Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist?
A: We like to think of ourselves as party music, all of our focus is on writing songs that are danceable and fun to listen to.
PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc.
A: I’m Jake (frontman), I’ve been fortunate enough to be in and around music for my entire life, my father was the frontman/ writer for local band K-Passa. So growing up I spent a lot of my life following his band around. Before FUBAR I used to be a co-writer and lead guitarist for a band called The Jacques which I had some resemblance of success in. The other boys are well seasoned music veterans on the Bristol scene. I’d recommend checking out the work they did with their old project Ironvolt. Completely different to what we do now but a very fun listen!
PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?
A: Ever since I was around 10 years old I’ve been writing music, I think seeing my family doing something so amazing at such a young age definitely inspired me to have a hand at doing it myself. My grandmother was an incredible musician also and she helped push me in the direction that you see today.
I like to write about my own life, roughly a decade ago I was a homeless drug addict living on the fringes of society. I was involved with a lot of the protest scene and even ended up living on college green for around six months at the Occupy movement. After this I moved into squatting, you might remember around 2013 a big mansion in Clifton was in the news for being squatted, Well that was me and my friends. I’m not exactly proud of this period of my life but regardless it was a completely insane moment in my life that kept escalating and as you can probably imagine has given me a practically bottomless flask of content for me to draw from.
PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?
A: Honestly my aspirations are pretty simple. All I really want is to put on some great shows and play music with some great people. I think a lot of people these days view music as though it’s some kind of career opportunity, I think this is the wrong way to go about creating real art.
PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?
A: I’ve had a few moments which really stand out for me, however my personal favourite is when I played on the same bill and stage as La Femme, Courtney Barnett and Everything Everything.
PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms in the day of the home studio. How is that going?
A: Yeah it’s incredibly tough, as an uneducated musician I don’t exactly have training in this sort of stuff. We generally focus on promoting the old school way (putting up posters, selling tickets to locals) I’ve been told that social media is the way to go these days but we seem to be having luck with the grass roots way of just writing catchy songs and putting on solid shows!
PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?
A: The vast majority of the shows we put on we do ourselves. but if we’re playing out of town we’ll usually be working with a promoter. We’re in the studio this month so we haven’t got anything booked for March so that we can focus. However, our next three shows are: 15th of April @ The Exchange Bristol, 24th of April @ Tiny Rebel in Cardiff and our big EP launch party for our next 4 track release titled Unsigned & Crap on the 30th of April @ The Louisiana.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?
A: I personally think the game has changed and artists need to get their head around it. We’re actually toying with the idea of giving all of our music away for free online. The streaming services rip us off so badly that we might as well. Honestly at this point if somebody were to illegally download our tunes then I’d just be flattered. It actually takes a lot of effort to pirate music these days.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
A: Now this is a tough question. I’ve gotta go with This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads. There’s something eerie and poignant in the lyrics, it reminds me of being messed up on drugs whilst being wholly confused by love. It’s a vein that i can really relate to and honestly some of the hooks are just pure genius.
PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?
A: Get rid of the middle men and old tossers deciding what deserves attention. The idea that these out of touch top earners are able to discern what music is relatable is laughable to say the least. relatable to who exactly? Also make music affordable, these days you have to be rich to play music, this doesn’t bode well for the quality of future music.
PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?
A: Right now we are knee deep in our Upcoming EP, Expect thrashing guitar, smashing drums and funky smooth bass. This next release we’re leaning a lot more into our heavier side whereas the last two records I consider to be Indie pop.
PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online?
A: Follow us on our socials we’re on all the platforms (streaming or otherwise) you get to all of our links if you go to hyperfollow.com/fubarcollective
FUBAR links:
Band/Artist location –
Facebook – You Tube – Soundcloud –
nstagram – Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer – Hyperfollow –
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