When interviewing artists for this blog, I have come to really adore one aspect and despise another. The down side is me having to listen to a recording of myself sound like a complete snob to strangers, but the absolute best part is having some of the best conversations I’ve had about music and life with some truly cool people. I have been receiving so many inquiries for this site, and one of the first people to contact me was Pete Barker, the songwriter and main musician for Sacramento’s band The Brangs. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Barker decided to make his own California dream by moving to Sacramento and exploring the musical scene in the area. The Brangs are a very intriguing band because you can easily pin point Barker’s influences but his sound is not like anything I’ve heard come out of Sacramento. There are definite punk rock roots to his music, but I think the true raw talent is his song writing abilities.
I had the privilege of meeting Pete Barker at Temple Coffee in Downtown Sacramento early on a Saturday morning where I learned of his passion for storytelling, his thoughts on how the music scene has progressed throughout the years, as well as how his passion for the industry has evolved through his time as musician.
So, what kind of got you into the scene?
So, my dad plays bass and I grew up watching him do music so that was kind of like the very short story of it…that was how I kind of got into it. I started wanting to play music really young too, so I moved to Sacramento in 2004 and I kind of latched on with a Irish Tribute kind of rock things which was a lot of fun and then it kind of bottomed out so some friends of mine and I started Whiskey and Stitches. After a while I kind of needed to do something of my own and started doing The Brangs.
Okay so you were the one who kind of formed The Brangs?
Yeah, you know the thing is The Brangs originally supposed to be me, and whoever I could get to show up with me at the time. It was kind of like a Nine Inch Nails thing. I didn’t want to call it Pete Barker as the name, but I knew I wouldn’t have the same people showing up all the time. It started out with just me and my friend Kevin playing drums and then we kind of had all these other configurations and that was about 3 years ago. Now, we kind of got a locked in line up.
That makes sense because I was going through your Facebook page and notice it said its primarily yourself and then you have these mates that are a part of it from time to time as well.
Yeah, well you know one of the things about Sacramento is that you have all of these great musicians and they’re all in like 4 bands. You know, it’s like ‘okay so 3/4ths of us can make that band, so we’re going to do it and we’ll find someone else to just hop in and fill in’.”
That’s so funny because I’ve met a few artists who say ‘yeah so I play bass in this band, and sing in this band’.
Right. I get to do one, and that’s pretty much it for me. I think that I would lose the focus of what I was doing if I was in more than one, but I know people who can do it, so good for them.
So I actually listened to your album on the way here, and one thing I wanted to mention was how I get a lot of Social Distortion vibes from it…I don’t know if you’ve heard that before?
I have, especially with Misery Whip. Here’s the thing: a lot of the stuff that I write about is like hard luck stories and Social Distortion is all about hard luck stories, so it’s like this punk rock, Bruce Springsteen type thing. SO, I don’t really like writing stuff about myself because it’s boring or cheesy love songs. I like creating stories in my head of characters and that’s one of the things that Social Distortion does definitely. So yeah, there’s a huge influence there, and you know being a teenage punk rocker they were at the top of the list for me too.
Oh I’m sure. I know he’s not necessarily punk rock, but I’m a huge Dave Grohl fan, and he has this docuseries called Sonic Highways and he actually got me really into Bad Brains and stuff like that, so I totally relate to the raw emotion that just comes out in music like that.
Yeah Bad Brains is so primal but not just guys beating on things. There’s just so much energy to it but it’s just raw. It’s really cool because there’s just not convoluted of anything to it. Have you seen any of those early videos of them playing in the 80s? It’s just intense.
Oh yeah. I like how you said you like to tell stories, you know? My two favorite from your album are For a Rainy Day and Velvet Rope. I also really liked California Depression because it was very different from all the other songs you have on there.
Yeah we did a few extra overdubs on that one when we were mixing that one. Sonically it came out a lot better than the rest of them. I just didn’t really have the time or the energy to just go and do that for all of them. That one actually kind of meant a lot to me. I wrote that one when I moved to Sacramento because I came here from Oregon, and I moved from Portland where everyone was too cool for everything and I just couldn’t handle it; I was never a cool guy. I came here and I just thought ‘man this is great, and I’m so close to all the wonderful things and the weather is beautiful!’ and everyone was just complaining the whole time. California Depression is all about living in this real cool place and always having to hear people complain about it. There are people all over the world that want to live in California, and you’re IN California.
And then For A Rainy Day, that was kind of my love song for the city of Eugene Oregon where I used to live. There’s a direct line that I lifted from when I was a bartender and this guy who was some entrepreneur guy who probably isn’t nearly as important as he thinks he was lecturing me on getting my degree, and he said ‘you can do whatever you want man but get the fuck out of here’ and so I had to take that. I wrote that down in a notepad and then like 15 years later I put it into the song.
So would you say Sacramento has reacted well to your music?
Yeah, you know, we found a really cool community and we’re trying to push outside of that too but in the meantime we are really happy with where we’re at. We’re part of a bigger circle of musicians and we all kind of center around places like Old Ironsides and Midtown and Bicycle Kitchen and stuff like that. There’s bands like 50 Watt Heavy and Mezcal Aces…and what we’ve found is that being a part of a musical community is that at least they’re gonna come out. Maybe they’ll bring their friends, but getting a draw in this town is hard.
