Hi, everyone! I recently sat down with Allie Hanlon, the frontwoman of the LA-based punk group Peach Kelli Pop. I actually discovered her music for my show on a local radio station. We have to play a certain number of song's from their "recent rotation" mix, and the song "Cut Me Off" from her newest EP, Lucky Star was one that got me more into her stuff. Originally hailing from Ottawa, Canada, Hanlon has since moved to the Los Angeles area where she plays shows and tours nationally with the likes of Joyce Manor and Oso Oso. We talk about her experience playing Japanese shows, her Blink-182 cover band, and the surprising significance behind the band's name!
bazzreviews: Which albums or artists inspired you to want to start a music career in the first place? Allie Hanlon: When I was about 19, I was asked by a friend of mine, Ian, to join a band called The white Wires in Ottawa, where I’m originally from. I ended up joining the group and playing drums with them and touring for about seven or eight years. That was the first time I played in a band that was a very active band. It showed me what being in a band is all about. Before I was a member in the White Wires, I didn't really understand how anything “worked,” if you will. When I went to play on stage, I didn't know about monitors or really anything about the whole stage experience. I didn't know about, like, booking shows, especially like DIY-style. Above all, it taught me the practical side of things too. How to deal with bandmates, work with other musicians, write songs, teach your songs to other people, and all of those things. Even though it’s been almost fifteen years since I joined the group, all of my experiences with Ian and the White Wires was super formative for me. He made music for fun, with a priority on friendship and having a good time. I try to keep that mantra in my head for when I’m working on Peach Kelli Pop music.
br: I know you started the band in Ottawa but now you’re based in LA. What were some of the biggest changes you saw from being a musician in Canada compared to the United States?
A.H.: It's so funny looking back on it, because I really didn't know what I was getting into at all when I first moved here. Ottawa is a city where it's pretty hard to have music - or any kind of art - be your main career. Anyone that does play in a band usually does it because they just love music and hanging out with their friends. If music is something that you want to do for your career, you'll probably move to Toronto or Vancouver because those are the bigger art cities. Canada is really unique, though, because they actually have some government grants for artists. I didn't know how to tap into that when I was younger, and if I was still living there, now, I would have figured it out. When I, when I moved to LA, it was like all that fun I had while playing in these local bands was lost. Making music in the States is very much a job, people are really career oriented in that sense. And I kind of didn't like it. It was hard to tell whether people were actually my friends or if they were not because they were so busy working on their own things. It was a rude awakening, and I really had to toughen up to make this really “work. ” After living in LA for a bit of time, I eventually moved to Long Beach, which is kind of like Ottawa. I'm actually a lot happier here, because I kind sort of live a more private life, but still have the luxury of living my dream. Long Beach is just 30 miles south of LA, so I can drive there and play shows when I want.
br: You didn’t mention Blink-182 as an influence, but it seems like they were a formative group for you. I’m curious to know a little bit more about your Blink cover band?
A.H.: Yeah, they’re definitely a big influence! And yes, the band is still alive, but we haven't played a show in a while. The band is made up of my friend, Rachel, who plays in this band called RL Kelly, my friend Nicole who was formerly in Peach Kelli Pop, and Barry Johnson from Joyce Manor. It started with Rachel and I because I think I said “I can sing Tom DeLonge vocals perfectly” because he has a really high, nasally voice. Rachel was saying that she has a perfect lower voice. Once we got that all figured out, we got Nicole to play drums because she also loves Blink. Barry actually asked us if he could play, and I almost couldn’t say no. Over the last few years, Peach Kelli Pop has played a lot of shows with Joyce Manor, and I know how great of a player he is. I couldn't really nail down the lead parts on guitar for some of those songs, and he appeared and played the parts perfectly because he's done them for years. We played a few shows, but none of us have ever been super active in it because it was pretty hard for us to all find time to practice. Our live performances were always somewhat experimental, if you know what I mean. It’s not that we were bad or anything, but it did not sound anything like the real band, which I thought was better. If you were expecting it to sound like the real band, you might have been a little disappointed.
br: How did you meet the other members of the band?
A.H.: When I first started the band, I was imagining that I was going to have the same band members forever, we're gonna be a family, all that jazz. I was twenty-two or twenty-three, so it was easy to find people that had a flexible lifestyle. They would say, “yeah, sure, I can take the time off at my coffee shop job to play this gig” or something like that. But once again, reality struck. As we all got a bit older, people were starting to focus on their own career. Two of the girls I used to play with are costume designers in LA now, and they were getting really good job offers when they were playing in Peach Kelli. Another girl is an animator, and she's really successful now. My drummer just got into Rutgers and he is now out in New Jersey. They had to make a choice, you know? Having bandmates has become less romantic over time. It made more sense to just have a rotating group of members, and being in LA is great for that. Right now, I'm playing with a married couple that I have known for years. I would stay at their house in Detroit when I used to tour there. Allison Young is an incredible bass player and a really, really great singer. And then her husband, Gordon plays lead guitar for us. He also just mixed the last EP I did.
br: What’s the significance behind the band’s name?
