Trying to soak up all the rest they could before driving off to their next gig in Salt Lake City, the morning after an exhilarating performance at the Beauty Bar, Pears’ frontman, Zach Quinn, kindly sat down with me to chat. Clouds clustered the sky, and airplanes obstreperously flew above the home the band and I had slept at the night before (warm thank-yous to Cody Leavitt, Naomi Benham, Krystal Hawkins, and Mike Lavin for providing excellent hospitality).
Fresh off playing some of the most important shows they’ve been a part of to date, Pears now marches from town-to-town with confidence, and a prime set of songs to rightfully enslave your admiration and attention. Accompanied by cigarettes, coffee, and an enticing pool in the backyard, for half an hour we talked about the fast paced incline the band was treading on, meeting your heroes, dealing with success, touring constantly, recording album two, and the future of the band, among other things.
You just recently came off the Fat Wreck 25th Anniversary Tour, how was it playing with some of the most legendary bands you probably grew up listening to?
It was easily one of the most important shows we’ve ever played; significant for a lot of reasons. Jarret [drummer] said it felt like validation for everything we’ve ever done.
Was it weird touring with these bands that have known each other for years? Fat Wreck is a label that sticks to its people. Everyone, for the most part, knows each other, and has for decades.
That’s weird. I said the other day, the only weirder feeling than being the newest band on Fat would have to have been, being the newest band on Fat and being seventeen, which is what I think The Flatliners went through. I can’t imagine what that would have been like. It’s weird enough for me. Everyone is really friendly, though. I haven’t met anybody who’s a jerk. Everybody that I’ve met has been totally fucking cool.
Did you have anyone who you admire come over and be like, “oh shit you guys rule?”
Yeah! I mean, it’s just really weird. Like, you’re hanging out with somebody and then you kinda double back in your head and you’re like, “this person is in Strung Out!” or, “this person is in Lagwagon!” It pulls me out for a moment, you know, but I just keep hanging out. It’s really weird, man.
Is it a different feeling playing a touring festival like the Fat 25 Tour was, where you’re the newest band, compared to a headlining show where people are there to see you? Can you, and do you, separate them?
No, it’s definitely different. First off all, to know that people are there to see us is a huge deal. Like when we play a small show, where we know people are there to see us, that’s an amazing feeling. I can’t compare it to anything else. I mean, it’s still new to me. This band is still new to me.
How long have you been playing in bands?
Oh, I’ve been playing in bands for a long time. I mean, as long as a long time could mean to a 26 year-old guy. I played my first show at a DIY spot when I was thirteen. I played my first bar when I was fourteen. From there I just kept going.
How is it going back to New Orleans now that the band has gained a bit of notoriety? Is there a big scene there?
There’s a big scene, but there’s A LOT of crust lords there, man. It’s like a transient pass through town.
Like very folk-punky?
I wouldn’t call these people folk punks. Just crust lords…just scumbags.
Oh, trust me, we got those people here too.
I know! What’s the deal with that?
I don’t know, man. I played a show with this badass band called Bucket Flush from Pennsylvania, and they’re cool cats, but they attract that crowd.
Yeah! You know what, that’s them. That’s the kind. That band was cool, we played with them once. The band was cool, those folks were cool, but that crowd, the kind that they attract. Lots of…lots of not good stuff. Lots of bad smells. The thing I always say about New Orleans: smells bad, sounds even worse when it comes to punk rock. Bands like Eyehategod, those bands are great. If you can do a lot of heroin and still kick-ass, more power to ya buddy.
That’s the vibe I get from that city. Just drug fueled.
Well, there’s an element to that that’s just…absolutely. It’s a party town, everyone is fucked up there.
Do you guys ever think of moving to another city?
I think about leaving all the time. I’d love to get the fuck out of there, I would love to. But I’m staying for my family right now. As far as moving the band, I don’t think we’ve thought about relocating. It’s been home too long for all of us.
When you go back, is there an element of “Pears, the little band that could?”
A lot of people are like that, yeah. I think there’s definitely an element of hometown pride, you know. Like, “this one’s for New Orleans!” Which is cool, because there hasn’t really been a punk band that’s made it out of there before. There’s been a lot of metal, but never really a punk band, so it feels cool to be the first to do that.
Have you guys hit Europe yet?
Yeah, we did a European tour with Red City Radio, it was February/March of this year. It was our first time over there. I think it might have been all of our first time going to Europe generally, let alone touring Europe. I went well. I think it’s gonna go differently when we go back.
When you first signed to Fat, was it a band decision to re-release Go to Prison, or was that something the labeled decided?
Well, the deal was always for Go to Prison and a new record. As soon as Fat contacted us that’s immediately what we were talking about, the re-release of the first one and the pressing of the second.
Is the second album recorded, have you guys being playing songs from the new record live?
Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s being mixed, it’s in the mixing process. And we’ve been playing one because, the songs are hard [laughs].
Who did you record it with?
The same guy who did Go to Prison, James Whitten, and Mike Supina from A Wilhelm Scream, that was our team. This time we actually went to a studio.
How did you record Go to Prison?
A hotel room, essentially. The guy who recorded us has kind of like a makeshift studio in a practice space. They have these rehearsal spaces in New Orleans that used to be a hotel. Each room is a rehearsal space.
When we talked earlier, you mentioned Olga from The Svetlanas and that power she has, that aggression. You have that too. Was that something that came naturally or did you have to work on it?
