PETER & KERRY – Interview

Peter & Kerry waren als Support die Überraschung des Abends, als sich eines Tages ein paar Bedroomdisco-Autoren auf einem Lucy Rose Konzert vergnügt haben. Kurzerhand wurden die Briten für das Golden Leaves Festival 2013 gebucht und durften in Darmstadt einfliegen. Beide sind nicht nur begnadete Musiker, sondern auch liebenswerte Menschen. Es stimmt einfach die Chemie zwischen Peter und Kerry. Und dieses gute Gefühl teilen sie auch gerne mit den Zuhörern, sei es live oder zu Hause, wenn man sich ihre Musik zu Gemüte führt.


Peter & Kerry © Amanda Searle

–  At which point did you start making music?
P: I started learning piano and guitar about 10 years old, and started writing and recording really bad songs on a cassette recorder about 13.
K: I got a guitar as a Christmas present when I was 8 but showed little interest in it until I was about 15, I really wanted to learn a song i had heard so I dug it out of the cupboard and started to learn.

–  What musical influences do you have?
Beach House, Deacon Blue, Prefab Sprout, Fleetwood Mac

–  At which point did you decide to form a band?
We randomly decided to record some songs together in August 2010 and it grew from there.

–  How would you describe your music?
Melodic pop

–  How do you normally work on songs? Would you please describe the steps of the progress and the usual problems?
That changes from song to song! Some songs come easily with no effort, and some require a bit more work. One song, Cirque, grew out of a keyboard riff we were playing in rehearsal, and gradually turned it into a full song.

–  In what situations do you write songs and which themes inspire you?
Any situation really! Just general everyday observations inspire us.

–  To Peter: Where did you learn some German?
P: My family are German! I go to Shleswig-Holstein a few times a year to see them, and I really want to live in Berlin one day.

–  Do you have favorite topics to sing about?
With our album La Trimouille we decided not to write any personal songs, and write more in a third person way, and to write little stories.

–  You both had solo projects before you started making music together. Are you both still making music on your own or is your main focus on „Peter & Kerry“?
For the last couple of years the focus was on Peter & Kerry, but we’re coming to the end of our La Trimouille album campaign so we’re focusing on new solo material aswell.

–  Were there any qualms about whose name came first?
We both insisted that the others’ name came first, but we thought Peter and Kerry flowed a little better!

–  Are you open for musical experiments or wanna try anything in particular like playing with an orchestra?
Yeah we’re always open to trying out new musical things. We did a gig with some string players in a church and it was an incredible experience!

–  How can we imagine your work progress on the last album while you were in France or why did you work on it in France?
We just wanted to get out of familiar surroundings and normal routines, so we went to a really remote cottage in France, where we spent a week riding bikes, drinking wine and writing songs.