Image courtesy Lindsay Ralph
There’s something totally apropos about getting the chance to interview The PepTides at Fringe. The local indie popsters – who, later this evening, will help kick off the first night of the Ottawa Jazz Festival – clearly embrace the theatrical side of life, both on the stage and in person. It takes a certain amount of moxie, after all, to release a 25-song album that veers from sample-heavy funk to tender acoustic balladry to faux-Cockney show tunes, all at the drop of a fedora. Oh, and did I mention said album is called For Those Who Hate Human Interaction, and that every one of those songs is called “For Those Who Hate (fill in the blank)”? Because there’s that, too.
In fact, I’d go so far to say that the band’s theatricality is near impossible to capture in a static blog post. And that’s why you should tune into CHUO 89.1 FM at 2pm today for our weekly radio show, Apartment613 Live – we’ll be playing an extended version of our conversation with charming PepTides vocalists DeeDee Butters and Claude Marquis. Winsome clapping and gleeful, over-the-top accents just don’t come across on the page, y’know?
Anyways, The PepTides play the OLG stage at Confederation Park tonight at 10:30pm – which means that you could conceivably make the case that the band’s opening act is none other than Led Zeppelin legend Robert Plant, who hits the festival (albeit on a different stage) two hours earlier. If you’re jazzed (mwah mwah) to catch the action tonight, we may just have a ticket or two to give away, so you’ll definitely want to click through for all the details.
Apt613: So I’m joined by Claude and DeeDee of The PepTides –
DeeDee Butters and Claude Marquis: Yaaay! (clapping)
– and we’re here at the beautiful Ottawa Fringe beer tent, and we’ve got our mugs of beer in front of us. So you’re playing June 23rd, opening night of Ottawa Jazzfest, with Robert Plant as your opening act –
DB: Aaaarrgggh!
CM: Errrghghg!
DB: I’m not sure exactly that [Robert Plant is opening for us] but we are playing after him. And we are excited to be sharing Robert Plant’s hair energy.
CM: I wonder if he still has the long curly hair?
DB: He does.
CM: No!
DB: He does. His hair looks a lot like my hair. We could be sisters.
Apt613: What’s it like going on stage after someone like Robert Plant?
DB: Well, we’ve never been on stage after someone like Robert Plant before!
CM: It’ll be a new experience. Actually, we had an inaugural, a sneak-peek show at the Mercury Lounge last week, because the band – which we did get together in the last month – hadn’t played live yet. So this will only be our second time playing live as a band, a full band.
DB: But I don’t think you’d ever know it.
Apt613: You’ve got four albums out. But the last show was the first time you’d played live?
CM: With a band, yeah.
Apt613: How did you play before?
DB: What we had done before was we had a vocal ensemble. One of the things people notice about our music is that it’s realy vocally lush – we like to put a lot of harmonies on things, and have lots of different layers going on. So in lieu of attempting to [play the music live] we had chosen to just focus on the vocalists. At that time we had four vocalists, and we’ve expanded to five for our new live project. So actually what we have on stage at the moment is five vocalists and five musicians. It was really interesting to take a very orchestral, layered album and make it express those moments with only five musicians. But with the combination of the musicians and the vocalists, it’s a very full, fun sound – we’ve sort of reinterpreted a few of the songs and they’ve taken on a completely new life. It’s still an experimental, pop noir, “retooled-retro” kind of sound. There’s one song that was sort of a short baroque “moment” on the album –
Image courtesy The PepTides
CM: “For Those Who Hate Precious Time.”
DB: “For those who hate precious time / Hours wasted in line!” It’s now sort of a super dirty, nasty, blues moment with soul riffs. It’s really dirty and awesome.
Apt613: Your last album was called For Those Who Hate Human Interaction –
CM: Brilliant!
– and every song is titled “For Those Who Hate x.” How did you come up with that idea for an album?
CM: I got inspired just by that one title, concerning humanity. But I couldn’t stop there. I just had to go on. I just wrote as many songs as I could.
Apt613: Do people who hate things not have enough songs written for them?
DB: I don’t think they have enough songs written for them with this amount of tongue-in-cheek fingerpointing. It’s not exactly fingerpointing, but it’s definitely sort of an attempt to shine the light on humanity’s fallibilities and successes – in equal measure, but really with a sort of tongue-in-cheek jest. It’s a little bit sarcastic, a little bit sardonic, but also really kind of fun and playful at the same time.
CM: For a hate album, yes.
DB: Yeah, well, there’s the contrast, you know? I really enjoy the story of how you came up with the album, your jumping off point. Claude had gone away to record the album. Then he released simultaneously North Hero – it’s a beautiful, spooky little folk album. And he went to a little restaurant in –
CM: In Burlington.
DB: – and the bio of the restaurant was “This is a great place to go for those who hate human interaction.”
Apt613: I think it’s really interesting that you mention you took your inspiration from that restaurant, because it’s a very wide-ranging album, and I was curious where you get your inspirations from.
CM: For that album in particular?
Apt613: Yeah.
CM: Well, I’m sort of an observer of humanity. I have problems with the way we’re behaving in general. So all the inspiration’s there.
Apt613: And musically? Are there certain acts you take cues from?
CM: No. I like all kinds of music, so when I am writing a song I’m hoping to sort of – I’m not sort of inspired by the same things I like.
DB: I think Claude also has a particular trajectory on this project of it being multi-genre – it’s referential but it’s definitely original as well. So it’s a collection of some shorter musical moments and then some more established musical moments. From a genre standpoint, the songs themselves have one layer of meaning but then the genre itself also kind of contrasts with that meaning as well. [The album] doesn’t actually sound like anything else, but it sounds like many other things.
Apt613: Last question: Who are you going to check out at Jazzfest this year?