I’ve been in bands before where I didn’t act like this, where I wasn’t such a jerk. Haha, I’m a big jerk in this band. I know that the music made me feel a certain way when we first started writing it. More importantly, I remember being really excited about the lyrics I was writing for the band. Right out of the gate I was like, these don’t feel like melodic hardcore lyrics, you know, and I was really excited about that. And I think there was this early decision where we were like, the lyrics don’t feel like melodic hardcore lyrics, and I don’t think that the performance should necessarily feel like you’re watching a 90s Epitaph band.
Is the new record mostly like that still? Or do you want to approach every record with wanting to learn something new?
The new record is different. I’ve been telling people that it’s more Go to Prison than Go to Prison is. The sweeter stuff is sweeter and the meaner stuff is meaner. The juxtapositions, the turns, are way more contrasting. It’s a bizarre album. And it depends, specifically with this record I was like, ‘I really didn’t wanna do Go to Prison again because I liked Go to Prison.’ It was one of those things where I felt like, that’s something we did right. We don’t have to do it again. Whereas a lot of times before in bands, it was like, we tried to do something and I walk away feeling like we didn’t quite nail that, we should try it again. Obviously there are points in that record where I’ll go back and listen and be like, “oh god, I’m flat right there!” We have all this technology, we couldn’t have fixed THAT?
Is that a new feeling? As a musician, feeling content with the work you did and not doubting yourself all the time? That’s a big deal.
Yeah, it totally is. But you know what, you’re catching me in a fucking mood right now. Because sometimes I’ll be like, “I fucking hate that record!” But you know, there’s truth to what I am saying right now in terms of me being totally satisfied with Go to Prison.
Last night I mentioned to your tour manager, Dante [Graziani], that I’ve never met a guy like him. I’ve toured with bands a lot, and he blows me away. He has the demeanor of a party-centric guy, but he gets the job done like no one else can. How did Dante become a part of the Pears’ family?
We’ve known Dante for a long time. I met Dante at Brian [Pretus], Alex [Talbot], and mine’s old band’s third show. That would’ve been in November, 2009. He was playing drums in this band that was…haha, terrible. I think we went on one tour without him when Pears first started. I don’t understand how he is doing what he’s doing. I remember when we first asked him if he wanted to do this stuff with us, I think we were at the bar that Dante and I worked at, and he said, “yeah, I can do that stuff.” I think he had just done the Ska Revival Tour.
That’s how he knows the cats from Be Like Max, then. They are Las Vegas royalty.
Right! So I think he had done that, and that’s when Brian told me, “dude he’s done this shit.”
Were you the one doing that stuff before then? Was the first tour self-booked?
No, absolutely not. I’m the least responsible person in the car. There was a guy that we were working with at the time that was doing it, but he was doing it from far away. He was far less hands on than Dante. He didn’t come with us on that first tour. But, Dante is the best thing to ever happen to us. I don’t know how he is as responsible as he is. He’s so young, so green. He’s very good at what he does. I mean, just the volume of stuff we’ve done since we started, the touring. It couldn’t have happened without him.
When I first saw you at Punk Rock Bowling, I saw a talented band rapidly trying to adjust to being in the spotlight. This time around, your third time back in Vegas, you get a great turnout on a Tuesday night. On stage, I now see a band who has fucking found it. You know what you’re capable of. You guys have locked into a groove. I’m excited to see what happens when the next album comes out.
Thank you, man! That means a lot! Yeah, I’m excited to see what happens with that thing too, because when you’re a new band that puts out an album and everybody loves it, then you’re like, let’s try something different. That’s a fucking terrifying feeling. What if we put out the second record and everyone who likes us thinks, “that’s not good.” And then that’s it.
But, I gotta say, I can’t believe how amazing the people that support our band are. That’s been really amazing. I mean, we are treated as if we’re an underdog, you know. Like, people are rooting for us all over the fucking country. And what’s funny is, I don’t think we’re an underdog. We just signed to Fat Wreck, we’re not an underdog. We’re doing well.
As indies labels go, you’re basically on a major label.
Right, right. This is like the biggest label that our band is ever gonna be able to muster. This is the best thing that could’ve happen to us. We’re doing great, man, but people root for us like we’re an underdog, and that’s an amazing thing. Fuck, it’s crazy. Just the fact that we signed to Fat means bands are approaching us that we thought wouldn’t of necessarily approached us before, simply because they wouldn’t have known about us. We just played the Fat 25 Tour and there were like four bands that approached us and were like, “let’s tour!” My answer to that is always, yes, let’s tour!
Is there a story behind the name of Go to Prison?
Yeah, we’re not talking about “prison” prison. We’re talking about birth, we’re talking about everyone’s inevitable introduction to the confines to the space in their own mind. THIS is prison [firmly points towards his head], you know. So, Go to Prison is essentially birth.
Is there a name for the new record?
Yeah, there’s a name. I don’t think I’m suppose to say what the name of the new record is yet though. This was something that we slaved over. This was something that we dumped a lot of time into. I started writing the lyrics to the record last September, and I finished them right before we left for this tour. So, you know, this was long ordeal. But, it’s definitely a spiritual successor to Go to Prison.
Thank you, Zach! Go to Prison is available now via Fat Wreck Chords. Pears will be back for Vegas show #4 on November 11 with Lagwagon at Fremont Country Club. Not in Vegas? See the rest of their dates on the Fat Wreck website.
Interview by Alan Madrigal
One Comment