Intervista ai Pete & The Pirates!

Il loro Little Death ci aveva fatto ballare parecchio quest'estate. Abbiamo incluso un loro brano (Mr. Understanding) in uno dei nostri ultimi nastroni e insomma, il nostro amore per loro non è mai stato nascosto.
Abbiamo incontrato questi ragazzotti inglesi in un'umida notte al Circolo Degli Artisti e ci hanno raccontato delle loro canzoni e delle band inglesi che stimano, dei Let's Wrestle e naturalmente dei loro frighi.

A voi!

(qui la traduzione in italiano)


First question. Your name is Pete & The Pirates, but who is really pete and who are the pirates?

Well actually there's two Petes and three pirates. Don't be fooled by the name just because it's Pete and The Pirates, there are two Petes in the band but we are all equals

And why did you choose the pirates?

I think it's just based on allitteration and..I don't know, it just came to us one day. It's not like we have a massive love for pirates but we are fond of the whole concept of pirates, and of the fun they have, going around. We don't terrorize people. But they're kind of wild, they run they sail the seven seas, go around the world see a lot of places and people.

This is like the second time you come to Italy in a few months. What's your idea about italian gigs and audience? Is it really different from U.K.?

Yeah, it is. Every time we come here - this is the third time - is a surprise I mean.. we don't have places like this in England, where there is a massive garden outside..nice things.. you get treated really well when you come here. You play to new people you won't play otherwise, which is always good. It seems to be a lot of love and passion for music over here, not there is not in England, but over here it seems so fresher
I think in England there are so many bands, so much live music, that people can become a sort of .. bored!

That's in fact my next question! From a foreign point of view, England is like full of million bands! We'd like you to suggest us some of the coolest band at the moment.

Ehm, the bands that I like are quite small at the moment but eventually big soon...there's a lady called Micachu who's got a band called The Shapes, Micachu and The Shapes.. they're quite amazing, I'm a big fan of hers..
And during our Uk tour there was a band with us called Connan Mockassin.. he's very good, he's talented, unusual..
Of course there are so many bands in England that tend to be a lot straight foward with like..an indierock sound, so people like Connan Mockassin or similar sound very refreshing-

We really like Let's Wrestle..

Oh yeah! That would be my next one, yeah we love them too.

Did you see their last myspace picture? They're like half naked, in a soft porn pose...

Wow! I haven't seen that actually..! We haven't seen them for like a few weeks actually..but we kind of used to play with them almost everyday.

They're very young, right?

Yeah, yeah... 18... around that. They used to be much younger (ridono tutti)

And how old are you?

I'm the youngest, I'm 20
We are all between 24 and 28, but I don't think every two of us have the same age.

So.. is it very easy for U.K. bands to reach a big audience?

I don't know.. I think it depends. I know bands that struggle and work hard to find their audience, but it's about playing music you believe in and you think is good, and then people will find out anyway, 'cos it's so easy to find out new bands. So... I guess if you're really good then it's easy.
- Well no.. it would be nice if it was as easy as that.. I don't know, sometimes in England things are so injust, or maybe unfair.
For example, it happens regularly in history.. if there's a band, let's say Nirvana.. when Nirvana came out there were suddendly all the record labels searching for bands like them. And the same thing happened with Oasis and Blur, and then the Artic Monkeys and the Libertines, a lot of bands came along..

Do you like The Wave Pictures?

Yeah..we like them.. they're so traditional, Dave has an amazing voice, their songs are very interesting...their sound is not so mainstream

You know, their biggest inspiration is Jonathan Richman..

Yeah that's why we like them. They're not just copying the trends, and that's important and that's what we also do, just write the music we like.

There's a song, She Doesn't Belong that is actually a Tap Tap song (il secondo gruppo del cantante, ndf) that you decided to record and include in your album. Why is that? Is it fair?!

Well it is actually his own solo project but we usually all write songs and switch them and many of our songs were written by one of us and then taken to the band, so that came naturally. Then, when he wrote it, it was sort of underground and we really liked it and it fit our band like no other song and we decided to play it!

Last but not least..what's in your fridge?

Well there's always plenty of cheese in my fridge and a lot of yakult, for an healthy digestive system, is what they say in the advert to make you think you're doing something good.
- I think in mine I tend to have a pack of beer, and some.. what's..?
- Eggs?
- No I'm not into eggs anymore..no..Those things I always want..olives! Olives maybe? Yeah, a jar of olives. I tend to eat and put a lot of things in the fridge. Bread, also, it keeps fresh for a long time.. And.. what else there's in my fridge? Cheese and ham! But actually I don't own a fridge anymore, so..
- What about Pete & The Pirates collective fridge? well.. BEER, beer.. then, CIDER. We're big fans of cider.
- Do you get cider in Italy?

Not so much actually...

That's why we had problem finding it here..
Then Coca Cola, and cheese and ham!