On a sunny Parisian afternoon, I sat with Peach Pit’s lead singer Neil Smith. The Vancouver based band has been together for over ten years and it’s their fifth time performing in Paris. Neil accepted a croissant from my favorite boulangerie and nibbled at it through the conversation. It was a beautiful day as we sat outside on the venue’s balcony to discuss his personal growth, the band’s evolution, and their tours with Briston Maroney (who would open the performance that night).
Since forming in high school for a class-project, Peach Pit has released four albums and an EP. Their most popular songs have been their rock grooves from their first and second albums such as “Techno Show” or “Alrighty Aphrodite.” While working under the umbrella of indie rock, Peach Pit has attempted to find new light in the genre, expanding their range with folk and country tunes. Their most recent album however, Magpie, was intended to return to their roots and push that heavier rock narrative. Neil explained they, “didn’t take it all the way.” Nonetheless, Magpie was successfully showed the maturation of the band. They’re currently touring Europe, as they prepare to take on a North American summer in their next tour: Long Hair, Long Life.
Well known for their Y2K presentation, the band posts less than serious videos and photoshoots on Instagram, with their musical visualizers follow the same fun vibe. Watch the visualizer for “Little Dive,” and one might be surprised to hear the band’s often personal stories and somber melodies. This contrast was just one of many topics we covered in our conversation as Neil reflected on the band’s development.
*This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What songs do you hold closest? What’s most important to you in your repertoire?
It changes over time because just like anything, you get used to it if you do something over and over again. If you play a song over and over, they get pretty meaningless. I say to people that it’s like when you’re stoned and you say your name too many times, and you’re like, “What, Neil? That’s such a weird word, you know.” With a song too, they’re really important to me when I first write them, and as time goes on, the songs almost become for the people who listen to them. So I don’t have that much emotional attachment to them anymore.
Now, having said that, there are some songs that are still special to me, like old songs of ours, like “Tommy’s Party.” I’ll always be really proud of that song. As I was saying with new music like on our new record Magpie there’s a song called “Did You Love Somebody” that I will think of the same way I think of “Tommy’s Party,” where ten years down the road I’ll still think it’s a special song to me. The words will still mean something to me because those are just the songs that are the most honest or real. Those ones tend to last for me, they’re the most authentic me, so then they’re still important to me.
You mentioned songs becoming for the fans. Do you compose anything with that in mind?
Maybe. An example of that would be, on Magpie, there’s a song called “Magpie.” I was trying to write a song that was an upbeat rock and roll song specifically. I don’t usually do that, I’ll just start writing and then maybe it will turn out that way or it won’t. I write a lot of stuff on my acoustic guitar, so sometimes a song that’s very chill. Eventually, once we come together as a band and start working on the tune, it will take on a new life. We started with “Magpie” and I was putting on the drum beat for Tame Impala’s “Elephant,” and I wrote the song to that song because I was trying to make a rock and roll tune. I’d never done it before, but it’s actually a really fun way to write, just to put on the drum beat of a song that you really like and try to insert some energy into the tune.
You guys have been doing this together for more than 10 years now. How have you evolved?
We’ve gotten more collaborative over the years. We’re better at working together as a group and making records together. It’s very awkward to write songs with people because in order to write a song you have to be able to write a corny lyric, or come up with a bad idea and then do something different. It’s difficult because you have to be pretty vulnerable, but over time, the boys and I have gotten better at working on music together and being open to different ways of working. Our band started out and we were really good friends. We like to hang out with each other. But because of that [friendship], there can be people butting heads with each other and your personalities can get on each other’s nerves. Over time, we’ve gotten really good at communicating. Yeah, staying good friends, I would say.
Is that the secret to staying together? Being friends?
Definitely, staying friends is very important, and then also splitting everything equally. I think that’s the most important thing, actually. A lot of bands break up when there’s a disparity between members, maybe one person is the sole songwriter or something so they make more money than the others. That’s the recipe for disaster. I would say if you’re going to start a band you should always be completely diplomatic and everyone should be an equal partner in the band because it forces you to work as a team.
You’re the lead singer, do you feel you’re the leader of the band?
