The Song Remains The Same

Contrary to press reports, Johnny Depp actually gained his inspiration for the Jack Sparrow character from Josh Waddell, not Keith Richards.

The Beige Baron catches up with Peeping Tom and learns of a half-completed new album, the hassles with Patton, and plans for a tour real soon.

One of the best things about being in a new band would have to be choosing a name. Something snappy, cool, memorable and witty (unless you're in an emo band). About the only rule for choosing a band name is making sure no one else has already taken it.

Which is why local legends of swashbuckling pirate metal, Peeping Tom (a band which has been together for more than eight years) were surprised an upset to be told they suddenly had to change theirs. Mike Patton -- a musician anyone who loves music deeply respects -- was preparing to launch his new sideproject band. Their name? Peeping Tom.

It's still unclear what is going to happen... whether the Real Peeping Tom will have to drop the handle they've been known by for years to make way for the big star. That, eventually, given the Tom's rising international trajectory, will probably be the case. But for the band the whole name saga, after the initial pain, indignation and spasms, has become a secondary concern. And so it should be for the fans. New Amsterdam became New York, Constantinople became Istanbul, and that's nobody's business but the Turks'.

For Peeping Tom, the song remains the same, and a fucking brilliant song it is too.

The 1970s was arguably the best decade for rock and roll, and for once we find a band who is not ashamed of, or tries to disown, their infuences. Peeping Tom breathes new life into the cherished '70s groove rock soul and does so in inimitable fashion. The band come from a pure place, and never will you feel so good as when you're standing in the front row of a Peeping Tom show, surfing their glorious wave of head-shaking, hip-swinging thunder groove.

The band has not been idle during the whole name fiasco, but has been busy keeping on keeping on for all us sinners with a new album and plans for an East Coast tour once its done. For more details, BNU caught up with bassist Josh Waddell via email.

Mike Patton's band. What was the story there and what is gonna happen?

When it finally did hit, sure, we were pissed off. The publicity and din from Patton's legions of fans was pretty huge. Still, it's not a matter of being daunted; we're probably more philosophical about it. You can't fight the punters -- what's the point? In the end we're more interested in making music than anything else. The name we do it under isn't such a big deal. We figure people who are in to it can find us whatever we're called.

How was the debut CD received? Are you getting much response outside of Melbourne to the music?

Our first album seems to have gone down really well, at least when it comes to people's reactions. People who have it always seem to be telling us it's something they keep on high rotation. Pretty gratifying, especially when we think back to the process of recording it. At that time we were a bit green to recording and weren't sure what we had down at times. It was stalled for quite a while for various reasons.

Europe is friendly to us. The album's gotten strong reviews in loads of e-zines and print mags over there. I guess it's most popular in places like The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany where they like it heavy.

Undertow Recordings in The Netherlands does good work for us getting the word out over there. The US and Canada is also in to it in the usual underground kinda way. Stonerrock.com helps us out.

Have you guys been writing any new songs? Are they sounding any different to your back catalogue? Has any music been influencing you guys at the moment?

We're still listening to seventies grooves. Cam, the band's music-finding genius, still mines out forgotten gems all the time. Great guy to have around.

Any plans to record? What sort of an album will your next one be?

We're actually half way through the next album with Barry Stockley (who recorded and mixed our last album). A couple of months ago we did three or four days of intensive live tracking. We walked in there with the idea that we'd capture a raw, live sound -- keeping as much of the original live takes as possible. It suits the material we have at the moment, which is sometimes tending more towards some kind of heavy psychedelic blues/groove rock than the 'stoner doom' tag some people might use to describe parts of the self-titled album.

Still sounds like Peeping Tom regardless. I guess the boys have certain idiosynchracies in their playing styles you can always hear and pick out whether they're playing jazz or doom!

A lot of the music we put down was actually written long before the last album. This band's been going for eight years, and the first three years or so we stayed in a basement most of the time, only crawling out to play the occasional gig and the odd friend's party! There was alot of heavy groove at that time. Adam [Winzer, guitars] called it 'hard drivin groove'. The other half of the material is stuff that's been written more recently -- some we've been probably been playing live for the last 18 months or so while some bits came together just days before we recorded them.

The initial tracking sessions left us with 120 solid minutes of music to pick from so we figure we'll choose 60 minutes and make a CD and double vinyl release. Why not? We're in this to please ourselves and who hasn't always wanted their own double vinyl...

Any plans for a tour in the near future?

We were actually invited to play at the Stoner Hands of Doom festival in Arizona this September but had to pull out because the album probably wouldn't be ready and well... we just plain couldn't afford it!

We'll probably get things together with the new album launch and tour the East Coast with it. We're also aiming to get ourselves overseas as soon as possible to plunder the fertile soils of the northern hemisphere.

Hook us up on myspace. www.myspace.com/savrocker. We'll have a preview
from the new album up there soon.

In the meantime, do not miss Peeping Tom at the Espy front bar on Saturday night.