TLOBF Interview // The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

With one of 2009’s finest albums under their belt, anticipation is always going to be high for any releases from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. So, on the eve of their first single in 2010 – Adrian Mules caught up with singer and guitarist Kip Berman.

Hi Kip, you had a fantastic 2009 – the album featured highly in many polls and everyone heaped much love upon you. What was your highlight?
There are just too many to mention, especially the tours and time hanging out with bands we really admire like Atlas Sound, Girls, Zaza, Cymbals Eat Guitars and Depreciation Guild.

The one memory that really stands out for me is getting a bit boozy after a show at 4:00 AM in a park in Milan with the Vivian Girls. We were two bands who lived about a mile apart at home, but didn’t really know each other more than musically. Now, half way around the world, under a purple sky in the summer we were telling gross jokes, sharing insecurities and then laughing them off together– it was just one of those moments I’ll always remember.

That’s a great memory. It’s 2010 and you’ve a new single – ‘Say No To Love’ – what’s it all about?
When you’re young it’s easy to get trapped by imagined notions of “Love”. Emo guys who want things to be all “forever” after making out for 3 weeks, or vice versa or vice vice, versa versa (let’s not be beholden to a heterosexist or homophobic worldview). It’s a trap. Go out and do something with your life, go to school or don’t go to school, go away to some other city far from the place you grew up, or start a wussy pop band– just don’t live to be somebody’s someone. Follow your dreams, not your crotch.

Phew, that’s wise advice. If you could post a letter back in time to yourself aged 15, what things would you advise your past-self to say “No” to?
Dying my hair blue? Though I don’t really regret anything. The fact that I’m sitting in a van with my friends driving to Memphis to play a show; I wouldn’t want it to turn out any other way.

These wonderful tunes keep pouring out – what’s the song writing process for you? Is your head full of jingly-jangley magic all the time?
Aw, thanks so much! I think we’re just lucky and we’re genuinely grateful people like the songs we make. For better or for worse Pains is my whole life. The songs aren’t these artificial character constructs, or exercises in writing or something like that. They are us, the things we’ve done, the things we feel in this very vivid way.

Are there more releases planned for this year?
We’re recording an album later this summer, but I think it’s not planned to be released until early 2011. Maybe there will be a single in advance of that, but it’s really too soon to say, know or even guess. Though I guess I’m sort of guessing.

You are playing several festival dates this year, do you find it easy to win over a crowd that might not be au fait with your work?
Well, we generally don’t ask large gatherings of concert-goers if they’re ready to rock. There is, to us at least, a basic assumption that they are well prepared for that eventuality. The real question is, are we?

If you were given the opportunity to curate a festival, who would be your top 5 picks to play?
Marc Bolan/T.Rex, Exploding Hearts, Belle and Sebastian, Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins and Atlas Sound.

What keeps you pure of heart with all the temptations that cross your path whilst on tour?
Perhaps we’d welcome being led down a path towards dissipation, but usually we end up in used record and book stores.

What things do you miss most about New York when you are away from it?
Friends and music. I definitely miss having certain people around – like the other day, Peggy and I were at a Shoney’s in Nashville – the same Shoney’s where my superpal Danny from Zaza won 2 bears in the crane game last time we toured together – It was a great triumph. And it would have been cool if he was there to win the van some more booty.

Also, there are a lot of good shows by local bands within about 20 minutes walk of my apartment, that I see posted when we’re out of town and it makes me bummed I can’t go. Like, I just saw Dream Diary is playing with My Teenage Stride, and I’d like to go to that – but we’re away. So if you’re reading this Jed & Jacob, have a good show!

What’s the most interesting gift a fan has given you?
In Japan, a girl who worked at a bakery called Sally Cinnamon in Fukuoka brought us a bag of bagels and cream cheese, because she thought that since we were from New York, we’d be homesick. It was so sweet – and the bagels, something not very common in Japan, were delicious and were strangely flavoured (Hazelnut!). We also got a lot of fan art, home made rice balls and exotic candies in Japan, which were all wonderfully sweet and for which we were incredibly grateful.

It’s crisis time! Oh No! The lift you are in has become stuck along with the music playing in it. Looks like you are going to be here all night, what song would be your choice for twelve hours of repeat play?
The Drums – ‘Book of Stories’

What’s your motto?
“Peggy’s always right.”

It’s quick-fire time: Beatles or Stones?
I know the indiepop answer is The Kinks, and while I love them greatly, I have a real weak spot for The Rolling Stones. My mom thinks Keith Richards is the most handsome man of all time – and mostly everything up through Some Girls is pretty classic.

Dylan or Cash?
Leonard Cohen! I swear I’m not trying to be difficult.

Yes you are.
But getting to see him perform in New York recently was one of those moments in life where you realize you’ve seen something greater than the things you normally think of as great, that you’re happy to be alive in the time you are so that you can know you saw him. And he wasn’t diminished – it was powerful and necessary, not just some “reunion show” for a band long past their prime. If anything, his age added even more gravity and power, much in the opposite way it does other bands. There are certain bands that feed off the cult of youth that just don’t measure up at 50 – he blew my mind at 75.

Banana Splits or Scooby Doo?
Jem and the Holograms ALL THE WAY!

Sweet or Sour?
Sweet and Sour Soup!

Undersea Kingdom or Orbital Space Station?
The roof of my apartment at night in the summer is heavenly enough.

That’s the quickfire done, you can relax now. Who in the band has the most interesting non-musical talent?
Kurt’s working on making a video game for the iPhone called ‘Tile Wild’. He got a lot of his friends (like myself) to make colorways for the game, so I’m psyched to see it in action soon.

Will it tempt the world away from Plants vs Zombies though? Your record label has given you a $5 million dollar cheque that must be either spent on a music video or a giant robot creature for your live shows – which do you pick?
A Jem and the Holograms themed music video, totally in that style, but with us as the protagonists. Either that or a re-creation of the final scene of Purple Rain, which always makes me choke up… “Purple Pain”.

That has the potential to amaze, thanks for your time Kip. Finally what’s next on your to do list?
We’re going to Goner Records in Memphis, Tennessee! Can’t wait!

And with that they speed off in their makeshift-mystery-machine toward Tennessee to feed on their bagels and pillage their record stores. ‘Say No To Love’ is released on the 5th of July.