Are a band and they make music, some of it is on their current album, "This Day Is A Good Enough Day", we spoke about that and some other stuff.
THREE GOOD BANDS FROM DENMARK?
UNPEELED: We believe that the old, no questions asked, Dole is responsible for more great music than a gazillion 'Fame Schools' and that society will get it's investment back many times over in the taxes paid by the musicians that break through, your thoughts? PEI: Not sure about the tax payback with offshore accounts and runts like Collins and Bowie moving to Switzerland avoid the taxman, but the cultural payback to this country is immense. Music here changes lives like nowhere else. I think the dole thing still goes on. Band’s get by with little or no money as they always have. Having something to kick against is also good for the arts. Name three good bands from Denmark? UNPEELED: Fair enough, have a ride on our other hobby horse... 99.9% of all music is just dull, neither stunningly good are cheerfully awful and we conclude that it's now too easy to make competent, autotuned tosh and that there are too many acts doing just that, how would you thin the herd? PEI: Thin the herd? Fuck, that’s scary. We’d feed the herd. Are you really calling for less art? FACTS EQUAL MISERY
UNPEELED: There is a theory that some people are happy being unhappy, are you some of those? PEI: People who are happy all the time are not in possession of all the facts. Religious folk are happy, when they’re not being really angry UNPEELED: Only ask because the "This Day..." gives the impression of someone looking at life, relationships and all that through wearily jaundiced, but affectionate eyes, is that anywhere near the mark? PEI: They are just a bunch of love songs. Mind you, I’ve always found it a bit of a dichotomy that we choose such a public forum for such personal subject matter. UNPEELED: When do the days of making love usually come to an end? PEI: It was around 1996. SURE IT WOULD BE SHITE
UNPEELED: Do you write as individuals, shifting partnerships, en masse, or what?
PEI: Nope, generally PEI is run as a dictatorship with the occasional sporadic outbreak of liberal socialism. We’re the Clement Atlee of pop miserabilism. UNPEELED: Given a massive budget, any collaborators you want and acres of studio time, who would you bring in and what kind of stuff would you come up with? PEI: Aidan Moffatt and Malcolm Middleton on maracas. The Delgados......being the band. Actually, I’m sure it would be shite whatever we did with big money. Please refer to question 1 INTO THE BOYZONE
UNPEELED: Your material is littered with references to booze, do you work better on or off the sauce? PEI: Writing-wise, a little bit on but not too much on. Performance wise I think our live shows definitely benefit from being ‘on the sauce’. Particularly the audience who need all the help they can get. Tell you what doesn’t work....writing or playing with a feckin’ hangover. UNPEELED: Your material is also littered with wrecked relationships, are you ever going to have one that stays afloat? PEI: Actually, one of us already has one but he’s contractually obliged to keep it quiet – a bit like Boyzone were. We don’t want it becoming a downer for our teenage-girl following. Debbie is her name. A BETTER LIFE
UNPEELED: We were told recently that strings on a track were 'emotional gangsters' and forced a mood on the listener, is that bollocks, or what?
PEI: Ha, what complete twat said that? Strings?..... as opposed to the words? the human voice? a guitar? The whole point of an album, and by definition the instruments, is to force a mood on the listener. UNPEELED: Ah, the complete twat in question is the head man from yankee band Yellow Ostrich, your immediate predecessor in the interview chair, he didn't like us very much, didn't answer his follow up questions either, but you'll be dying to tell us what kind of mood you're trying to force on us with "This Day...", eh? PEI: At best......a wry smile. Or maybe a knowing realisation of one’s own life, resulting in the inevitable break-up of a shite relationship but ultimately the discovery of a better life. Or maybe just a wee bit of foot tappin’. BYE BYE BABY
UNPEELED: Do you think about death much? PEI: Often. Sometimes even ours, but that’s usually on stage. UNPEELED: Why do so many of the great bands come from Scotland? PEI: It gets dark early. UNPEELED: Which kind of fucks your Denmark / good bands theory, but staying with great Scottish bands, name your favourite Bay City Rollers song... PEI: There’s only one true Rollers song. ‘Bye Bye Baby’. 1975. A biggie but a goodie. You can see a little bit of Les in our Phil, actually. Les today, that is. UNPEELED: Good choice, though we would you have gone for "Yesterday's Heroes", a rage against the dying of the limelight at the fag end of their career, but do you like or listen to much mainstream pop? PEI: It consumes our day. Hang on ....Dappy’s just tweeted? SUCCESS OR SWEARY BOLLOCKS? PEI: Phil’s already started becoming huge. One day he is going to be massive. UNPEELED: Weird, it's usually the singer or the drummer who porks out, but would you embrace, benefit from commercial success or would it screw you up? PEI: We would embrace it, benefit from it, and then allow it gently to screw up. Seriously!..... we do rude words. We’ll hover somewhere between tiny and small. What changes would you make to your hometown and why? PEI: I wouldn’t change a thing. Just move it further away.
