The dB’s Peter Holsapple – HuffPost 5.18.12
Mike Ragogna: Peter, what advice might you have for new artists?
Peter Holsapple: Be true to your muse. Rah Rah! (laughs) Suddenly I heard The Beach Boys’ song in the background, so I was getting ready to do the cheerleading part. (laughs) But I guess one thing is if you’re a songwriter, don’t be afraid to have some bad songs because you have to sort of plum the pipes. I’ve had numerous situations where I’m thinking, “Gosh, this could be my last song. I haven’t written a song in a long time, and this is the first song, and gosh, it’s not very good, is it…” And the next song will be great, and the next song will be great after that. Be constantly vigilant and make sure that you’re writing what you like. Be true to your muse. Believe in what you’re receiving. I like to think of that as the Tom Petty thing like, I’m just a receiver, I’m a radio antenna just kind of pulling it in from the ether. I tend to think that as well. I would say persistence is great to have. It’s not all fun and games out in the rock ‘n’ roll world. It’s a lot of–what’s the word–sacrifice, I guess. Stability. I never thought I would actually be kind of envious of some of my friends that had nice jobs all their lives, but you know, sometimes when the plumber costs $600 and you wonder where that’s going to come from, it’s not the sustainable rock ‘n’ roll income that you’d hope for. I always wanted to buy a house for my parents like Ringo did, and I never really got around to that. Unfortunately, I never got the money together to do it. So be grateful for everything that you get. Be sweet to the people that love your music. Don’t be mean to them. Don’t put people on pedestals too much. That’s a few things that I’d say. It’s all going to be in my book one day, right? (laughs)
MR: (laughs) What’s the title?
PH: My book is called I’ll Never Do That Again. (laughs)
MR: (laughs) Thank you! Peter, any words of wisdom?
PH: Well the only thing I’d add in is please go out and buy the record when it comes out! It’s a really good record. It’ll up the quality of your record collection. We’re really proud of it. We’re going to try to do as many dates as we possibly can to promote it, but even if we don’t get to your neck of the woods, we hope everybody owns a copy. Actually, we’re suggesting that people buy two because there’s always somebody that’ll need to hear this, and I think that there’s enough good stuff on this record that warrants that kind of behavior.
MR: You shameless marketer!
PH: Aren’t I, though?