ETA: Introduce yourselves, what are your names and rolls in the band?
Pigeon Park: Pigeon Park consists of Nick Weber on the vocals, Logan Pacholok, and Kevin Okabe on the guitars, Artur Leppert on the bass, and Hunter Elliott on the skins.
ETA: How long have you been together? How did the band form?
Pigeon Park: We’re just rounding the corner on our 5 year anniversary actually, we all formed through a mutual love of music, coming out of high school we all kind of just gravitated to each other. We’ve had the same lineup since day one.
ETA: How’d you come up with the name Pigeon Park?
Pigeon Park: Pigeon Park is a place in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, it kind of serves as an unofficial dividing line between the nicer areas of Vancouver and the slummier side. It’s interesting because when the Olympics came to town in 2010, the park was given a makeover to make our town look better I assume. It’s really the same place, the same stuff still happens there and not much has changed besides the appearance. Anyways we feel it’s a good representation of our city and the music we create as well.
ETA: How would you describe your band? How are you unique?
Pigeon Park: We all grew up listening to a wide variety of music, each of us has our own separate influences and in turn that has helped us craft a sound that’s a little bit different from what’s out there today. To put it simply, we’re predominenantly a rock band infused with groove, and blues roots.
ETA: What motivated you all to start playing music?
Pigeon Park: Probably the fact that music makes us feel like nothing else in this world. It has the power to completely put you in the present whether youre listening to it or playin/performing. I think we all just kind of discovered it and realized that nothing else could top it.
ETA: Who were your musical influences growing up that have helped mold you into the musicians and band you are today?
Pigeon Park: Like I mentioned were pretty all over the map as as individuals with our musical influences, but as a band and our music in particular, I would have to say Led Zeppelin, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Parlor Mob, The Black Crowes, Funkadelic. I could go on for awhile here…
ETA: You’ve performed in 2 cross country tours, what are the most memorable times, gigs or places you’ve been to in that time?
Pigeon Park: Quebec City was great, such a vibrant atmosphere and a great music scene as well. The whole Quebec leg of the tour was pretty memorable.
We had been on the road for almost a month by the time we made it over there. We had to sleep in a parking lot one night and the next night we slept on the stage of the bar that we had just played. Just being on tour is great, probably the greatest thing in the world, we live very frugally on the road, a lot of camping and a lot of $2 steaks.
ETA: Your hit song “Lovelight” has done very well, how does that feel to see so much reward for your work?
Pigeon Park: It’s been pretty cool but obviously we are always striving for more, we are nowhere near where we want to be right now and I think that hunger and drive is what pushes us and why we’ve been together with the same group of guys for so long. I’m a strong believer that once you’ve lost the hunger you’re fucked.
ETA: In the music video for Lovelight you start out in a confined darker room with newspapers all over the walls, you than break out into the light and are exploring through a forest. Eventually the video gets really trippy and turns into a jam session again. The video is extremely well done and I’m a big fan of it.
How can you as a band describe what transpires throughout the video, and what’s the inspiration that went into it and ultimately the song itself?
Pigeon Park: Thanks a lot. It was a great experience, we had a lot of nice friends who helped us out free of charge. We came up with the concept of the video pretty quick together, as for the song it’s basically about the frustrations and joys of love
ETA: You’re in the beginning production stages of recording your next album, how has the band evolved sense your first EP, and how will this next release be different?
Pigeon Park: This next release is something that were all super stoked on because just lately we’ve really honed in on who we really are. You’ll hear a more focused sound that is a lot harder hitting, and aggressive but still pertaining to what you’ve heard from the band thus far.
ETA: What plans do you have for Pigeon Park in the future? What do you ultimately plan to achieve with the band?
Pigeon Park: Were planning on expanding outside of Canada and touring in other parts of the world, were working on setting something up in Europe right now. Ultimately we want to be creating and performing music together as a career. It would be nice to be able to sustain ourselves doing that. For me personally though, I could be living off two meals a day in a shitty little house and as long as I’m making music with these guys, I would be happy.
ETA: Anything else you wish to say about yourself or your music? Anything to say to your fans?
Pigeon Park: Thanks for supporting us, and digging our sounds. Stay tuned for the
new album, we have a feeling you’ll like it a lot.
