BSM: Could you tell me a little about how you all got into the scene, and how the band initially came together?
KP: Well, I had been a fan of this music for a long time. You know, I came from a punk rock band, and I was in Miss Zanadoo with Dana from the Racketeers. Dana and I were always into Chuck Berry, stuff like that, and early rock ‘n’ roll stuff, and we started digging a little bit to find what was out there like Big Sandy and stuff, David Deke, and and started really getting into it. Then I met Amy, Keith, and Jim, our old bass player, in New Hampshire, and we started playing together. And then Jim, he really wasn’t into it seriously, so we got Mr. Matt Murphy, he was a jazz cat from Boston, and we turned him into a hillbilly.
AG: We got him from a flyer. One of those flyers that say “We need a bass player.”
KP: He’s a hillbilly from Maine, so...That’s kind of how it all came together, anyhow.
BSM: And this was around 1998?
KP: I think it was around ‘97, ‘98...Actually, it might’ve been earlier than that. This is the fifth year, I think. We’re so old now, we’re the Aging Teens. The R is gone.
MM: [To Amy] You were still a teen, though.
KP: You and Keith were...You were 19 and Keith was 18.
AG: Yeah, so it was ‘97.
KP: Yeah, December of ‘97 was the first gig. Way back when.
BSM: Do you worry at all that you’ll be pigeonholed as to how much success you’ll have, due to your being a roots band?
KP: I don’t worry at all, because I already know that’ll happen. So, I’m done worryin’ about it. It’s true, though.
AG: It’s not a worry, but I think, if we were to play really different, innovative--just pop music, it would probably be harder to get a following, like it’s really lucky that we get to go around the country and play to all these audiences, because it’s such a rich market, really. At the same time, it’s totally limiting, too--
KP:You know, we tried to try the whole crossover thing, and we played shows with the Bostones, and we played with Cake, and we went on tour with Mary Lou, and...
AG: It always went over pretty well...
KP: It always went well, but then those people don’t like, get as passionate about it as the rockabilly kids, so those aren’t people that come out faithfully to see you, you know? So it, it’s very limiting, but you have an audience that really appreciates you. There’s the two sides to it, I suppose. We’re never gonna make a dime doing it, but there’ll always be 20 drunk people there to see us.
AG: And they seem very loyal.
BSM: So is there no realistic way to win new converts on a large scale?
KP: I think maybe. It’s a weird thing, y’know. It seems to always sort of get passed over, you know. It just hasn’t really become a fad, what we need is for it to become a fad. Then we can make some money, but it hasn’t seemed to have happened.
AG: But there seems to be new people getting into it. I think new, younger kids are getting into it.
KP: There’s younger kids getting into it, which is fun. I’ve noticed the crowds in Boston growing, lately, and in other cities. AG: It’s just not something they’re going to start playing on the radio. It’s like something that’s got to be spoon-fed as the new thing, or the normal thing. It’s just never going to be like that.
KP: You say that now, but tomorrow we’ll get a GAP commercial...

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