The much buzzed about noise pop act Pains of Being Pure at Heart took some time at Denver’s Monolith Festival to speak with Bethany about their new EP, what the band would have been called if not PoBPaH and the greatness of Scribblenauts. Check out the interview below.
Bethany, PopWreckoning.com: Let’s talk about your EP that’s about to come out, Higher than the Stars (editor’s note: just came out on Sept. 22).
Kip Berman (vox), Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Sure.
PW: What’s the story on it, why an EP and not an album?
KB: Our new album came out in February and we’ve been touring a lot behind that album. At the same time, we have some new songs that we’ve been playing live for awhile and we just wanted to put them on the EP so people could have access to them as well. It was exciting for us to go into the studio and try new things, “Higher than the Stars” and “Falling Over” kind of expressed a different side of the band that wasn’t really there on the album. It was fun for us to record those songs and put that forward.
PW: You say new things, what kind of new things?
KB:Uh, role playing. Haha. The songs are cleaner. The album was heavy on this distortion and fuzz. The EP is cleaner and draws on different influences. The song “Falling Over” in particular is centered around Alex’s bass line. Up to that point we had never developed the bass lines to a point that was sort of the forefront of the songs. It was cool to write a song around a bass line and putting that forward.
PW: Haha. Alex, you excited about the more bass line?
Alex Naidus (bass), Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Totally. Showing off.
KB: Alex’s fan mail is going up 25 percent after this EP.
AN: It is just a fun song to play.
PW: So new album, I feel like I saw you’re already planning a January release?
KB: We don’t have a new album ready yet. January would be a bit soon. We kind of have to write it first. After December, when our touring is done, we’re going to take some time and work on some new materials. We’ll go into a studio, but I don’t think we’ll start recording until spring 2010. January release is a bit premature.
AN: It’s impossible, actually.
KB: There might be another band we don’t know about called the Pains of Being Pure at Heart looking to put out a new album in January and trying to still our thunder.
PW: It is a really popular band name.
KB: Yeah, there are tons of them.
Peggy Wang-East (keys), Pains of Being Pure at Heart: We couldn’t believe it wasn’t taken.
KB: The MySpace URL is all ours! 
PW: Now, there is tons of information online about where the band name came from, but not too much about where you guys came from and how you all got together. Is there a story there?
KB: It probably isn’t as good as the band name story. Is is pretty much straight up like any other band story. We were friends and we enjoyed hanging out with each other. We were all kind of music nerds and our interests overlapped. I started writing demos. Me and Alex were psyched on this idea of playing music together then I asked Peggy to play music for me. I thought she was too cool for me and she wouldn’t want to do it, but I tried to phrase it in as cool a way as possible like (in a deeper voice), “Hey, you want to be in this band that’s going to be like noisy pop music.” I guess she had nothing better to do so she said ok.
PWE: Yeah, basically, I have a small hole in my life to fill with Kip and his silly pop songs.
KB: I wasn’t really interested in filling Peggy’s small hole.
AN: Haha, oh my God.
KB: Haha, but at at the same time, I did want to play pop music with her, so it worked out. We played for awhile with a drum machine. That made traveling easy. Eventually Kurt, my roommate, joined up on drums. It really changed things for the better. It really added a dynamic aspect to the music having a drummer. He’s really good and he understands the type of music that we play. It is so essential to what we do. He helped us become a better band. The first band practice we had with him, it felt like every song we were playing was for the first time because it was so exciting.
PW: So Peggy, what is it like to be in a band with all guys and be the only girl?
PWE: You know, it is funny. I’m just so used to it at this point. I hang out with a lot of guys anyways. I have like two really close female friends, but I don’t know, I hate being the girl that’s like I hate hanging out with girls and only hang out with dudes because that’s not necessarily true. I feel like the guys that re in the band are not like exclusionary. They include me on their activities. Though when they talk about video games, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Sometimes I wish there was another girl around, but it is totally fine. No complaints.
PW: You could easily work another girl in on cowbell or something.
KB: Originally we wanted it to be 50/50. When looking for a drummer, we thought a female drummer would add balance and I was really into bands that were co-ed and not just one female member. I liked the idea of it being more balanced. There are weird things that come out of it and are interesting. You can’t put your finger on why bands like that are cool, but they are. Kurt’s pretty girly to be honest, so it works out ok. He was really good at drums and he wasn’t too masculine, so we’re all happy.
PW: Yeah. You do have a good balance from what I saw in your stage show today. What was it like to perform in the Monolith weather right as the rain started up and people were reaching their most miserable cold point.
KB: We weren’t at our most miserable point. We had a lot of fun.
PWE: It was a lot of fun. I was feeling like a baby before we went on, “It’s so cold. I’m miserable.” Then being out and once we started playing it was fine. Though I definitely missed a few keyboard notes due to my fingers being really numb.
AN: It was incredible how good the energy was. It was like such a testament to the people that were there. It is so appreciated that not only there were people there, but they were int
o to it. It made it so much more fun.
PW: Yeah. I’m getting used to it. I’ve been to four festivals this year. Three of the four had rain. Bonnaroo was a monsoon. Lollapalooza had a cold, rainy day. I think South By was the only one.
KB: Yeah. There’s no raining at South By.
PW: Oh yeah. You were at that one! I missed your set.
