PIERCED ARROWS REALLY LIKED WALL-E

I could go on and on about the history of Fred Cole and every amazing musical mutation he's produced since the early 60's, and how you can hear him sweating and bleeding over every single one of his releases, but instead I'll just hove you read about it here and say I nearly pissed my pants when I heard I was going to interview Toody, Fred's wife and musical partner from Dead Moon and now Pierced Arrows. These guys are heroes. No wonder the singer from Pearl Jam endorses them! Seriously though, Toody is so nice and down to earth, it's not really a surprise they've been making music together for so long. You get the sense that they'll just keep doing what they do, the way they want, no matter what.

Listen to their new record 'Descending Shadows' and you get the feeling something bad is about to go down. Fred's fascination with technology, death and the darker sides of things has only deepened. Right now they are one week into their tour through the U.S. and Canada and I got a chance to speak to Toody (twice actually; my recorder fucked up the first time and lost most of that interview) while they were stopped at a motel in Albany, NY.

VICE: One thing you were telling me about last time we spoke was how Dead Moon only had one
drummer and how you never would have considered replacing Andrew.

Toody Cole: To us Dead Moon was an incredibly unique thing. Something that we will always treasure. Andrew is like family to us. And we always knew Dead Moon could only ever be me, Fred and Andrew. Period. End of Story. Obviously there are going to be some similarities because of Fred and I's style. But always if you go back through Fred's career, you can always hear that the next band he gets involved in came from the ashes of the previous one. We just knew from the very beginning that however long Dead Moon lasted, which was almost 20 years, we would never just take one player out, and plug another in, the way some bands do just to keep the name going, forever and ever. We expected to completely have to start all over again and we were completely fine with that.

We were also talking about starting over and how you had no fear in doing so. You were prepared for whatever. What kind of freedom does that offer you?

It is kind of great when you go into something with no expectations because if it works out, and it goes better than expected then hey, what a great surprise! Downfall happens when you go in expecting
everything. Which I have seen a few bands do unfortunately. To me everything should be a build up. And the longer it takes to build up. So what? That just means you are still making your way up the ladder. We happened to have a jump start with this band just because everybody was curious as hell once we ended Dead Moon, so we had that going in our favour. But even if we hadn't, it wouldn't have been any big deal. It's like whatever. As long as it takes. So what? You're in it for the long run anyway. What's the hurry?

I also noticed a lot of reoccurring themes on the new record of technology, paranoia, On The Move's mass evacuation and other darker themes. Can you talk a little bit about that?

You know it's like George Carlin used to say " Mother nature is trying to shake us off like a bad case of fleas." The idea is that nothing is more powerful than nature. It is one of the few things. No matter how much technology we've got. We've got absolutely no control over it. Basically he got the whole idea for that between Katrina, then the earthquakes and all this stuff. He is big into the predictions of Nostradamus, which is leftover back from our hippie days, naturally. And one of Nostradamus' big things was predicting whatever… you know, earthquakes and volcanoes exploding. This and that. That they get exponentially closer and closer together until vvvvvvvvttt we are outta here. Ha ha ha..

Ha. Would you say you guys are paranoid people?

I don't think Fred's a paranoid person. Death doesn't scare him. But he loves the tombstone & death imagery. The nightmare type of images that he uses a lot in his lyrics are basically just because he likes the pictures that they paint. As for technology. I mean us and technology is always a weird mix. We are always old school. We still like writing shit down on paper. He won't use a computer to write out song lyrics. He's got a stack of probably 300 notebooks full of song lyrics all over the house and all over everywhere. Everything gets handwritten on paper or handwritten on something.

I also noticed there was this whole man vs. machine theme…

Oh, on 'Buried Alive'. What I think is funny about buried alive.. was that our little grandson Christopher who is almost 10 is living with us, and his dad got him a copy of Wall-E . So we happened to watch that one night. It's got the whole thing with people being glued to their cellphones and never conversing with each other for real, this kinda shit. That was one of the instigations for that shit in Buried Alive. You know Wall-e cleans up all the garbage and stuff.

Actually, I haven't seen it, it's a Disney movie isn't it?

Oh yeah, it's really cool! It's an awesome flick. You know it's one of those with the adult themes that kind of go over the kid's heads. That the kids can't get.

