| Pinkish Black Session | |
| Violitionist Sessions |
Session Date: September 29, 2012
Posting Date: October 15, 2012
Artist Hometown: Ft Worth, TX
Links: Facebook, Bandcamp
Recorded by: Michael Briggs
3 QUESTIONS
ONE: How did you form the band and why?
Jon Teague: It was out of necessity, really. We started playing together in The Great Tyrant a long time ago, and originally that was the two of us—
Daron Beck: Prior to that, he was in Yeti and I was in Pointy Shoe Factory, and we played shows together all the time, and prior to that, we were in the same vicinity of each other for decades without even knowing each other, you know? Like, we were talking about going and seeing Chumbawamba earlier, and that was at this shitty fucking punk club back when Chumbawamba was a punk band— they always were, but before ‘Tubthumper’ or whatever. We were both there, but there’s probably 20 shows that were like that. Skinny Puppy and Godflesh, and you know, it’s like…
Jon: We did all of the same shit, just not together.
Daron: And we had tons of mutual friends. Like, all of the Dallas punk people and Mid-cities punk people were all friends with the Ft. Worth punk people. I guess it was because I was… on the goth fringes or whatever, so I didn’t get into the metal stuff too much, so I wasn’t going to a lot of the thrashier punk shows and stuff like that….
Jon: But, after Great Tyrant ended, we just immediately decided to start playing. I mean, I think we were writing stuff within a couple of days.
Daron: Yeah. It was a necessity. Before that even started, we had done a two piece practice, I guess the night before this band started, and realized we could actually do this as a two piece, because Tyrant started out as me and him.
MB: I remember when you filled in the remaining booked Great Tyrant shows with Pinkish Black…
Daron: Right. We cancelled like, one…
Jon: We had to cancel one—
Daron: —because it was two nights from then or something—
Jon: —but I think, after we started this band, we played our first show within a month of doing it, and it was…the material was pretty loose, but we just didn’t want to cancel any shows.
Daron: We wanted to have deadlines set on ourselves so that we had to do it, because otherwise, we really would have just drank all the time, you know?
Daron Beck: Prior to that, he was in Yeti and I was in Pointy Shoe Factory, and we played shows together all the time, and prior to that, we were in the same vicinity of each other for decades without even knowing each other, you know? Like, we were talking about going and seeing Chumbawamba earlier, and that was at this shitty fucking punk club back when Chumbawamba was a punk band— they always were, but before ‘Tubthumper’ or whatever. We were both there, but there’s probably 20 shows that were like that. Skinny Puppy and Godflesh, and you know, it’s like…
Jon: We did all of the same shit, just not together.
Daron: And we had tons of mutual friends. Like, all of the Dallas punk people and Mid-cities punk people were all friends with the Ft. Worth punk people. I guess it was because I was… on the goth fringes or whatever, so I didn’t get into the metal stuff too much, so I wasn’t going to a lot of the thrashier punk shows and stuff like that….
Jon: But, after Great Tyrant ended, we just immediately decided to start playing. I mean, I think we were writing stuff within a couple of days.
Daron: Yeah. It was a necessity. Before that even started, we had done a two piece practice, I guess the night before this band started, and realized we could actually do this as a two piece, because Tyrant started out as me and him.
MB: I remember when you filled in the remaining booked Great Tyrant shows with Pinkish Black…
Daron: Right. We cancelled like, one…
Jon: We had to cancel one—
Daron: —because it was two nights from then or something—
Jon: —but I think, after we started this band, we played our first show within a month of doing it, and it was…the material was pretty loose, but we just didn’t want to cancel any shows.
Daron: We wanted to have deadlines set on ourselves so that we had to do it, because otherwise, we really would have just drank all the time, you know?
TWO: Tell me about your Kickstarter campaign to raise money to travel to NYC for a Pitchfork showcase. How did that come about, and was it a success?
Jon: Handmade Birds put the record out and got it all over the place pretty quickly, and then somehow it ended up in someone’s hands at Pitchfork. I didn’t even know what Pitchfork was—
Daron: Neither of us did.
Jon: I was like, ‘Oh…’ because someone, the guy from the label is telling me ‘Oh, this is great!’ I was like, ‘Okay… what is that?’ So, I looked at it, and I was like, ‘Okay. Cool.’ But they were having some kind of showcase at St. Vitus in Brooklyn and they asked us if we wanted to play, and we were like, well we only had two or three weeks notice, so that’s not enough time to book any shows between here and there, but we thought it would be a good idea to do this.
