Who are you and what do you do:
JP: My name is Jeff Pinto and I play keys and sing in a band called Hands & Teeth.
NP: I am Natasha Pasternak. AKA Peanut. I’m a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in Hands & Teeth.
Current obsessions:
JP: I’m currently obsessed with Bob Dylan’s early catalogue. I listen to Bob Dylan a lot while cooking for some reason. My favourite move is to put on disc 2 of his 3 disc greatest hits collection. I finally decided I should go back and fill in some of the blanks I have, especially with his early material. I was really looking forward to situating My Back Pages from Another Side of Bob Dylan. I can’t believe he was writing songs like that at 24. I don’t understand every line in the song, but it all feels important.
NP: Hands & Teeth, learning pop songs on my new ukulele and hangin’ in California. Oh, and coffee…it’s more of a straight up addiction.
A song or a record that will always put you in a good mood, without fail:
JP: The Crystals “Da Doo Ron Ron” or Ted Leo’s “Timorous Me”.
NP: I would say “Santa Fe” by Beirut and/or “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles
Tell us about an album or artist you think is really under-appreciated, and why they are deserving of more praise:
JP: I’m hesitant to call a Polaris-prize winner under-appreciated, but I’m surprised more people don’t know about Karkwa, specifically their album Les Chemins De Verre. It’s perfect.
NP: I have two albums I’ve recently discovered. “Fetus Dreams” by Heartbeat Hotel is something I can listen to front to back, over and over again. And my second is “HOWL” by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. This is an oldie, but a serious goodie! I want to know why I never heard of this record until recently…? soooo so so good.
Most played track on your iTunes:
JP: Maggie’s Farm – Bob Dylan
NP: Well, I’ll give you my top 4. Mostly because I listen to these 4 everyday on my way to work.
1. Pyramid Song By Radiohead
2. Wake Up By Arcade Fire
3. New Goodbye By Hey Rosetta!
4. Don’t Think Twice By Bob Dylan
Most cherished musical object:
JP: My acoustic guitar. It’s a Korean-made Epiphone resonator that, despite its unremarkable pedigree, has helped me come up with most of my good shit. At this point this is not a musical object but a compañero.
NP: My Takamine acoustic guitar. It actually belongs to my mom, she bought it before I was born. The story goes she used to play it when she was pregnant with me and lay me in the nook of the body of the guitar when I was born. Pretty wild that’s the guitar that is on our record and I now play.
Proudest moment:
JP: This project (Hands & Teeth) is paying out the best dividends, pride-wise right now. I’m getting to do things I’ve always thought on, like driving down to Austin for South By Southwest this year, and people are interested in what we’re coming up with.
NP: Graduating from College and when we made/released, Enjoy Your Lifestyle.
Most vulnerable moment:
JP: I’ve been playing more solo sets lately, and it’s just a lot more responsibility when it’s just you up there. In H&T people pass around leadership of different parts different songs. People look at you and just you the whole set when it’s just you up there. Different game.
NP: Most vulnerable moment was when my mom went into triple bypass surgery last fall in the middle of a tour and a million other crazy things going on in my life. It was definitely a moment in time when I officially became an adult. For the first time I had to be her rock and shoulder to cry on. I saw life and the world so differently while going through that with her. I was terrified, vulnerable and felt so alone. I really found solace in making music. Not to be a cheese ball, but it did save me in a way.
If you could score a film for anyone, who would it be and why:
JP: Actually I’ve always wanted to get into scoring films, so if anybody reading this needs some music paired to their project, get in touch with me.
I’d want to score a film for Danny Boyle. He makes great films and they often feature a moment where a character really loses it. I’d like to try to capture that sound. You know right as the “nice guys” go ballistic, like in Shallow Graves or 28 Days Later.
Plus he can get pretty greasy, it’d give me an excuse to get downright dark.
NP: Either Wes Anderson, David Yates ( any of the Harry Potter movies he has directed ) or Tim Burton. For Mr.Anderson and Mr.Burton, they both have a certain quirky sense of story telling, a unique ecstatic. Their style of movie making would give me free range to create a broad landscape of sounds to match their imaginative way of story telling. And then there’s the Harry Potter films directed by Mr.Yates, they embody everything I imagined as a young girl/young wizard. I can’t even imagine how much fun that would be! I could go all out on the string arrangements and a chorus of harps, it would be EPIC.
