Billy Pettinger (Billy The Kid) – Interview

Billy Pettinger (Billy The Kid) – Interview

23 Giugno 2016 0 Commenti Iacopo Mezzano

Please welcome the Canadian musician Billy Pettinger to melodicrock.it!

ITALIAN VERSION

MR.IT: Offering to the fans your last album I Have To Do This, you said: If the world were to end tomorrow, there is only one thing I would want. I would want to make one more album. Let me say that these are very strong words to read, especially for us as we are addicted to the music. So, Let’s start from these words, can you tell us how did your passion for music begin and what is your relation with the music in your everyday life?

BP: Around age six or seven my parents put me in piano lessons. I never practiced, I mainly made up my own songs. At 12 I got a classical guitar and started writing. I was always compelled to write, even when there didn’t seem to be a purpose or point to it. I’m always writing. There doesn’t have to be an instrument or a pen nearby…it’s just what my brain does on its own.

MR.IT: We just talked about offering the fans your last album. We know label Xtra Mile didn’t help you in the release and production of your new one, and at the same time other labels this time didn’t show interest in your songs. And then you choose to give, or offer, all you have to the fans: the music you wrote in the last years. So the solo album I Have To Do This, and the EP You Can Have It All, came out. How did you come up to with the idea of releasing all this stuff by yourself?

BP: This is going to sound pretty grim but “I Have to Do This” was released because I decided I was going to take my own life. It wasn’t until I woke up in the hospital that I realized I had “leaked” my own demos. “You Can Have It All” happened a few months after my recovery, when things had stabilized and I realized I didn’t want to walk away from making songs.

MR.IT: Let me say that some other artists would have put their songs in a drawer, waiting for better days to come. You didn’t do that. And you have never done it before, also when you did fundraising campaigns to get the budget to work on your previous albums, or to go on tour. Will you do to these campaigns again?

BP: I feel as if I sort of “outgrew” that…I don’t mean to say there’s anything wrong with them or that I would never do it again, it just started to seem like everyone was doing it. The first one I did, there wasn’t anything like Pledgemusic or Kickstarter…the whole concept of fan-funded anything was relatively new. That was part of the charm. Eventually it just felt like everyone and their mother was asking for something. I just want to leave people alone and do my own thing. If they like it, cool. Again it has all stemmed from feeling compelled to create.

MR.IT: Is this the hardest point of your career? Do you see yourself on a sort of a dead end point, or do you think that these two new productions are a good way to reborn and change something, maybe going with your career in a different way?

BP: Things definitely feel different. For most of my life I was confident I would have some job so that I could afford guitar strings and maybe do some recording. Music would never be my “career”. After the whole record label thing, it started to seem like it was my career. I guess I started to buy into it. When it all fell apart I had forgotten there were all these other parts of myself…I’m not just “Billy the Kid” or whatever. All I ever wanted was a very simple life where I could afford to make an album every couple years. It’s not the hardest or the lowest right at this moment, but I definitely felt that way for most of the last year. When I finally decided to just do what I have always done and find a way to put out music by whatever means required (including using fake drums, something I swore I would never do), that was definitely part of the healing process.

MR.IT: You said about these songs that they were supposed to be demos, and I hope you listen to these songs and imagine what they might have been if things had somehow gone a different way. Would you have arranged these songs the same way you did with your last album Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, or differently?

BP: It likely would have been more basic than the last album, even more stripped down. I imagined still playing all the instruments as I have in the past. Just having fun and running around a studio inventing silly noises or parts. The biggest thing for me was not being able to have real drums on there. I just couldn’t afford to record anything anywhere other than my living room.

MR.IT: How do your songs usually take shape? How do you feel the compulsion to create your music?

BP: Sometimes it starts with music if I happen to have an instrument nearby but mostly I’m just thinking of some part or lyric or melody…if I get the chance to sit down and finish the thought, something eventually comes of it,

MR.IT: In my review of your last album I said: the general tone of the album is much more gloomy and depressed than normally the artist appears, a sign of how this period is affecting on her way of composing. Do you agree?

BP: It was a tough year. For many reasons. I moved to the United States shortly after signing the deal and was unable to work or leave the country while my immigration status was processing. Doing all the things the people in charge asked of me eventually bankrupted me. Not to say that they didn’t have expenses as well, we both just invested quite a bit, in my case everything I had left in the world. When it was all said and done I had nothing to show for any of it. One month I had agents, a label, publicists, managers and within a few months later I had nothing. No one.

MR.IT: I love your new songs and I really appreciate their lyrics. In Apollo you said: I’m 31 and I live out of a storage facility. Looking back to your life do you feel that the time has run too fast for you, or are you proud of every decision you made? Could it have been a turning point on your career that never ended well?

