Last we spoke, one thing about the Pierce Brothers became immediately clear: they really dug the ’90s.
Back then the Melbourne folk duo were singing along to ‘Mr. Jones’ while reflecting on the first song they ever learned (Nirvana’s ‘Come As You Are’) and the best song ever written (Pearl Jam’s ‘Black’). This time, Jack Pierce is singing ‘Gimme Shelter’ and impersonating an angry Mick Jagger, but that respect for Eddie Vedder remains. With an album in the not-too-distant future and more gigs than you would believe reasonable, Pat and Jack Pierce are wearing their hearts and influences on their sleeve – but they’re still not without a few surprises.
“‘Black’ is a classic, I’ll always love it,” says Jack. “We played Sooki Lounge last night and I was playing a song there, which was really just your usual sad heartbreak song. But it really started to get to me – all of these emotions started coming through. I was surprised, because I’ve played this song a million times before. But I had a lot of fun with it, because there is a lot of emotion to get out of it. In my songwriting that’s something I’ve wanted to strive to. I mean, ‘Black’ takes you on such a journey, you know exactly how he feels. ‘My bitter hands cradle broken glass of what was everything’ – Eddie’s voice is just dripping with emotion. That’s something I’ve always wanted to achieve, and it’s such a relatable story. The thing is, I really love writing self-indulgent, sad love songs. ‘Oh, I’m so fucking sad, blah de blah!’”
Pierce laughs. “Right in front of me now I’ve got Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago and the Lumineers record. ‘Flume’, ‘Skinny Love’ – all the most miserable songs in the world. And that’s one of my favourite albums! Yeah, Bon Iver! Life sucks!”
Even when he’s talking the blues (or piss-taking them, for that matter) it’s hard not to get caught up in the sheer exuberance of Pierce’s conversation. Every other remark is the start of a story, and given that his words come thick and fast, you’re never entirely sure just how far you’ll finish from his original thoughts. The brothers’ love of busking has by now been well documented, and between acts like the Stones and Pearl Jam is a great gauntlet of genre, from Lorde to Alice Cooper to Mumford & Sons. While there is much to learn from each of these artists, the trick with embracing your influences is ensuring you still sound like you at the end.
“The thing about influences is it can cripple you if you think too much about it,” says Pierce. “Like, I love that Lumineers album. I know it’s really simple, just folk-pop, but I love that simplicity and their lyrics are fantastic. Especially with this new record … We’re often a bit more of a live act than a studio act, so we’re focusing on trying to get as big a sound as we can in the studio, and jump out the gates as fast as we can, except not always doing the same old chord structure, that Mumford shuffle.
“There’s one song called ‘Stone In The River’ with 20 verses, like an old Paul Kelly story about a guy killing his wife and being run down by the police. It’s really dark and weird, and slips away from the pop genre that we’d been doing. There’s nothing wrong with doing all pop numbers and having a good time. But I guess we’re worried that if we just had tried to have nothing but bangers in the album to try and get somewhere, it’d lose integrity. If we write a Lumineers or old Mumford-style song, I’m still totally OK with that, because that’s my jam! But we wanted to try new things, and carve out our own way of writing songs.”
Six months back, Pat and Jack released Into The Dirt, an EP that managed to crack the ARIA top ten and was reviewed favourably across the board. Though there are a handful of earlier releases under their belt, this upcoming album is positioned to be the most significant release of their still-swelling careers, and it is clear from Jack’s voice that tremendous care and attention has gone into crafting it. That said, it’s rather amazing they have found time to write new material in the first place. Their tour schedule is the stuff of myth, and though it sounds like several shades of amazing, it also makes for an exhausting run.
“Last weekend was our only weekend off until… late August? We’re playing Kidgeeridge, then Perth [and before that] Bluesfest. And then we go straight to the UK with The Cat Empire, and straight after that we come back to do a whole bunch more festivals here by ourselves before doing the east coast with The Cat Empire. Then we have two days off. Then straight back for our European tour, which is about three months. We’ve got four days coming up to get back into the studio, and another three dates somewhere down the line. We’re trying to fit in as many dates as we can before we leave, but our agent keeps booking stuff and we’re dumb enough to keep saying yes,” he laughs.
“I think that’s kind of the space that we put ourselves into. We’ve always been playing to further the career, rather than stopping to focus on an album. Because you can get an EP out quicker, we were able to do that between busking and performing without stopping too long. This album is the first time we’ve written something that I’m really excited about, and I think captures our live essence for the first time.”
Given the infectiousness of their live performance, and the raucous energy they consistently summon from their audiences, the Pierce Brothers are slowly becoming one of the stalwarts of Aussie music. They enjoy a huge fan base because, well, they just seem so damned nice. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the feeling is mutual.
“As long as you can have a good time playing, and make the audience have a good time, that’s what it’s all about,” says Pierce. “That’s why we love busking. It’s not so much carving out your own unique sound to be remembered by. Some people do that, and that’s amazing, they’ll go down in history for it. But for us, sure, that’d be great, but we’ve always just wanted to make a lot of people happy. If that’s your attitude, and you know you won’t get tired of it, then you’ll always be successful. People will always be enjoying themselves.
“Personally, we can almost kill each other every day. There can be screaming matches any time. But then, there’s also realising that we need to keep focused on getting the album out. But playing live, it’s never really stopped for us, that feeling of making people happy – that’s always been what we wanted to do, and we love doing it. And I think that’s what we’ll continue to do. If we don’t kill each other first.”
Into The Dirtis out now through Warner. The Pierce Brothers playKidgeeridge Music Festival 2016at Milton Showground, Friday April 22 – Saturday April 23, and before that, at Bluesfest 2016, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28.
