Mark: Thank you for taking the time to talk to the Rockpit Pete, how’s things?
Pete: Not so bad, yourself?
Mark: Let’s start with Soundwave! You’ve dipped off the radar for the last few tears so how did the call up happen?
Pete: Well we’ve sort of been on hiatus the last five years so it all happened by running into AJ backstage at a show in Sydney and at the end of the conversation we were doing Soundwave!
Mark: So do you think that playing the Festival will inspire you to do anything more or will Soundwave be strictly a one off for you?
Pete: Well at the moment it’s all we’re doing and all we’re committed to and the new players in the band, that’s all I’ve asked them to commit to; but me and XXXX 2:05 (Sax player and co-founding member)are keen to look at seeing where this takes us and so we’ll give this a bash and see what happens.
Mark: That sounds great and you have a warm-up gig in your hometown of Newcastle on February 8th that everyone should come down to?
Pete: Yeah we needed a live run-through to get rid of the cobwebs and initiate the new members to the shit that’s going! And we’re looking forward to it. The venue is a place where many Porkers things have gone down so it seemed a very fitting place to hold it.
Mark: For a band that has throughout its career had pretty good press and always delivered the goods and had great support from the fans, why did you take that break? Was it to take a break to try something new? A change in circumstances for band members?
Pete: Erm, you could say that, yes a change in circumstances for band members, where a couple of them just became c**ts!
Mark: Sounds par for the course for the industry! We’ll leave it at that. Have you been making any music in the interim?
Pete: No really a helluva lot, though I’ve been making a lot in my heard. I have done a bit of stuff though, there’s a young SKA band from Canberra called Los Capitanes, who I’ve sort of taken under my wing, produced and released a couple of their albums. We did a couple of shows where they set up with me and we called it ‘I can’t believe it’s not Porkers’! But that’s kind of what I’ve been up to and also I’ve been talking about starting an entirely different kind of band playing rock and Blues and Gospel music! But that hasn’t come about as yet.
Mark: SKA to me has always seemed such an energetic genre bursting with fun and life and you’re know for your great live shows are we going to get a high energy workout?
Pete: Absolutely! I suppose we’re known for a fun live show and coming back I knew it had to be as good as it used to be if not better, so we’ve been training to get ‘match fit’ and we’re almost there!
Mark: Does the thrill of playing live change over the years?
Pete: I’m still getting really excited about it, the thrill of being onstage and playing a great gig is one of the best experiences I’ve had in life and I suppose like a drug is something you want to go back to and have one more go! Just one more! So yeah, getting really excited but sometimes I’m a little bit weary about all of the other shit that goes into getting it together, but it’s all worth it in the end for that time on stage.
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