MUSIC

MUSIC Paul Pigat doing his best to avoid going stir-crazy

by Steve Newton

When COVID-19 killed concerts last year, professional musicians who relied heavily on revenue from live shows were put in financial peril. That fact wasn’t lost on Vancouver guitar ace Paul Pigat, who normally chalks up plenty of gigs with his bands Cousin Harley, Boxcar Campfire, and the Paul Pigat Trio.

“There’s easier ways to make a living than being a musician,” Pigat says on the line from Murfitt Guitars in East Van, “and this has made it a lot harder. But honestly, I’m doin’ alright, because I’ve been productive. I put out the Cousin Harley record, and I’m workin’ on a record with Kevin Breit—he’s my favourite guitar player in the world, pretty much. And my pastime is building guitars, so I’ve built a boatload of guitars. And then I teach, as well; I’ve been teaching since I was 18. So that’s been able to keep me above water.”

As well as being skilled at making guitars and showing folks how to play them, Pigat is one of those musicians whose versatility keeps them ahead of the pack. If he’s in the mood to play some bluesy roots tunes, he turns to Boxcar Campfire; when he’s got a hankering for jazzier stylings, he’ll go the Paul Pigat Trio route. And when he wants to get in touch with his inner Stray Cat, he’ll round up bassist Keith Picot and drummer Jesse Cahill and set Cousin Harley on the road to rowdy rockabilly.

Equally at home exploring the worlds of jazz, bluesy roots, and revved-up rockabilly, the everbusy Paul Pigat is no stranger to juggling multiple musical projects. Photo by Adam PW Smith.

“Having a [musical] diet like that is really important for me,” he points out. “If I do one thing and only one thing for too long, I get a little stir-crazy. So I’ve always had a few projects going, and it just keeps me interested in all of them.”

Pigat’s current project with Toronto guitar genius Breit is a remotely recorded, all-instrumental venture that will include drum tracks laid down by Damian Graham on Vancouver Island and bass licks sent in from Tommy Babin in Palo Alto, California. Pigat composed all the songs, except for one that Breit wrote. “I think we’re gonna call the record Hillbilly Circus,” he says, “’cause it’s kinda like hillbilly circus music, ya know. Anything that Kevin touches instantly gets weird and superfun.” From the sound of the latest Cousin Harley album, Let’s Go, there’s plenty of fun to go around. The trio has been described as “the Motörhead of rockabilly”, and how it earned that moniker is a story in itself. “We were in Holland on our first tour to Europe,” Pigat recalls, “and one of our gigs got blown out. A friend of ours over there put this makeup gig together in a tiny little club, and it was literally shoulder to shoulder, wall to wall. It can be pretty fierce with us when we’re on the road—we like to play hard and have a good time—and we were havin’ a really aggressive musical night. A Dutch guy came up and said, ‘You are like zee Motörhead of rockabilly!’ and it stuck with us ever since.”

A guitarist Pigat cites as influential is Telecaster master and “redneck jazz” purveyor Danny Gatton, who he discovered in the late ‘80s. When it comes to displaying his own intensity on guitar, Pigat almost always plays a Gretsch, the brand he has endorsed since 2009. He owns a one-ofa-kind Gretsch that he designed with the company’s master builder, Stephen Stern. When asked who his all-time favourite Gretsch player might be, Pigat forgoes the better known Brian Setzer in favour of ’50s jazz guitarist Mary Osborne.

But when I remind him that Malcolm Young also played a Gretsch, he changes his tune pretty quick.

“You know what,” he reflects, “I’ll put Malcolm Young on the top of the list, ’cause I still love AC/DC. As a treat to my daughter, if we arrive at school before she has to go into class, we have an early morning ‘Thunderstruck’. So I don’t think there’s gonna be a band that will stick with me from when I was an early teenager until the day I die other than AC/DC.” g

Documentary to feature political punk legend

by Mike Usinger

D.O.A.’s Joe Keithley isn’t the first high-profile punk rocker who has plunged into the world of politics. Recall, if you will, Dead Kennedys legend Jello Biafra running for the mayor of San Francisco back in 1979. (He lost, the biggest tragedy of that being his platform included forcing all businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits).

TSOL singer Jack Grisham ran for governor of California in 2003, losing to Arnold Schwarzenegger by roughly 4,198,000 votes.

Former American presidential candidate and Democratic party rising star Beta O’Rourke, meanwhile, made it to Washington’s House of Representatives. Once upon a time, the American underground knew O’Rourke as the bassist for El Pasobased Foss, which featured future At the Drive-In and Mars Volta member Cedric Bixler-Zavala.

And speaking of punks who have successfully transitioned into politics, D.O.A. mainstay Joe “Shithead” Keithley has established himself as someone as comfortable in a suit as he is on-stage with his

D.O.A. founder Joe Keithley has successfully straddled the worlds of punk rock and politics. signature Gibson SG. And that has led to a project looking at the iconic frontman’s ongoing journey from punk founding father to Burnaby city councillor.

Documentary filmmaker Scott Crawford (CREEM: America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine) and producer Paul Rachman (American Hardcore) recently announced a Kickstarter for Something Better Change. The film—named after D.O.A.’s seminal debut full-length—will touch on Keithley’s rise from suburban Burnaby kid to punk rock icon to politician and dedicated family man. The hook will be Keithley’s upcoming reelection bid to Burnaby city council in 2022. In announcing the film’s Kickstarter campaign, Something Better Change’s team has promised a film dedicated to “exploring how music and activism often interlink via raising awareness about important social issues, inspiring people to get involved, and fostering real, dynamic change”.

Those who have already sat down for the camera include punk legends like Henry Rollins, Keith Morris (Circle Jerks), Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat) and Krist Novoselic (Nirvana). Also making appearances are Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan (who cut his teeth in the Seattle punk scene), as well as Biafra and O’Rourke. This project will be funded if it reaches its goal of $38,000 by February 21 2021. g

Joe ‘Shithead’ Keithley has established himself as someone as comfortable in a suit as he is on-stage.