Reverend Peyton: “You Can Almost Smell The Dirt” (Interview)

Reverend Peyton brings his Big Damned Band back to Auckland for a return engagement at The Tuning Fork this coming Friday.

Since he and his crew were last here in 2016 they’ve released a new album and become a Youtube sensation thanks to a clip where the good Reverend plays a shotgun guitar.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda gets down to brass tacks with Reverend Peyton to discuss these and other topics as he readies himself for the trip down under.

Click here to listen to the interview with Reverend Peyton:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: I think the last time you were in Auckland – which was the first time, I think – was 2016, if I’m not mistaken; so, it’s been a couple of years. We saw you at the Tuning Fork, which was a blast. Do you remember much about the gig?

RP: Yeah, I do, man. The Tuning Fork was my favourite show from that tour, I think. It was just so unexpectedly good. We knew that Splore was going to be cool. We knew some of the ones that were going to be successes, that were festival played . I just didn’t expect that the Tuning Fork show was going to be so awesome. It really was great. The crowd was great. Everything was perfect.

MD: It was a good time, definitely. In the mean time, you’ve released a new album: The Front Porch Sessions, which came out last year. What can you tell me about that one? It sounds very ‘down homey’.

RP: yeah, man…! I want it to feel very much like you’re just hanging out on our front porch with us. I had a snap shot of a moment in time, but… I wasn’t sure, originally, if it was going to be a full record, or if it was just going to be an EP; are we going to get those songs out of it? I had this idea: I wanted to go into the studio and explore it, and see where it went. What ended up happening is, there were some songs, that came out of it, that were just so special; we’re like, “No, this is a record.” I talked to some friends that I trust, and I bounced what we’d done of them, and they were like, “No, man! This is a record!” I wasn’t sure if I should take it and try to put some more production on it; I wasn’t sure. I felt like it was good, and people were like, “No, this is great!” Thirty Tigers heard it, and they were like, “No, we want to help you put this thing out.” It ended up being really special. As far as a vinyl fan: it’s tailor made for listening on vinyl. From start to finish, it is a record that is analogue. It’s rootsy, of course – because everything you do is…. You can almost smell the dirt, but in a sweet way… it’s really cool. I think it’s actually the most beautiful record we’ve ever made; so, I’m really proud of that. For all its grit and down home flavour, it’s the most beautiful record ever made. It’s cool for me to be able to take that idea and explore it, and I came up with some song that I was just really proud of, and then I gave myself license to do some other songs that were not mine – I normally don’t do much of that – and that opened me up as well. It was like I wanted to explore some things that I’d been thinking on the front porch. That was it – that was the gist of it. I went in with old guitars and old amps and old microphones, and it was, at the end of the day, a success. We put together a tour – a very dynamic show – to bring that, and that vibe, as well as what we always do. When it was all said and done, it was cool. It ended up being something I’m really proud of.

MD: How do you get that vibe across in a venue that may be somewhat antiseptic and modern?

RP: I just force myself to do it, and if you are earnest and it’s done with heart, the crowd will follow you. That’s what I’ve found. The older I get, the more confident I am in the show that I’ve got. When I was younger, I was less confident and I felt like we really needed to make sure we were kicking people in the teeth … and now, I’m just like, “This is who we are, and this is what we do; and if you don’t like it, that’s your problem.” We’re bringing around something that is real and from the heart and made by hand. In today’s modern world, it’s becoming tougher and tougher to find that, man. That’s the one thing that I know that we can do.

MD: It’s interesting, because we just had Blind Boy Paxton here – he opened for another band –… and he just blew people away, because he does, I guess, a similar thing that you guys do. And it was a young audience, and they just lapped it up – they just couldn’t get enough of it – and he was the opening act. He was the one everybody was talking about at the end; so, there seems to be a need or want for what you guys are doing, I guess.

RP: Yeah, man. I think that, as we move toward wherever we are moving toward in Western society, for a lot of people, I think, there are artists who kind of have their ear to the ground. There are things that are happening that are great, and there are things that are happening that are terrible. I think moving away from real human interaction, and moving away from things that are made by hand; moving away from things that are truly real and from the heart. As we move away from those things, I think that it’s affecting our health immensely, and literally, I think, even physically; so, when you bring around something like that, when you do it, people always connect with you, man; they always do. I’ve found that around the world. This tour here, we’re going to be going to New Zealand again and Australia for the first time; and Australia will be our thirty seventh country we’ve played in. When I go around and do this, we’re crossing borders, but we’re also crossing language barriers and different cultures; but the one thing I know, is if you bring something around that’s real and from the heart, and played by people that are good at it – who are earnest and believe in it – I find… human beings respond to it. This is something that, for me, is not a hobby; I’ve been doing this way too long for it to be a hobby. This is a way of life. This is a lifelong commitment and passion; and the one thing I can tell you, man, is I think that there’s always going to be a need for this kind of thing; it’s primal, man. People were probably sitting around a fire banging rocks together for so long, we don’t even remember. This is just something that speaks to our soul in a way that we can’t even communicate or understand. I think that it’s way ancient: pre-recorded, pre-language. I think people were making music and advancing, and things like that, way before we were even writing down words. It’s an old, old thing, and I don’t think that’s ever going to go away. I think, in a lot of ways, it might be the thing that comes in and saves us…. Music has a way to communicate not just an idea: music can communicate a feeling. It can communicate a sense of community, and it can also remind us that our neighbours are people too…. As we travel around and do this, you find that you’re able to remind people that we’re human beings; and that’s pretty special.

