Interview with the Pee Wee Fist

The Pee Wee Fist was allegedly named after a martial arts movie about a very short ninja. The existence of this film cannot be confirmed at press time, but there is no denying that the band’s album, Flying, released last year on Kimchee Records is an exciting and adventurous debut. While some of the songs are not immediately accessible, most of them are worth putting a little effort into. They get under your skin once you get to know them.

The band is the baby of Pete Fitzpatrick, who might be better known as the guitar player and multi-instrumentalist in Clem Snide. Pete was nice enough to answer a few of our questions before he headed out on tour. They’re

playing Chicago’s Beat Kitchen on Saturday, September 21, so catch them if you can.

They’ve made a couple songs available on their own website (Flying,

href="http://www.thepeeweefist.com/tpwf/sounds/chinese_star.mp3">Chinese Star in Metal Shop), and Epitonic has another one (Beauty and the Beats), so you can see for yourself.

GLONO: When I saw Clem Snide in Chicago this year, I was surprised how much you guys rocked. The albums are pretty introspective and moody, so to be

honest, I wasn’t really expecting such an engaging, fun performance. You

guys all really seemed to be having a great time. Can you tell when you’re really

connecting with an audience? How cool is that?

Pete: Yeah we always have a pretty good time together. We’ve been friends for a long time and I think it comes through on stage. I love playing with those

guys. I think we all give the songs a little extra Vitamin C in the live setting.

We have a pretty broad sonic palette. We can get pretty wall-of-sound-y

when we aren’t soft-rockin’, but then it’s pretty intense when we bring it

down real small. That’s when you know the crowd is with you, when they pipe

down for the quiet stuff. So yeah, that’s pretty nice when that connection

gets, uh, connected.

GLONO:

For fans of Clem Snide, how would describe what the Pee Wee Fist is about

compared to your other band?

Pete:

I suppose The Pee Wee Fist is a little looser than Clem Snide. The Fist is

somewhat amorphous, in that one never knows how many people will be onstage

at any given show. It started out as just me, and eventually I’d book a gig

and then find whoever was interested in playing the show. Each gig was a

new adventure. One early show featured guitar, tuba and two drum sets.

Eventually, the same people kept showing up, so it’s been a relatively

steady line-up for the past few years. It’s been nice because we’ve really

sort of gelled in the past few years.

The Fist probably visits more territories, stylistically speaking, than the

Snide. We have some “art-country” banjoey tunes and we have some 9

minute love jams and some 2 minute tasty pop nuggets and we’ve been known to

get a little psychedelic every now and again. I think it’s fun to keep the

audience guessing. Especially live. I suppose that demands a lot of the

audience, but I don’t worry too much if they’re not with us every step of

the way. I probably wouldn’t want to drive across the country with 97% of

them anyhow.

I like bands that take chances. There’s not enough danger in rock and roll.

When we’re playing, we could train wreck at any moment. Not because we

don’t care, but because we are looking for a little magic here and there.

GLONO:

Did you abandon the Pee Wee Fist to join Clem Snide, or was the project

always on the back burner?

Pete:

I’ve been involved with lots of bands. The Pee Wee Fist is very special to

me. I don’t think of it as “on the back burner” really. I got two front

burners. I had to streamline this past year when Snide started touring so

much. I quit Naftule’s Dream and

Shirim, both really fun bands, in order to

lighten the load. So The Fist and Snide are my two main passions these

days.

GLONO:

Tell me about the different instruments used on the album… I love

strange sounds in music. To me, there’s nothing better than hearing a

record, and thinking, “What the hell is that?”

Pete:

And when you say to yourself “What the hell is that?”, you can come up with

something much more interesting than “a theremin” or “a backwards gong”.

“Sounds like wings flapping in a wind tunnel…” or “Sounds like a wounded

hornet…” or “Sounds like someone’s sawing through the ice on a lake”. Or

maybe the sound becomes defined beyond words — you just get a warm and

fuzzy feeling when you hear an accordion silently wheezing through a

Rat pedal.

There’s a Polvo song

that starts out with what sounds exactly like the

door-closing warning bell on Boston subway cars. So, pretty much every

time I’m on the train here in Boston, I’m singing Polvo because just before

the doors close that little ditty gets triggered in my head. I asked Ash

(the Polvo guy) if he sampled the train. When I found out it was just a

Casio keyboard, it lost a little magic. That sort of thing is usually best

left unsolved, I guess.

Yeah. We’ve got lots of sounds. We used some eclectic instrumentation on

that record. It’s fun to squeeze sounds out of things. In the end, though,

the instrument is just a vehicle you use to get somewhere. Everyday

instruments can make some pretty strange sounds, too. I’m doing a sci-fi

soundtrack with a string quartet and a trumpet player, where I play electric

guitar and my job is to sound like a time machine. I love that shit.

As far as The Pee Wee Fist is concerned, no matter what sounds are going on,

if the song sucks, the song sucks. The words are usually the most important

part of the song to me. The music plays a supporting role.

GLONO:

Do you own any instruments that you love but that you can’t seem to find a

song that they would work with?

Pete:

Recently acquired a (sea-foam blue and brown) baritone guitar. It’s such a

different animal. It sounds great, but if I make up a song with it, then

that’s one more thing I’ll have to carry to the next gig, so I’ve been

leaving it alone.

GLONO:

How did you hook up with Kimchee Records?

Are they cool? What’s SpinArt

like? They’ve been releasing some great stuff lately…

Pete:

One of the Kimchee guys has a local radio show in Boston. He was basically

sick of us not having an official release, so he offered Kimchee’s services.

They’re cool. Very ambitious. They’ve released lots of stuff in just a

few years. They got a lotta heart. They want people to hear the bands they

like.

As for SpinArt, they’ve treated Clem Snide pretty well. Everyone I’ve met

there is nice.

GLONO:

We talk a lot on Glorious Noise about the DIY aesthetic and how you don’t

need a major label to make really great music that really matters to a lot

of people. How long has it been since you’ve had a day job, and was it

scary to make that leap? Any advice for musicians just starting out?

Pete:

I had to quit my day job at a library a year and a half ago when Snide

started touring a lot. The main scary thing is the lack of health care. My

87 year-old pal (who sings with me on the record’s hidden track) told me to

drink cod liver oil every day.

I guess being broke kind of sucks, too. I’m taking the Fist on tour for two

and a half weeks with no tour support from anyone. You do what you gotta

do. Tomorrow I gotta go plant a truckload of flowers. I’ve been working

part time with a master gardener, planting things and whatnot. I recently

moved a 30 foot black walnut tree from a front yard into a back yard. I

laid down a brick sidewalk (in a basket-weave pattern). That was pretty

fun.

As for advice to musicians just starting out, I don’t know. Don’t feed dogs

chocolate. Ha ha. No seriously… let’s see… I guess I’d say that

nothing is free and everything is relative and try to keep on the sunny

side.

Well, that’s the best I can do for now, Jake. Gotta get to plant stuff.

Thanks a lot.

The Pee Wee Fist are currently on tour, and you can buy their album from Amazon.