Composed of some of the nicest people you’ll meet, Peach Pit are a talented group of individuals who were looking forward to playing at Shabang Festival in San Luis Obispo. I sat down with lead singer and rhythm guitarist Neil Smith hours ahead of the band’s highly anticipated closing set.
Learn more about Neil, what he’s listening to, and what a shoey is by reading the interview below.
How are you liking San Luis Obispo?
Neil Smith : Oh my gosh, it’s been so nice. We rolled up this morning on our bus and I was tucked away in my little bunk cocoon. I open the door and saw this beautiful hillside. It’s been lovely. It’s awesome.
You’ve become fans to friends with some bands in the industry. How has that progression influenced your music style?
Neil Smith: One example of that is, we went on tour last year with a band called The Districts in Philadelphia. We’re big Districts fans. When we were 19 or 20, we did a road trip down to Seattle to see their concert. It was awesome. And then years later, we’re friends with them. Now we get to play music with them.
I don’t listen to as much contemporary music right now. I don’t want to accidentally steal from people that are my peers. I listen to a lot of classic rock these days.
I’m a friendly guy, so I like to make friends with people. It’s been really cool to meet other bands and people who shared similar experiences with you.
What band are you into right now?
Neil Smith: I’m into a few different things. I really like this singer songwriter named Labi Siffre. I just found him on Spotify. One of his songs was in a movie I watched recently called the Holdovers. Labi Siffre is really good. He’s an amazing songwriter with such beautiful, heartbreaking songs. He’s someone I’ve been listening to a lot recently. He’s a hidden gem.
I saw on your Facebook page that the group posted a lot of tutorials. Your fans really loved them. Would you post them again?
Neil Smith: Definitely. I think maybe over the summer we’re going to try and do some more. I would like to make tutorials for all of our songs. When I was learning how to play guitar I didn’t know a lot about music, but I could watch a YouTube video of someone showing me how to play something and then learn learn guitar that way. We’ll definitely do some more of those.
What’s your favorite thing about playing a festival?
Neil Smith: Probably the amenities that are at festivals. You’re used to playing shows at nightclubs and theaters and stuff. And those are pretty much the same with a backstage green room, stuff like that. But this is our green room *gestures to the outside VIP area at the festival*. Also, look at this view. It’s all mountains and greenery around us. I like getting the play out in nature at festivals.
What’s the most interesting thing someone in a crowd has done during one of your shows?
Neil Smith: Oh, this is easy. We were in Australia at the end of last year. The Aussies are obsessed with shoeys. They drink beer out of a shoe. They are obsessed with it. Every single show without fail, near the end, they’d chant, “shoey! Shoey!” I didn’t want to drink out of my own shoe because I only had two pairs on tour. I don’t even drink so I was just chugging water out of them.
Our last show when we were in Brisbane, a guy took off his prosthetic leg and threw it. This huge prosthetic leg just slammed down on the stage. I did a shoey out of a prosthetic leg. It was a pretty clean leg.
