Pigeon

Hi, I’m Danny and I’m from the band ‘Pigeon’. Pigeon are a band that have been together for about a year and a half, comprised of a bunch of friends that met at various educational facilities (high school and university).

We make electronic music and mix it up with traditional rock instrumentation and come out somewhere near electro-indie-pop. We love performing and I think writing music and performing it is a strong passion that we all share and we have a lot of fun doing it. I think that translates in the music and in our live shows too.

We’ve released one EP and were lucky enough to play a bunch of festivals shortly afterwards like Splendour in the Grass, Parklife and Peats Ridge. We toured here and there and then we locked ourselves away to write another EP. We’re just about to embark on another tour to promote our single ‘Oh Hebe’ which will be on our EP coming out hopefully around October.

We’re all really excited to be on tour again and also to road test some new material and get some reactions from the crowd. So basically we are eager and pumped for the rest of the year and can’t wait to release new music.

What’s your earliest memory of performing and who inspired you to start?

My earliest memory of performing was in the U.K. when I was about 12. My friend and I had started a pop-punk band (which was the cool thing to do back then) and started putting some greenday covers etc. We used to practice at this old school hall and they put a concert on there and we got to play. I’ve never really forgotten it and that’s probably where my obsession with performing started.

You must answer this question honestly or we steal your rider. What and where was the first gig you went to?

HA! It’s actually not as bad as it could be! I went to go see the band ‘Staind’ (remember them?) at the Manchester Apollo when I was about 11 or 12. It was rad. Although if you want something more embarrassing, when I was a tiny bit younger I used to live in Darwin and I’m pretty sure I nagged my dad to go see Vanessa Amarosi….but he never took me…it could’ve changed my life.

 ‘Fess up. What records have you stolen from your parent’s record collection and why?

Ah yes. My parents are big Beatles fans and there’s really no getting away from their infectious melodies if there were spoon fed to you as a child so yeah that’s always a big one. My dad was also into some pretty sweet 70’s prog rock like Yes and Genesis which were cool however I prefer the modern Peter Gabriel stuff and anything by Phil Collins ;-)

What’s on heavy rotation on your iPod right now?

It’s always a bit of an eclectic range doing the rounds on my iPod but right now I like to listen to a lot of Mount Kimbie, M83, Miike Snow, Opiou, Oliver Tank, Sigur Ros, Trentemoller and Friendly Fires. All of it is so damn tasty!

How do you find new music?

I don’t have a guaranteed successful way of finding new music actually. Quite often I’ll hear about stuff from friends and that usually keeps me busy but I also keep my ears open on various radio stations and music blogs always have the latest stuff floating around.

Do you have any particular ritual before you go on stage, or even a lucky charm you take with you?

My pre-show ritual is usually to get really nervous and think of all the possible things that could go wrong. Haha. Yeah I’m pretty bad with pre-show jitters but I try to combat it with a few beers or wines.

If you could curate your own festival, where would it be, who would be on the bill, how many people would you let in and what features would it have?

Hot damn that’s a zany question. Well perhaps I’d call it ‘Hot Damn Festival’ and I’d do it somewhere a bit regional because I find that the best festivals are the ones that you make a big effort to get to because then you arrive and your mind is purely focused on the festival and only the festival. The bill would be full of electronic live music because that’s my style. A healthy mix of Australian and international artists would be the go. It might look like this:

Royksopp, Miike Snow, Delphic, The Presets, Seekae, James Blake, Bon Chat Bon Rat

I’d have only one stage so there weren’t any clashes and it’s awesome when you’re forced to listen to new music. Feautures wise it’d have all the bells and whistles; On-site camping, BYO drinks, body painting, international food stalls etc. Man I really want to go to this now! Dammit I wish it wasn’t fictional!

When you’re Rolling Stones Big, what are you going to request on your rider?

Obviously we’d request more than we could ever drink. I’d get a classy red that I wouldn’t normally be able to afford, and probably a Moet and Chandon to celebrate how sweet our rider is. Our bass player has an unhealthy obsession with jager so that’d be on there. And we couldn’t go past a few cases of premium imported beer…and maybe a goon sack just to remind us where we came from.

Because it’s more fun to do things together, which living Australian artist would you most like to collaborate with?

Actually I’ve really been enjoying the sounds of Strange Talk and I think a collaboration between the two of us could work quite well. They have a great sound and I’m a big fan of the modern music scene and where it’s headed, so that’s why I would opt for someone current over a music legend.

What is your band’s music the best soundtrack for?

Easy – Alien invasion chase scene that ends with the protagonist winning over the girl that he didn’t think liked him but actually has the whole time.

Where we can see you play next, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?

Pigeon are heading out on the road this weekend to promote our new single ‘Oh Hebe’ from our upcoming ep due at October 2012. We start in QLD and will work our way down the east coast

You can grab a free download of Oh Hebe for free at our triple j Unearthed page: triplejunearthed.com/pigeon

These are the tour dates for the Oh Hebe single tour:

Friday 10th August

Sol Bar – Maroochydore

with Fairchild Republic & The Ninja

Saturday 11th August

Alhambra Lounge – Brisbane

with Oceanics & Crazy Daylight (LIVE)

Thursday 16th August

Transit Bar – Canberra

with Readable Graffiti

FREE ENTRY

 Friday 17th August

Great Northern Hotel – Newcastle

with Tall Tee Nation & Goldsmith

Saturday 18th August

Goodgod Small Club – Sydney

with Tokyo Denmark Sweden & Master Of Ribongia

Thursday 23rd August

Workers Club – Melbourne

with Tin Lion & Lost Weekends

Saturday 25th August

Ed’s Castle – Adelaide

with Archers & The Viennas

Friday 31st August

Great Northern – Byron Bay

with Palindromes

Saturday 1st September

Red Deer Festival – Mount Samson

w/ Regurgitator, Clare Bowditch, Evil Eddie and many more…

For full your info: www.pigeonofficial.com

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