Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Pesky Kid

Pesky Kid - Terrific Boomerang

"Terrific Boomerang" is an alt-indie track with a folky undercurrent. It’s loose, heartfelt, and a little scrappy, in the vein of MJ Lenderman, This Is Lorelei, or early Dr. Dog. The song circles around emotional loops, how we keep coming back to the same places and feelings. All wrapped in jangly guitars and a melody that sticks.

Pesky Kid is a multi-media artist who has dabbled in a bit of everything. This rings true when trying to define his 'genre.' Pesky Kid's upcoming release is Benny. The new EP from Benjamin Champagne. Just as the artwork reflects breezy, pesky fun, the music is a summer beach awash with different sounds from various eras, next to a parking lot full of old cassettes & forgotten records melting in the sun. The genre-bending brilliance of Beck & the smooth off-kilter pop of Still Woozy mix together in a unique & lovely fashion through Champagne’s own meta-modernist filter of underground indie electro pop: a sound fit for the 2020s.

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Interview with Pesky Kid

(•)> “Terrific Boomerang” loops around emotion and memory. What feeling kept coming back while you wrote it?

Well, I was thinking about economic boomerangs, because of how the beginning of this year started in America. About how one person can set out to have an effect in one way, but it can come back to get you. And as soon as I saw it like that, I realized it was a metaphor for my life.

(•)> The track is scrappy and heartfelt. How do you decide when a song feels perfectly imperfect?

That is so tough to do. I think it comes with making sure you’re really on midi. Use a little, of course, but putting real instruments in the recordings and letting the vocal breathe a bit. Of course, you have to have a somewhat polished sound to even get heard these days.

(•)> You blend alt-indie with folky energy. Where do those textures meet in your process?

Really depends on the mood I’m in. All these songs were written in the dead of winter last year. It gets dark really early in Michigan. And it’s cold. Authentic warm sounds make me feel a bit more human. In the summer, I’m big on disco and house.

(•)> MJ Lenderman and Dr. Dog vibes are clear. What draws you to that loose, unpolished sound?

Yeah, it’s a bit of a zeitgeist right now. I think they probably look to the same older influences as me. The Velvet Underground and The Beatles. I grew up listening to Pavement, and you can kinda hear that influence in everything that’s happening these days. Every band. I personally draw comparisons to Beck and Soul Coughing most frequently in my tunes. But it’s all in there.

(•)> The “boomerang” idea feels symbolic. What does returning mean to you personally or artistically?

Terrific Boomerang, as a phrase, shouldn’t sing well. But it does. And I love when that happens. When I can get away with something cryptic and phonetically challenging. So many hooks these days are one or two syllables. Crammed a lot of syllables in that idea. I’ve also not heard that concept too many times. Kinda fresh.

(•)> Benny sounds like a collage of eras. How do you keep all those influences from melting together?

To be honest, I want to melt them all together. I want to make something totally new from melting all those influences into one big golden statue or whatever.

(•)> You’ve built an entire creative world through Pesky Kid, how do your alter egos feed into each other?

Thanks for noticing. Yeah. I use the moniker Pierre Saint Jupiter when I write poems or make videos. I’m a curator at a museum in my day-to-day. I really like to inhabit characters and explore different facets of myself through those. It helps me to be more of a rock star.

(•)> You come from the DIY circuit. How did running shows shape how you approach music now?

In my 20s, I realized it was a path to freedom and happiness. You make a community and get support. Art is a reason to live. So now, I make music and other doodads because it’s what gives me life. I want to synthesize the world and spit it out. Grow a garden from my spit.

(•)> Your work blurs art, performance, and philosophy. Do you see your songs as part of a larger experiment?

Ultimately, I hope so. I’m working on a memoir, 2 collections of short stories, and a few scripts. I really want to build whole universes. I’m really glad you see the performance aspect and philosophy aspects going on. I drop a lot of references to art history in my lyrics. And that history is informed by the ongoings of those times. The philosophy of then and how it affects the present.

(•)> If “Terrific Boomerang” could soundtrack one film scene, what would it look and feel like?

Probably a 70s celluloid print of a character down on their luck in a comical way, like in a Hal Ashby film.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Pesky Kid on the Pigeon Spins Playlist