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The Moldy
Peaches have proved themselves as worthy torch bearers
of the Anti Folk scene. Their simple, unpretentious
and often humourous acoustic tunes even managed to captivate
the salivating rock hungry audience at their high profile
show at London's HEAVEN club, supporting THE STROKES.
This was no small feat for a man and woman dressed
up as Robin Hood and a Lioness. No, really.A large part
of their charm is their ability to not take themselves
seriously, a refreshing characteristic in todays earnest,
post-OK Computer pompous rock world. Their lyrics locate
themselves somewhere in the grey area between childhood
and adolesence: lives that live in cartoons, all those
too hip or not too hip conversations and even breakfast
cereals. Frank Zappa once famously asked, "Does Humour
Belong In Music?" On this showing ,yes, yes, a
thousand times, yes. We talked to Kimya, one half of The Moldy Peaches.
CRUD: You've been touring with the Strokes, how's
that been? Found out any personal hygiene secrets about
the band?
KIMYA: We are back in New York now. we toured
with The Strokesfor a month and it was absolutely amazing.
I love The Strokes as a band and as people. They are
wonderful and they took really good care of us. Fabrizio
is my cousin and I could tell you some stories about
when we were kids that would probably make him blush,
but I shouldn't.
CRUD: There is a buzz growing about the current
NY scene here in the UK, do you think it's justified?
KIMYA: Well, I think that The Strokes are amazing
and we're pretty good, and there are other amazing bands
like DUFUS and STIPPLICON and...uh...I don't really
know that much about bands. And I certaintly don't know
of a band scene. There are a lot of amazing songwriters
and hopefully once some the dust clears from the hype
about the bands the songwriters will be standing in
the rubble singing about the aftermath.
CRUD: Lo-Fi - what does it mean to you? KIMYA: Low in fiber. I need more fiber. My poop
has been very irregular.
CRUD: What is it about NY that inspires you and
others? KIMYA: The beautiful scenery in the town that
I live in. Contrary to popular belief I am not
a city girl. I am from a small town north of NYC. I
have a nice house with my parents and we have a family
business watching kids. I have a dog and a car and a
nice backyard. I like to go camping. I am inspired by
boredom. Sometimes when I am in the city I am inspired
by the conversations I overhear in crowds and the hum
of busy-ness.
CRUD: Anti -folk scene: does that stem from an
annoyance with folk, singer/songwriter clichés? KIMYA: In the 80's a lot of amazing songwriters
were being kicked out of the folk clubs in the West
Village for being too loud, or for swearing. and when
they weren't allowed to play the Folk Festival they
decided to have an Antifolk Festival and Antifolk is
still around. The players write songs because the songs
are in their souls and so it is a less competitive scene
that is closer to the true spirit of "folk".
CRUD: Favourite NEW YORK band (apart from your
glorious selves) KIMYA: My 3 favorites are DUFUS, STIPPLICON
and THE STROKES. They are all very different and very
good bands.
CRUD:The album: Is it really your greatest hits?
KIMYA: One day I gave Adam (Peachy no.2)
a ride to his friend Kurt Feldman's house. Kurt was
11. and there was a girl named Denise there who was
14. The 3 of them were playing songs while I watched
T.V.and when they made up some music they asked me to
sing. I didn't know what to say so I sang 'Bunny Foo
Foo', the old nursery rhyme, and that first take is
the recording on our album. After that we decided to make more songs together and
record them. After recording 11 more songs we put out
a CD called FER THE KIDS. There are only about 80 copies
of that in the world. I moved back to Washington, to
a town called Port Townsend, and gave the CDs to all
my friends. So we had this small town Washington state
fan base. Adam moved out there for 2 months in early
1999 and we started playing the songs with our friend:
Jest Commons, on lead guitar, and Justice Campbell,
on drums. We played a few shows- the 3rd was with DUB NARCOTIC
and THE CRABS, before returning toNew York as a band.
