I was lucky enough to sit down with Peter Kirk, the frontman of Panama Wedding, before the first show of the band’s first-ever headliner tour. Not only did the tour kick off in Boston, but it was a sold out show (you can read my review of the show here.) Here is what Peter had to say.
The Lucky Velvet: Alright, first of all, are you excited for your tour that’s starting tonight?
Peter Kirk: I’m very excited!
TLV: Is there anywhere/anything that you’re looking forward to specifically?
PK: Definitely Bowery Ballroom tomorrow [NYC, 12/1] just because it’s our hometown. We’ve never played Madison, Wisconsin before…
TLV: Yeah, that’s an interesting location.
PK: That’s definitely something I’m curious about. I’m looking forward to Chicago as well, I have a lot of close friends who live out there.
TLV: Are you guys planning on going out to the west coast at any time?
PK: I want to really bad!
TLV: Is there anywhere you haven’t played yet that you’re excited to go to at some point?
PK: I think we’ve hit most of the major cities out on the west coast, it’s more venues. We’ve never played The Troubadour, we’ve never done The Roxy, some of the more iconic venues in LA would be really cool. We want to get out west as soon as possible.
TLV: Yeah definitely. So what are you listening to right now that people might be surprised by?
PK: Well… I’ve sort of just transitioned to Christmas phase right now.
TLV: Ah, yes.
PK: Everything in my apartment is these old vinyl records that I found at a thrift store that was these old Christmas records. In the van we listen to a lot of Z100. I really like the new Ellie Goulding song, “On My Mind”. That’s really good.
TLV: Her new album is really good.
PK: I’m always walking down the street and I have Ellie Goulding on and I try to look so cool, but I’m not.
TLV: Yeah, we all try. You need a Ellie Goulding Jingle Bells remix.
PK: Yeah, some Ellie Goulding Christmas music.
TLV: So what instruments do you play and what was the first song you learned to play on said instrument?
PK: Good question. I play keyboards, guitar, and I sing. I play bass but I don’t do it live. The first song I learned on guitar was “Come As You Are” by Nirvana.
TLV: Nice, that’s a good one!
PK: It was the first day, and I told my friends I learned it and they didn’t believe me. I came over with my guitar and shattered their minds. It’s also the easiest song you could ever learn. And then I think on piano I learned “Fur Elise” or something.
TLV: Right, classic.
PK: Yeah, the standard. Or “Rondo Alla Turca”. One of those.
TLV: Okay, cool. So Scavenger Hunt just did a remix of “Infinite High.”
PK: They did.
TLV: Do you like it? What are your thoughts?
PK: I do like it. I think it’s amazing, and I’m very happy they did it.
TLV: Are there any other remixes of your stuff that you’ve heard that you’re like, “Oh that’s so cool!”
PK: We just got one the other day from another group that is really cool, Bee’s Knees.
TLV: Is it weird when you hear remixes of your songs, or is it kind of flattering?
PK: It’s cool, it’s totally flattering. I mean, if it’s weird we just won’t talk about it.
[Everybody laughs.]
PK: We’ll just ignore it.
TLV: I always wondered about that. So, “Easy Lover”.
PK: Yeah!
TLV: It’s awesome. Was that something that was already in the works before you guys decided to go on tour together?
PK: We talked about it before the tour, but it wasn’t something that was planned very far in advance. Our front-of-house sound person, Chris, when he knew we were touring together he said “Oh you should do a Phil Collins cover of ‘Easy Lover’” and we were like “Huh?” And then when we looked closely at the idea, we were like “This is a really brilliant idea.” So we just came over to Luke’s place, and John was there, and we just did it, and it sounded really good.
TLV: So it was something where you were already going on tour together and you thought “Oh this could be fun.”
PK: Yeah, you know we just thought we’re going on tour together, we should use this as an opportunity to do something fun and exciting for the fans, and exciting to us. Yeah, that was really it. And luckily the song has gotten some good love online, and people are playing it, and it’s cool.
TLV: Yeah, I really like it. It’s good.
PK: I hope Phil hears it some day.
TLV: Yeah, maybe. You can just pop it into his inbox. So, “Into Focus” just came out this month.
PK: Yeah!
TLV: Tell us about it.
PK: “Into Focus” is our latest EP, and it’s really a collection of songs that have been developed over the last year or so, just touring a lot, playing a lot of shows. We were working on a full length for a while, and then there was this gap between “Parallel Play” and we felt like we needed to put out music again, and we didn’t know exactly what to do but we had this group of songs that we really liked and we just sat down one day and said “Let’s put out another EP.” You know, the first EP was really good for us, and so far this has been good for us too.
