Hey everyone!
Hope you guys are keeping warm as the temperatures continue to drop outside! Today for you guys, I have an interview with a band out of Lowell, MA called The Dead Beats. The Dead Beats were an Artist Spotlight feature here on the blog back in September and have played a string of local shows in and around the Lowell area. Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jesse Robichaud, Neal Guinane, and Phil Guay about the music of The Dead Beats, their influences, and what's in store for them in the future! So crack open a couple of PBR's and enjoy some quality time with The Dead Beats:
Give your names and what you do in the band?
Phil: I'm Phil, I play bass and I also background sing.
Jesse: I'm Jesse and I play drums and alot of stuff on the Internets.
Neal: I'm Neal and I play guitar and sing.
How did you come up with the name The Dead Beats and when did the band form?
Neal: The Dead Beats actually has a long, complicated story. (Laughter) The short version I guess, so we formed in 2006 and it was actually me, Phil, another buddy of ours from high school and the other buddy of ours from high school, he was a guitar player and he was actually just learning to play guitar, I taught him to play guitar. And, he actually came up with the name The Dead Beats cause he thought it was clever and he thought that I would get a kick out of it cause it was like The Beatles, it was slightly clever. So, there's where we came up with the name and kids lose interest, they lost interest and me and Phil played open mics forever just playing my songs, and then I came to school here and me and Jesse became friends. We actually became friends through jamming, I think he invited me over to jam on my guitar and he liked my tunes and then I told Phil, "Hey I found a drummer who likes our tunes!"
Jesse: No, I came to a house party, one of Neal's parents famous house parties and showed up with my drum kit. A friend invited me and I played with you and Sean.
Neal: Sean was my best friend, I've known him forever and he played guitar. And he left, he had a girlfriend and then he came back.
What genres and/or bands best represent The Dead Beats?
Phil: Rock N' Roll. Fucking rock n' roll.
Neal: I love The Beatles. but it's more of a Stones type of thing. Sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.
Describe the vibe and energy that comes from your live shows?
Jesse: When we go to put out a show, our main goal is to make it a party as much for us as for anyone out there. And so anyone that feels our music, the show is to have the party with them and so I feel like that's kind of the vibe we go with, when people talk to us about the band, they laugh about the "PBR" song, you know us being smokers and what not, that's part of it for them and it's a band rule to have a good time with them.
What is your favorite thing about performing live?
Phil: The girls dancing. (Laughter)
Neal: I like the people, I like performing because I like watching people get a kick out of it. Kind of going back to the last question, alot of time it depends on us, it depends on you were just feeling super confident when you're buzzed and sometimes you just got everything right, we just happen to be really good in doing that with instruments in our hands, but some nights are better than others, some nights you just look like an asshole, but I love being able to see how people react like that, it's fun for me.
Jesse: Yeah, definitely connecting with people at the shows is the best part, and hitting very hard. (Laughter)
What are some of your favorite songs to perform live?
Phil: I love playing "Storyteller". "Kissing Cousins" is another one.
Neal: You know what I love? "Do You Love Me?" I love that song!
Phil: Farmer Jon!
Neal: It's a good tune, it's so good, it's so simple. Farmer Jon!
Tell me the story about your song "PBR" and what was the inspiration behind it?
Neal: Pabst Blue Ribbon. I know it's really trendy, it has an emotional spot for me, I learned to drink on Pabst Blue Ribbon. I was in high school and I had a buddy who could buy beer and that's where I started, that's where I got my education on how to drink and look like an asshole while you're doing it, or at least minimize your looking like an asshole and he always drank Pabst Blue Ribbon so it was my first drink and I drank alot of it and got good at it I guess, so that's why I wrote "PBR" and the reason it sounds like a country hillbilly song cause I can't write songs without some sort of joke in there and Pabst Blue Ribbon is white trash, poor people buy Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Are there any embarrassing moments or have any embarrassing things happen to you while on stage?
Neal: PA's Lounge was our first show. PA's Lounge is this fucking crapplace in Somerville. I don't like to shit talk because we were so unprofessional, but you end up playing there if you're trying to get into Boston and we showed up early and me and Jesse go down days early, all kinds of fliers and CD's passing them out saying, "Come check out our show at PA's Lounge!" to people on the street. So we really did our homework and we go back, we get there early the next day and I'm with my brother and we find this place called Bull McCabe's, some Irish place and we hear this band in there belting out Finnegan's Wake some sweet ass Irish song, so we go in and we end up talking with this band who's playing and we get shitty drunk. And then we make friends with this other band called Ice Cream Social and then we take them back and we're like "Come to our show!" So, we go back there and we're like "Shots!" There's this other band playing called Leopold and His Fiction and they were awesome. So we get on stage, and you can't even remember what instruments are and we're just hammering it out, out of tune, forgetting words. Jesse used to carry a coconut on his drum for luck and the coconut falls off his drum, I step on it and fall flat on my ass just like that movie Walk The Line where Johnny Cash just falls over cause he's so fucked up, that was it. So the sound guy cuts us off and that's when Jesse gets pissed, spits on the floor and shit.
Jesse: I almost fought every person that works in PA's Lounge, the police showed up as I was leaving.
Neal: That was the most embarrassing thing that we have done as a band.
If you guys weren't making music together, what do you think you would be doing to pass the time?
Neal: I don't know man. I don't have any other hobbies. I'm studying to be a teacher, we're still studying to be teachers, that takes up most of our time. I like cars, I might build cars.
Phil: I'm still working on guitars, I love repairing guitars.
Jesse: I don't know. If I didn't have music, there would be nothing, no joining a gig. There's nothing else that could possibly replace music in any way.
What music do you guys like to listen to in your spare time?
Neal: I wish I listened to more music. I listen to alot of music. I teach lessons and I have to listen to music for school. I have to listen to songs that people call out. I write alot of my own music, but when I listen to music, I listen to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, there's this new band called Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, they're really cool. G. Love and Special Sauce, The Black Keys, The White Stripes. I don't watch MTV, I listen to NPR and stuff like that, I seek out alot of my own music, like a snob.
If you could have dinner with any 3 musicians living or dead, which ones would you choose?
Phil: Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Lennon.
Jesse: Charlie Parker, Elvis Presley, and Lennon.
Neal: Paul McCartney and Lennon, and Jimi Hendrix.
What are the band's future plans for next year and beyond? Tours? Heading back into the studio?
Phil: Yeah absolutely, we're looking to do some touring.
Jesse: We're in the studio now recording some new songs and we just released 2 songs "Litterboy" and "Marb Lights". So we're doing that and booking as we go. We want to tour, we need to figure out what to do.
What is the one thing you hope fans take from your music?
Phil: That it's just about having a good time.
Neal: Fun, music is not that serious.
Thanks once again to my pals Phil, Neal and Jesse for kicking back and taking some time to do this interview! They're wicked nice guys and were very welcoming to me in their apartment. For more on The Dead Beats, head on over to their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/thedeadbeatsnh To become a fan of theirs on Facebook, head on over to http://www.facebook.com/DeadBeatsRock
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