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Stay ConnectedHost Pierre de Gaillande interviews musicians and discusses their artistic trajectory, and the intersection of music, artistic expression and the idea of art as politics.
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2024 is here and this is a very special episode #30 of Pierre Pressure Podcast. This is a re-broadcast of an interview Pierre did with Gordon Gano, lead singer and guitarist of the Violent Femmes, along with then-drummer Brian Viglione (drummer of Dresden Dolls, Nine Inch Nails, World Inferno Friendship Society) on East Village Radio, hosted by Michael Messenie, AKA the Coach, on his Two For Tennis Show. This interview took place in September of 2013 in a tiny studio in the East Village in New York City. Pierre was thrilled to be asked to co-interview Gordon and Brian of the Violent Femmes on the occasion of their upcoming show at Summer Stage, re-starting an era of touring and recording for the band. The Violent Femmes were a hugely influential part of 1980's culture, starting with their massive hit “Blister in the Sun” in 1983 and continuing to this day. Their music was life-changing for Pierre and kicked-started his journey as a guitarist and songwriter.
Dan Reeder is an American musician and visual artist born in Louisiana and raised in California. Since 1987, Reeder has lived full-time in Nurnberg, Germany. He releases albums under his own name on John Prine's label, Oh Boy Records. Reeder writes some of the most honest, hilarious, heart-wrenchingly beautiful songs you'll ever hear. His music has been called “outsider folk,” but whatever the moniker, it punches you in the heart with perfectly crafted song-gems populated with drunks, fuckups, and regular people trying to get by. Reeder's music came into my consciousness through the song “Maybe,” a disquisistion on mortality that stands shoulder to shoulder with anything by Tom Waits, Elliott Smith, Georges Brassens, or Leonard Cohen. Did I mention he builds his own guitars and computers? We talked about his accidental discovery of computer recording, getting a call from John Prine's manager at 3am, what America looks like from the vantage point of Germany, and navigating political correctness in changing times. Enjoy this very special episode of PPP.
In this episode, I talk with Kurt Wagner, founder and singer songwriter behind the band Lamchop, which make some of the most gorgeously orchestrated indie-pop you’ll ever hear, wrapped around Kurt Wagner’s complex and exquisite lyrics. 
Eleni Mandell is an LA-based singer-songwriter who has been making some of the best music you'll ever hope to hear since her first album, Wishbone, came out in 1996. She's an astoundingly prolific artist with a huge discography, and she's collaborated with such heavy hitters as Nels Cline (Wilco), DJ Bonebrake (X), Joey Waronker (Beck), and Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), putting out one great album after another. Her songs have been covered by the likes of Jackson Browne, Harper Simon, and Van Dyke Parks, and she continues to perform with her solo project as well as the four piece female miracle harmony ensemble The Living Sisters, and her side-project The Grabs. I met Eleni on tour in 2006 in Nashville, and I've since had the good fortune to work on some recordings and share a stage with her on a number of occasions. We spoke about the continuing struggle of being a creative person, a parent to twins, and a working human being in these challenging times. She also shared a sneak peak of her newest project Teardrop Ghosts with her husband and musical partner Milo Jones.
Episode 25 of Pierre Pressure Podcast features very special guest Tony Scalzo from the band Fastball. Tony is a talented and prolific songwriter who wrote a string of hits for his platinum-selling band Fastball in the late 90s. He grew up in Orange County, California and moved to Austin, Texas where he still lives today. We have a lively chat about growing up behind the Orange Curtain in the 80s, his musical trajectory starting with piano lessons, playing in marching bands, joining his first cover band at 14, then jumping into songwriting and playing at Hollywood clubs, becoming politically aware after a blissfully ignorant childhood, moving to the progressive town of Austin, Fastball's trajectory through the music industry, and lots and lots of politics. He performs a brand new song, Seat at the Table live and acoustic.
After a three month hiatus due to Covid 19, Pierre Pressure Podcast is back! For the new season, Pierre focuses on the tradition of protest music, and how it can inspire us to speak up, stand up, and sing out about what we think needs to change in our fractured society. Pierre Pressure Podcast is extremely honored to have special guest Bill Frisell on this first reboot episode #24.
Part 2 of Pierre's Pandemic Podcast features two guests from Episode 22 and some new guests discussing life during the coronavirus lockdown. Pierre checks in on the phone with two people who had Covid 19 and recovered, a doctor and a nurse practitioner working with patients in New York City, two musicians, a public defender, and someone living in Carriacou, a remote island in the Carribean. Don't miss this episode filled with tales of resilience, ordinary madness, quiet heroism, frustration and laughter in the face of unprecedented strangeness.
