By Devin Gonzalez
We recently had the opportunity to talk with Allah Las/PAINT guitarist Pedrum Siadatian about their experience touring, finding musical inspiration and putting out their latest albums “Zuma 85” and “Loss for Words”.
How does touring with the Allah Lahs now feel different compared to when you were first starting out?
Pedrum: When we first started, it was a way smaller operation. There’d be tours where we’d be opening for a other band. And we’d rent a minivan or something and fit all our gear in and just drive together. We’d share one room, two people a bed, and sometimes we’d sleep in the van. Now we get hotel rooms, sometimes we tour in a bus, sometimes a sprinter. It’s just more comfortable now than it was because we have gotten a bigger audience and all that.
Have you noticed if your audience has changed(like new, younger fans in the crowd) or do you feel like there still remains a strong demographic of longtime psych fans that go to shows?
Pedrum: It’s a bit of both honestly, I’d say it’s mostly people in their 20s and 30s for the most part.
How do you go about getting inspiration for your music? Or do you find yourself getting inspired when you travel on tour around the world? Or do you mainly have to sit down in a studio and see what flows out?
Pedrum: I feel like I always have my antennas up and it’s just a matter of paying attention to what’s around you, and what you’re digesting, what you’re watching, what you’re reading, and actually putting the effort into making something whether you feel inspired or not. So I never regret trying even if I’m not feeling it in the moment because things reveal themselves when you least expect it.
What’s you’re general approach to how you want your sound to evolve, like do you explore through different decades and eras or do you feel what’s in the moment?
Pedrum: I don’t really think about encapsulating a specific era necessarily when I’m working on stuff. But I do always want it to be different from the record before. That’s all I know, I always want to be advancing and changing.
Devin: I hear a lot of like, especially for your albums Zuma 85 and Loss for Words, a lot of Kraut Rock influence and stuff like that.
Pedrum: Yeah, we love that stuff, I love that stuff. I feel like for the most part, I honestly don’t listen to much rock and roll anymore. I mostly listen to electronic music. A lot of German stuff like the Kraut Rock stuff and like Cluster. And a lot of dance music honestly like house.
What’s your experience like self releasing your album versus working with a label?
Pedrum: There’s something satisfying about doing it yourself and having full control over when it comes out. And you’re just involved every step of the way and you realize how expensive it is. But there is something satisfying about doing it all yourself. The nice thing about a label though is that a label has a built in kind of audience usually who is alerted to the record coming out. They’re just connected to all these facets of the music industry. So more people will end up hearing it and you don’t how to pay as much out of your own pocket, which those things are nice. But the downsides I guess are the money is less transparent and you may not get paid from the record you put out for a while. You may not see like money from it, but more people will be exposed to it.
What was your intention behind creating your own label, Calico Discos?
Pedrum: I think it was just to kind of put out records from people we know, friends and things. It’s just another avenue for putting things out from people we believe in. And the record we just put out with Innovative Leisure was like a joint release with Calico. So just building another thing up. And going to back to record labels versus self releasing, with the record I put out, I don’t have any distribution or anything. So it’s all direct from me, like through Bandcamp and through shows. So it’s a lot harder to move records if you’re not touring a lot and stuff. And it’s like how many times can you post your Bandcamp link, it’s kind of just like ridiculous at a certain point. So there’s satisfaction putting it out yourself but ultimately you have to put a lot of your own money into it, a lot less people hear. Even though I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.
How do you navigate collaborating with other musicians?
Pedrum: Honestly, I haven’t done much of that. I haven’t done many co-writes. There’s one that’s gonna go on the new PAINT record. Maybe a few of them but outside of the Allah Lahs, I don’t really do many collaborations.
How do you go about finding your sound for your solo project? And how is it different from like, how you try to go for the sound of Allah Lahs? Do you find a natural separation between your ideas?
Pedrum: Yeah, I try to keep them sonically different, but sometimes you can’t help for one to make it into the other.
How is the workflow with working with the other members in the Allah Las versus just on your solo project?
I feel because Allah Las is a really democratic band, everyone kind of puts their own touch on it. And there can be a certain magic in that but it can also be hard to arrange a song I guess. When it’s like [solo], I can execute what I want and there’s something easier about that, sometimes. But there is a whole different magic about trying to work with people you’ve been playing with for 15 years, you know.
Do you find yourself wanting to leave the past behind?
Pedrum: Yeah, I do. For real I do. But I’m always trying to move forward with stuff and playing newer songs because I identify with them more and they feel more relatable to who I am now. Playing older stuff, I feel a detachment.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The views, commentary, and opinions expressed during the preceding editorial are solely those of the person(s) expressing them and not necessarily those of the faculty, staff, or administration of Rice University.
The Allah Las’s album “Zuma 85” and PAINT’s album “Loss for Words” are both available wherever you stream music.
Photo: taken by Andrew Riley (@_soggycardboard on Instagram)