NAPALMPOM'S MESSAGE TO MUSIC INDUSTRY: ‘WE’VE GOT THIS’
The past few years have been a little strange for Napalmpom.
The Calgary-based rock outfit saw its 2014 debut, The Unconditional Love of Napalmpom, hailed as a revival of sorts, an irresistible fusion of punk sass and ’70s rock riffs that aligned listeners on both sides of that particular fence. Built from members of such bands as Forbidden Dimension, Beija Flor and Creeper, Napalmpom were seen as a refreshing tonic to the times, cranking out unabashed, turbocharged love notes to the likes of Queen, Boston and Thin Lizzy. Crowds across Canada came out and loved it, as did the record industry; that’s also when the “suggestions” started pouring in.
“At a certain point, we found that people started to believe they had a stake in what we were doing,” says Napalmpom guitarist Shawn Petsche.
“Friends felt that way, of course, but also industry professionals who all had opinions on what we should do and how we should do it. That was very weird to us. They were talking about the ‘band as brand’ and hammered at us to constantly be ‘making content’ and ‘engaging the fan base.’ There’s some kernel of truth in all that, but it really rubbed us the wrong way.”
Thus was born Napalmpom’s sophomore album, The Core Competencies of Napalmpom, an inspired rejoinder to industry market jargon mixed in with ruminations on “love and death.”
For Petsche and the rest of the group (P.J. Lavergne, vocals; Craig Evans, guitar; Ian Baker, bass; Matthew Bayliff, drums), it’s also a reminder that Napalmpom is anything but an ironic joke band; instead, they’re joyful rock warriors intent on spreading the gospel of the riff. We spoke with Petsche in advance of the band’s record release at the Buckingham on Saturday night.
Q The original idea for your second record was to write a concept album comparing and contrasting the lead singers of Guns N’ Roses and The Replacements, told from the point of view of their connecting bass player, Tommy Stinson, and calling it Tommy. How far did that idea get?
A Not too far, really. We sketched out the theme for a double album. It was almost like a personal challenge; when we started the band, people thought we were doing it as a laugh, and while we like having fun, we’ve always tried to dig a little deeper. The idea was to do something that seemed like a joke on the surface but was actually quite serious, pulling something truthful from a ludicrous idea. We would have these intense, deep conversations about Axl Rose and Paul Westerberg (of The Replacements), and we wrote the music to probably 15 songs, but we never quite got to the lyrics, so who knows.
Q It sounds like it would have been a natural progression, loving ’70s rock while still holding to punk-rock values.
A That’s what the first record was: nine love songs to the rock records we grew up on, with big, Boston harmonies and production touches that call to mind that decade’s sound. It definitely wasn’t an ironic statement; these are records we grew up with and listened to. We purposefully messed with many of the eyerolling tropes of the genre, like subverting the sexist lyrics, or throwing in a noise breakdown where normally there would be an epic guitar solo. But yeah, we love classic rock as much as we love punk. We love good music. When we drive to Edmonton, we’ll be listening to Thin Lizzy, Black Flag and Killer Mike.
Q You really have fun with industry buzz words on your new album, don’t you?
A One thing we heard over and over again was how we needed a lyric video. We were told that the audience needs to see the words, and we’re not a real band until we do one. That’s ludicrous to me, especially when as a band we want to make a song sound like a song, not a collection of parts. We decided that for the video for our song Stop the Presses we would run the lyrics through Google Translator into different languages and then back into English until they became detached from the actual lyrics.
Q It seems to be a goodhumoured response to a ridiculous situation.
A Well, I appreciate where it comes from. How many bands are out there playing great shows and making great music, just waiting for someone to respond? I have an appreciation for anyone doing anything in this industry, because there aren’t a lot of reasons to do it other than because you love it. That includes many of the people in the industry. We definitely don’t want to alienate anyone who doesn’t align with how we see things, but we do want to say that we know what we’re doing, and don’t worry, we’ve got this.