Your favourite use of a song in a film:
JP: To go back to Danny Boyle, the use of Lust for Life in Trainspotting was pretty great. Was that song big when it originally came out? I have a feeling it was bigger when it was used in that film.
NP: Moon River- Breakfast at Tiffany’s / Tiny Dancer- Almost Famous / Bohemian Rhapsody- Wayne’s World
Favourite venue to play in and why:
JP: The Dakota Tavern. I’ve only done it once but it just feels good. Plus it’s a place where no cellphones go. Very rad. Once you’re in, you’re in.
NP: The Horseshoe, hands down. Best on stage sound, SO important! I feel like we are a part of a family when we walk through the doors. Love that place.
Dream venue to play in and why:
JP: Massey Hall. Because it’s the premiere venue in the city I grew up in. Because Neil has played there. The first show Hands & Teeth played, before we were called Hands & Teeth, we were opening for Stephen Stanley of Lowest of the Low notoriety. He said this would be the project that gets me to Massey Hall.
NP: Massey Hall. Cause, it’s the s*#t. Also, Radio City Music Hall….because it’s Radio City Music Hall. And I LOVE NYC.
First band t-shirt you ever purchased from a merch table:
JP: Treblecharger. I hear they’re re-uniting for Canadian Music Week 2012 in March. We should find out if they need an opener. I loved those guys growing up; them and Hayden.
NP: U2. Bono 4EVER…mostly when he had his shirt off and wore a vest, that was his best era.
Band you’d leave your bandmates for:
JP: We’ve only just scratched the surface with this band, I don’t want to leave just yet. We’ve made a studio-oriented EP (Enjoy Your Lifestyle) and a live-oriented LP (Hunting Season). Next step is a more artful mix of the two. I’ve got to stick around for that project, it’s going to be too much fun.
Sterling Morrison once said of White Light / White Heat , “We were all pulling in the same direction. We may have been dragging each other off a cliff, but we were all definitely going in the same direction. In the White Light/White Heat era, our lives were chaos. That’s what’s reflected in the record.”
There are moments where it feels like that’s where we’re about to go – Minus the lives being chaos part I hope – hopefully that’s not a necessary part of it.
Ok, short answer, The Balconies. I want to be the fourth Balcony. I asked them and they said ok but we haven’t really followed up.
NP: Wow. This is a hard one. Hmmm… If it were in the past, Led Zeppelin or The Beatles. If it were the present, Arcade Fire or anything Mark Ronson was involved in.
Album you want to expose your kin to whilst in the womb:
JP: I think I’d start the kid off with Glenn Gould’s recording of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier. t’s meant to be an instructional piece for youth -It’ll get the little guy started off right. Number two, it’s Glenn Gould so it’s got a great role model built into it. Canadian. Driven. A little out there with his odd chair and strange habit of humming while playing, but so talented and immersed you had to listen to him. Also it’s Bach so the kid can get right into thinking about multiple voices right off the bat.
NP: Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” or George Harrison’s “All Things Must Past”
If for some reason you lost the ability to make and play music, what would fill that gap:
JP: I did an apprenticeship in 2011 with Chef Dustin Gallagher at Grace Restaurant. I kept thinking what would happen if I lopped off my fingers and couldn’t play keys or guitar. I never came up with an answer. I once heard someone say that poetry is words arranged so well that you don’t need the music. Maybe I’ll take a shot at that. I’d definitely still listen to a lot of music. I’d probably still feel the need to interact with music so I’d probably become a music critic. I mean how hard could that be??
NP: I could see myself being a filmmaker and/or a world traveller, combining the two would be ideal. If you asked me this question when I was 7, I would’ve been a mermaid.
What was your last dream about:
JP: I keep having dreams where I run into ex-girlfriends and they have more freckles than in reality. It’s happened twice now. Horrifying.
NP: Can’t remember my last dream?! Maybe it was eating something yummy or swimming in the ocean or hiking the mountains or chillin’ somewhere sunny or singing songs with my mates. All those dreams sound like a dream I would like to have.
