THE PIER: PART 1

God, it seems such a long time ago since I had the brilliant idea of interviewing The Pier at The Little A in Whitby and recording the outcome. We went into the beer garden feeling it might offer a quiet place to converse. Unfortunately a bunch of happy, drunk and loud visitors had also chosen the area as the ideal place to perform some shouting.

The Pier are...
Nick Hann: Lead vocals, keyboard, guitar, sax and stuff like that.
Jack Waller: Bass guitar
Max Crossling: Drums and backing vocals
Mat Glaysher: Guitar

Grace was there too, offering moral guidance and psychological support.

So it's taken ages to transcribe the interview, largely because everybody in the band was talking at the same time whilst conversations about who shagged who went on at the next table, the volume set on 11. It might have been Brian Blessed's family, thinking about it.

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IT WAS A CADILLAC

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The origin of a band is always interesting, so I asked The Pier to cast their minds back into the mists of time. 

Fylingfest 2013

Max: When the band started out it was me, Nick and Mat.

Nick: Without drums. No drums.

Max: You know Fylingfest? We were playing at that. We were down as The Mat Glaysher band.

Mat: Just Mat Glaysher actually. No band. Then we met Jack, who'd just come to listen.

Jack: I ended up playing drums for them.

Max: We went back to Mat's house just down the road. Then about Xmas time we realised Jack is actually a bassist.

Nick: You were seriously distraught though Max. We were saying 'Why don't you play the drums. 

Max?' and you said 'no, I want to be a frontman.'

Jack: I'd played bass in other bands. It seemed logical, as I was a bassist.

Max: I guess that's why I joined Nocturnal Dictionary. I had to be a frontman of something.

PW: You're not the singer, but you've got the biggest instrument.

Max: Nick, your personality comes out in our music.

Nick: My music, because I write and record it, yeah.

Max: Our personalities come out onstage. I like to play drums like Keith Moon.

PW: Do you live your life like Keith Moon?

Max: Yup. A lot of cocaine and a lot of hookers.

Mat: ...and a lot of Rolls Royces in swimming pools.

Nick: It was a Cadillac.

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THE CHAMOMILE CONNECTION

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Posters for gigs featuring several bands collected under the banner of Chamomile Records have appeared in Whitby recently. As well as The Pier, outfits such as Warhol Superstars, Nocturnal Dictionary, Buddha Machine and Tom Found seem to be included in this set-up.

So what is Chamomile Records exactly?

 Max: Chamomile is Nocturnal Dictionary's independent label. George, the lead singer, thought it would be good idea so he could do gigs and have a label. Makes them look more professional I guess.

The Pier's backdrop painter at work

PW: Has he put stuff out on it?

Max: They've got a cassette out on Chamomile.

PW: You play sax in Nocturnal Dictionary, but you play drums in The Pier don't you Max?I went to see Nocturnal Dictionary at The Starms when they played with Moonwreck.

Max: Did you like it? Was it a good gig?

PW: Very much so. There's a link between the two bands isn't there? A similarity in approach?

Max: Yeah. Was it Whitbydelica you called it?

PW: Well you're not just hammering out rock, are you? It's a little bit different.

Max: Whitbydelica. I like that.

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THIS ONE'S CALLED TENT

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Nick gave me a CD wrapped in sheet music to listen to. On The Pier 2 (which is actually more of a demo than an album) he plays all the instruments, however live and on the radio the band interpret the songs. Their collective sound is refreshingly human. A very interesting combination of nervous energy and restraint.

Nich Hann walking purposefully

Nick: I write and record all the songs.

Max: We just help play gigs.

Mat: Jack wrote one once.

Nick: Ages ago. Good times.

Jack: I write bits and let you finish them.

Nick: Well done.

Max: I wrote drum parts for the first album. On the new songs it's all Logic.

Nick: I just replace Max with a drum machine.

Max: I do play half the drums, because it's a little bit more complicated than what I can play.

Nick: Yeah.

Max: I'm mainly a sax player, but I turn my hand to drums.

Mat: You're alright. You've got better. It started out with you on bass didn't it?

Jack: Its better than when I was playing drums.

Band: Laughs!

PW: Why don't the song titles on the CD mean anything?

Nick: I didn't realise they showed up on the display, so they're just random titles I used when I was making them.

PW: Don't your songs have fixed titles then?

Nick: They do, probably. We just think of them before we play them though. We're on the radio and they say 'What's the song called?' and we go 'Oh, I dunno'.

Jack: (Referring to an impromptu title they gave to one of the songs they played on Bob Fischer's radio show recently) This one's called Tent.

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Part two of this interview will be published later this week, let's say, ooh, Wednesday night? It will include The Pier's radio adventures, a brush with bondage and sax wars.

Remember, piers can be dangerous places, so don't lean too far over the metal rail.

Click the links...

The Pier on Soundcloud

The pier on Facebook