BP: I don’t really know the answer to this. I guess if I knew the answer, maybe I would still be on the road. Maybe I would still have more than $8 in my bank account. I wouldn’t have been able to travel the world and play with some of my heroes perhaps…I don’t regret that. I guess if given the option I would have spent that amount of time and money on being able to have the experience of it all. So I guess you could say it was worth it. I eventually come back to the thought that I wish I could have recorded more and have had more to show for it all but in the grand scheme of things I guess it doesn’t really matter.

MR.IT: One of my favourite songs of your discography is Chelsea Rose, a song that means a lot to you. Would you tell us something about it and about the sad story behind it?

Chelsea was a childhood friend who was murdered upstairs of a venue my old punk rock bands used to play. It was shocking and tragic, to say the least.

MR.IT: Another top class song I want to ask you about is Diamonds, taken from your album Ours. How did it come up?

I swore I would never get married and then I met this dude who gave me a ring. He decided he wanted to see other people but didn’t tell me about it. I’m starting to think maybe you’re right… maybe my life has been pretty depressing haha!

MR.IT: Some of your songs, and I’m thinking about Diamonds and This Sure As Hell Ain’t My Life as well, talk about relationships went wrong. Do you feel mostly a broken heart by the love, or by this society?

BP: I’ve met some good people in this world and I’ve met some not so good people. We all have. For whatever reason I have tended to gravitate towards some not so good people when it comes to relationships. Maybe they’re fine people as friends or whatever but from a relationship standpoint I guess I haven’t been very lucky. Maybe I just have some things to work on. Maybe it has nothing to do with the other people. In terms of this society, especially in the United States, people can be really focused on themselves. It’s easy for them to walk away or decide to give up on you if you’re having a rough year and they decide they don’t have time for it. I don’t know ultimately whose “fault” any of it is but I guess I tend to end up feeling like it must be my fault. This is perhaps a theme on all the albums…I’m thinking of the song “American Cities” right now and the fact that I keep vowing to stop dating Americans. I of course realize they’re not all bad but I’m still glad I grew up in Canada. Ha.

MR.IT: In your songs you often express the comparative isolation you’ve found growing up in Vancouver. You said that you don’t feel this kind of isolation when you are in the USA or in the other countries. But you still live in Canada, is that correct? Why don’t you move anywhere else?

BP: I love my home town and I always will. I don’t know if I’ve ever said that I didn’t.love it, I just can’t afford to live there. I’ve been in Alabama for the past two years. I’ve learned to love it for what it is. I appreciate that here, in Alabama, I can afford to live in something other than a bachelor apartment across the street from the food bank and the needle exchange or whatever.

MR.IT: Is there any songs you wrote you are particulary proud of? Do you feel like talking about it?

BP: I like that song “Fallout” of mine. That was kind of the beginning of the new album process. The new guitar sounds and “production” of me “producing” myself or whatever. When things are falling apart it feels like an explosion or atom bomb is going off all around you. I liked the visual of that, and the idea of being able to retreat to a fallout shelter.

MR.IT: Who are your main musical influences when it comes to the songwriting?

BP: Still Billy Bragg, Dylan, the guys in The Band, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and Ryan Adams.

MR.IT: In my review I describe you as a restless soul who oscillates between the desire of rebellion and the need for peace and quiet. Is it true? Who is Billy Pettinger in private life, and what is the difference between Billy Pettinger and the artist Billy The Kid?

BP: That’s probably pretty dead on. My life now is very normal. I used to bounce around the planet playing shows to rooms either mostly empty or filled with people. I used to thrive in or at least appreciate the chaos of it all. I’ve been thinking about what I really want and how I really want my life to look like for some time. In the quiet, I have more time to think and as a result, to create. That is what I want to be remembered for. Some people are happy on a stage, or they need to be admired or approved of. I never found as much sanctity in that as I used to tell myself. I do love traveling, and I suppose I miss being able to see friends as often, but I’ve also realized that alot of the people who I thought were my friends actually were not. Their lives are often so crazy they barely have time to notice anyone other than their little struggles on their big tour buses. I’m not speaking for everyone or course I guess you just have to be kind of in to yourself to live that life. And I’m kind of sick of myself. I’d rather be invisible.

MR.IT: Yuri, one of ur readers, describes you in a comment of the website as “a rare bird, full with personality and creativity”. Do you agree?

BP: That’s a really nice compliment. I’m definitely a weirdo haha.

MR.IT: You started as a punk. Does the punk culture still influences your life and your way of thinking?

BP: Not so much… aside from the fact that I don’t care what people think about what I’m doing, now more than ever haha!

MR.IT: How did you come up with the idea of your moniker Billy The Kid?

BP: It was just a nickname. My first band the Blue Collar Bullets called my that. It just stuck. Like, really.

MR.IT: What do you remember about your days touring Europe and Italy? Do you miss our country and would you come back here to play one day?

