Friday, January 9, 2009

The Peverett Phile Interviews: JoDee Purkeypile From The Alice Rose

Hello, rock and roll phans, are you ready for another interview? Today's phriend is JoDee Purkeypile from the band The Alice Rose, whose CD is phantastic. So, ladies and gentlemen, here's JoDee...




Me: Hello, and welcome to the Phile. I have to say first that any band with the lead singer named JoDee Purkeypile can't be that bad? JoDee, is that your real name?

JoDee: Yes, it's real.

Me: The band is from Austin, Texas, but sounds like they are from London or Australia even. Do you try to sound that way?

JoDee: No, I think we sound like we do because a lot of our influences are English. I don't really know any Australian singers.

Me: One of my favorite bands in the whole world is Squeeze. Does the band know who they are? Squeeze fans would def be into The Alice Rose.

JoDee: Well, yes we know who they are. They were great, but I've never found them to be an influence. I honestly had never heard them until our first album came out and we started being compared to them. We've had lots of people contact us and tell us how much they love Squeeze and dig our stuff, so obviously it's been fine with us.

Me: I tried to google your band name and instead found a singer named Alice Rose (who is very hot by the way). I doubt you named the band after her, but did you put the The in front of the band's name because of her?

JoDee: Yeah, she's got nothing to do with us.

Me: Speaking of, where did you get that name? I was thinking you named the band after the Gin Blossoms song, then realized that was "Alison Road", which is a real big difference.

JoDee: I named the band for a friend who died. She was just coming into her own as a great artist- painting, the real stuff. I didn't know her that well at all, really. I just felt connected to her and inspired. I named the band after her niece, named Alice Rose. So, no- it wasn't the Gin Blossoms. That would just be stupid.

Me: The title of your new CD is called "Phonographic Memory". Where did that name come about? I always wanted to make an album called "Pornographic Memory". LOL

JoDee: Well, it's not a new album, it came out in late 2006. We're finishing our new one at the moment. It'll be out next Spring. As for the title, I came up with it when I was 17 or 18. I always thought it would be a cool album title. That's all, really. I think you should definitely go for it and make "Pornographic Memory". I think someone actually called ours that somewhere.

Me: If there was one band that The Alice Road could go on tour with, who would it be? Alice In Chains Would be cool. The Alice Tour!

JoDee: I don't know. I guess there are lots of bands who we would sound good with. Layne Staley is dead, so let's leave it at that.

Me: You released two songs for Halloween... "Bloody Mary" and "Witch House". Is Halloween a big holiday for y'all? Any Christmas songs in your future?

JoDee: Halloween is the best. My mom and her sister were born on Halloween, so growing up it was always special. It's also just all the images of death and horror. Horror movies have always been my passion, too. I write a lot about evil. Christmas songs... perhaps. We actually did one years ago. It was pretty corny.

Me: I watched your videos and especially liked "Wear That Cross", which is one of my favorite The Alice Rose songs as well. When was that video made, and what was the background of it?

JoDee: That was filmed by Brevig Madison and Jason Morris. They're Dallas film students and good friends of ours. We shot the performance in Dallas. They filmed all the outdoor stuff on Super 8 on Brevig's land in Topsy, Texas. We just wandered around and they edited it very nicely. I was pretty impressed. The song Jason originally wanted us to do was "Wisteria", but we decided on the way to Dallas to do "Wear That Cross", which was going to be released a month after that I think, so it made more sense.


Me: Is the band going to be touring behind "Phonographic Memory"? If so, any plans to come down to Florida?

JoDee: We toured twice for the album. We didn't get to Florida. We did the Midwest. For the new album, we're heading to the East Coast.

Me: This is the question I ask all my interviewees... what is your favorite Foghat song?

JoDee: Probably "Polygamist Fist". If they didn't write that then they should have.

Me: Let's play Six Degrees of the Peverett Phile... your music is featured in the horror movie Splinter, which stars Jill Wagner, who was my first interview, and I forgot to ask her about the movie. Duh! Did you get to go on set and meet Jill?

JoDee: No, they had already filmed the movie when we were contacted. She was great in it, though.

Me: How did your music end up in that film? That's pretty cool it did.

JoDee: A friend of ours named Jason Borkowski introduced us to John Chuldenko and he contacted us a year or two later. He's a director and member of Shadowcorp along with Splinter director Toby Wilkins. It was really awesome of him for hooking us up.

Me: And finally, is there anything else you would like to tell the readers of the Phile? Any websites?

JoDee: Well, check us out on Myspace, and keep your ears peeled for the 2nd record, coming in the Spring. Thanks!


So, what did you think of that? I wasn't sure if JoDee was irritated at my stupid questions or not. And no, Foghat never did "Polygamist Fist". Anyway, the next interview will be tomorrow, and it's a big one. It's with Mike Finnigan who played with Hendrix, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Etta James just to name a few. Then on Sunday it's Brad Barnes, the lead singer from Stone Avenue. Then on Monday it's a British singer named Liana. Until tomorrow, spread the word, not the turd. And thanks again, JoDee.


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