DB (exaggerated British accent): Oh, my goodness!
CM: (also exaggerated British accent): Oh, my!
DB: I definitely do want to see Robert Plant. I want to see his hair!
CM: Well, we have to compare the sisters’ hair.
DB: I know! I’d like to see if he has as explosive curliness as I do.
CM: And say nothing about the music. Nothing about his singing. Just his hair – that’s what we want to see.
Apt613: Go see Hairfest, I guess.
CM: What’s that about?
Apt613: Well, the Robert Plant reference.
DB: There you go! Hairfest. Thursday, June 23rd, opening night: Hairfest. Ottawa Hairfest.
Apartment613 has two tickets to bestow upon a lucky reader for opening night at Hairfes- er, I mean, opening night at the Ottawa Jazz Festival! Be the first person to email us at apartment613 [at] gmail [dot] com with the name of one of The PepTides other albums (i.e. NOT For Those Who Hate Human Interaction) and they’re yours.
So I’m joined by Claude and DeeDee of the Peptides –
DeeDee Butters and Claude Marquis: Yaay! (clapping)
– and we’re here at the beautiful Ottawa Fringe beer tent, and we’ve got our mugs of beer in front of us. So you’re playing June 23rd, opening night of Ottawa Jazzfest, opening for [former Led Zeppelin frontman] Robert Plant –
DB: Aaaarrgggh!
CM: Errrghghg!
DB: I’m not sure exactly that we’re opening for Robert Plant [as much as] playing after him. But, we are excited to be sharing Robert Plant’s hair energy.
CM: I wonder if he still has the long curly hair?
DB: He does.
CM: No!
DB: He does. His hair looks a lot like my hair. We could be sisters.
What’s it like going on stage after someone like Robert Plant?
DB: Well, we’ve never been on stage after someone like Robert Plant before!
CM: It’ll be a new experience. Actually, we had an inaugural, a sneak-peek show at the Mercury Lounge last week, because the band – which we did get together in the last month – hadn’t played live yet. So this will only be our second time playing live as a band, a full band.
DB: But I don’t think you’d ever know it.
You’ve got four albums out. But the last show was the first time you’d played live?
CM: With a band, yeah.
How did you play before?
DB: What we had done before was we had a vocal ensemble. ONe of the things people notice about our music is that it’s realy vocally lush – we like to put a lot of harmonies on things, and have lots of different layers going on. So in lieu of attempting to [play the music live] we had chosen to just focus on the vocalists. At that time we had four vocalists, and we’ve expanded to five for our new live project. SO actually what we have on stage at the moment is five vocalists and five musicians. It was really interesting to take a very orchestral, layered album and make it express those moments with only five musicians. BUt with the combination of the musicians and the vocalists, it’s a very full, fun sound – we’ve sort of reinterpreted a few of the songs and they’ve taken on a completely new life. It’s still an experimental, pop noir, “retooled-retro” kind of sound. There’s one song that was sort of a short baroque “moment” on the album –
CM: “For Those Who Hate Precious Time.”
DB: “For those who hate precious time / Hours wasted in line!” It’s now sort of a super dirty, nasty, blues moment with soul riffs. It’s really dirty and awesome.
Your last album was called For Those Who Hate Human Interaction –
CM: Brilliant!
– and every song is titled “For Those who hate x.” How did you come up with that idea for an album?
CM: I got inspired just by that one title, concerning humanity. But I couldn’t stop there. I just had to go on. I just wrote as many songs as I could.
Do people who hate things not have enough songs written for them?
DB: I don’t think they have enough songs written for them with this amount of tongue-in-cheek fingerpointing. It’s not exactly fingerpointing, but it’s definitely sort of an attempt to shine the light on humanity’s fallibilities and successes – in equal measure, but really with a sort of tongue-in-cheek jest. It’s a little bit sarcastic, a little bit sardonic, but also really kind of fun and playful at the same time.
CM: For a hate album, yes.
DB: Yeah, well, there’s the contrast, you know? I really enjoy the story of how you came up with the album, your jumping off point. Claude had gone away to record the album. Then he released simultaneously North Hero – it’s a beautiful, spooky little folk album. And he went to a little restaurant in –
CM: In Burlington.
DB: – and the bio of the restaurant was “This is a great place to go for those who hate human interaction.”
I think it’s really interesting that you took your inspiration from that restaurant, because it’s a very wide-ranging album, and I’m curious where you get your inspirations from.
CM: For that album in particular?
Yeah.
CM: Well, I’m sort of an observer of humanity. I have problems with the way we’re behaving in general. So all the inspiration’s there.
And musically? Are there certain acts you take cues from?
CM: No. I like all kinds of music, so when I am writing a song I’m hoping to sort of – I’m not sort of inspired by the same things I like.
DB: I think Claude also has a particular trajectory on this project of it being multi-genre – it’s referential but it’s definitely original as well. So it’s a collection of some shorter musical moments and then some more established musical moments. From a genre standpoint, the songs themselves have one layer of meaning but then the genre itself also kind of contrasts with that meaning as well. [The album] doesn’t actually sound like anything else, but it sounds like many other things.
Last question: Who are you going to check out at Jazzfest this year?
DB (exaggerated British accent): Oh, my goodness!
CM: (also exaggerated British accent): Oh, my!
DB: I definitely do want to see Robert Plant. I want to see his hair!
CM: Well, we have to compare the sisters’ hair.
DB: I know! I’d like to see if he has as explosive curliness as I do.
CM: And say nothing about the music. Nothing about his singing. Just his hair – that’s what we want to see.
Go see Hairfest, I guess.
CM: What’s that about?
Well, the Robert Plant reference.
DB: There you go! Hairfest. Thursday, June 23rd, opening night: Hairfest. Ottawa Hairfest.