A very unusual Pierre Pressure Podcast. In this episode, Pierre called his friends in New York, California, and Florida to see how they are getting by during this world-wide quarantine. These guests range in age, gender, profession, and location, from musicians to prisoner advocates to BnB owners to school lunch administrators, they have all been deeply affected by the corona virus. I asked them all to tell me what music is getting them by during this historic catastrophe, and I made a playlist on Spotify with their suggestions (see link below.) Shortly after this taping, the first guest, "Spider" contracted the Covid 19 virus and is in good condition at home. All other guests are coping with this unusual time in their own ways. There will be further call-in shows as this quarantine goes on.
Chris Wells is the founder of The Secret City, and he is a high priest of art. He's been known to tower over people in platform shoes, he leads a congregation of art worshippers, his performances make people feel high, and he was raised in the high desert of California. In this episode we discuss what it means to create transcendental, communal gatherings outside the umbrella of "church." We talk about the somatic response of fight, flight, or freeze, trying to heal the wounds of empire, gay politicians wearing "straight-face," people who let their dogs lick their face, and the performance of being a Reagan-loving, church-going young man. We also discuss Chris' journey into being a radical fairy, dissect the so-called Irish potato famine, queers in the woods, gay liberation not assimilation, and his ongoing mission to bring art-based, ecstatic spectacle to a divided world. A lot of ground is covered!
Composer-producer-frontman-wizard JG Thirlwell has been making astonishing, orchestral, bombastic music for decades. Born in Australia, he teamed up with Nick Cave and the Birthday Party, then joined Prag VEC, and soon formed his enduring solo project Foetus. Operating under plethora of pseudonyms and monikers meant to confuse, shock, and awe, Thirlwell continues to churn out an astounding amount of music and to perform as a frontman for his own projects, as well as a composer for animated series Venture Brothers, Archer, and Dicktown. We talked about his beginnings in London, moving to New York in the early 80s, starting out using 16 tracks of tape and an elaborate numerical system, his first time wearing "guy liner," the importance of remembering World War Two, his evolving theories on shock value and fear as a part of performance, and his changing relationship to his Australian roots as a citizen of the world.
Musician and visual artist Rick Froberg can't help it, he f*&#ing loves rock and roll. Throughout his career he has fronted loud, uncompromising, aggressive, totally original and influential bands like Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, and Hot Snakes with his partner in crime John Reis as well as Obits, last of the Juanitas, and others. He continues to record and perform all over the world. Rick creates the album artwork for all of his projects, as well as working as a commercial artist. We talked about getting along with Satan, shitty gigs in front of the culchies, being at the same Fugazi show when someone drew blood, saying what you mean with lead and bludgeoning guitars, the wonders of the internet, cigarette Nazis in Australia, learning analog art design, and a whole lot more.
For this very special episode, we reach way back into the vault and present an interview Pierre did with The Breeders in 1992! We unearthed this cassette recording of an interview with all four members of this massively popular and influential mainstay of 90's alt-rock, the Breeders. Pierre called them from San Diego and interviewed them on the phone in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, in advance of their concert in Tijuana, Mexico, at the legendary Iguana's. The year is 1992 and the Breeders are on the verge of superstardom. Pierre is a college student calling from San Diego and he's quite sleepy, but he's awake enough to ask some pretty incisive and trenchant questions, including "Who will play you in a movie of your life" and "Will Bill Clinton be elected?" Listen as young Pierre tries to play it cool on the phone with all four members of the Breeders; Jim McPherson, Josephine Wiggs, Kelly Deal, and Kim Deal.
Phil Manley is a west-coast based rock musician and producer. He runs El Studio in San Fransisco, and he handles the guitar, keyboards, bass, and vocals in bands Trans Am, Life Coach, Terry Gross, and Oneida among others. His band Trans Am spearheaded the Electroclash movement in the 90's and continues to melt faces around the world. We had very pleasant chit chat in his studio about recording very loud bands, Krautrock vs. punk rock, missing the "normal days" of Bush, touring in Europe with a Bush mask on, and how to sheild your kids from the apocalypse.
Episode sweet sixteen features Los Angeles-based activists, musicians, filmmakers, and educators Lisa Marr and Paolo Davanzo. They run a non-profit called the Echo Park Film Center, and they travel the world spreading their vison of inclusiveness, tolerance, creativity and artistic freedom through the medium of cinema. We spoke about both of their musical and artistic trajectories beginning in Canada and Italy, through the wilds of the Orange County punk MIASMA and the Canadian riot girl scene. We chatted about striving for socialist idealism in a capitalist world, the circus of American politics, the short life of the Sassy Pickles, the film mobile, bicycle-driven projection, cuddle core, and so much more.
