The Interview: Pete Roe

Ever since their compilation was announced, Communion really has been responsible for most of my musical listening. One of my favourite artists is Pete Roe, whose EP “Merry-Go-Round” was released on 7 June. Originally from Bristol, Pete moved to London in 2008 and has built up a firm following, not to mention working with artists like Laura Marling. We sat down recently over a pint of Guinness for a chat.

Did you have a musical background? Were your parents musical?

My dad, I was going to say played but he’s started up again, plays Irish folk music. His band were quite big in the London Irish scene in the 70′s and he’s just put his band back together.

Are they doing like a little reunion tour?

Yeah, they did another record and kind of like a Buena Vista sort of thing. A load of old boys getting back together. They couldn’t find their fiddle player, no-one had a phone number for him and he didn’t use email, so they went over and thought “Right, where did we see him last?” and went to the West of Ireland, to Galway, and walked into the pub where he used to drink and he was sitting there at the end of the bar.

How long was it since they’d seen him?

20-30 years. So yeah, my dad played and there was always music in the house. My mum plays a bit of piano and guitar and my brothers and sister play. There’s always been music.

What kind of music?

My dad plays a lot on the piano at Christmas. Him and my sister will do like old music hall tunes, that he’s taught her from God knows where. There’s all sorts, really, but a fair bit of folk music. I don’t really know, now I come to think of it. It’s a right old mix. My little brothers played Beatles songs and stuff like that but, musical influences? There’s a bit of my Dad but mostly just finding out about stuff on my own really. So, yeah, I don’t know. I can’t really give you a good answer to that.

Why did you decide to make the move to London? Bristol’s got a pretty good music scene.

Bristol’s great. There was a thing in PRS, they did a survey and found it was the most musical city per capita, and it’s a great city for music. Half my band are Bristol based and there’s a lot going on, but it’s all quite small and hard to get things going there. There’s a lot of music, but not a lot of music business for want of a better word and nothing really ever seems to happen of any note there and I just wanted to, I’d played every venue in Bristol, and I wanted to find more, I guess, dedicated acoustic venues where you could put on a better gig.

And be part of a night rather than just an open mic?

Yeah, and you wouldn’t get lumped in with a band that were just totally different. Which is fine within reason. So that was part of it and I just found myself doing the same gigs again and again and nothing changed. I was very comfortable there, but it felt like time for a change.

Did you meet Laura Marling in London?

In Bristol actually. She was playing The Cube down there and a mate of mine who I used to work with in the pub was playing there and he said “come along” and I met Laura and thought she was amazing. Met some of the Mumford boys as well. Then a couple of months later, moved to London, and got a call from Laura’s managing saying “come and play in the band”.

Do you think you’ll carry on playing with Laura now your solo stuff is taking off?

I really hope I can, but I’ve got a feeling it’s going to get more and more tricky and it’s largely going to be down to her when I start ringing up and saying “I can’t make that gig. Can’t do that one”. So we’ll see. I want to make it work for as long as possible. The record we did “I Speak Because I Can” I’m really pleased and proud to have been a part of that. I think it’s a really great album.

How did you decide what was going to go on your EP? Because you’d released one before, hadn’t you?

Yeah, that was just a self done thing.

I actually bought it at the Little Howdy Do gig at the Garage.

Did you? That was a really nice gig. I turned up there and thought “what on earth’s going on here?” and they were like “well, there’s sort of a PA and we might be able to get you a monitor, but you’ll have to do your own sound” and there was a little desk and stuff.

You were doing Thomas Speight’s sound, if I remember.

I ended up doing everyone’s. It was a great night. I thought it was going to be dreadful, but everyone really listened. It was pretty much full.

Are you working on an album now or are you taking a bit of time off?

I don’t know what the plan’s gonna be. Obviously there’ll be an album eventually. I’ve pretty much got the songs for one, so it just depends on whether anyone wants to give me some money to do it really. I’m going to go and see Communion next week and see what they say. I really like working with them, so we’ll see what happens.

How did you get involved with Communion?

Mainly through Ben (Lovett).

I think everyone knows Ben!