Daron: And everybody told us it would be a good idea…
Jon: Yeah, I mean, after getting some advice from friends that were more familiar with that stuff. They were like, ‘Yeah, you should go do that.’ So, they gave us a little bit of money, and then Daron started the Kickstarter thing…
Daron: Because, initially, we thought we had one van at the time, which was Jon’s van—
Jon: Which was falling apart.
Daron: Yeah. We weren’t going to be able to do it unless we dropped a couple of grand on his van to fix it up, and through a weird circumstance, we got another van from my parents. It was like I was having to basically quit my job so I could go to New York, and they said they didn’t want us driving across the country in a van that would break down, so, that was the nicest thing they had ever done for me. In whole, they’ve been generally unsupportive of any musical endeavor I’ve ever undertaken, so…it was a shock for sure. Yeah, but the money that we got, it definitely helped us. We’ve got T-shirts now, we’ve got CDs and records. It definitely helped, because when you’re not playing shows on the way up there and on the way back, you have no way to make any money.
Jon: It’s a lot of gas just driving from here and then back. That’s a thousand dollars in itself. It helped a lot.
Daron: Yeah, it helped a lot.
Jon: It was really awesome to see that our friends wanted us to do this. That was the best thing about that.
Daron: And, as of now, we’ve pretty much filled the record orders and digital download orders. We’re working on the three cover songs now. We got money to do three cover songs, and we’re working on those now. Somebody’s actually wanting to put them out on a 7-inch.
MB: Really?
Jon: Maybe.
Daron: Maybe. Which will just be like a boutique, like 50 pressing or something, but…
Jon: Yeah, so we’ve just got to get these songs learned—
MB: So you know what the covers are?
Daron: Yeah.
MB: Are they a secret?
Daron: I don’t guess so. It’s… ‘I’d Rather Be With You’ by Bootsy Collins and ‘Coma’ by Tear Garden, and you’ll have to—
Jon: It’s called ‘Naufraga’ by this Italian punk band called Contropotere.
Daron: Yeah, that song’s awesome.
Jon: Yeah. Really interesting band, and the friend of mine that paid for that, you know, that’s great to have a friend bring up one of my favorite punk records and get us to play something off of it.
Daron: We’re planning on having a backer party here in the next couple weeks, probably at the Chat Room or Boiled Owl.
Jon: Just to give everybody their stuff.
Daron: We still have some t-shirts we have to send out and stuff like that, but really, the covers are the major thing we’ve been working on, because that’s a task.
Jon: It’s fun.
Daron: No, I mean, ‘Was it worth it?’ Yeah. It was well worth it.
Daron: Neither of us did.
Jon: I was like, ‘Oh…’ because someone, the guy from the label is telling me ‘Oh, this is great!’ I was like, ‘Okay… what is that?’ So, I looked at it, and I was like, ‘Okay. Cool.’ But they were having some kind of showcase at St. Vitus in Brooklyn and they asked us if we wanted to play, and we were like, well we only had two or three weeks notice, so that’s not enough time to book any shows between here and there, but we thought it would be a good idea to do this.
Daron: And everybody told us it would be a good idea…
Jon: Yeah, I mean, after getting some advice from friends that were more familiar with that stuff. They were like, ‘Yeah, you should go do that.’ So, they gave us a little bit of money, and then Daron started the Kickstarter thing…
Daron: Because, initially, we thought we had one van at the time, which was Jon’s van—
Jon: Which was falling apart.
Daron: Yeah. We weren’t going to be able to do it unless we dropped a couple of grand on his van to fix it up, and through a weird circumstance, we got another van from my parents. It was like I was having to basically quit my job so I could go to New York, and they said they didn’t want us driving across the country in a van that would break down, so, that was the nicest thing they had ever done for me. In whole, they’ve been generally unsupportive of any musical endeavor I’ve ever undertaken, so…it was a shock for sure. Yeah, but the money that we got, it definitely helped us. We’ve got T-shirts now, we’ve got CDs and records. It definitely helped, because when you’re not playing shows on the way up there and on the way back, you have no way to make any money.
Jon: It’s a lot of gas just driving from here and then back. That’s a thousand dollars in itself. It helped a lot.
Daron: Yeah, it helped a lot.
