Interviews

Piebald

Interview with Travis Shettel on Feb 3, 2007 by Archive Bot

The first hoodie I ever received was a Piebald hoodie. I got it for my birthday a number of years back from my then girlfriend and it has been a staple in my clothing array ever since. Up until my actual interview with Piebald, I had worn the hoodie to every interview I have conducted for punkbands.com…and I almost wore it to the actual Piebald interview but common sense prevailed. Needless to say, Piebald is one of my favorite bands and I was given the opportunity to sit down with lead singer/guitarist Travis Shettel when they came to town with Say Anything, mewithoutYou, and Forgive Durden. We talked about their new record, Accidental Gentleman, their vegetable oil burning bus and how the music scene has changed over the years. We also got sidetracked and were interrupted a number of times, so please forgive the disjointed nature of the interview.
 
You wanna go ahead and introduce yourself and what you do in the band?
 
Travis Shettel: I’m Travis, I play guitar and I sing in Piebald.
 
You guys are on a pretty big tour right now; I mean it sold out the Metro tonight. How’s the tour been goin’ so far?
 
T: Very good. It’s been a lot of fun. Made new friends and also visited other ones along the way…it’s been great.
 
You guys are sort of the veterans on this tour, I mean compared to the other bands…
 
T: If you’re talkin’ about years, yes! [laughter] But if you’re talkin’ about, I don’t know, whatever measurements, no. But years, yeah.
 
Well, you guys have now been across the country many, many times. What do you see that’s different now than when you started? Cause you guys started in ’95, right?
 
T: Yeah, around then. I think that you’ve played the songs a lot more times. [laughter]  Ya know, you’ve been to the same places and it’s become pretty normal. But every once in a while, you wake up and you’re just totally amazed by the life you live. Or you’re on stage and you just laugh cause you can’t believe that that’s what you do. And it’s amazing…there are amazing moments.
 
At this point, there is a lot of barely audible side discussion about what kind of underwear to wear onstage.
 
Are these the kinds of things you learn as a band over the years?
 
T: Yeah! Actually, Jim, our touring bass player, who’s the sweetest dude ever, introduced us to these [the underwear in question]. I haven’t actually worn them or purchased them but I hear good things. It’s like survival guy underwear.
 
[laughter]
 
Well since you guys have been on tour so many times throughout the years, are there any particular spots you look forward to? Any states or venues?
 
T: There’s a lot of them. Boston. Goin’ to Florida is always fun. North Carolina is usually great fun, Atlanta’s fun, DC is fun, New York is fun!
 
[laughs]
 
T: Up and down the coast!
 
It’s all east coast, right?!
 
T: Yeah! East Coast! The west coast is great too, though. I love playin’ Portland for so many reasons. Seattle is always a good show. Los Angeles! San Francisco! San Diego, ya know, sometimes…it can go either way. That’s alright. Then there’s, like, Austin, Texas. Houston, awesome! Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis…Lawrence, Kansas! Denver! There are so many awesome places to play in the country.
 
Well, so Andrew [Bonner, bassist] is not on tour with you guys…
 
T: This is true.
 
He’s finishing culinary school. How did you guys know Jim [Carroll, stand-in bassist] and how’s he been workin’ out on the tour?
 
T: Jim has been working out marvelously. He’s defiantly a positive soul and it’s good to have another one of those on board; I’ll trade one for another! Better than having Negative Nancy. But anyways, he’s more friends with Luke [Garro, drums] than anybody but he’s friends with everybody. We met him probably three or four years ago. He played in another band with Luke for awhile called Barnacle. He was the guitar player and we just knew him from other bands in Boston and now he plays in Clouds with Adam McGrath. Awesome band! So he’s the other guitar player and, yeah, he’s just a friend and it’s great.
 
When do you plan on getting Andrew back?
 
T: The record comes out and then it’s Andy from there on in. He wanted to finish it [culinary school] up, ya know? He’s had a bunch of long, grueling semesters and he was like, “I got one more, then I’ll be done in January when the record comes out and then…we’ll figure it out.”
 
Can you give us any indication of what the sound of the new record is like?
 
T: It’s more spontaneous and I would use the words “punk rock.” A little bit more spur of the moment and a bit more dark…if we get dark. Well, at least as dark as Piebald goes, which isn’t very dark. I guess it’s more like a hardcore record. It was made in two weeks. We busted out the songs; some of them we knew and some of them we didn’t know and then just kind of went for it and it worked itself out awesome.
 
At this point in your careers, you guys are all spread out across the country, right?
 
T: It’s true. Aaron and I are in Los Angeles and Luke and Andy are in Boston, so it’s not always easy but we work it out.
 
Do you think that changes the sound of Piebald?
 