Stew is a singer, musician, composer, playwright, and a powerhouse in the world of music and theater. For years he fronted the band Stew and the Negro Problem. He then went on to create and star in a play called Passing Strange which started off-Broadway and then went on to have a successful run on Broadway, where it garnered multiple Tonys and other awards, and was eventually turned into a feature film by Spike Lee. In all of Stew's work, he shines a bright light on what it means to be an African-American guy with a killer sense of humor and an acute sense of history and culture, in a world that wants to reduce everyone to stereotypes. Stew performed a live acoustic rendition of his song "Baldwin Country" and we spoke about "asshole-adjacent people," the role of comedy in music, the American vs European idea of freedom, what Reagan would say about today's mess, his ongoing collaboration with partner Heidi Rodewald, the audacity of craziness, and so much more. 
This episode features woodwind whiz, composer, arranger, and performer Ken Thomson. Ken plays all kinds of clarinets and saxophones (and anything else that sounds like an angry swan) in many amazing projects including but not limited to: Bang on a Can Orchestra, Gutbucket, Asphalt Orchestra, SlowFast, and Ken Thomson Sextet. I've had the pleasure of sharing stages and recording sessions over the years with Ken and he always amazes. We chit-chatted about his career as a hornist, perceptions of Americans touring abroad, adapting feedback and screaming for marching band, making couscous with your bandmates, and so much more.
Lucky number 13 is my good friend Dorit Chrysler, a theremin wizard from Austria. She came to New York in the 90's and was the singer-guitarist for the scorching art-rock band Halcion. She subsequently went on tho become one of the world's premiere theremin experts. She performs at festivals and concert venues around the world on a regular basis, and she was the co-founder of the New York Theremin Society. She has scored films and TV sows, including the upcoming German production "M." for Netflix. She will be performing this year with the San Francisco Symphony as well as Moogfest in Durham North Carolina in April. We spoke about the music scene in New York in the 90's,plasticc molds, the legacy of Austrian culture, the "bread and circus" of American politics, and she performed three live songs in the studio.
This episode is all about hip hop. Paul Womack, AKA Willie Green, is a New York-based hip hop producer specializing in "art-rap." He produces extremely imaginative, groundbreaking beats for hip hop and pop artists who are not afraid to break the rules and sound completely different. Operating out of his studio in Brooklyn, he works with a roster of super creative and outspoken artists like Quelle Chris, Premrock, Billy Woods, Henry Canyon, EllaMaeFlossy and many others under the label Backwoodz Studioz. We talked about good versus shitty sampling, the difference between studied and naive creativity, drumming with Uncle Dave, the hypocrisy of self-hating immigrants, armchair A&R, and a lot more. 
This episode's guest, Timo Ellis, is an all around musical powerhouse. He plays drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, and sings, and currently fronts the synth-metal band Netherlands. His musical bio spans an impressive and varied list of projects including Yoko Ono, Cibo Matto, Sean Lennon, Joan as Policewoman, and many more.
Guest Dawn Landes is talented multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and producer living in Nashville. We talk about climbing trees with Will Oldham, her touring with Sufjan Stevens, recording with Nashville A-listers, and why bow-hunters are more macho. She performs her original song "Keep on Moving."
A very special double episode with Fa Ventilato and Roman Elsener, two Swiss-born, New York-based musicians who have been close friends since their youth and have very different approaches to life and music. We spoke about micropolitics, CD scratching, pillow drumming, hand grenades, the Swiss national anthem backwardt, and much much more. The Ramen and Pho Orchestra performed Roman's original songs "President Fast Food" and "Sailing Out to Sea" (including a seventeen-piece whistle orchestra) as well as a sprinkling of other original improvs and tidbits. Strap in for this one people. 
The guest on this episode of PIERRE PRESSURE PODCAST is Paul Brill, an award-winning composer, musician, songwriter and producer. We spoke in his Brooklyn studio about the possible outcomes for the midterms, shredding your way to success, serving Bernie coffee, and a whole lot more. He performed a solo acoustic version of his song "Lay Down Your Weary Head." Background audio by Envelope, Malayalam, Peanut Butter, Milkweed and Paul Brill.
Guest Mira Cook is a singer, pianist, composer, and dancer who performs regularly in NYC as a solo artist, building her songs live using vocal and instrumental loops. She also travels the world as a dancer and teacher with Battery Dance. We talked about her musical journey starting in Austin and how she fell into music by way of dance, how to stay positive in these confusing times, and upcoming album release. She performs an original tune called "Take the Easy Way Out" dedicated to her soon-to-be-born baby girl. 
In this episode of PIERRE PRESSURE I tried to answer the question "Who is Jack Grace?" Is he the Country Ham, the Mariachi Cowboy, the lead singer of Van Hayride, John Pancaldo, or all of the above? We chatted about the many incarnations of Jack's career, as well as the final stages of the Monopoly game we are all living through, and we heard renditions of Jack's songs "Bad Wind Blowing" and "Being Poor."
Welcome to the first episode of PIERRE PRESSURE PODCAST, a brand new sonic, musical, political adventure.