TLV: Is this a set of songs that has a sort of similar inspiration behind them?
PK: Well, I think with “Parallel Play” there was “All Of The People” which was the first song Panama Wedding put out, and that song created a lot of excitement. And then “Parallel Play” was just “Okay, let’s package some other songs with ‘All Of The People’” and it was just a random assortment of songs we had done that we thought were the best at the time. “Into Focus” was a little more strategic about picking songs. There was a much broader group of songs that we all sat down and said “Oh, this is the best song.” I think aesthetically they’re a little more cohesive.
TLV: I read somewhere that this collection of songs is a little more about your transition from your old job [in the financial industry.]
PK: A little bit. The song “Into Focus” is a little bit about that. I think these songs were a little more personal, they were a little more intentional. With a lot of songs in “Parallel Play”, [for example] “Uma” was just kind of an experiment and turned into a song. Whereas a song like “Into Focus” came to the table and I had a specific idea in mind and I knew how I wanted it to sound live, I knew how I wanted it to be produced, and I did it. Same thing with “A Brand New Life”, same thing with “Infinite High”, it just felt like a more intentional effort.
TLV: Along the lines of leaving your old job, I’m in college so it’s kind of this huge shift from what you think might be what you want to what you actually want.
PK: Yeah, exactly. The lyric is “I didn’t know this was the ending I was told.” I think it’s just something a lot of people can relate to.
TLV: Definitely. Was there a defining moment where you said “Music is what I’m gonna do, this is what I’m pursuing.”
PK: Not really, I think what happens is that you graduate and you get a job (hopefully) and your step one, at least for me, was to get A job that paid a decent amount of money that I could have a certain lifestyle, a certain level of independence, not live at home… So you get a job and it becomes integrated into your lifestyle, and if you do a job for a few years it’s really hard to switch into something different. For me, I always really loved music and I was always gonna record music and put out music. But I didn’t have the slightest idea how to do it full-time, I didn’t know financially how I could possibly make it work. So I just said “Okay, well I’m gonna work my job and I’m also gonna do music on the side and if something ever comes of it, great. If something doesn’t , I’ll still have a job.” And then for me it was just a matter of putting out “All Of The People”. I had already put it out under my own name and released through Gmail to my small, sad little group of fans (mostly my friends and family), you know and it lived on the Internet for a few months and nothing happened. And then I got a manager, Seth, and the This Fiction crew and released it under the name Panama Wedding and got it to the right blogs and it just sort of exploded and from there. I had labels that were offering to sign me and then I was like “Okay, I could do this now.” That’s really what happened.
TLV: That’s awesome, that’s the dream.
PK: It’s the dream, but there was never this okay, lose yourself in the music Eminem moment, like I’m gonna get really into this.
TLV: No “Eight Mile”.
PK: I just kept doing it to the point where it just happened.
TLV: So what’s up next?
PK: Well, the priority now is just to have a really good tour and then the end of December is holidays so I’m going out to San Francisco, but just writing and recording more, and hopefully trying to figure out what our plans are for next year. We’ve had a few things that have bubbled up that we’re sort of trying to figure out. But ideally touring again and getting out west.
TLV: Full length?
PK: Yeah, I mean we’ve put out five new songs so now we have nine songs out there in the world. Yeah, we definitely will put out a full length at some point, but it’s not a huge priority.
TLV: Right, I mean you just put out an EP.
PK: Yeah. Hopefully it will be out next year.
TLV: Okay so last question. Since we are The Lucky Velvet, do you have any good luck charms or pre-show rituals?
PK: Well, before the shows we say two words, and it’s any two words. Like for Boston we could say “Larry Bird” or we could say “Red Sox” or something. Boston-y things. We just say two words together. It originated because Brett used to be in a band called I Love Monsters and they used to do that. He had this idea to do it and we were like yeah okay, and now we just do it. It’s fun. That’s it.
Be sure to check out Panama Wedding’s latest EP, “Into Focus” that was just released last month, and also feel free to go give them some love if you are digging their sound! Also give this interview some love if you got any mild enjoyment out of it. I had a fantastic time doing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Stay tuned in the next couple of days for the interview I also did with Great Good Fine Ok, who Panama Wedding is currently on tour with.
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