No, definitely not. Everyone in the band has different things that they’re good at and things that they take control over. One example would be Peter, our bass player. He’s really, really good in the studio, acting like a producer and coming up with solutions if we’re stuck on something. Peter often is the first person to be like, “Oh, let’s try this,” “Let’s do this for the bridge to get us to the chorus” or “Let’s insert the riff at this point.” That’s just an example of one thing that he’s really good at. Everybody has their own job in the band, so everyone is a leader in their own right.
What do you do? What’s your thing?
I come up with the jokes for the shows and I do a lot of social media stuff for the band. I work on the videos and I’m one of the main songwriters in the band as well.
Talking about social media, you guys have quite a heavy presence. How do these sometimes super personal and serious songs contrast with your less serious online image?
That’s just how we are in our daily life. We like to be funny and make each other laugh and stuff. That’s what we tend to do with regard to our photos and things like that. We write sad songs and we make stupid videos.
What about Briston Maroney, how did you meet?
I was a fan of Briston before we met two and a half years ago. We played a show together in Colorado and it was us, Briston, and the Backseat Lovers. That’s the first time we met Briston and we hit it off right away because we both made an album with the producer John Congleton. Congleton is a super weird funny guy, and we had lots of funny stories that we were sharing back and forth about working with Congleton. After we saw him live, we were like, “Oh shit, it would be awesome if we could play some shows together.”
As Canadians, what does it mean to be touring in the US right now?
It’s funny, so many people have been asking us that recently and I don’t really think of it. We just make music for people, any people in the world that like to listen to it. I think people, no matter where they are in the world, are largely the same in what their wants, dreams, and desires are. So, for us, I’m stoked to be playing in the U.S. We love our American fans and some of our favorite places in the world are in the U.S. For me – despite whatever may be happening between the U.S. and Canada – the people who come to our shows just want to have a good time and listen to some songs that they like.
Do you see your music as an escape from that?
I feel like that’s what I want music to be: an escape from real-life stuff. It should be about the music and that’s all it should be about. Other people have different opinions, and if they want to have a statement with their music then I think they should, but that’s just not my prerogative.
You mentioned you had this “stupid belief” in yourself in another interview, where did that come from?
It’s just something you have when you’re young. Maybe not everyone feels that way, but I feel like when you’re young, you’re naive about how things are in the world. I’m way less confident now than I am from when I was in my 20s. Even when playing shows I’ll get way more self-conscious on stage or nervous about performances than I did. I used to be way more brazenly confident than I feel on the inside now. I think it’s just from being young. You need to have that, especially when you’re starting out with some sort of career path that maybe a lot of people won’t support. When you’re in school they don’t say “Oh you should be a songwriter.” Most people say “very few people make a career at this, blah blah blah.” In order to actually do it you need to have a delusional confidence about it.
Who was Neil Smith ten years ago versus now? Do you have more performance anxiety?
Not more. I’m good at handling it, but maybe less of the delusional sort of confidence that I was describing. I’m more critical of myself now than I used to be for sure. We were so young when we first started the band and had no responsibilities – not that I have a ton of responsibilities now, but we kind of grew up together, being in the band. We all used to live in a big house with a bunch of roommates and we didn’t really have any worries or cares in the world besides paying the $350 a month for rent. Outside of that we could just drink beer and play music together. I also don’t drink anymore and I haven’t for seven years now so I’m more boring than I used to be. If I’m not on tour or something I just like to hang out in Vancouver or at home and just do stuff around the house.
Has your sound as a band matured as well?
Yes, but we’ve also gone out of our way to try and make our records sound different from record to record. For Being So Normal, our first record, we didn’t really think about it at all. We just wrote the songs and Chris [Vanderkooy] wrote a riff and Peter [Wilton] wrote a bass part and we put them together and then recorded them and that’s what it sounded like. There wasn’t a lot of thought that went into it. Maybe an important part of the process is not overthinking it. Now, the past two records we really went out of our way to try and – for example, on From 2 to 3 – to make something that sounded like 1970s more natural sounding guitars and stuff, and that’s what we did. I don’t know if I would say mature though, but for me, people will be like “Oh this sounds like a Peach Pit song,” and I can’t really identify what we sound like because when I listen to our songs I don’t really hear a song in whole.
What direction are you guys going in now? Is there somewhere you want to go?
