Pigeon Detective Interview with Matt Bowman
Friday, September 12, 2008, at 8:17 p.m. CST
The Pigeon Detectives, who have one of the most unique band names, originate from Leeds in U.K. just like the Kaiser Chiefs. Matt Bowman and I discussed their live performance in Chicago, speaker stacks, Kaiser Chiefs, their platinum album Wait for Me, This is an Emergency EP,Emergency, iTunes, their music videos, U.S. Record Label and how the band derived their name.
AARON KEKER: Hey everyone! This is Aaron Keker from Always Acoustic™ on the line with Matt Bowman from The Pigeon Detectives. How you doing dude?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah! Good! Good! Thank you!
AARON KEKER: For those individuals who may see The Pigeon Detectives live, for the first time, what can they expect?
MATT BOWMAN: We pride ourselves on our live show… We like nothing more than spreads crowds. I think you can see the kind of enthusiasm and chemistry between the band and every time we get on the stage.
AARON KEKER: Right. I read somewhere that you actually climb on speaker stacks?
MATT BOWMAN: Well I’ve been known to, you know. It’s not definitely something I plan on doing every gig but you know if the mood takes me then I like to climb on the speaker stack.
AARON KEKER: Right. Sounds like fun. What was Chicago audience’s reaction at Abbey Pub when The Pigeon Detectives performed this past Tuesday?
MATT BOWMAN: We always try and hang out with people after the show, you know. It’s the best way of finding the pies in town. So we had the good shots pretty much ––everyone that was at the gig. Last week in Chicago had gone down really well and they all enjoyed it. I think a lot of them came in having heard maybe but a couple of songs and didn’t really know what the bands were about. I think it surprised a lot of people so we met a few fans.
AARON KEKER: Right. Well congratulations! Has The Pigeon Detectives performed in Chicago before?
MATT BOWMAN: No that was our first time in Chicago.
AARON KEKER: Kaiser Chiefs are from Leeds like you guys. Are The Pigeon Detectives ––
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah.
AARON KEKER: Are The Pigeon Detectives friends with Ricky and the rest of K.C.?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah. Yeah. We got quite a lot of backing from them. So they were kind of a moving southern band and we didn’t even have a record label. They kind of had our backing in, you know, a lot of interviews that they were plugging The Pigeon Detectives. They took us on tour with them. So yeah, they’re good guys and kind of there at the beginning of The Pigeon Detectives and they helped us out a lot.
AARON KEKER: Right. When the band was first playing gigs, did you guys ever play alongside Kaiser Chiefs?
MATT BOWMAN: Did we ever what? Sorry.
AARON KEKER: When the band was first playing gigs, did you guys ever play alongside Kaiser Chiefs?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah. We toured with the Kaiser Chiefs before and we’ve been opening up for them quite a number of times. We played also Europe and in a few arena tours in the U.K. with them.
AARON KEKER: But like when you guys were first playing like at clubs, were they playing around the same time as you guys were?
MATT BOWMAN: No. They started a little bit before us. So by the time we kind of got our first couple of gigs and were playing the small clubs, they were already up to playing huge sell out shows. There was never really any competition between the two bands because they always have been kind of considerably ahead of us.
AARON KEKER: Right. Well do you handle a majority of the songwriting for The Pigeon Detectives?
MATT BOWMAN: No. No. Oliver our guitarist is kind of the main songwriter. He comes into the saloons with kind of the rifts and called progressions. And then between me and Oliver the lyrics are between us, he’ll puts them in and I’ll kind of finish them off and write a verse. It’s very much kind of a band thing writing the songs but Oliver sad to say is the main songwriter.
AARON KEKER: Right. What bands or musicians inspire The Pigeon Detectives?
MATT BOWMAN: One we can all agree on probably is The Beatles. All huge Beatles fans. After that it can be anything ranging from Oasis to The Strokes, Long Day, David Bowie, The Smiths. We got a huge kind of local influences, you know, depending on what day it is and which band member you ask you’ll get a different answer…
AARON KEKER: Right. Okay. The Pigeon Detectives covered Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and Huey Lewis’s “Power of Love.” What other songs would the band be interested in covering?
MATT BOWMAN: I think anything that, you know, we can get our teeth into. We sang the Avril Lavigne one because she had kind of backing vocals that weren’t too dissimilar for the way that we arrange our backing vocals. So we thought we could do a good job of it. The Huey Louie one, we’re huge Back to the Future fans so, you know, it made sense to do that. So just anything that seems inspiring really. I wouldn’t mind having a go at a hip-hop song.
AARON KEKER: [Laughs] Yeah?
MATT BOWMAN: It would be… by Kanye. Something like that.
AARON KEKER: Right. All right. It sounds cool. How excited was the band when they first learned Wait for Me achieved platinum status in the U.K.?