PW: Oh, so speaking of the video game love and knowing that you have a song that reference’s Kurt Cobain, “Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan,” what do you think of the Cobain avatar in Guitar Hero 5 and the controversy with that?
AN: I just saw that like Activision or whatever had just put a statement out because they had to confirm whether or not it was legitimate and Dave Grohl had to officially say we had nothing to do with this and Courtney Love signed off on it. I don’t know, it doesn’t bother me.
KB: He’s just a dude who started a band. I love him, but it’s not like his image is so sacred you can’t put it in a video game. Jim Morrison was in a video game. Whatever. These people are all public figures. I don’t know how to say this and I probably revere Kurt Cobain more than anyone, but he’s just a dude that wrote songs. If people want to put his picture in a video game, it’s not going to end the world.
PWE: I thought it was totally, really embarrassing to watch. If he wasn’t dead, he’d be upset about it. It is not like the songs in the trailer were so…I just think if he was alive he’d say that wasn’t cool. I don’t know.
KB: If there was a video of Peggy as a cartoon character singing Soul Asylum songs…
PWE: That’d be awesome, but that’s Soul Asylum. I’d do that anyways.
KB: Runaway train never coming home….There are real problems in the world and Kurt Cobain’s avatar is not one of those.
AN: That’s our next song title.
KB: It’s going to be the B-side. “Kurt Cobain’s Avatar” will be the B-side to “Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan. They’re just graphics on a video game.
PW: I hear they’ll let you go into the Rock Shop on the game and buy him a cardigan.
KB: That would actually be cool. I would like to have Kurt Cobain’s cardigan.
PWE: That was the inspiration. I would really like to wear the one that he wears in the MTV Unplugged thing. Some green thing.
KB: It is like pea soup colored. It would be cool to have that to wear right now when it is so cold out. I’d appreciate it a lot.
PW: Oh I know. I’m ready to splurge on the $40 hoodie even though I’m already wearing two right now.
KB: I almost did that too. It is almost worth it.
PW: So what video games would I find on the Pains tour bus then?
AN: MarioKart.
KB: I play a lot of Scribblenauts or whatever.
AN: Scribblenauts. It will revolutionize gaming. I wish I could tell you more, but the other guys can explain it better.
PWE: It’s like a secret club. I watch them play it and they’ll get really into it.
AN: I’ve witnessed it. It’s pretty impressive.
KB: A little known fact. If our band wasn’t called the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, we were going to be called Rainbow Road, which is my favorite level on MarioKart. You beat the game and you get to drive on a rainbow in outer space.
PW: That’s the hardest level! You always fall off.
KB: You fall off, it is really dangerous, but at the same time, a cloud picks you up if you fall off. So you’re in outer space and on a rainbow and it really happy. I love it a lot. So if we weren’t called Pains of Being Pure at Heart, we’d be called Rainbow Road. I’m sure that would open us up to even more jokes about the same subject matter.
PW: Haha, you guys would be fine. You’re popular on the blog circuit. Even Pitchfork gave you a good review and they hate everybody.
KB: Haha, I’m sure that’s not true.
PW: Now Pitchfork is called a hipster blog and you guys get labeled as a hipster band, but nobody every agrees what that means. As a “hipster band” what does that mean?
KB: It is not something that concerns us. We think of ourselves as just a pop band and we have a good time. At the end of the day, all bands are measured by the quality of music they produce and we’re excited about the music we’ve made and what we’ll make in the future. That’s who we are. We’re just regular dudes that like video games and regular stuff.
AN: I don’t think we think of ourselves as a cool band or cool people really. We’re just people who just generally like what we do because it is fun.
KB: All of us growing up were never the cool dude. We just enjoyed what we enjoyed. Music is something we identify strongly with and force our identities around. The kind of bands that we like are the kind of people that we wanted to be. The music we loved growing up and then to meet people who had that too was just a thrill. I never really had friends that knew who half the bands I liked growing up, but then I met Peggy. And I was like oh my God, you’re into what I like, too. It was just awesome to meet these people.
PW: For a final wrap up question since we’re at Monolith, what other bands here are you most excited about? Who have you already checked out that impressed you?
AN: We can’t stick around tomorrow. We got to see Depreciation Guild today on a really big stage, which was amazing. I like them a lot.
PWE: Edward Sharpe was awesome. They were on before us. Then I couldn’t get in, but Starfucker. They were in a room that was really packed and crowded. I kind of snuck in through the back, but then we got kicked out. That’s my teenage rebellion of the day. I want to see Of Montreal. They’re always so fun.
KB: We’re on tour with Depreciation Guild, so we’re psyched about that. Edward Sharpe was really cool. Starfucker, I was with Peggy, we were trying to watch them and they kept throwing us out of the place we where we could watch them. They’re a cool band that I’d like to see. I’m bummed we won’t get to stick around tomorrow because Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing.
PWE: No, they’re tonight. Phoenix is tomorrow.
KB: Oh, Phoenix. Phoenix is great. We saw them briefly in France, which was cool they’re from there. I’ve loved them since the album United and the song “Funky Square Dance.” They’ve been putting out good records for awhile and they’re finally starting to get the acclaim they deserve. We’ll be driving to Salt Lake City tomorrow, but everyone should see Phoenix. They’re great.
Pains of Being Pure at Heart: website | myspace | @monolith
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