The Pains of Being Pure at Heart vocalist tells Lucy Sanderson how being different isn't so bad.
'Modesty does not sell papers.' This is the epiphany that The Pains of Being Pure At Heart vocalist Kip Berman has come to realise. The band's natural reluctance to succumb to the rock n' roll clichés of flicking the v's, constantly stinking like a brewery and flattening old ladies' flower beds may have meant you'll never catch them pouting on the covers of the trendiest hipster 'zines- but he wholeheartedly couldn't give a flying naughty-word.
Just like that mysterious wallflower all the guys ask to dance at the hop, this sweet and unassuming nature makes this band infinitely interesting. Having fallen in love with the melodious indie pop of latest release 'Belong', I definitely wanted to find out more about these curious characters.
Having only just met you, you already seem like a rather upbeat chap and the music you make as a band is bursting with beautiful things and happiness...
I certainly hope so I wouldn't want to put anything awful into the world! A lot of people do mass misery- it's not what the world needs... more bands who hate being in band.
Are you ever in a bad mood?
Given a choice of how to be perceived, we want to put forward a more positive message. But sure, there's the realities of it being 5.30 and you haven't had a sandwich in while and everyone's being grumpy- we're not inhuman and waiting for the spaceship to come and take us away. Its not an artificial thing- we do just genuinely enjoy the chance to play music.
There is this whole 'modest' vibe going on- is it true that when you first started out you just didn't think the band would actually get anywhere?
It's surprising because the general outlook of bands in England I've noticed is that bands are eager to tell you how good they are. Maybe Nirvana set the tone for our generation- in independent music in America there's egos and ambition but its never on the surface in the way bands here might be on the front of NME saying 'We've made a fucking classic record'. I hope our music reaches people more then our personality. I just want the songs to exist in the world and people to discover them.
I don't think that attitude would suit the music either- it doesn't correlate.
It doesn't. There's a part of me that really likes outrageous rock n roll- I love T-Rex and Bowie. I appreciate the ridiculous level of personality in music, but as a human being I have none of it. I'm like the least charismatic person in the world and there is no way I could pull off 'yeah, we're fucking great!' It would be the most transparently unnatural posture.
The world would be a very boring place if every band was like ours. 'Oh, just another unassuming bunch of college-educated, middle-class kids with guitars singing about their sad hearts.'
How do you feel the band has developed since the self-titled album?
I think the experience of touring a lot forced us to improve musically from where we started. I don't think we were really ready for the reception that the first album did have. I think we realised pretty quickly that we'd written these songs without the expectation to perform them in front of people.
It would be like 'well that sounded good at band practice the other day' but it doesn't mean anything to strangers- so you need to push beyond yourself in development and just get better.
The music you produce seems to be subjected to a constant 'comparathon'- how do you feel being seemingly forever under scrutiny for the direct impact your influences have on your music?
There's a precedent for nearly everything- The Ramones were one of the most shockingly innovative bands ever but they were influenced by extremely traditional notions of rock n roll. Their presentation, their identity- it was new and fresh but it had it's own story. I think its all the more richer to understand that even things that seem new, they are rooted in the past. It's great- that's true progress and innovation, not this 'I was the first person to hit two rocks together in a cave' mentality.
Having been a ginger kid I totally got the 'being different' thing in 'Belong'. The band's ethos seems to centre around the knowledge of being outsiders. You might not be the same as everybody else- but would you want it any other way?
I always thought red hair was a cool thing to have! (Laughs) I like my life the way it is! I have a weird name- Kip. I feel like I was doomed from the start.
Do you know what it means over here?
Yes, like a nap? Then I heard some weird things like it means dweller from the pointed hill... or kippered herrings are a pickling kind of thing? I've researched it. But the fact that I'm here playing music which is the thing that I love to do most, it makes me think that everything that led up to this point must have been right and I cant really question it or ask for it to be any other way- so no, I wouldn't change a thing.
'Belong' is out now.
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