Comics and Karaoke: An Interview With The Pack A.D.
Comics & Karaoke: An Interview with The Pack A.D.
By Melissa Smith
MS: I’d like to ask you about the use of piano on Tintype. The piano does have a history in blues but more of a ragtime or honky-tonk sound. Yet you made the decision to use classical sounding piano. Was that a deliberate choice to counterbalance the heavy rock sound?
Becky Black: I just recorded those for fun at my house. I’ve never taken lessons so I just make it up. I decided to record them and Maya thought it would be a good idea to put them on the album so we did.
I like it. I think it’s a nice counterpoint. I saw you live before I ever heard your album so I was surprised.
Maya Miller: We get mixed reactions about the piano. There are some people who don’t even know what the heck it’s doing on the album.
BB: I like how the piano at home is so old and it hasn’t been tuned for so many years. It just sounds like a piece of crap cos it is. But in a good way.
I was looking up a few of your reviews online and a couple times, I came across the sentiment that your music was frightening. Have you come across this before?
BB: I don’t know where that came from really. I guess you could say I sound pretty angry when I sing.
MM: And I don’t really drum gently. It’s a weird one and it has been coming up a lot. There’s this perception that we can drink everyone under the table and that we’re great at poker.
And is that true?
MM: I can drink and I’m okay at poker. I think it’s something that someone wrote along the way and then someone else wrote the same thing and it went from there. But Becky can drink most people under the table.
I was actually surprised when I first saw you perform. You both look so unassuming and then you get on stage and this roar comes out. So after I read those perceptions about you I tried to go back and listen to Tintype through the ears of someone who has never seen you before. Maybe if I heard you prior to seeing you, I might think you were these hard biker women but I don’t know.
MM: That’s hilarious.
BB: That’s really cool. I think maybe if we didn’t play music we would be more like that.
Is it true you became a two piece due to the dissolution of your previous band?
MM: We were in a four piece, us and two guys. We didn’t play any shows. We lasted for about a year. Not even a year
BB: No, a summer. A very fun summer. We ended up not agreeing so we just branched off into the two of us.
The two of you are best friends. Were you best friends before you started the band?
BB: Yep
Do you think it is a positive or negative?
BB: It’s the most important thing. It’s really important to get along with your band members. It’s more important than being musically skilled, I think.
MM: Musically we both tend to agree on things or we both know where things should go
BB: I’m gonna make her sing
Can you sing?
MM: Very poorly. I’ m very good at karaoke. I can keep a tune if I’m singing with someone but the minute anything fancy happens I lose track. Becky has this really unique amazing voice but I don’t have that.
BB: For the record, I am going to make you sing one day
MM: For the record, I will.
BB: For the record, we’re also going to switch instruments one day.
MM: I’ve got to get cracking on learning guitar
BB: I don’t need to learn the drums
MM: No you don’t. You’re a very good drummer.
Is that sarcasm?
MM: She’s kind of like Animal from the Muppet Show. It’s pretty fun.
BB: I forget lyrics all the time. I don’t talk to the audience or say jokes for our live shows. I can’t even remember my lyrics how can I remember anything else?
You have a sound that lends itself to the forgetting. You can just do a wail.
BB: There’s a live recording of one of our songs and I have no idea what I was singing for one verse. Nothing makes sense but it kind of sounds like I was making words. I thought I was getting away with it but probably not.
How is it working with your label Mint? Are they supportive? Do they have a hands off approach?
MM: They have a hands off approach with all of their bands. I think that we really lucked out with them. They want you to do whatever you want to do. They’ve been really supportive. I think that we have been quite different for them musically from a lot of the bands they have had. Their head office is right across the street from our band space, so we can go over there and drink the beer in their fridge and eat their cookies
What else do you need in a label!
MM: They handle the publicity which is really helpful but we arrange the tours ourselves. Right now we have a UK booking agent but we handle all our own north American dates which is hell on wheels.