Jon: It was really awesome to see that our friends wanted us to do this. That was the best thing about that.
Daron: And, as of now, we’ve pretty much filled the record orders and digital download orders. We’re working on the three cover songs now. We got money to do three cover songs, and we’re working on those now. Somebody’s actually wanting to put them out on a 7-inch.
MB: Really?
Jon: Maybe.
Daron: Maybe. Which will just be like a boutique, like 50 pressing or something, but…
Jon: Yeah, so we’ve just got to get these songs learned—
MB: So you know what the covers are?
Daron: Yeah.
MB: Are they a secret?
Daron: I don’t guess so. It’s… ‘I’d Rather Be With You’ by Bootsy Collins and ‘Coma’ by Tear Garden, and you’ll have to—
Jon: It’s called ‘Naufraga’ by this Italian punk band called Contropotere.
Daron: Yeah, that song’s awesome.
Jon: Yeah. Really interesting band, and the friend of mine that paid for that, you know, that’s great to have a friend bring up one of my favorite punk records and get us to play something off of it.
Daron: We’re planning on having a backer party here in the next couple weeks, probably at the Chat Room or Boiled Owl.
Jon: Just to give everybody their stuff.
Daron: We still have some t-shirts we have to send out and stuff like that, but really, the covers are the major thing we’ve been working on, because that’s a task.
Jon: It’s fun.
Daron: No, I mean, ‘Was it worth it?’ Yeah. It was well worth it.
THREE: Where do you see Pinkish Black one year from now?
Jon: It’s kind of…uh…
Daron: It’s a mystery right now. We don’t know.
Jon: We don’t know what’s over this horizon. Like, I can see this horizon, but I have no fucking idea what’s going to happen.
Daron: You know, because things… major shit has happened in the past month or two months, you know, and it’s stuff we never thought we’d have to deal with—
Jon: But it’s all— It’s really attributed to making that trip.
Daron: — and, you know, we wouldn’t have been able to do if we hadn’t had that Kickstarter. So, it’s interesting and very cool to think that, ‘Oh, wow, all of our friends really helped us get to the next level that we never thought we could achieve,’ you know?
Jon: We’ll have another record. We’re going to go record again in December.
Daron: With [Matthew] Barnhart again.
Jon: So, I know that’s going to happen, and I think we’re probably—
MB: You have all of the songs already written for that?
Jon: Well, we’re like one shy.
MB: It’s going to be a full length?
Daron: Yeah.
Jon: Yeah, and I guess we’re going to just start trying to tour as much as possible, because now we’ll have the van and we’ll have just a little… enough money to go, and… yeah, touring. That’s what I see happening.
Daron: Yeah, that’s all we want to do. I think we like playing live more than anything… when it goes well.
Jon: When it goes well.
Daron: When it’s before 1:30. We have a cut-off time to our enjoyment. But, yeah, that’s all we want to do. Tour, put out more albums, record more stuff, write better music…
Daron: It’s a mystery right now. We don’t know.
Jon: We don’t know what’s over this horizon. Like, I can see this horizon, but I have no fucking idea what’s going to happen.
Daron: You know, because things… major shit has happened in the past month or two months, you know, and it’s stuff we never thought we’d have to deal with—
Jon: But it’s all— It’s really attributed to making that trip.
Daron: — and, you know, we wouldn’t have been able to do if we hadn’t had that Kickstarter. So, it’s interesting and very cool to think that, ‘Oh, wow, all of our friends really helped us get to the next level that we never thought we could achieve,’ you know?
Jon: We’ll have another record. We’re going to go record again in December.
Daron: With [Matthew] Barnhart again.
Jon: So, I know that’s going to happen, and I think we’re probably—
MB: You have all of the songs already written for that?
Jon: Well, we’re like one shy.
MB: It’s going to be a full length?
Daron: Yeah.
Jon: Yeah, and I guess we’re going to just start trying to tour as much as possible, because now we’ll have the van and we’ll have just a little… enough money to go, and… yeah, touring. That’s what I see happening.
Daron: Yeah, that’s all we want to do. I think we like playing live more than anything… when it goes well.
Jon: When it goes well.
Daron: When it’s before 1:30. We have a cut-off time to our enjoyment. But, yeah, that’s all we want to do. Tour, put out more albums, record more stuff, write better music…
– Interview by Michael Briggs / Transcription by Dale Jones