Published: March 20, 2010 11:09 AM EST
By: Isaac Davis Jr., MBA (Juniorscave.com)
New Music Spotlight March 2010 Edition
The Peacock Flounders
Music Now Artist/Band Spotlight Weekly Series
The Peacock Flounders
The Peacock Flounders comes to the music industry with years of experience, wealth of knowledge, tons of talents, and more heart than one can shake a stick at especially when music fans are listening to the band's music. Recently, Ron Sutfin of The Peacock Flounders chatted with us online via email about the band's history, influences, and their experiences. We enjoyed what Ron had to say and think our online readers will too. Here is the whole online conversation for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
Isaac: I just listened to several songs off your new EP/CD. What was the inspiration for making your new album?
The Peacock Flounders: The album was the culmination of the writing process of these songs. We formed the Peacock Flounders as an outlet for the writing that Ron Sutfin and Kerry Miller were doing at the time. They really are the demos from Ron's recording studio that the band recorded while putting together our original songs for our live set. A couple of the songs were old songs that Kerry and Ron did in their old bands that they wanted to record. Putting out the CD was just a natural progression. Local movers and shakers Rob DeRosa from the Connecticut based Thin Man Music record label and Gary Vollano from Connecticut based Independisc.com helped us do it.
Isaac: Who were your influences?
The Peacock Flounders: Ron and Kerry like a lot of the same music and bands. Having played together for a very long time we'd have to say that we've been very influenced by the bands we've played in ... Miracle Legion, Valley of Kings, Cameraface, The Swaggerts. That being said, our faves are : Killing Joke, Guided by Voices, Big Star, The Replacements, Foo Fighters, Todd Rundgren, Hoodoo Guroos, U2, Gin Blossoms, and of course... The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Dead Boys, The Buzzcocks, and The Clash.
Isaac: What do you consider to have been the highlight(s) and lowpoint(s) of your career to date?
The Peacock Flounders: I guess the highlight of this band was our show at the World Famous Bitter End in NYC. We had a busload of our fans come down to the city for the show on a Saturday night. We shot a great live video of the show and it's on our website http://www.ronsutfin.com.
The lowpoint was when Ron went to rehab 3 years ago...He's doing well now...
The Peacock Flounders: hello beautiful Album Cover
Isaac: Brief history about your background plus the style of music you play.
The Peacock Flounders: Ron and Kerry have been playing in bands together for many years. They were the original bass and drums in Miracle Legion. Their band Valley of Kings 12" vinyl LP "Victory Garden" reached #8 in the CMJ national College radio charts; was a "Jackpot Pick" in CMJ and received a 4 Star review in NME, Sounds and CREEM magazines. Ron started on Trombone in elementary school before moving to bass, drums, guitar and singing in college. He has a BA in Music and Sound Recording from the University of New Haven. Kerry has played drums for many years and he steps up with the guitar on a few tunes while Ron takes over on drums in The Peacock Flounders. Sal Paradise our bass player played bass in the backing band for the Five Satins ("In the Still of the Night") in the early eighties. Pete Krol played in Jasta 14 with Jamie Jasta before he started Hatebreed and a bunch of Connecticut hardcore bands.
Isaac: How easy is it to gets gigs for you as an artist? What is the live music scene like in your area?
The Peacock Flounders: There's been a decent original music scene in New Haven Connecticut for years going back to Ron's House of Punk in the late 70's and The Grotto in the 80's. New Haven is the home of Toad's Place, a club that has seen the likes of U2, REM, Bruce Springstein, and The Talking Heads and many other big name acts on its stage over the last 35 years. We've played there a lot and had our Record/CD Release Party at Toad's. Statewide though it still seems like cover bands rule. We use Sonic Bids to get gigs and we did a short tour of the Midwest last August. Cafe Nine and Rudy's in New Haven have live local original bands on a regular basis on weeknights and weekends.
Isaac: What do you think of the state of Indie music at the moment? Do you listen to radio much at all? Has the Internet helped music grow or hindered it in your opinion?
The Peacock Flounders: Obviously, the Internet has enabled local and indie bands to get their music out there more than ever. But where is "out there"?? There's a lot of clutter in the indie internet world. There's an Internet radio station (www.ultraradio.com) right here in New Haven that plays lots of local bands and cool music. College radio is alive and well in Connecticut with local band shows like "Homegrown" WESU at Wesleyan University and "Connecticut Rocks" on WPKN at the University of Bridgeport. The digital recording revolution has also changed the way people record music. Ron worked at a New York City Studio (Platinum Island at 676 Broadway) when he graduated with his music degree in the late 80's. The studio had two 24 track Studer A-800 rooms with an SSL console in one room and a vintage Neve console in the other. It was $100.00 plus and hour. They went out of business 5 years ago like many other recording studios in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The Peacock Flounders
Isaac: If you could create a fantasy band - what would be the line-up and why?
The Peacock Flounders: This is our fantasy band!!! We're livin' the dream... Well ok, maybe if Paul Westerberg, Pat Smear, Alex Chilton, Edge and Dave Grohl could sit in with us...hahaha
