INTERVIEW WITH JACKOPIERCE FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES
DM) What is the songwriting process you two go through?
CP) Well, we both read a lot, and I think that influences our writing the most. I know Jack often writes late at night. He'll take the wheel while driving and will drive at night until sunrise. A lot of my stuff comes from reading a lot, taking notes, and keeping a journal. We do a lot of messing around during sound check. We very rarely sit down and rehearse, so most of our stuff just comes up naturally.
DM) Is that where the song "Iron John" came from?
CP) No, that's a kind of autobiographical thing for Jack. He was born in Pittsburgh and lots of his family lives there, so there's a lot of that influence over there.
DM) On the whole CD, what track would you consider your favorite?
CP) I really enjoy "Get to Know Me Better", which is the most for fun me.
DM) Who would you consider your major influences?
CP) I come from a lot of early Police, Phish, Cure, and various alternative stuff in the early '80's. Jack comes from the Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell kind of school.
DM) The whole album is all acoustic, and the big question is, "Why acoustic? "
CP) We were theater majors together in school . We found out, you know, "You play guitar... cool." I had a little studio set up in my room. We'd seen some other guys around town playing acoustic, and we thought, "Wow, that was just dreamy." You know, go out, play, have fun, drink beer, and that just seemed like a great fun thing to do. Being theater majors, we love to perform. I played in bands throughout high school. I never really liked being in bands, but... bands are really kind of a pain in the ass for me, I guess. None of us seemed to click.
DM) Is there any band you see yourself trying to emulate?
CP) No, not at all. We've never been formulaic about anything. We've always decided that this is how we're going to do it. Maybe from some other band on the road, we see how they set up things, how they will play acoustically and stylistically; but we never say, "We want be like this." Never.
DM) Are there any particular musicians that you looked up to as a kid and always wanted to be like?
CP) I always looked up to Brian Ferry and Sting. They were a big deal to me.
DM) What would you say are the major differences between you and Jack?
CP) We're opposites, way opposite. He's dark, I'm light. I have blonde hair, he has black hair.
DM) ... besides physical aspects.
CP) We're really complete opposites. I'm very animated and talkative; he's very quiet and shy. It's probably weird, because we're best friends and we're so different. The kinds of people we hang out with are different, too, like when you see people in the audience gravitate towards his side of the stage and my side of the stage.