INTERVIEW: PJ Bond

PJ Bond is getting ready for a tour in support of his latest album, You Didn’t Know I was Alphabetical, and was willing to sit down and chat with us. We talk about his love of traveling, his book he’s been working on, growing up in Jersey and the car troubles that delayed the start of the interview.

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Buzzlegoose: Everything OK with the car now? (PJ had to call back because he was getting the tires checked out on his car.)

PJ: (laughs) Yeah. I’ve been living down in North Carolina. Different world down here. The guy was really nice about it.

So, the new album, what are the themes for it? What ideas went into it?

The album was sort of my first proper solo album, My first record was kinda just a bunch of songs that were sitting around for a few years. I decided to sing about stuff I’ve been neglecting. There’s a lot of stuff about doubting self-worth and hope. A lot is about me, but also they’re about friends of mine and people I’ve met over the years playing shows. I took more of a first person perspective with all that. It’s about trying to make sense of all the things we go through in this world and finding a positive way to deal with them.

What was the inspiration for the album’s artwork?

The buddy of mine, I’ve really enjoyed his artwork for so long. We were out one night and discussing the album’s themes. I decided I wanted to do this really ornate picture frame with this really organic place, I thought the woods. Another girl who lived down in Tom’s River, she knew some beautiful woods. So we went down there. I actually couldn’t find a giant, ornate picture frame I wanted. So I thought the opposite, “Why don’t we make one of branches.” It’s the idea of being inside and outside, that duality of two different types of beauty. I’m happy with it.

So you started with more of an indie rock sound and then went more toward folk, what influenced that change?

Easiest way of looking at it is instrumentation. When I was in bands, I was thinking of electric guitars and pedals and things the drummers were doing. I heard sounds in my head that were more complex. Then I had an acoustic guitar in my hands and thought more about songwriting. At first, it was a break from the indie rock I was doing. I was exploring other stuff I like. I love loud punk and indie but I also love quiet music. It doesn’t hurt that my younger brother is an amazing songwriter and was writing this amazing music. You start to write songs together and play together. It was a pretty natural progression.

What’s it like being a touring solo artist, as opposed to being in Outsmarting Simon or working with The Color Fred and Marigold?

Definitely completely different. There are the band hijinks. You guys do silly things for sandwiches. I don’t have that camaraderie. At the same time, when I meet people at a show, it’s not three or four or five people meeting these people. Now it’s just me. There are now people I consider legitimate friends. Travelling alone, there are days I’d drive for hours in the snow. You can be crazy or you can find a calm.

So you’ve been on a brief break?

The past few months I’ve been living in Asheville, NC with my brother and my sister-in-law. I wanted to do some writing.  On the road it’s kinda tough, so it was nice to sit down and write.

What made you want to go on the road basically all the time?

For the last four years, I haven’t really had a permanent residence. I’ve slept on random floors. Stay with friends, see family. I went to India and traveled Europe. I love touring and I love traveling. Doing that as a solo musician, it was building and building. Touring with a band felt really unsatisfying. That was a revelation. I was with some great people. There was no real reason for me to hate doing that. I just realized I wasn’t pursuing what I really wanted. I felt like I was running really fast down the wrong path. You’d perform in front of 3,000 people and meet famous people backstage. And that was cool. But it’s not what I wanted. I don’t write for other people, but if I can make people happy, that’s a success. I decided to live on the road for a year and write a book about it. But I loved it, so stopping didn’t make much sense.

And how long ago did you decide to capture everything on your website, year of a thousand roommates? (http://yearofathousandroommates.com/)

April 2009. Took me a few months to get the domain name. I’ve been blogging pretty regularly. It was hard overseas because of the access. I took a short break, especially since I haven’t really been on the road. Some things that are exciting to me, like making tomato sauce, might not be as exciting to the readers. I definitely plan on hitting the blog again. It’s a really good way to look back. When I was young, I used to write in journals. I went back and found an old Hemingway-like journal with all these notes that I wrote that I had forgotten about. It’s funny looking back and seeing friends I have from travelling. To think I met some of these people only last summer but now they’re intimately in my life is a wild feeling.

So what was the idea behind it, the book? To capture everything on the road?

My hope was just to do January to January, because that’s easy. When I came up with the idea, it didn’t seem feasible at the moment. I was in a band, and they all took a break. So a bunch of us went and joined another band. That’s when I realized that’s not what I want. That’s when I came up with the idea. I was intrigued by this project that seemed impossible to tackle but was a one-day-at-a-time thing. Most people are at the point where they can do what they want with their life but they’re scared. I did a few things that made me believe “I can do this.” I made a few phone calls to friends. I talked to people. They were all super supportive. A month from that day, I was leaving.

So, the blog is going to be the book. Is it going to cover just that one year or the entire time?

It’s essentially going to be the year. I’ve gone through a variety of iterations. I thought of doing a journal style. Currently, I’m in the first draft. It’s being written day to day. It could turn into a bunch of things. The writing process is pretty cool. It’s gonna be about the year. There will be references to before and after to give the reader a sense of completion.

Do you have an idea of when it might come out or it’ll happen whenever?

I’m pretty active about it. My original plan was to have the first draft done by August. That didn’t happen. My goal is now to have the first draft done by October. If all things work, I’ll submit for publishing. Depending on the response I get, that will dictate the release. I’ve been making music for years, not writing books. It could get picked up by an indie publisher. Or it could be a fluke and a big company wants it. Worst case, If I need to publish this myself, I’ll do it.

So, now that everything with your car is in order, are you excited about this tour?

I’m mostly prepared for it, and I’m super excited for it. This has been the longest amount of time I have not toured in years. It’s been strange. My brother and sister-in-law have been awesome, my favorite roommates. I’m a little bit bummed about leaving. But Koji’s music is really awesome. I’m super amped about it. I’m doing all the little things like making sure my gear and car are all in working order and hopefully everything I’m not thinking of falls into place.

What kind of car is it?

1993 Plymouth Sundance. Her name is Sweetpea. Had her for four and a half years. Paid $500 for it. I couldn’t have asked for a better car. She’s getting tired, and I’m gonna be bummed when she’s done.

I see you’re from New Jersey. I am too. Did growing up in the Garden State impact your life and music?

Sure. I’ve traveled all over the world. And I actually think Jersey is one of the most amazing places in the country. It’s the place I’ve lived the longest. Jersey will have a huge place in my heart. The bummer was the town I grew up in was quite lacking in culture that mattered to me. I had to search pretty hard to find cool stuff. I think a lot of people deal with that. When I was 10 and everything was super normal it kinda sucked. But I got lucky once I hit high school. I listened to some great music. I’ll always be a Jersey kid, but I think I have a different idea of Jersey than some other people. Thankfully I didn’t grow up “Jersey Shore” style.  We constantly have to defend our state from that stupid show.

I grew up in the 90′s listening to Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. And then I started listening to Sunny Day Real Estate and Jimmy Eat World and what we called “emo” back then because we didn’t know any better. It was a shame because record stores never had what I was looking for. It was before Napster or before any of that. If you wanted records, you had to get them, which was difficult. It was a very interesting time period. My freshman year in college [went to Rutgers] was amazing. I could type in super obscure bands and some kids in California had it. It was an exciting time.