So how do you decide where you want to go? Get a pin?
MM: With Canada it’s a no brainer, you just go straight across. We’re finally going to get to the Maritimes this fall which is really great. We’re doing another 6 week tour of The States. We’re still looking for a North American booking agent.
BB: And a time manager.
MM: Hopefully someone will pop up and take it on.
Are you excited about your UK tour?
MM: I think we will be once we get there. I should bring a camera.
BB: We don’t take pictures.
MM: That’s what we realized from the last tour. Neither of us take pictures.
I’m sure other people do it for you. And then post it on YouTube….
BB: Yep. Click click click. Steal our soul.
That’s the thing isn’t it? You don’t have to give someone clearance to put something up on YouTube.
BB: Not on Flickr or YouTube or anything like that
MM: In the UK they actually did (write) up an official contract. No one is allowed to take pictures which I think is great. Right now we’re at this weird time where almost everyone is a photographer or videographer and it’s not statistically possible that they’re all good. And then everyone wants to post what they’ve done on the internet. You can’t call them and say take that picture off. But it’s what you set yourself up for.
BB: You just have to let it go.
Any other destinations planned?
MM: We are supposed to be doing a festival in Spain in November and possibly a festival in Bogotá, Columbia in October. This dude in The Netherlands has been trying to get us to do some shows in Europe. I would love to play Japan and Russia.
You haven’t gotten very many bad reviews have you? I read one that bordered on bad but it was from Toronto which is what they do there, criticism is an art form within itself. But even that review gave you 3 out of 5.
BB: The thing is we have never had a bad live review and our live performances are a more accurate representation of who we are.
MM: I don’t mind a bad review if it is intelligent and they are dissecting the album logically. There was one where the person used the review to support their agenda and dragged us into it like we were part of what they were talking about. That was really frustrating. And then there was another one where it was obvious that the person had not even listened to the album. That was irritating.
BB: For the record our album is not a feminist statement
MM: It’s not.
My concession to feminism was that I was not going to ask you any questions about being women. None at all.
BB/MM Thank you!
Almost every single thing I have read mentions you are women and I thought my god, it’s 2008, can we just not do this?
BB: The funny thing is, people always say you’re so great because you’re women. And that is supposed to be a progressive statement. But it’s not. Would our music not be good if we were men?
I know! It’s like, does my vagina somehow interfere with my ability to play an instrument?
MM: Yeah it’s scary. But then the more we talk about it the more it becomes an issue. So that’s the end of that.
BB: (joking) So you won’t use this to promote your agenda right? You won’t twist everything we say? Can you imagine if you had a condition where everything you heard got twisted and you said exactly the opposite thing?
There are people with that condition. I believe they all work in PR. Now, this is a little off topic but Steve Earle recently played in Vancouver and he charged $175 a ticket. He has inspired so many musicians and yet none of them could afford a ticket to go see him. Could you ever see yourself going down that route where you’re charging $175 a ticket?
BB: I hope that we would never charge anymore than I would be willing to pay and I don’t like paying any more than $40.
MM: That’s my limit too.
BB: He doesn’t seem like the type of person to do that. I wonder what the story behind that is?
MM: Who would pay $175?
BB: The members of the Olympic committee!
MM: I think that is really expensive but on the flipside, I think so many shows are under priced. A lot of times you will see 3 bands playing and it’s only $5 to get in. And while that is a great deal for everybody, some people will still ask to be put on the guest list.
BB: Yet people will pay $20 to go to a club with one DJ. So many people undervalue what bands are worth. It’s like that film (Festival Express). It was Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, The Grateful Dead, Flying Burrito Brothers and a bunch of other cool bands. They were traveling through Canada on a train and they encountered protests because the hippies thought music should be free. It costs money to bring the musicians to the show. Music is only free if you make it yourself.
Speaking of Janis Joplin, how do you feel about getting compared to her so much?
