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"[Baby 81] is heavy in the head but we've always had moody characters, for lack of a better word. From the first album, we also always wanted to be about hope. This is a way of getting the thoughts out and connecting with people. At the same time, you hope the music creates some sort of light in the tunnel. Hopefully that gets across.
-Peter Hayes |
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Roots And Causes
Peter Hayes - BRMC |
I was utterly convinced BRMC were an English band when I heard their 2000 debut, B.R.M.C. To find out they're from San Francisco was just plain odd. "The only American bands we liked at the time were Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails," chuckles Hayes. "Other than that it was Joy Division, Ride, The Verve, so I guess you are what you eat [laughs]."
Hayes is prone to slip into soapbox mode if given half a chance. One senses there's a manifesto tucked away in his closet, and he's plenty passionate, if not always easy to follow.
"I don't necessarily believe there's any such thing as governments. I think it's money, capitalism. I'm of the belief that if you control the art you control the people," says Hayes. "Record companies are businesses promoting bands and music, and they try to make a little money off it, too. But, to me, it's a culture thing. If the culture becomes so obsessed with money and fame AND art is only there for money and fame, then that's culture's problem not a record company's problem. It's an artist problem if they get into it for money and fame, and do everything they can to get in everybody's face to preach about money and fame. That sells more records these days but that's not the record company's problem. That's what the majority of people give a shit about [these days]. That's where the problem lies. The big business of government is what drives that thought."
Bad Reputation
Peter Hayes - BRMC |
Hayes' phone voice has a Brooklyn-esque bark, low and a little dinged up. You can almost smell the whiskey and cigarettes that've produced this timbre. It fits their rough name though Hayes cautions folks against pigeonholing them.
"Sometimes our reputation of being dark, moody and angry precedes us but if you listen a little further past that there's a little more to it [laughs]. We go back to pirates, who were the first biker gangs. That's the fun of it. You go into town and you destroy what you can, in a mental way. You go into the record company business and you try to pillage from it what you can."
However, their name is a bit of a mouthful. "That's been - and still is - a debate sometimes," Hayes comments. "Is it easily forgettable? Yes, but maybe that's a good thing. Makes you go search for it if you really care. If it really hits you then you'll wonder how the fuck to find us. It makes it a hunting game."
Unexpected Sunlight
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club |
"From day one, we debated being on an indie label because that's the cool thing to do and you're not feeding into the business of it so much," Hayes says. "We've seen friends do that, and then their indie label gets bought up by a major label. In the end, it doesn't matter to us. What mattered was working and doing it."
That work has taken them into the stuff of amphitheatres and multistoried coliseums. Baby 81 is agit-pop that might find a place on MTV. There's a sturm and drang to their new tracks that may find favor with the black eyeliner MySpace boys and doomy blog chicks. But that sense of dread is only the surface according to Hayes.
"[Baby 81] is heavy in the head but we've always had moody characters, for lack of a better word. From the first album, we also always wanted to be about hope. This is a way of getting the thoughts out and connecting with people. At the same time, you hope the music creates some sort of light in the tunnel. Hopefully that gets across."
JamBase | San Francisco
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