T: Probably, but I couldn’t tell ya how!
 
I also read that you guys have a vegetable oil burning bus…
 
T: So do these dudes, mewithoutYou!
 
Richard Mazzotta [drummer for mewithoutYou]: Alright!
 
T: That’s Ricky!
 
And this is when security came crashing into the backstage area to apprehend a girl who had just recently run past us. There is a lot of subsequent yelling and lecturing as well as some awkward laughs.
 
Shit.
 
[laughter]
 
T: What is happening?!
 
[more laughter]
 
T: Uh oh, got in trouble.
 
What the fuck.
 
[lots of yelling]
 
I then shut off my recorder in order to save space for continuing our conversation, which we did after all the craziness died down.
 
So, the vegetable oil burning bus…is that a political statement or just a band trying to save some money?
 
T: It’s both. It’s like basically trying to save money but at the same time, you realize, well, there’s a lot less pollution, it’s free, it doesn’t really support some things you do or do not believe in.
 
So you guys came up, as a band, in the Boston scene with Cave In, Converge…in a really tightly knit scene in the late 90s. How do you think that’s affected your growth as a band and what do you think of that notion of a music scene in comparison to the scene today?
 
T: Ohh, it’s very different. I’m so happy to be where I’m from and to have lived the life I’ve lived musically, with the other musical parts that have been in the areas that I’ve been in. It’s been amazing. I feel like it’s made us more of a communal band rather than a “climber” band; we’re not really about being the coolest, newest thing. We just try to make good records and play awesome shows and live righteously.
 
Is it strange for you guys, at this point in your career, to be coming to Chicago and playing a sold out show as the second band on the bill?
 
T: No, often times, if we’re playing with another band, they’re usually bigger than us and has more of a draw. Yeah, sold out shows, that happens sometimes. Being the second band, that happens. Being the first band, sometimes that happens too! And being the last band at a not sold out show also happens! It goes every way you wanna slice it.
 
Well, I think you guys have seen every way at this point…
 
T: Absolutely. I’ve been at shows where three people have paid, eight people have paid. I’ve been at shows where five thousand and something have paid. I’ve been at festivals where there were prolly a few thousand people.
 
Do you prefer any particular size stage on any given night…
 
T: Smaller! It feels…there’s definitely more connection because you’re looking at people, you can see them…there’s a more close experience.
 
After the record comes out, what’s in store for Piebald? What’s goin’ on in the New Year?
 
T: Just tour as much as we can, if it’s worth it. You know, I think we’ll try and tour right when the record comes out or be on the road at that point and keep touring. I wanna really badly go to Australia and Japan and then also, from there, go back to Hawaii. I wanna do all that stuff but…I hope it happens. I’ve never been to any of those places…well, we’ve been to Hawaii once before…but I’d like to do a couple US tours, go visit Canada, haven’t been there in a while.
 
Again, we got sidetracked, talking about Canada and Moneen and Travis told me a long story involving a show in a gym with Moneen in Quebec where they set off fireworks and the fire department came…I couldn’t make all of it out but I was laughing pretty hard from what I remember.
 
Do you prefer life on the road or life in the studio, recording?
 
T: I like the studio a lot. It’s more personal, more introverted. Not that I always need to be introverted but it’s completely creative, it’s not like all this outside whatever. You’re just sitting there with these songs and thinking about them and dwelling on them and being like, “How else can I play guitar over that? How else could I do something new over that? How else could I do anything over this? How else can I make a new song? What can I explore?” It’s fun. Being in the studio is great. Just recording, period is awesome.
 
So this is gonna be your third release on SideOneDummy…
 
T: Third release on SideOneDummy, fifth full-length.
 
How is the relationship with SideOne?
 
T: Good good. I think we’re finally thinking about what we’re gonna make happen…well, what we’re gonna try and make happen in the future, so that’s good.
 
It seems like a good spot for you dudes…
 
T: Hope so. We’ll see…it feels good.
 
What’s your projection for Piebald in the future? You’ve been around a while…do you even have one?
 
T: Uhh, no, prolly not. I’m sure we’ll do some touring, then take a while away from it cause that’s what usually seems to happen. We need a couple months to breathe sometimes…sometimes it’s six, sometimes it’s nine…that’s cool. But then you come back to it and it’s great fun and we’ll make a record again, another one. We’ll go on tour multiple times…hopefully go to Australia and Japan, like I was talking about! And that’s about it…write some more songs that, hopefully, make somebody feel something.
 
www.piebald.com
www.myspace.om/piebald
www.sideonedummy.com
 
Much thanks to Travis for his time. Thanks to Jon from SideOneDummy and Tim from Ink Tank for their help in setting everything up. And mad props to Jon Cheese…because he’s fucking Jon Cheese.