BB: It’s obviously a huge compliment because I think she’s amazing but I don’t think I sound like her. I am ok with being compared to other musicians, but I don’t like it when people say we are ripping off other musicians.
MM: There seems to be a misunderstanding that we are upset about being compared to The White Stripes and that’s not the case at all.
BB: We don’t like people saying we are ripping them off cos it’s not true. If you’re a duo with a certain sound people automatically compare you to The White Stripes. But they did popularize the whole blues rock crossover.
So do you like Fat Possum records?
BB: I like R.L. Burnside.
MM: And T-Model Ford, who is playing at the same festival as us.
The Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota?
MM: It’s coming up in July. We can’t wait. The talent we will be playing with is phenomenal.
How did you get involved with the festival?
MM: Someone heard our album and really liked it. They told us we should meet their friend Jay. And through Jay we met all of these other bands that were into the same music and Chris Johnson, the festival organizer. This will be the second year for the festival. He wanted us to play last year but we couldn’t make it.
Is the Jay you are referring to DJ Hwy 7?
BB: It is. He has the best record collection I have ever seen! Were you at the show he played with us?
I was. I find your partnership with him really interesting. You see musicians and DJs do shows together but never really in your genre.
MM: Before him, I had never heard really heard a DJ play music like that before.
So do you have an ultimate plan with The Pack A.D.?
BB: We just want to be able to make a living and sometimes that is hard to do. It’s a lot of work doing your own stuff and I really hope it pays off. If it fails, maybe I’ll be an auto mechanic.
Really? Because that was a question I was going to ask you. What would you be doing if you weren’t a musician?
BB: I would probably be an artist. I am into graphic design and I draw a lot but I don’t get a lot done cos I am too much of a perfectionist. I am pretty much a perfectionist with everything in my life except playing music
And yet music is the thing you put out there for public scrutiny.
BB: For some reason, with music it doesn’t bother me if it’s messy but anything else I do has to be perfect.
MM: I would like to open a comic store.
So you and Becky also have an interest in graphics in common?
MM: Yeah. We’re working on a comic together right now.
BB: Actually I take back my other answer. If we were not in the band we would open a comic shop
MM: And café.
BB: And bar.
MM: And live music venue.
All of your interests rolled into one. So how far along are you with the new album?
MM: It’s done. We recorded it over Christmas and finished up late January, early February. It will be released August 12th. Becky is working on the layout but other than that, it’s ready to go.
Why such a gap before you release it?
MM: We decided to re-release Tintype on Mint and we needed time in between so that the new album does not get lost in the shuffle. It will be exciting to play new songs.
Hopefully the new album reveals more of how we sound live.
BB: I’m so scared about that.
MM: I’m nervous too.
I think that’s perfectly normal. It’s the curse of the sophomore album.
MM: The first album it was like let’s do 17 songs over 47 minutes because there was no one there to judge. Now we’re on a label and we’ve had some good reviews
BB: There’s higher expectations
I think that’s human nature isn’t it? Anyone who reads things about themselves, whether they are true or not, at some level you incorporate them into your psyche.
Genre wise, is it similar to Tintype or will there be any surprises?
BB: There’s no piano but there are a variety of styles. It is still pretty close in sound.
How many songs are on the album?
MM: Eleven. Our songs are getting longer. The new album will be put out on vinyl so the songs are organized the way they would be for 2 different sides.
BB: Obviously we can’t do that for the CD but the format is still the same. It has a beginning and an end and then another beginning and an end.
MM: That also has something to do with what the album is called.
Will you tell me?
BB: I don’t know if we should. No one knows yet.
MM: But they will start announcing it soon. Let’s give her the scoop.
BB: Funeral Mix Tape. It came out of a discussion we had about what kind of music we would like played at our funerals.
MM: Death and funerals are seen as morbid and depressing
BB: But my funeral will be a party
MM: That’s how it should be. It should be more like a party
Copyright C. 2008 Melissa Smith
May 6th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Wonderful article about a great band.