BP: I really do. Italy is one of my favourite places in the world, for sure. I visited for the first time as a tourist and I had been dreaming about that for most of my life. I visited a few times after and was able to play there, sneaking in some sightseeing whenever I could. That’s the part I miss the most…the food, the wine, the art. This world has so much to offer. Most people can’t see past themselves enough to go out and see it all. I’m including myself in that statement.

MR.IT: At the end of my review I said: the world needs to open its eyes, get out of the restrictive standards, and learn to appreciate what it is worth. This makes sense when it comes to the music, and on other subjects too. We are not all the same, we are different! Do you agree with me?

BP: Yes, and I guess I pretty much said that in the above question haha. We can’t force anyone to do anything, though. Sure, it would be great if we all got to do whatever we wanted all the time. That’s the same thing anybody wants. We just want to get paid to do what we like to do. Sounds really simple, huh? Except not everybody likes to do stuff that anyone else likes. I’ve been saying this for awhile but I don’t expect the things I love to love me back. The important thing is to just find a way to keep doing them. If I was all that fucking special maybe I would still be making a living at it. But I’m not. Only a handful of humans on this planet ever are. And who knows, maybe one day when we are all dead and gone, someone will come across something we made and it will change everything for them. If it doesn’t, is that really going to stop you from creating? I really hope not. That’s the difference between us, and them. There’s that punk rock upbringing, I guess haha!

MR.IT: You have a unique voice and I really like the way you express your feelings using the warmth of your voice. Did you learn singing all by yourself or anybody taught you singing?

BP: For most of my life I was told I couldn’t really sing all that great by varying producers etc. I realize I don’t sound like most singers especially people who can afford singing lessons but this is just how I sound. I like to think I’m a better “writer” than singer or guitar player or even performer anyway. I write songs and this is just the voice I have. I’m not going to have other people sing songs that I write, so I guess I have to do it!

MR.IT: Why, in your opinion, the music business didn’t pay more attention to you? Just bad luck or something else?

BP: I must not be that good. I will say this, I know I have great supporters. There might not be a whole bunch of them but they’ve enabled me to make many albums and play many shows that will always be very special to me. Maybe I made some bad decisions, or didn’t choose the right people to work with. Maybe none of it matters. The music industry is really crazy. Most of the people making a living off of music aren’t very good in my opinion. I guess in that sense, I made it haha!

MR.IT: What do you think about the music scene in your region and your country?

BP: Muscle Shoals Alabama was always had an incredible music community. There’s this great documentary about it, you should check it out. It’s always been a real music place. I have yet to play here but there is a whole spectrum of talent that originated and gravitated here.

MR.IT: What do you expect from the future? Are you writing something new at the moment?

BP: Always. I’m just going to keep working at this liquor store, walking my dogs and paying off my debt until i can get myself in a real studio again. I hear there are a few in town.

MR.IT: Something different for the last three questions: I know you love tattoos. Do you think they are a sort of art? Can you tell us about the meaning of one of your tattoos, maybe the one you like the most?

BP: I have one that says “Today = Best Day Ever!” that I quite like. The older I get, the weirder my tattoos get. They used to mean something but then they just became something to do or something to remember a moment. I never had much money to spend on them so most of them were free from friends or people on the road who liked our music or something. I haven’t gotten a new one in years. Unless they start getting free again I probably won’t get anymore haha!

MR.IT: Some recent studies have discovered that our brain has a peculiar perception of silence, that in some way is more elaborate than during a moment of sound or noise. That’s why in the silence the brain is much more focused on the inside than on the outside. A lot of your songs have quite arrangements combined with lyrics full of meanings. Does your way of writing songs in certain ways on the same theory of this research helps the listener to think about his feelings?

BP: I really like this question. I love science especially brain science. My songs might have this perception to you because I generally write the most when it’s quiet. Perhaps that’s why I have designed my life in recent years to be way more quiet than it has ever been. I can’t think or focus if it’s noisy. I really want to leave behind a body of work that, if anything, shows that I always worked very hard. Even if you don’t like my songs, you can at least agree that I wrote many of them!

MR.IT: We know that you are a good painter too! What do you like to represent in your paintings? Have you any particular influences? Do you have a favourite painter?

BP: Michelangelo Buonarroti is my favourite artist of all time. When I was traveling (thanks to a donation of Airmiles from my parents!!!) I planned most of the trip so that I could see every Michelangelo piece that I could. I don’t really consider myself that great of an artist but I’m happy that I started trying to paint. I like learning new things. It has been good for my brain as well…maybe I won’t get dementia now haha.

MR.IT: Thank you very much for your time. If there is anything you want to say, please do it! Good luck for the future!

BP: Thank you so much my friend for your questions and kind words! I wish you all the best.

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