Yeah, he was at one of the first gigs I had when I moved to London and he’s always been really supportive. Actually, it wasn’t him, it was Kev who approached me as I’d already recorded the EP with a view to finding a label to put it out and everything just seemed to steer itself towards going with Communion because I’d played their nights, got on well with them and there wasn’t any kind of suits involved. There were a lot of connections with Ben and Kev. Dave, my guitarist, went to college with him, so it just felt natural.

Who would you say is your most underrated artist currently?

A great band supported us in Bristol and Birmingham called Pepino. They’ve only just really started up, they’ve been going about six months, I think. Not sure if they’ve even got anything on their myspace. They are that new. It’s four girls; Blythe the singer, she plays piano, then two violins and a cello and it’s kind of, I don’t know how you’d describe it, some of it’s a little bit Kate Bush-y, more like acoustic and laid back. Some of it’s a bit Regina Spektor, some of it’s maybe a bit Joanne Newsome-esq with some Bjork-y howls in there. All the best bits of them. They’re amazing. You really should check them out. They’re my top tip.

Do you have an unlikely artist that you’d like to collaborate with?

I don’t really know. That’s a good question. Well, I was a piano player first, then really got into acoustic guitar…

Why did you switch?

It was a couple of things. Firstly, I found I couldn’t write any more on the piano and I really enjoyed writing on the guitar and secondly, it’s a lot easier to carry around. But I don’t get to play, I mean I play piano with Laura, but all my old stuff I play on piano is all New Orleans bluesy. I’d love Dr John. He was my piano hero when I was growing up and who I wanted to be. So, I guess if I was going to do a collaboration I’d love to be playing piano in, like, an old New Orleans jazz band.

In a smokey old jazz club.

Not like your classic jazz club, more like a 1910, Louis Armstrong place. That’d be great. Perhaps playing with preservation jazz bands, before jazz got too weird. When it still had a tune.

What would you say is your favourite venue you’ve played so far?

Well this place (the Royal Festival Hall) was pretty good. I don’t know if you managed to make it. That was pretty special in terms of grandeur. But favourite venue other than that……I can tell you the most interesting venue. There’s this great little pub in Dorset, right on the Isle of Purbeck in a village called Worth Matravers and on the sign someone has stencilled “Twinned with Royston Vasey. There’s this little pub down there that a drummer friend of mine from Bristol used to work in. He puts on quite a lot of music down there, mostly in the Summer. I’ve been down there a few times and it’s a tiny little room, you can probably fit maybe 30, 40 people in. The pub’s been in the family for three generations and each son has got slightly more eccentric than their father and at the moment, the landlord has turned a third of it into a fossil museum and it’s just things he’s found on the beach whilst beachcombing and fossils. Its on the Jurassic coast and there are these amazing things, but the gigs in there are great. It’s so cosy and a lovely atmosphere. They have stone-carving festivals and a pumpkin competition and a hay bale throwing competition. It’s all that kind of proper country stuff that they have going on.

Cheese rolling?

There’s no cheese rolling there, but that is good. They cancelled it this year. I’m half wondering if it’s because of that Maccabees video. I don’t know if you ever saw that. I wonder if I’ve got a small part to play in it being cancelled because I was teching for the Maccabees and was telling them about this cheese rolling. The next thing I know they made a video about it and they cancelled it because they were expecting too many people. It’s amazing. It’s so weird.

Do you have a favourite cheese? Lizzie always wants to know peoples favourite cheese and I don’t know why she keeps asking me to find out.

Yes, but I can’t remember the name of it. It’s on a receipt. I do have it somewhere. It’s the most amazing blue cheese. I’ve only seen it in this cheese shop in Edinburgh, on Victoria Street. It is a good cheese. It’s a Spanish blue cheese made with ewes and cows milk and I can’t remember what it’s called. Begins with V (Google leads me to believe it’s Valdeon).

How do you spend your days off?

I don’t have any. I haven’t had a day off since March. I’ve been touring and rehearsing.

Finally, Sheena wants to know this. You’ve become quite well known for your flat caps and she wants to know how many you have.

At the moment, none. I’ve got this one. I don’t like have a rack of them. This last tour I lost so many clothes. I lost one flat cap and then I was down to one and I was in the van, leaning round to talk to the guys in the back and it blew out the window onto the motorway.

Did you not make them stop?

We couldn’t stop. We were too late for a gig.