{"id":37941,"date":"2025-11-04T19:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/37941\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T19:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:33:08","slug":"peter-mcpoland-takes-a-very-different-path-with-latest-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/37941\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter McPoland takes a very different path with latest album"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter McPoland<\/a> is in full-on tour preparation mode as our Zoom interview gets underway.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been rehearsing a lot at his Los Angeles pad with his band of longtime pals, who will back him on the road show that includes a Bay Area stop.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, on this particular day, McPoland is just putting the finishing touches on a keyboard shelf that he\u2019s building for the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou usually buy them off the internet,\u201d says the indie-pop singer-songwriter, who was born in Vermont and raised in Texas. \u201cBut I made it last week. I\u2019m finishing that today. That\u2019s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

McPoland\u2019s tour-improvement project is very telling of the artist\u2019s current mood \u2014 which is to take no shortcuts to get where he wants to go with his music.<\/p>\n

That is underscored on the recently released sophomore full-length \u201cBig Lucky,\u201d which found this former Internet sensation \u2014 who first came to fame with the viral hit \u201cRomeo & Juliet\u201d \u2014 unplugging from social media and web life in general to focus on recording music in a more old-school way.<\/p>\n

He bought a flip-phone (no joke) and ditched Spotify, in favor of an iPod stacked with Beatles tunes, and began recording on a reel-to-reel tape machine \u2014 as opposed to the computer tracks he utilized on his first album, 2023\u2019s \u201cPiggy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a work that is chockfull of fresh, vibrant indie-pop songs that fans will get to experience when McPoland and his pals perform Nov. 8 at August Hall in San Francisco. Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets start at $23, ticketmaster.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my conversation with McPoland, which actually included way more chatter about our shared musical obsession over John Prine than what you\u2019ll read here.<\/p>\n

Q: I am impressed that you are building your own keyboard shelf. Are you a handy guy? A handyman?<\/p>\n

A: I would say on a scale of like 1 to 10, I\u2019m a six. I\u2019m a little bit good. But I\u2019m bad at a lot of it. I can get by. I\u2019m better than the average drill user.<\/p>\n

Q: I would say a six is good.<\/p>\n

A: Yeah, it\u2019s not bad. But it doesn\u2019t look that good. I\u2019m not winning an award. But it gets the job done.<\/p>\n

Q: I\u2019m like a 1.5. I was just breaking down some cardboard boxes with a box cutter this weekend. And, when I was done, I was jus glad I still had all my fingers<\/p>\n

A: That\u2019s one of the worst jobs. I can not stand breaking down all the boxes. That\u2019s a terrible job. It\u2019s scary and it\u2019s tedious.<\/p>\n

Q: I hear you\u2019ve put together a very interesting band \u2014 filled with childhood friends \u2014 for this tour. Tell me about that.<\/p>\n

A: I grew up in Texas and kind of got into music through playing with all my friends. Like me and my friend Landon, we learned chords from each other. Then years went by, we didn\u2019t play with each other. As I got signed (to a record deal), I was playing with a professional band. Then, last year, I felt that if I am going to keep doing this, I really want to be with people who I know really well. So, it\u2019s all my friends I grew up with. I\u2019ve known all these guys since like seventh grade.<\/p>\n

Q: I love that. So fun.<\/p>\n

A: I think it\u2019s fun because none of us are that good at our instruments. We are all probably about a 6 out 10. We\u2019re pretty good. But we\u2019re not winning an award. I think that was what I was really missing when I was playing with my previous band. They were all so good that they were never messing up. And I missed the ability to mess up. So, with these guys, we kind of lean into the fact that we will mess up. And it\u2019s fun. It makes the whole show more fun.<\/p>\n

Q: Is there a downside to playing with a bunch of guys you\u2019ve known since seventh grade?<\/p>\n

A: I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t actually know if there is a downside.<\/p>\n