Would you say that’s the most challenging part?
Oh it’s the most challenging part. I mean, I’ve put together bills with some really great bands and it was just crickets the whole night. It was because there was something else going on over here or over there or whatever. We can make excuses, or we just didn’t manage to pull in the people. Sacramento is really fickle; sometimes you’ll get it and sometimes you won’t. You just have to keep trying.
You know, I ask that question to everyone I interview and they all say that is the most challenging part about making music in Sacramento. Aside from that, marketing yourself because like you said there are so many artists out here that unless you are super different, it’s a little hard to get noticed out here.
Yeah, oh yeah. And trying to get press and stuff, you know, we just don’t. We try to put our stuff out there, but it ends up being in a pile on someone’s desk. That’s why I was really happy to get a response from you and to be able to do this because I feel like every band out there has got something to put out for people to hear about and the frustrating thing is having this thing that you’ve cooked up that you’re really proud of because you’ve put a lot of work into it and then you can’t get anyone to notice it. It’s not that they found you and they didn’t like you and they rejected it, it’s like they can’t even find you in the first place. That is the most frustrating thing. I really feel like if people came out and watched us on a good night, they would leave with a CD and a T shirt and come to the next show.
That’s so true but I do feel like the people who do come are very supportive.
Yeah definitely. Some of those people come because they feel a sense of duty to come which is both good and bad. It really means a lot when I see a friend that I know had a long day of work but still trudged their way out to come see us. They may not have chosen to do it but they knew we wanted people there. When we play, I look around and see 50 people and I know all of their names. I could get 50 hugs right now if I wanted to. That’s a really, really, really cool thing. We just want more people in those 50 hugs.
What would you say is the most fun part about making music?
The most fun part is when you have something that just clicks. Last night, we had a song I started a little fast and we all just kind of did it and went into it, and it felt good. There was this thing that happened; a lightening moment where we were all just locked in and played something in a way that we’ve never played before. There were a bunch of people who were having a great time and that’s just electric. That’s this thing where the hair stands up on your arm. That’s the goosebumps part about playing music.
Well what’s cool about that is everyone in the room feels it, you know? It’s not just the band that feels it.
Yeah, when you’re watching a band that’s really clicking, you can tell. You can tell the opposite too which we’ve had too. We have Rob Meyer playing bass and Kevin Coughlin playing drums and Steve Moorweathers on the keyboard, and I don’t want to say they’re the best rhythm section in Sacramento but they are could work on the road if they wanted to, so having them, we could do anything as long as you have your drummer and your bass player going I can just sit there and do whatever I want…I just feel like the luckiest guy in Sacramento.
So, one question I specifically wanted to ask you was how I noticed when I try to interview bands with younger members, they want me to just sent questions via email. I will do it that way if that’s what they would prefer but it’s a bit of a challenge for me to write about them because I don’t know them. I just wanted to ask you how you’ve noticed the scene has changed throughout the years due to people not necessarily wanting a physical interaction.
You know, I have this stupid phone in my pocket that I spend half my life on and I’m not doing anything interesting with it, but that’s what seems to get my attention. I think that collectively, we’ve lost our connection to not just music but interpersonal relationships. It used to be, if you were having a show, you’d put up flyers and stuck them everywhere and would talk to people. Now, you put an event up on Facebook and hope for the best. Social interaction is like wishing someone a happy birthday on Facebook. Social activism is retweeting something. That isn’t having a conversation. I don’t even want to say that’s communication. I mean it is, but you’re also communicating by not communicating. You’re choosing to do the easiest way
to do this instead of actually trying to make a connection.
Well, the last question I wanted to ask you is if you could give your past self any advice about making music what would it be?
I would have started The Brangs a lot earlier. I was a side man for everyone. I was a bass player or a guitar player for someone and when I started The Brangs, I had this pool of songs to start working with because I had been writing that whole time but didn’t have my own thing because I was just afraid to I wasn’t a natural singer, still not. I didn’t think that I had it in me to be a front man and I could have done it a long time ago. The past self-advice to me would be ‘I’m having the time of my life right now doing it the way I want to and I should have started earlier.’ I don’t regret playing in any of the bands I was in but I could have been putting my name out there a lot earlier.
This coffee conversation I had with Pete Barker was refreshing and incredibly validating. We went on to discuss our love for Seattle, the differences in sound between listening to a record versus MP3, and I even found out he saw Nirvana open up for Sonic Youth before the Nevermind album! He’s really easy to talk to, and I felt like I was catching up with an old friend rather than interviewing a complete stranger.
I feel like anyone between a punk rocker and a country fan can learn to appreciate a band like The Brangs. They have incredible talent and an obvious passion for making music. It’s always really inspiring to see a band truly love what they do as opposed to viewing making music like a job or a chore. Pete Barker is charismatic and incredibly intelligent when it comes to making music. I can’t wait for my next opportunity to hear them live.
If you would like to keep up to date with The Brangs, you find their socials here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebrangs/
Instagram: @americanbrangs
I did not take/do not own any of the media in this post.