Rapid Fire: 10 Questions With Peasant
Damien is a busy guy (opening for Cursive in March before he makes his appearance at SXSW), but he was kind enough to answer a quick ten questions for me and for you:
LucidForge: “On The Ground” (from what I have been able to devise) is your second official album release. What would you say is the biggest change or development between this one as opposed to “Fear Not, Distant Lover”?
Peasant: “Fear Not” was closer to a sketchpad or a journal. While a few of the recordings on it are pretty intricate, most of them were first time recordings done at home. At that time, I wasn’t focused on the quality as much as the ideas etc. Half of “On The Ground” was done in a studio, so the quality of sound is way higher, and the home recordings on the other half were done with much more attention to quality and detail, so it’s just a bit more of a finished work.
LucidForge: How do you know the “brothers” Cobb (Ryan and Paul), and how did the decision come about to co-produce “On The Ground” with them?
Peasant: I was introduced to them by my first manager, and we decided to try a studio to make a polished product out of a bunch of demos I had for “On The Ground” at that time.
[For those of you who are unfamiliar with the “brothers” Cobb, Ryan and Paul are non-biological but “soul” brothers who previously played in a group called Ty Cobb – yes, after the baseball player -, but now are simply known as The Cobbs.]
LucidForge: What came first in “On The Ground”, melody or lyrics?
Peasant: Depends what song. For the simpler songs where it’s just guitar and vocals, I write the melodies and lyrics at the same time. On the more musically fleshed out songs like “Birds” and “We’re Good”, the lyrics were in place first and then lots of instruments were layered and changed the way the song sounds overall. I generally have lyrics done quickly though, [as] my songs are usually pretty centered around them.
LucidForge: I read recently that you sometimes cover John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” and Elliott Smith’s “Twilight” in shows. Elliott Smith was also known to cover “Jealous Guy”. What musician/group would you want to do a cover of a Peasant song (which song and why)?
Peasant: I actually haven’t played a cover in a year or so, “Jealous Guy” I learned as an apology to an old girlfriend. I really don’t know the answer to this one. I’d be fine with anyone covering a Peasant song. I think it’s a great tradition and I love how songs never die because of it.
[Please pay attention to the above answer, Potential Boyfriends. Those are the words of a wise man.
Ok, I’m going to go ahead answer for him: “Birds” covered by Vancouver-based ambient-rockers Readymade.]
LucidForge: What has been the most surreal moment of the last few years for you (and/or most bizarre/memorable “celebrity” encounter)?
Peasant: There have been a few, but sharing drinks with Ringo Starr’s daughter in Doylestown is probably the most surreal.
LucidForge: Describe the (or a) moment that kind of solidified for you, “This is what I’m going to do with my life”.
Peasant: My life got turned upside down when I was expelled from the private high school I went to. I took a trip around the country in my car the next summer, and I had really gotten into writing songs and starting to play out at that point. Somewhere in the desert I started writing “Fear Not, Distant Lover”, songs were pouring out and I had a concept, and when I got home I recorded it and got to work releasing it on my own and sending it everywhere. I guess that’s when I got “serious”.
[Ah! A real-life, romantic story of artistry! I mean, getting inspired in the desert? It’s like an encounter with a musical Don Juan! How cool indeed… ]
LucidForge: What was your early family life like in terms of any artistic or musical influences and experiences?
Peasant: I played a bunch of different instruments when I was younger but I wasn’t really pushed in any direction by my family. I went to a great elementary school called the Waldorf School of Princeton. You go on walks in the woods and sing songs every day. That really got me to love singing and simplicity and probably set me on the course I’m on today.
LucidForge: What albums and/or musical groups are you obsessed with right now?
Peasant: I have an affinity for Smog, the Beach Boys, and many others. I am not the most avid audiophile in fact, but when I like something I usually listen to it a ton.
LucidForge: Your style of songwriting and performing seems to reveal a lot about you as a person, even more so perhaps that that of the average singer-songwriter. Was that part of your decision to go under a pseudonym (“Peasant”) as opposed to your real name?
Peasant: Surely, part of being so revealing and open is doing so behind a mask. Not that I actually wear a mask, but it’s perhaps easier to share the things I write when I’m doing so under a pseudonym.
[I feel strangely pleased with myself for asking that question…]
LucidForge: If I went back in time and got Elliott Smith, then took him and you to the future where we created a super-musician-hybrid – let’s call him “Spencer”! –, then came back to the present where I married Spencer (in order to create an entire brood of super-musical kids not seen since “The Sound of Music”!), would you please sing something at our reception? Which song(s) and why?
(P.S.: Leonard Cohen and Hawksley Workman are going to be selected as godparents for the super-musical kids.)
Peasant: I certainly would. The song would be “Be Free”. A friend of mine, whom I wrote “Birds” for, works at her mother’s wedding dress store, [and] she plays my music for Brides-To-Be. And that’s the song they pick out for their wedding CD’s and such.
[To be honest, I had been hoping he’d say something like “We Are The World” (y’know, as in my super-musical brood and myself are going to conquer society as we know it), but mostly I am just content he didn’t crumple into a ball of “weirded-out-ness” after reading that question! Also, how could his friend NOT play his music for her customers after he wrote such a beautiful song for her?? But I digress…
I actually sent a distinct request that he PLAY A TORONTO SHOW VERY SOON!! … PLEASE!! But I think this idea may carry more weight if I were not the only Peasant-pleased person bothering Paper Garden Records. So, Get ye to www.myspace.com/peasant and fall in love
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