Rockezine.com interview with Peter Pan Speedrock on May 06, 2003

with Peter and Bartman on May 06, 2003

Just prior to the release of ‘Lucky Bastards’, their latest effort I have a chat with Peter Pan Speedrock’s guitarist Peter van Elderen and drummer Bart Nederhand. Bass player Bart Geevres couldn’t make it as he was crossing his deadline for the inner sleeve artwork for the upcoming album that will be released on both CD and vinyl.
		Not very original but very inevitable; the first question is about the new album. Tell the readers of Rockezine about it! Bart: Super great! Peter: I think it’s fantastic heh heh! I think it’s in line with our last album. We worked even harder at it. I think it’s better. We put everything on hold for three months to work on it for three or four days a week. We brought in our favorite producer (Kurt Bloch) and recorded in Pidah!’s (Pieter Kloos, 7 Zuma 7, Peter Pan Speedrock – W) studio The Void in Eindhoven. We really feel at home there and he bought very cool tape recorders which he found in some old Philips laboratory.
		Peter: Kurt did Zeke, Supersuckers and Nashville Pussy and all those albums have a very good sound. I found him on the internet and it went pretty quick actually. He didn’t know us, he had heard of us, but he never heard our records. I send him a CD and he mailed me the very next day that he’d love to do it.
		What was it like working with him? Peter: Fantastic! He’s super relaxed. There was a very friendly atmosphere and he’s a real party animal. You never know of course what you’re going to get when you hire somebody for the first time. Maybe he’s a nine to five guy. Of course that would be very unusual in this line of work but I never discussed it with him. But he works from 12:00 to 02:00 or whatever, just like us. Bart: Or later! After three days we took him to a bar and we had to carry him home, ha ha!
		Peter: Yeah, he did a good job I think. He had some very good ideas.
		Kurt Bloch has his own recording methods: Bart: Kurt stayed in the recording room while we were playing and he really showed us what he liked, banging his head and all. When he did that we thought: ‘Well, maybe this is a good take’ ha ha ha. We recorded everything pretty quick; in about two days actually. He (Kurt) even played tambourine!
		Peter Pan Speedrock were prepared when they entered the studio. Peter: We overran our time, which always happens with us, but this time we knew what we were doing. In the past we were still writing lyrics during the recording sessions. Well… that happened again this time, but it wasn’t as bad! Ha ha. During pre-production we recorded all songs so we were well prepared. Bart: Some songs are completely recorded live, apart from the vocals. Even the solos.
		On ‘Lucky Bastards’, the new album is a song called ‘Black Beauty ‘69’. It’s about Peter’s new guitar and he’s really chuffed with it. Peter: It’s about my Les Paul Custom I bought in Canada. No not during our North American tour but on EBay. I used to play a Gibson SG and for some songs this is a better guitar but it’s such a thin piece of wood and that makes it sound out of tune, especially live. (I’ll leave out the discussion that followed about the difference between old and new Les Paul models, the difficult combination of a Rickenbacker bass guitar and Les Paul guitars etc.)
		For those who know Peter Pan Speedrock it may come as a surprise, but just as I thought, Peter van Elderen has been taking singing lessons. Peter: I started taking singing lessons after Premium Quality, our previous full length album. We always thought that the vocals were the bottle neck. It was pretty heavy to do and we felt it had to improve.
		The way Peter sings makes him stand out of the other students his teacher works with. Peter: I explained the situation and she said there was only way to do it: plug in that guitar stand in front of a mike and just go for it! There’s no point in practicing scales. I think it worked; I feel more comfortable now.
		Bart has been voted best drummer in Holland by his fellow musicians. Quite an honor. Bart: Yeah, really cool! I didn’t expect it at all. But it’s great because it comes from other musicians.
		Peter: And after the awards, we went to the studio and he ended up with flowers in his pants (just his pants!) lying on the floor, ha ha! He had finished two bottles of champagne. Bart: Yeah, they gave me a bottle of champagne and I drank the one from Koen who plays in Beef (a Dutch reggae/ska band) as well. He’s a friend of mine. It really was a cool party!
		Including the mini-cover album Peter Pan Speedrock have released four records through Suburban. Never change a winning team I suppose? Yeah, although with the new album there’s a change. We’ve signed with Bithcore in Germany for the release outside the Benelux. They’ve done Turbonegro in the past. Now they also have The Turbo AC’s among others.
		Peter Pan Speedrock is full of plans. One of those sounds very promising. Peter: We’re planning to do a rockabilly album. Bart: We’re going to re-record some of our own songs with an upright bass. Peter: We all want to do it but it was Pidah!’s idea. (Pidah! Is Pieter Kloos, producer and engineer) plus there’s going to be another cover album.
		Although the band has played over 150 shows in the past year they’re still eager to do more. Bart: We’ve played Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Belgium… but the last three months we haven’t played live because we were working on the album, so I really feel like playing again!
		Leo, the tour manager joins the conversation and he’s pissed off, just like the rest of the band, as one of the biggest festivals in Holland, Pinkpop, does not allow them to bring their wives and girlfriends backstage. Rather silly I must say. Anyway, back to the interview…
		Playing live and touring that much must have its effect on the band. And it does. Peter: You really learn to love each other, ha ha ha ha! No, it’s just like every friendship or relationship; you get to know each other better and better. Both the positive and the negative…
		Peter Pan Speedrock’s sound and music are pretty distinctive. But the influences are varied. Peter: Bart has a metal background while our bass player is more of a rockabilly guy and I come from the alternative guitar scene. But we all have a very broad musical taste and we all certainly have affinity with those styles. Within the band we kind of know what will work and what won’t.
		Peter Pan writes as a group. Peter: From the beginning we decided to put all our names under each song, no matter who wrote it. Just to prevent any hassle about it. The way it usually works is that I have a riff or something like that. Their faces tell me if it’s worth having a go after which we work it into a song.
		Bart: And it can work the other way around as well. I can come up with a riff or a beat or whatever. I play it and if it rocks, the others like it and we write a song around it.
		The new single is Go Satan Go. Maybe not the most obvious choice from a commercial point of view but Peter Pan Speedrock has given it plenty of thought. Peter: Of course we discuss this with Suburban (the record company) but in the end it’s the band’s decision. There’s a song called ‘Black Beauty ‘69’ on the record which is really suitable for radio airplay. But it’s pretty poppy and we didn’t want to release it as a single. The cool thing about Suburban is that they already reached the same conclusion. So ‘Go Satan Go’ it is!
Peter Pan Speedrock`s new record Lucky Bastards is out on Suburban Records and Bitchcore. They will be playing the Waldrock festival in Holland onJune 21st. They`ll be touring Europe as well. Be sure to check `em out! (Walter de Korver)