Q&A with Power Pirate

You note that a friend suggested that the 3 of you play together – what were you each doing before you formed PP?

EP (Emily Pakulski – guitar/vox): Well, Annika and I have been jamming together for a long time, and we’ve been friends for even longer. I started playing guitar around the time she began playing bass, roughly two years ago. We would jam, with the two of us on guitar and bass, but she soon realized she had more talent for drums so she switched instruments. Around then we’d play pop-punk covers and simple tunes – we didn’t really start thinking about more complex music until this band came around.

MG (Michael Garate – keyboards): I briefly took piano lessons when I was younger. I became frustrated with lessons and practice, so I dropped them. Soon afterwards, I began teaching myself, and found it to be much more productive. Now, while I cannot read sheet music very well at all, I have developed my ear and dexterity through self-taught exercises and a self-imposed practice schedule.

AM (Annika Monari – drums): I too took classical piano lessons when I was younger and hated them. Rock music interested me far more. So, when Emily started guitar, I ended up playing the bass alongside her. We jammed together and in doing so learned a lot, but we could never find a drummer to form a band with. At one point, a friend of Emily’s who went to college needed to store his drum set somewhere and left it at her house. Consequently, I started drumming to make up for our lack of a drummer, and thanks to their new borrowed set, I slowly became more compelled to drum than to play the bass. However, I still play the bass all the time.

So your music is definitely fun, pulsating, and engaging (I heart Down Electronic in particular) – what 3 adjectives would you use to describe your music and why?

EP: Tough question. I think I’d go with purposeful. We put a lot of thought into the different parts of our songs. Mike and I have a fair amount of creative conflicts when writing, but when I hear our songs now, I recall how the whole thing came together and it allows me to appreciate how much we’ve gotten done.

AM: Energetic, definitely, because whenever we are in the process of writing, one of the things we keep in mind is whether our tunes are upbeat and dance-friendly, because ideally we would play at parties and places for people to move about and have a good time.

MG: Simple question. Passionate. We carefully plan out each note and pattern. When we are in the zone, we breathe, walk, talk, and live the music.

Power Pirate? Care to explain the name?

AM: Coming up with a cool name took pretty long. We began with a pretty extensive list of names, then started eliminating them one by one. After shortening the list, we gave it another look and ended up forming ‘Power Pirate’ by taking two of the names we had and combining them.

MG: Eventually we chose Power Pirate because it stands out, is easy to remember, and looks good in print.

EP: Yeah, standing out is definitely a big one in this case! People who hear I’m in a band but haven’t even heard the music tend to remember the name. I don’t know if it’s the oddity or the alliteration, but somehow it’s quite memorable.

You guys are currently in school, right? What are your future plans, short-term and long-term?

EP: I’m a freshman in high school now and am still totally undecided career-wise. I know I want to continue doing things with music, but there’s design, psychology, and so many other things that seem interesting. It’s all very overwhelming. Short-term, I really want to focus on what we have here and now: a growing band! It’s loads of fun.

AM: Yeah, I’d really like to get us [Power Pirate] up and running. We really haven’t taken the time that we should to expose ourselves. We’ve written a lot of material, except most of it hasn’t really left our practice room. That isn’t all bad, but obviously exposure and gigs are the fun of it. So, our short-term goal as a band is publicity. Long term, as for myself, I can’t say honestly. I’m sure I’ll stick to music though, however that may be.

MG: In the long-term, I will definitely keep music a priority in my life. Ideally I would like to have a music-related profession, like being a band member or a producer. In the short-term, however, I plan to keep playing with Power Pirate, working on my mixing technique, and improving my music abilities.

What has been your experience with developing and promoting your music here in DC specifically? Do you have any advice for others looking to get started in the music industry?

EP: We have not been actively promoting ourselves until recently. We’ve been a band for over a year now, and yes, while we’ve written a substantial amount of songs, not enough people hear our work. As we’ve started to promote ourselves and to take advantage of the internet through our website, MySpace, Facebook, etc., we’ve realized just how useful of a tool the web is. We started by just getting a bit more comfortable with the music industry by reading up on the topic. We slowly learned how to go about booking gigs, what bookers look for in a band, what an EPK (electronic press kit) is, and other essential bits of information. We’ve become far more knowledgeable, but we are still learning! In fact, we’ll never stop.

MG: It’s all about the connections. Who you know and the strings you can pull combined with self-motivation give the best results. It is extremely important to build and maintain professional relationships with people in various walks of the music industry, from ice cream store owners to producers.

Why electronica, and why now?

AM: Well when we first met it’s not like we sat down and said, “okay, we’re going to play this style of music”. It was more of an outcome of our individual styles; both Emily and I have a rock background, while Mike plays fast arpeggiated synth sounding bits on his keyboard. Emily and I have always been best friends, but we met Mike through a friend only now, which is why we didn’t start anything earlier.

MG: Unfortunately, the days of acoustic music are running out. We are the first generation to have so much access to massive amounts of music, via the internet, iPods, etc. With all the technology available these days, music is only limited to the imagination; not necessarily the instruments. As a forming band we wanted to harness these awesome opportunities and release our creativity in the most pure way possible. We hope you’ll enjoy the result!

Favorite song of yours (not one of your own) that folks might assume you’re not into because of the music PP creates?

EP: Unholy Confessions – Avenged Sevenfold.

MG: Born to be Wild – Fanfare Ciocarlia. (Can I say two? Please? Thanks.) Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too – Say Anything.

AM: Jealous Again – Black Flag.