SPOTLIGHT: Peach Pit
Words - Tajinder Hayer
Photography - Mackenzie Walker
Vancouver based four piece Peach Pit just completed an impressive UK leg of a European tour, playing their new album Up Granville (the follow up to the sophomore LP You and Your Friends) in Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol and Brighton before descending on Kentish Town in London. Crowds of moshing fans have been loving the new material including the latest release, the single Vickie.
How were the audience at the gig last night in Kentish Town?
Top notch - one of the best. The energy was amazing and people were rocking out super hard. There was moshing and people were singing lyrics really loudly. It may have been the perfect audience for us and ticked every box. Nothing was out of hand either. Sometimes we’ve seen crowds that are so in the zone that they seem to have no awareness of others around them. Last night was none of that, and was just fun and joy.
How has Europe been treating you so far?
Well we played London last night and head to Paris tomorrow and then Amsterdam. We started out in Dublin before going to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Then we did some UK cities like Brighton, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester. The UK is so great for touring and so many acts love to come out and play here. Fans love live music and are always down to party on a Tuesday night. Culturally, the UK and Canada are actually really similar so whenever we are here we feel right at home. Paris and Amsterdam will be a bit more out there than we are used to.
Have you had a chance to explore at all yet?
So far it's been pretty much work for us. We’ve been to London a couple of times now and played at the Moth Club before which we loved. We were so stoked to play there as one of our favourite artists Andy Shaw had played there before. During this tour we have mostly been playing the venue and then driving to the next one.
How would you describe the new album?
It definitely feels the most live sounding album that we’ve done yet. It’s almost the truest to what a fan might expect if they came to see us play live. We wanted it to sound like the instruments that we were playing in the studio when we wrote the record. We are very proud of the record because we had a vision of what we wanted before we started to work on it which isn’t something that we had necessarily had before due to a lack of experience. As we’ve gotten older we are more comfortable with trusting our instincts more and we learnt to produce, so we were really able to make the album that we set out to make.
Have fans been responding well to the new material?
Yeah they have been responding well, but it was pretty terrifying. We finished recording the album about six months before we started playing it and in that time we were listening to it again and again. That time is a real rollercoaster and one day it sounds like the best record you’ve ever made, and then the next day thinking that its terrible and that no-one will like it. When it does eventually get released you leave it up to the audience and to fans. We didn’t imagine it, but fans have been overwhelmingly positive which has been wonderful.
The only thing that you can really control is making a record that you like, and at the end of the recording sessions we all felt that we liked this record. Any negative comment that may come our way is drowned out by the fans at the gigs.
What was your pandemic experience like?
It was pretty similar to everyone else’s. We were all locked down separately in Canada. When we were able to start seeing one another and be in the recording studio it was really weird as with previous albums, we had played them to audiences before but this time we weren’t able to do that at all. In terms of getting back in front of crowds, we mostly tour as opposed to play local gigs so they were all organised and planned after lockdown restrictions ended. By that time we were so over being at home.
Which musicians and bands most inspired you guys to start recording music?
As youngsters we were all really into performing in one way or another. Eventually that led to performing music after realising that playing guitar was cool. We started to write and play music in front of and with each other, at about the time that everyone wanted to be Mumford & Sons. The one artist that was really inspirational was Mac DeMarco who appeared to be really original and completely himself on stage.
Where does the name come from?
The first song we ever wrote was a song called Peach Pit, and we played it together at one of our first ever jam sessions of the band.
What is now and next for you guys?
Well we head to Europe and play places like Amsterdam, Stockholm and Oslo and we will also take a little break and try and enjoy the places a bit. It would be great to go to Portugal and check out Lisbon a little. Vancouver is super nice in the summer time, so we will definitely be hanging out there.