THE CLEMENT ATLEE OF POP MISERABALISM ON FREE FRUIT, THE BAY CITY ROLLERS AND SPOILING IT FOR DEBBIE....
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Iit's so wonderful to be here!
TOP GUN AND BAD BREATH
UNPEELED: Bearing in mind that "They're all my children and equally wonderful in different ways" is both vomit inducing and a lie, which is your favourite track from "This Day..."? PEI: For me “You Look Like I Need a Drink” but the others will no doubt disagree. I find it funny how we can all feel very differently about certain songs on the album. I think we’re all agreed we’d be happy never to play “Take Your Breath Away” again though. UNPEELED: Bloody hell, you don't mean that you covered that tear jerker from 'Top Gun'? Can we have a copy of your copy? PEI: No. We haven’t. You know darn well that it’s a play on words about stinky breath / worn out relationships. Stop being a cunt. UNPEELED: On the subject of covers, what tracks would you like to cover and why? PEI: We once spent several weeks in a pub discussing the merits of ‘Making our dreams come true’ by Laverne and Shirley versus ‘Wired for sound’ by Sir Cliff as a cover. The enormity of the challenge halted both. OVERACHIEVING WITH PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
UNPEELED: Now, with the music industry allegedly collapsing around our ears, what are you hoping to achieve by releasing albums? Please place in order of preference.
PEI: Free booze. Free fruit. Friendship. Girls.
UNPEELED: How would you define success for "This Day..."? PEI: To be able to listen to it again one day. Maybe even think, ‘you know what, that isn’t as bad I remember’. Unfortunately, it’s always the next song that’s gonna be the good one. UNPEELED: How would you define success for PEI? PEI: Free fruit.
UNPEELED: What kind of people do you like to meet on tour? PEI: Naive people with strong backs.
UNPEELED: What kind of people do you dread getting stuck with on tour? PEI: Faye. Nick
UNPEELED: Naughty, we'll drop you in it, redeem yourself by naming two good things about your keyboard player and guitarist... PEI: Tits’n’ass. Not necessarily in that order. TING TINGS MUST DIE
UNPEELED: Name and shame time... what's the worst track you've heard recently?
PEI: 'Take Your Breath Away’ by Prince Edward Island. Don’t get us started.... Actually that Biffy song that the Pop Factor winner covered. Have you heard the lyrics in that? Dear oh dear. UNPEELED: Haven't heard it, being deeply suspicious of anything called Biffy that's not in a comic, but what do you read? PEI: Luke Haines new book is dapper.
UNPEELED: Which band would you happily do away with? PEI: The hundred thousand mindless fucking idiots who queue up in the rain to sing in front of Louis Walsh. A while back that would have been a hundred thousand people buying guitars and forming bands. ‘Tis dark days. UNPEELED: That's a given, but which band (hopefully someone painfully hip) would you like to chuck overboard? PEI: Um...ok.....how about Kasabian. Just don’t get it. Liam lite. Fuck ‘em. Oh no...sorry...you said ‘hip.’ We formally offer up The Ting Tings for slaughter. TRUSTWORTHY OR GLOBAL?
UNPEELED: What's the demographic snapshot for a PEI fan? PEI: 58 years old. A mother. Has a daughter called Faye
UNPEELED: What's the best Radio Show in the UK? PEI: On air, only 6Music really. Online, The Waiting Room is a must. That’s not the Christian music station ‘Waiting Room’ by the way. UNPEELED: What's the most trustworthy news outlet in the U.K? PEI: Paul from the Bull and Gate. I don’t know where he gets it from. Or, if you prefer a serious answer for once...the BBC. Gotta save the BBC folks. It’s very important. Constantly under attack by Mr Rupert Burns and the Tories. It is constitutionally unable defend itself. The freedom to sit at home and watch 24 hour cage fighting is a strange freedom won. UNPEELED: Well said, maybe we should get Paul from The Bull & Gate to run BBC News? PEI: No. We shouldn’t. BBC news is a global news outlet. Paul is a barman. Do you want trustworthy or global? UNPEELED: On a scale of one to ten, how wonderful / staggeringly indulgent are those who Twitter? PEI: Cunts. Next. LOL ;)
