Published: August 11, 2010 10:15 AM EST
By: Isaac Davis Jr., MBA (Juniorscave.com)
New Music Spotlight August 2010 Edition
Penrose
Music Now Artist/Band Spotlight Weekly Series
Penrose
Dan, Pat, and Tom Murphy are all brothers performing in the band, Penrose. From their amazing sound to their endless amount of energy, Penrose has created a great indie band that certainly knows how to Rock and entertain the masses. After we spoke to the guys in this featured spotlight, we were delighted to learn some interesting and fun facts about Penrose. Here is what developed from this online conversation. Enjoy!!
Isaac: Let’s get started with this interview. When and how did you first become interested in music? How long have you been playing music?
Penrose: The three of us actually started playing music before middle school together. We were three brothers in the Philly suburbs who were basically forced by our parents to take piano lessons. The tunes we were into at the time were the garbage that only evoke 90's nostalgic chuckles at parties - definitely not stuff that would inspire rigorous piano practicing in 11 year olds. We eventually quit (thanks Mom), only to start up playing again in high school. Dan got a guitar and took off. Pat grabbed a bass not long after, and the logical step for me seemed to be to get a drum kit and see what happened. We set up shop in our basement mini-studio around 2005.
Isaac: Who would you say are your biggest musical influences and why?
Penrose: Right now we're definitely into the modern 1 - 2 punch of Jack White and Dan Auerbach, but in the past the tunes we've been really into have included the obvious Led Zeppelin + Pink Floyd mix of the classic rock era, and a bit of the Junior Kimbrough + R.L. Burnside + John Lee Hooker blues before that.
Isaac: What has been the greatest highpoint in your career so far?
Penrose: We've only been playing out for a year, and honestly every month is a new high point. When we got our first gig in a warehouse in North Philly, we were on cloud 9. Later we played in a real live bar which we were pumped by. Soon enough we were playing in some pretty great clubs in NYC and Philly, and from there some highlights include being invited to SXSW, Caravan music festival, and a residency at Arlene's Grocery in August. To really answer your question though, we were picked to open for MGMT in May and played to almost 6,000 people which was pretty fucking epic.
Isaac: What has been the greatest disappointment in your career so far? What did you learn from that experience?
Penrose: We played in a beach bar on Long Beach Island last summer when we were first starting out. I guess we thought there was going to be hundreds of people there and a green room and the whole rock and roll thing. There were like 7 people there when we started, and two when we finished. We didn't play GREAT, but we didn't play all that terribly either. Lesson learned was pick the right gigs and never get your hopes up too high for anything and don't ever get too disappointed by anything. Use your head and go with whatever happens. Some of our friends showed up and it was a fun night anyway.
Isaac: What draws you to want to play the type of music that you do?
Penrose: I guess a lot of what we liked about the classic rock tunes we were into - especially the Zeppelin stuff - was really digging towards the blues, but kind of making it their own. Jack White always says in interviews that if you look deep enough into rock and roll, you'll always find the blues. We don't necessarily want to play what everyone finds when they look deep, but we really like the idea of taking the core of rock and roll and fashioning our own style of it.
Isaac: What do you feel it takes to play this type of music that you play?
Penrose: I think it really takes an appreciation for the music that started it all and developed the rest. You can't stand on the shoulders of giants and never look down. All of our favorite tunes dig at something, so it'd be an oversight to not try and find out what it is. I guess the process of trying to find out what it is comes out in our music.
Isaac: What do you think you will create that will make your performances and who you are stand out in the music industry?
Penrose: There really is an aspect of our live show and our music in general that revolves around us being three brothers. Even when we started and didn't really know much about our instruments we were always in sync with each other in a way that I think we might not have been when playing with other people. Now that we've been doing it for years, one of us always knows where the other two are going and there is a lot of unspoken intuition. It probably comes from times where all through high school we would eat dinner and head to the basement. For years, most bands have to schedule practice times and run around four or five people’s schedules. We just had to finish dinner. All that builds towards a really solid and cohesive groove in which we play off of each other live in different ways each show.
Isaac: If you had the opportunity to do one cover, what cover would you do and why? How would you put your own spin on this cover?
Penrose: We just started covering Son House's Death Letter Blues which has been a lot of fun and really interesting. The song is probably like a hundred years old - maybe a little less, but still ancient. Tons of people have covered it down the line. They put their own spin on it. We're trying to mix a lot of different styles into our cover. It probably won't be 'finished' for a while, if ever, but it's fun playing it as an old blues song, a hard rock song, and a bunch of stuff in between - all in four or five minutes.
Isaac: What does it take to be a good songwriter?
Penrose: Time. Not a lot of time to revise and rewrite and all that crap. I think you just need some time to yourself and solely to yourself. No bullshit getting in the way. If you're a songwriter, and you have a bunch of no-bullshit time, you'll be a good songwriter.
Isaac: How difficult is it to juggle music, family and work obligation, and life in general? Explain.
Penrose: The family aspect isn't so tough with us being brothers. Our parents come out to a lot of shows, even in other cities sometimes. Dan and Pat are still finishing up college, so we'll see how that goes. They'll be in NYC and I'll be in Philly for most of the school year. We're not too worried about it though. This past year it hasn't been too hard to juggle any of it. We all worked at the same bar in New York (which we even played at on occasion). Honestly, the band has become 'life in general' to some extent, so instead of juggling it all I feel like we just put it all in a bag and carry it.
Isaac: What is your definition of being an Indie artist/band?
Penrose: I think most of us don't really have an option of NOT being Indie artists. What's the alternative? The Jonas Brothers? Indie I think is not so much a sound but a circumstance you find yourself in. To me, an Indie artist is just someone who didn't start out with a Disney record deal (or some other nonsense).
tantly putting new songs up and updating our show schedule and content, so check back often!
Isaac: In five years…….
Penrose: It's not so much about a record deal or anything like that. We'd just really like to expand our fan base and our audience opportunities. Hopefully in five years we're playing to five thousand. Ten years, ten thousand. We just want to play for as many people as will listen.