I would really like to make a record that has a heavier rock feel to it. That’s sort of what we wanted to do on Magpie and then we didn’t take it all the way there. We didn’t write the right songs to make it sound a certain way. I think as time has gone on, I realized that the best way to make the record I want is to write way more songs than I need. I’m not the hardest or fastest worker so for me to write ten songs takes a long time and usually our records will have ten songs on them. For the next record, I want to try to write like 50 songs for it and use ten of them as opposed to writing 10 and then being like, “We need one more.”
How do you feel performing very personal stories for thousands of people?
In the past, I would sometimes be a bit self-conscious about it or worried about what people would think of the songs. One of my biggest worries is that a lot of times I’ll write a song about somebody that I know and their name will be in the song and they’ll know that it’s about them. In the past, I’ve worried about how that could affect somebody else, but as I was saying before, I’ve realized very early on that a song is just a song. They do not know what the song truly means. A lot of people identify with the music and can take something personal out of it for themselves. When we’re performing them I just feel like playing any other song. I don’t necessarily have a super emotional attachment to the music once we start playing it live.
As you’re playing and writing these songs, are there any emotions that are hardest to convey?
Happiness, maybe. It’s hard to write a happy song. I’m pretty good at writing sad songs, but for whatever reason, writing a happy song is quite difficult. We don’t really have any happy music. It might sound happy or upbeat, but the lyrics aren’t usually very happy. I would love to write a good happy song, but it’s really hard. It always feels corny if you write a song that’s happy. What’s a happy song that you like? Almost every song is deep down, it’s sad, you know? “Pink Pony Club”, is a very happy-sounding song, but it’s fucking sad, you know? Writing a happy song is hard for sure.
Outside of music, what do you do? Anything that keeps you sane on tour?
Well, being on tour is easy. We are at the point now where we have 12 of us when we go on tour. There’s the five of us in the band and then a crew of techs. We’re really good friends with everyone and that’s the team that we’ve been on the road with over the years. The band has a pretty relaxed life on tour. We get to sleep in later than everyone else because they’re setting up the stage and getting everything ready. Touring is almost like a vacation. It’s so fun to travel around and play shows. We have really, really nice fans. The shows are fun every night and everyone’s so sweet. On tour, I don’t need anything to keep me sane. I love checking out different local food and eating at restaurants. We also have bunks on the bus so you do have your own little cocoon that you can just close the blinds on your bunk and then you crawl into bed and watch a movie or something like that and have a little bit of alone time. That helps.
So you don’t ever get burnt out?
Not really from being on the road. By the time the end of the tour comes, I’m quite tired for sure. Right when I get home from a tour is my favorite time. Even though I’m a person who likes to chill and take it easy, I’m not that hard-working and I feel guilty if I’m sitting on my ass. Right when I get home from tour I’m just like, “I’m not doing anything, and I’m going to chill guilt-free.” Tour is so fun and all of us are really good friends so it’s just fun.
Do you have any favorite places you guys are headed?
Yes, Paris is going to be sweet tonight. Tomorrow we’re going to Cologne and I’m excited because there’s a place called Kebab Land we go to every time. It’s the best kebab in the world. The New York shows are always fucking sweet and we’re very excited to play Pier 17. It looks fucking sweet. We’re also going to Poland for the first time, which will be cool. Pumped for the North America tour, though. The best shows are always in the U.S. and Canada.
How have your performances evolved?
I would say I take my job as the frontman more seriously than I used to. I try harder to connect with the audience in between songs. It definitely causes me a lot of stress, but when I do a good job of it, those are my favorite shows because going to see a show and getting to see the personality of the person talking into the mic is my favorite type of show. People that are like that – I always bring up Mac DeMarco, but when I first saw him I’d never seen somebody just be so themself on stage. I always thought you had to pretend to be a rock star or something like that.
Also, if somebody gets dragged to a show with their friend and they don’t know any of our music it can be a little boring because you don’t know the songs. I always hope that I can tell a little story or something that can keep them engaged and show them a little bit about who we are so that they can enjoy the show.
You guys are releasing your expansion pack for Magpie, is there anything from there you’ll be playing tonight?
Nothing tonight, no. But we put out the dance version of “Am I Your Girl” And I really hope that people will keep listening to it because I would like to play that live. We also have a new song that’s not been released coming out for the North American tour. Maybe we’ll play that, it all depends on whether people listen to it or not.