And that translates into a very scary song.**

Absolutely. To us it's like thank god we are going to be off the planet before it gets to the point where people don't do shit for themselves anymore. Women don't even know how to cook from scratch, the way I learned. It's like "What? Does it come out of a box? I don't know what to do with it. You don't put it in the microwave?" Ha ha.Jesus. There are certain disadvantages to technology. We all kind of forget the basic human things that everyone should know.

Your bass playing as a really unique, almost percussive style, how did you develop that?

I love playing bass. I love the power of the instrument. And I have become a good technician. Fred writes 90% of my bass lines. He started out as a bass player. He is a composer. He hears all the elements of not just the song, but the way it's going to be sung, and all the parts intrinsic in it. Kelly comes up with most of his shit on drums but if it isn't quite what Fred's hearing, or got in mind, he'll have him try this or change that. And then a lot of it comes down to when we get down to rehearsing it. And we are all playing what is coming naturally and the subtle changes that are made. But yeah everything he is writing now for Pierced Arrows has gotten way more percussive. And I like that. I love that I am able to actually pull it off now. 5 years ago I probably wouldn't have been able to.

So you are still growing and challenging yourself?

Oh yeah, I will always be struggling with the instrument. That is one thing we talk about a lot. That we love the fact that none of us will ever feel like we've mastered the damn thing. We are more entertainers than pure musicians. I know I am a musician as well and I've actually become good at what I do. But I couldn't go up on stage and jam a bunch of copy songs with guys. I am lucky to follow a basic blue progression. I can't do that kind of improv that a true musician can do because they know their instrument to death. And for them that's it. For me it's the whole package. It's the percussive feel you are getting while I am playing bass, it's knowing what I should be doing, timing and feel. But it's always more important to me what I am doing vocally. And it is for Fred as well. And it's kind of the whole over-all ambience of the three of us that I am worried about. Rather than, you know, awing somebody with your musicianship.

There seems to be a real group dynamic, as much as you know Fred might write most of the music, there seems to be one distinct frontman all the time, you are all going at it… is that what you mean? Not just one charismatic frontman and a bunch of goons.

Yeah that's the way that we like it. Each individual member should be performing up to that particular level to where you all stand out. Oh yeah that's one thing that has always been incredibly important for Fred. When he was lead singing at different points in his career, he hated it for that reason. And when he was looked at as the frontman, which meant everyone else was made out to be sidemen. When he just really wanted to be part of that unit. He never wanted to have "The Fred Cole band". That kind of thing really puts him off.

Great. I think that's it. Oh wait, I heard you're part Canadian, is that true?

My mother is Canadian, she was born in Saskatchewan. So I've got half my family up there. My mother was a war bride. My dad was in the Navy and they got stationed up in Vancouver, they met at a U.S.O dance, they were in touch for a year and half until the war was all said and done and then they got married, I think in BC, and then moved down to Portland. I used to love going up to Canada and visiting our cousins. I would be there for about a week and then before you knew it, I was speaking with a Canadian accent.

I try to fight it off. I thought I was doing an okay job.

Don't worry. Nobody else in the rest of the entire world can tell the difference between you guys, us and the Aussies. So hey, it's cool.

March
03 Toronto, ON @ El Mocambo
04 Montreal, QC @ Green Room
05 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
06 Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's
07 New Haven, CT @ Cafe Nine
09 Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
10 Washington DC @ DC9
11 Baltimore, MD @ Golden West Cafe
13 Atlanta, GA @ Lenny's
15 Houston, TX @ Rudyard's British Pub
16 Denton, TX @ Rubber Glove
22 Tucson, AZ @ Plush
23 Tempe, AZ @ Sail Inn
24 San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink
25 Costa Mesa, CA @ The Detroit Bar
26 Detroit, MI @ The Cafe
27 Los Angeles, CA @ Redwood Bar
28 Los Angeles, CA @ Echo Plex tickets
30 San Francisdo, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
31 Portland, OR @ Dante's
April
01 Seattle, WA @ The Funhouse
02 Olympia, WA @ Capitol Theatre Backstage
03 Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret By Tobias Rochman
Photo by Simone Muller