MATT BOWMAN: Everything happens in kind of small steps. So, you know, one minute you’re just excited to have a record deal and the next minute your album’s gone platinum. You can’t really choose to flow in the middle part. So we were, you know, all for the moon block, I couldn’t tell you where I was and who brought the news to me or anything like that. It just seems like it’s been a little bit of a blur the last twelve months.
AARON KEKER: Right.
MATT BOWMAN: I’m sure I’ll sit back and enjoy it ––
AARON KEKER: Right.
MATT BOWMAN: more further down the line when I can kind of reminiscence some things but at the minute it’s just a bit of a whirlwind.
AARON KEKER: Right. Well has Emergency reached platinum status in the U.K.?
MATT BOWMAN: Emergency has only been out three months. So, I know it’s well into being gold.
AARON KEKER: Right.
MATT BOWMAN: So hopefully by Christmas it should’ve gone platinum.
AARON KEKER: Okay. Hopefully, it will be platinum by Christmas then. The Pigeon Detectives have released two albums in the U.K. Wait for Me and Emergency. Will they be released in the U.S. anytime soon?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah. Well we got plans to sign a record deal. We’re just waiting for the right one. We’ve always been quite weary of staying away from, you know, huge major labels. We like the kind of smaller label approach. So we’re just looking for the right deal. We’ve had several offers but we want to crack the U.S., you know, the way we did it back home in England, which is pretty much on our own terms and doing things the way we thing they should be done.
AARON KEKER: Right.
MATT BOWMAN: We got our new EP available for U.S. downloads on our web site. It’s quite what we would consider to be, you know, some of our favorite songs from the past. I think it’s five songs for 3 dollars on our web site.
AARON KEKER: All right. Okay. Well does the band plan on releasing any of their popular videos like “Take Her Back” “I Found Out,” “I’m not Sorry,” “Romantic Type” and “This is an Emergency” on iTunes U.S.?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah. Hopefully, we’ll put the videos up there. Some of the earlier videos well we butchered them when we filmed them. So –– [Laughs]
AARON KEKER: [Laughs]
MATT BOWMAN: they’re not exactly works of art. But the last video “This is an Emergency” was a performance video by the director who did an Artic Monkeys one. I think he really captured the essence of the band. So we’ll definitely put in “This is an Emergency” up there.
AARON KEKER: Okay. Well I believe the band would receive even more exposure in the U.S. if The Pigeon Detectives released This is an Emergency on iTunes U.S. Is the band ––
MATT BOWMAN: All right.
AARON KEKER: Is the band considering or will eventually release the EP on iTunes?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah, definitely. We just have to wrap up a U.S. record deal first and then hopefully both albums will be available on U.S. iTunes and then also CD in the shops. Hopefully that should be sorted within the next couple of weeks and then we can crack on and you know make the music available for people, which is our main name at the minute really.
AARON KEKER: Right. Well, I mean right now… fans can download “This is an Emergency” from your web site at thepigeondetectives.com, correct?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah, that is correct.
AARON KEKER: Is it available on MySpace, too, to purchase or anywhere else?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah, there is a link on our MySpace page to purchase it as well. Obviously, there’s, you know, tunes on there for streaming and things. So, I think the web site under MySpace is a good idea. A good taste for The Pigeon Detectives while they’re waiting for the albums to be released globally.
AARON KEKER: Right. Are you very personal or at least the band with, you know, your fans on MySpace?
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah. Oliver kind of endeavors to try to pretty much sends us a message. Sometimes it’s a bigger challenge then you would like because we get so many MySpaces… That’s how the band kind of got our reputation in the U.K., you know, we try to respond to everybody. We used to hang out with fans after shows and we became known as kind of one of the bands that, you know, respected the fans.
AARON KEKER: Right. Well I think it makes it more personal too, you know, with the fans too…
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah definitely.
AARON KEKER: if you take pictures with them or, you know, just sit there and chat with them for a few minutes, I think they appreciate that.
MATT BOWMAN: Yeah definitely.
AARON KEKER: All right. Well final question. The Pigeon Detectives are a very unique band name. How did the band decide the name?
MATT BOWMAN: To be honest it started one with boring a story. We’ve stopped telling it. [Laughs]
AARON KEKER: [Laughs]
MATT BOWMAN: The truth’s become so distorted over the last two years because we pretty much get asked at the end of interviews. So we just started making lies up. There’s about ten or fifteen different anecdotes floating around, different interviews depending on what magazine or web site you read. [Laughs]
AARON KEKER: Right. Well all right. Well thanks for your time and hopefully, you know, we’ll see this album out here in the U.S. shortly.
MATT BOWMAN: Cool! Thanks Aaron! Thanks a lot for the interview! Take care!
AARON KEKER: Yeah, you too Matt! Thanks a lot man! Bye!
MATT BOWMAN: All right man! Bye! Bye!
AARON KEKER: All right! Bye!