Q: There must be something.<\/p>\n

A: I know them so well. There is a communication there that is almost nonverbal. We can just kind of understand what each of us wants. And maybe that\u2019s not the best for everyone else in the touring party. We will just do things and not have to explain it to anyone. Then everyone kind of gets lost in the mix. So, maybe we\u2019re not the best communicators because we are in our own little world.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not a downside for me. It\u2019s a downside for everyone else but me.<\/p>\n

Q: I know you were born in Burlington, Vermont \u2013 prime Phish country. If you had stayed in Burlington, rather than moved to Texas, how do you think it would have impacted your music? Like, would \u201cRomeo & Juliet\u201d have been like a 17-miinute jam session?<\/p>\n

A: (Laughs) I would probably be playing a five-string bass and have a Mesa Boogie stack. (More laughs)<\/p>\n

Yeah, I talk about that a lot, actually, with my mom. I don\u2019t know if I would have gotten into music necessarily. (My) big thing was theater. I did theater for a long time. And the scene in Texas was really big. There was just a lot of theater to do. And I think musical theater and singing really just boosted my love for performance.<\/p>\n

Maybe I would been in hockey (in Vermont). I played hockey for two years and I was terrible at the sport. But maybe I would have just kept with it. I don\u2019t know. I would be really curious how my life would\u2019ve changed.<\/p>\n

Q: You and I share a major musical passion: John Prine. How did you end up getting so deeply into his music?<\/p>\n

A: My dad was a pretty big Prine fan. And it took me a second to really get into him. Then, one day, it clicked. And I dove down this rabbit hole of every single Prine album for a couple years of my life. I was obsessed with John Prine and it was all I would listen to \u2013 all the time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m such a lyric guy. And I kind of grew out of it. And then I grew back into it. As far as lyrics go, I don\u2019t know if there is anyone better. It just is the best. It\u2019s funny and it\u2019s heartfelt. And he gets these points across in single lines that are unbelievably profound.<\/p>\n

I have such a connection to the guy.<\/p>\n

Q: Me, too. One of my favorite albums of all time is \u201cThe Missing Years.\u201d And my favorite track off that album is \u201cEverything Is Cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

A: \u201cEverything Is Cool\u201d? I have to look. I don\u2019t remember it.<\/p>\n

Q: Listen to it after we get off the phone. And I bet, like five years from now, you will have covered the song.<\/p>\n

A: You\u2019re probably right. You are absolutely right. I am going to listen to that right when we get off.<\/p>\n

Q: You took a very different path in recording \u201cBig Lucky\u201d than you did with \u201cPiggy.\u201d For one thing, you basically disengaged from the Internet while making the album. I find that especially interesting given how big a hand the Internet played in your early success.<\/p>\n

A: I think because the Internet played such a big part in my early success is how I got to this. Growing up, I was not really on the Internet as much as I am now. I really just liked playing my instrument and like romanticizing about playing in a bar and getting (discovered)\u2013 like a Bruce Springsteen story. I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: That\u2019s a good story, for sure.<\/p>\n

A: On the previous album, I had done it all on Logic. It was computer drums and all patches through Logic. It never really felt exciting to do. It takes the fun out of making music. There is too much choice \u2014 there is every option in the entire world.<\/p>\n

I liked this (new approach) because it felt the closest thing to when you\u2019re learning guitar and you\u2019re alone in your room.<\/p>\n

I got off Spotify and was just doing an iPod and was just listening to the Beatles hits. I was like, \u201cOh, (expletive) this is insane.\u201d And I discovered the White Stripes too and that recording technique too.<\/p>\n

I had this tape machine that was just collecting dust in my closet. So, I finally set it up. I was walking around San Francisco with my girlfriend and her dad and I said, \u201cI am going to do the whole album on tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: The decision was made.<\/p>\n

A: At the point, I didn\u2019t know how to do it. But I figured it out. And it\u2019s really not that hard. But there\u2019s something about it that feels so accomplished. It just felt like the right option.<\/p>\n

I feel like it\u2019s a bit rebellious. And that\u2019s exciting. It feels antithetical to the way the system is. Maybe it wasn\u2019t good for business. But it was definitely good for me.<\/p>\n

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