MD: Yeah. I noticed that you’ve become somewhat of a YouTube phenomenon, with this video that got six million views with the shotgun guitar. Obviously, you take what you’re doing very seriously. When something like that happens – obviously, it’s a good thing, in that it draws people’s attention to what you’re doing – do you get concerned about being viewed as just a novelty act?

RP: Yes, yes. Here’s the thing too: we’ve done all these videos – all these different kinds of things – like, there’s one…where I’m playing eighteen different instruments on one song. Have you seen that one?

MD: No, I haven’t, but I will.

RP: You got to see it. I played eighteen different instruments – they keep throwing me instruments, and I’m playing eighteen different instruments on one song – and I wish that it had been that one that really went viral, because I thought that was way cooler. I’ll tell you how the shotgun guitar came to be, and I’ll tell you a story of what happened with that: so, there have been all these guys that are making these guitars, and all kinds of stuff, and I’ve been playing Stardust guitars, and things of that nature, for a long time. This has been a part of my show. It’s been a part of the country blues heritage, to do this with pride. And I started seeing these people trend on the internet, playing all this different, stupid stuff, and I’m going, “I’ve been doing this forever.”So, I called up a buddy of mine, and I said, “I want you to build me a shotgun guitar,” and he sent me some plans, and I go, “No, no! This one shoots.” He’s like, “Well, if it shoots, it’ll be real hard to play,” and I go, “I don’t care, man. I can play anything,” if it’s got strings on it, I can play it. I need it to shoot, because that’s going to be part of what I want to do with this one. I had this idea to put all of that to rest… to end it. For people who have followed our career, they understood, I think, where I was coming from…. For a lot of people, it was just a funny thing. I think if you’re outside the United States, it’s just like, “Look at this crazy American doing this. What the hell is this,” and then Americans, they… think that was awesome. I was worried that, maybe, I might get some angry stuff, because everything’s political now.

MD: Well, you could make the argument that you’re glorifying gun culture, and all that.

RP: Yeah, yeah! There are all kinds of stuff you could say and do. It was a shotgun, and most people don’t have problems with shotguns; so, that was one thing. I only got one mean letter; one mean message. Out of all the millions of emails, one person…and I couldn’t believe that, because you could see it on my face that we were having fun, and I think people could see it for what it was, and then all my fans… they were like, “Rev’s been doing this forever. Look at this other stuff.” The day that it came out, it trended as one of the top ten videos on YouTube. It was crazy, all the things that were happening. It’s funny when that happened, we had this true and viral video, and all these other places started stealing it – reposting it – without credit, or with credit, and it went crazy. It’s gotten over forty million views…! It was a huge thing: it was on Comedy Central – which is a big channel in the United States – and it had gotten out of control; but when it was all said and done, it did bring us a lot of fans. You’ve got them went and saw things we did. It wasn’t life changing to have this viral video that forty million people saw. If forty million people saw one of our music videos – one of our songs on the record – that, probably, would be life changing. Forty million seeing that was not life changing. It definitely didn’t hurt us, though. I was worried that it might make people angry – that they wouldn’t understand, or whatever – but I think, for the most part, people really liked it. I had some people out in San Francisco – some buddies of mine that I just knew were going to be pissed off about it – and they were sharing it, and they were like, “This is so cool. Look at Rev Peyton.” I think… because it was done with a laugh, and it worked so well – I think people impressed by how well I did it. The one guy that sent an angry message: he was mad, he said he wasn’t going to follow us and he’s been a fan for a long time, because he didn’t like people to play with guns… and I wanted to tell him, “Man, if you took a venn diagram of shotgun shooters and slide guitar players, I am dead in the centre of it,” and I will put my skills of slide guitar and shotgun shooting – I’ve won competitions – against, about, anybody. If you watch it, I had to time it right to take the safety off and cock the thing, because I didn’t want anyone to see I didn’t do things safe and in the right way – so, I made sure that that was alright. It was all done in a way where… no one could say anything negative about any of that stuff, and also, I didn’t want to do something that was unsafe or stupid, and have there be a video of it that someone might try to emulate, that, maybe, wasn’t as experienced with all those things as I am.

MD: I assume we won’t be seeing it in New Zealand. Chances are, it probably won’t get through customs.

RP: No, no. I don’t even think I can carry my pocket knife…. I guess New Zealand’s better than Australia: Australia is where I can’t carry a pocket knife.

MD: Well thank you very much for taking time to explain all this to me – it was fantastic – and I’m really looking forward to seeing you guys again, when you get down here. It’s just  couple of weeks away; isn’t it?

RP: It is, man. We leave on Tuesday to fly out; so, it’ll be sooner than you know. I appreciate you talking with me, man, and helping get the word out. I’m glad you were at that Tuning Fork show, because it was a special show for us. I’m hoping to have a repeat; try to top ourselves.

Click here for more info & tickets to see Rev Peyton’s Big Damn Band at The Tuning Fork, Friday February 23rd.