| EWO - What kind of sound does your album have? M - It sounds a lot like the White Stripes (laughter). Exactly like the White Stripes. It's hard to do you know? To get a group of five guys to sound like two people, but we caught it. The real answer Tom? TJP - Oh I don't know. Funk infused... Funk infused rock music? M - Rock'n'roll TJP - Sort of funk infused garage music or something. The newer stuff with this group of guys, it only gets funkier. The newer stuff is even deeper on that tip. EWO - So we can take it from the title, "Party Planet Rising" that is somewhat of an upbeat album? TJP - Yeah, oh yeah. Actually, I think that's going to be the second single, the song "Party Planet Rising", which is very upbeat. EWO - Who would you say are your main influences for this band? M - Jack White (laughter) EWO - How do you distinguish the songs you write for this band from other bands you work with? TJP - Now we're all writing... One of the new songs, Mike wrote the guitar part and we all kind of wrote it together, and that?s about it. M - It's pretty organic how it happens, somebody will come up with an idea, and usually we'll be recording it before the songs even finished being written, and we'll be like 'put this on it, put that on it' and kind of build it into songs TJP - Most of the album comes from me and Jim (Diamond) being in the studio and saying play this bass to this drum track and kind of building stuff. It's a kind of nice, spontaneous kind of way to do things. EWO - So you tend to jam things out rather than bring things pre-written. TJP - Yeah, that'd be too much like a writer coming in with a song and saying 'okay, you play like this and you do that'. That feels really intensely boring to me. If you've got all these really great players in your band, then they've all got something to contribute so you don't have to do it like that. EWO - What would you say is your earliest musical influence? Or memory that inspired you to get into music. TJP - Yeah. Kiss. Everybody says Kiss? M - Chuck Mangione. TJP - Really? M - Actually ACDC had a lot to do with it. I don't know, hardcore bands. MW - Black Flag M - Yeah, Black Flag TJP - When I was in forth grade we did a little, I think you [Mike] have a similar story to this too, some friends and I did a little talent show, lip-synching to Kiss songs dressed up like Kiss. They had us go one in morning, earlier in the school day, and at the end of the day they had some time left and they didn't know what to do so they said 'Well you guys have a whole album, can you do another song'. So at the end of the day we came on to do another song, and we had our friends like flipping the lights on and off, we come out dressed as Kiss, only in fourth grade, and the whole school just goes '[screams]. They just erupt and I'm like, 'I could get used to this'. Michael has kind of a similar story. MW - I was in kindergarten I dressed up as Gene Simmons for Halloween for my kindergarten party, everyone else was dressed up as Spiderman or something nice, and I remember standing on top of the jungle gym with my Mickey Mouse guitar with my face all painted screaming and jumping off. It was all I wanted to do. EWO - So can we expect any face painting in this band then? TJP - No, not yet (laughs) M - (laughs) no comment. JB - We'll leave that door open. |
| detroit city council ...the interview |
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