After a few months in New York we recruited our friend
Brian Piltin to play bass. But in October Jest's dad
died so he headed back to the northwest. Justice decided
to go home too so the band called it quits (we were
'Moldy Peaches 2000' then). In the time we weren't playing, I recorded a solo album
called I'M SORRY THAT SOMETIMES I'M MEAN and Adam recorded
a self titled solo album called, ADAM GREEN. We started
playing together again last August (2000) for the summer
ANTIFOLK FESTIVAL. We played with Brian on bass, Brent
cole on drums, and Chris Barron- from the SPIN DOCTORS
- on lead guitar. after that show we took on guitarist
Jack Dishel, from STIPPLICON.
In October we fired Brian and hired Steven Mertens to
play bass. We recorded more songs and put out an 11
song version of the album that is out now. Geoff Travis
from ROUGH TRADE was sent a copy of the CD from the
lovely people at the MERCURY LOUNGE and decided to check
us out. So he came and saw us play at LACH (the founder
of antifolk)'s birthday party. He told us he wanted
to put out an album of whatever songs we wanted so we
combined the cd we had just finished with some of our
earlier recordings.
CRUD: Who is Jorge Regula? Jorge Regula is Steve
Espinola. KIMYA:He is a songwriter that plays piano and
a homemade electric tennis racket. He has an mp3 sight.
I am a big fan of his song 'Love Song While Running
Away'.
CRUD: 'D2 Boyfriend' - How do you feel about
the fact Duran Duran are reforming with their original
members? KIMYA: Well, I think John Taylor still has
that certain something but honestly I never got that
into their music. I like it but I never owned any albums.
'D2 Boyfriend' isn't really about loving Duran Duran
as much as it is about feeling excluded. My friends
could've been playing any game and it would've been
that same feeling. It is sort of a public service announcement
telling kids to stick it out and stay true even though
things feel really bad sometimes. It feels worse to
see yourself short.
CRUD: 'Snoopy or Garfield' ? KIMYA: I had a dream a few months back that
I lived in a thatched roof hut in the middle of the
jungle and a white haired man with a ponytail and a
Garfield shirt came into my hut. And there were tree
stumps everywhere and the man had the boucy prosthetic
legs the runners use and he was bouncing from stump
to stump and I said "I want bouncy prosthetic legs"
and he said "You HAVE bouncy prosthetic legs" and I
looked down and i did! And he took my hand and said
"I'm Jim Davis" and we bounced of through the jungle
together.
CRUD: Kimya, tell us about your solo record that's
coming out KIMYA: I have 2 solo albums: I'M SORRY THAT
SOMETIMES I'M MEAN and KNOCK KNOCK WHO? I make CD-R
copies so there really are never very many available.
I recorded I'M SORRY THAT SOMETIMES I'M MEAN after only
playing guitar for 4 months. The songs are slow and
sad, but good. I used a four track and there are some
other intruments too - little kid toy instruments mostly
from around my house. I recorded KNOCK KNOCK WHO? 6 months after that. It's
a little sillier, rougher. but still fairly simple.
I have some kids singing with me on that one. There
are songs I let the kids make up and play the instruments
on on both albums. And a song on each from a collection
of recordings I did with my friend Matt Rouse called
'Titanium Heart and the Chains of Love', songs about
the open road. Maybe someday someone will want to release
the CDs so whoever wants them can have copies. I don't
really have the energy to make lots of copies and sell
them. Latest News: SEE Kimya play The Sidewalk Friday,
August 10th, NYC Kimya will be playing a solo set at sidewalk cafe from
(precisely) 7:30-8:00 6th st & ave
A Free this will be the last Moldy Peaches related thing
in New York until September 14th.
On August 15th The Moldy Peaches will leave for japan
to play the summersonic festival. We are playing at
10:30am one day and 11:30am the next. The early bird
special. From there they head to Belgium for PUKKLEPOP
and to England for Reading and Leeds festivals.
We are still waiting to find out whether or not we are
playing gig on THE GREEN in Glasgow.
Report and Review compiled by Priya Elangasinghe for
CRUD©
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