris, all this city where we have sold out crowd, and everyone was so excited to see us and talk to us. You can maybe know that there are some see on Spotify or some seat numbers that say, ‘Oh, you have these many listeners from this city and this city’, but to actually see people at the show excited to come out, buy t-shirt and really singing along to every song, it’s just hard to believe every single night. It’s been really great.

Neil: Besides, the Asia tour has been fun because it’s just extra nice for us. It’s so different than North America and different than Europe where it’s cold at the winter time, and so coming here and playing a warm show, it’s been nice.

You identify yourself as ‘chewed bubblegum pop’. What is the idea or story behind the phrase?
Chris: Well, bubblegum pop is kind of like a light and happy sound, and I think it’s mainly when we first started the band. It was very upbeat and happy sounding, but the lyrics were very sad and got a bit more grungy. So, it’s not just a bubblegum pop; it’s like chewed up.

Neil: Take a piece of gum that you find underneath the table at the restaurant. Also, we sort of copied Mac DeMarco, where he called his music jizz jazz. I think it’s good to come up with your own name of your genre because whenever people ask, ‘What kind of music do you play?’ It’s like, ‘Oh, we play indie rock’, but there are so many different types of music to classify this indie rock. So, we want to make up something that was something more specific for us, for our music, that was easy for people to figure out in their mind.

What is the significant difference between the making of “Being so Normal” and your debut EP, “Sweet FA”?
Chris: Hmm. That’s a good question.

Neil: (laugh) I think, people think that there was a real plan for us about that, but realistically we already had a bunch of songs written when we released “Sweet FA”, and including songs is not for the album. We just like, ‘Okay, how many songs we have, and we just take this one, this one, this one and this one’, and put them on the EP. It wasn’t a specific thought process. It just happens naturally that way.

Chris: It was nice because I think the songs on the EP happened to be a little bit more bright and poppy, and the songs on the album happened to be a little more grungy and hard. We recorded it a little bit differently. So, when we did the “Sweet FA” EP we did it track by track, but for the album, we wanted to make it more live, so we just did it live in the studio. It definitely makes it a little bit more rock.

You include personal stories in your music, such as “Tommy’s Party”, “Drop the Guillotine”, and “Seventeen”. Has sharing the stories behind your songs become your way to relate more to your audience?
Neil: Yeah, I think so. I think people really like it. I especially love it when you go see a show, and the artist doesn’t just go like, ‘Hey guys how is it going?’ or ‘Are you having fun tonight?’ And then they don’t really tell you that much about themselves. I like it when you go see a show, and you feel like you kind of get to know the band a little bit.

We’re always talking on stage and saying silly things, and so I think having back personal stories makes people kind of feel like they can relate to you a little bit more. Especially with those 3 songs, it’s very obvious what they are about. It’s not hard to figure out the stories behind the song, and I think people will like it. One of our favorite artists is this Canadian artist named Andy Shauf, he has lots of narrative stories, and I was inspired by that. I wanted to write songs just about my personal life things that happened to me that were just like a narrative of things.

How has the zest of the tour affected you as musicians?
Neil: (laugh) What do you think Mike? How does that affected you?

Mike: I don’t know, I just feel the same as I did before, but a little bit more experience that I got to travel and try different food and hang out with my friends, having fun.

Neil: I think that’s the right thing that you said I’m feeling more experienced. I guess after this tour we feel like we know how to go on tour now that we feel we have much more confident.
We only started touring 7 months ago and now – especially after the European tour – we feel like we know exactly how to go to a sound check, how to play a good show, and just know how to talk to promoters, know how to talk to the sound guys and stuff. So, I think it really helped us kind of mature a little bit as a band.

Peter: So, it’s kind of raise our confidence a bunch because today we can go across most of the world and play even better show that we can in our own country, which is pretty amazing. It’s almost like we’re more well-known everywhere else in the world. It’s been really cool to go to a random country that we never thought we could to, like Singapore where we have 2 sold out shows.

Are you planning to keep the match between chill-jaunty-pop music and muted pastels color palette or are we to expect something different in your next project?
Peter: Well, we don’t know (laugh). I don’t think we’ve thought it through that much. So, if anybody thinks we have a plan for exactly what we’re gonna do at each time, we more just kind of shrugged our shoulders.

Neil: We have our friend Lester who makes all our music videos, he takes all of our press photos, and comes up with all sort of like the art sides of it. So, we’re just like, ‘Lester what do you think we should do?’ And he will be like, ‘Oh yeah, you should do this’ and we’re just, ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea. We’ll do that.’

Mike: But I think for the sound, it could change a little bit, but we don’t know because we only wrote a few songs for the next album. But I think it’s still Peach Pit. We still got the same vibe so far.

Neil: Yeah, our attitude has been whatever feelings good, then that’s what are we gonna do.