A.H.: The name Peach Kelli Pop is actually the title of a song by this band called Red Cross that I really liked back in the day. I still like them, but I was kind of obsessed with them when I was first starting to get into music. They’re from LA and they started in the late 70s, when they were teenagers. And they're still going today, which is super cool. I don't know if you've heard their music, but they have a lot of different eras covered in their discography. When they started, they were playing with acts like Black Flag, and they were snotty punk teens. I listened to their first EP and taught myself to play guitar and bass from that, because it's pretty simple with just those three-chord punk songs.
br: It seems like the live show has been a big part of the band’s image, but would you say you prefer playing live rather than working in the studio?
A.H.: I feel like it's so different. When I first started writing music for Peach Kelli Pop, I recorded everything myself. It was very much like a home recording project. When I finally had to think about playing live, I now had to go back and realize that I couldn’t do it. All of the tracking that I did at that time was probably twenty inputs per track. It would be a keyboard part, a shaker, a tambourine, and then, like three or four guitars. You soon realize you have to be economical with how you make your music, and on the second and third full LP, I was at a point where I would record them in a way where you can recreate them live with four or five people very easily. I think playing live and writing in a studio gives such different emotions. When I'm writing music at home, I only ever feel motivated to fully finish something when I have successfully started something. Once you get that inspiration, off the ground, it’s of those moods where you can focus and lose yourself for hours. On stage, it's just pure adrenaline and fun. It's a payoff because you ideally see people enjoying the stuff that you've created.
br: Tell me a little bit about your Japanese tours and the impact it had on you?
A.H.: We’ve now toured there four times, and it's always been super fun. I feel like the first time was so magical because I've always loved the culture there. Even when I was little, I didn't know anything about Asian countries. I had just gravitated towards anime and the visual aspects of the culture. That’s why you see a lot of Sailor Moon stuff on Peach Kelli Pop’s social media pages. Once I got a little older, though, I got into the cuisine and stuff, so it almost became a dream of mine to tour there. We ended up touring Tokyo the first time through the help of an old friend, and the reactions of the crowds were super special. The music resonated really well with the Japanese audience. The crowds can be rowdy and the energy in those venues is unlike any I’ve played in front of. The touring aspect of things is so much easier there, too. Rather than getting done with one show, sleeping in a hotel, and driving a van eight hours to another city to do it all again the next night, all you do is take a thirty-minute train ride to the outskirts of Tokyo to play a show. You can just go on the trains with your guitars, and other gear because they have amps and a drum set at the venues already.
br: Can you describe the writing process on the new EP? How did it differ from past releases?
A.H.: Definitely. It’s a four song EP, with one of the songs actually being a cover by one of my favorite bands in Japan called The Past Pats. The other three songs I wrote over all along the course of a long time. I will be completely honest when I say this project definitely took a lot longer to come to fruition than I anticipated. I promised to do an EP with Lauren Records, and I was definitely taking way too long to write everything. I kind of wanted to focus on a full length, but I'm sort of glad I didn't. If I had done a full length, I wouldn't have been able to promote it like I am now. But anyways, to answer the writing process part of things, I recorded demos of all of the songs. I would go to my computer and I would start with a fake drum track, and then write the guitar part or record the drums. This was all pre-COVID times, so I was able to practice with my band. And I taught the drummer and Allison and Daniel their parts. We went in with my friend, Joel Jerome, in LA and we tracked it. Like I said before, they're all really good musicians and they can usually just do their parts in one or two takes. I did the vocals on my own at home, so I could take my time with it all. My writing process hasn’t differed all too much from what it’s been up until this point. I’ll start with just a simple recording of something in the voice memos on my phone, write out certain parts, then record them.
br: What’s more important to you, lyricism, or production value and instrumentation?
A.H.: I’d say they're equally as important. It's funny, because as a listener, I really focus more on melodies. In ome of my favorite songs, I don't even know any of the lyrics except for the chorus. It’s just the instrumentation, the guitar tones, the way something is recorded that keeps me engaged with everything. It’s kind of funny, because my boyfriend is obsessed with lyrics. He’s always telling me why he thinks they're the most important part of the song, or they're an extremely important part of the song. It’s not that I don’t think lyrics are important, but I won't spend as much time writing them as I should on them.
br: What have been some of your favorite songs to have made over the years? Are there any special reasons for why you picked those songs?
A.H.: I really like my EP where I put seven super short songs that Mint Records put out as a seven-inch. It was fun because I did it without having any pressure on myself. I just finished recording the Gentle Leader LP, and I was then at a point in my career where I wasn’t getting the access to Canadian government grants. I didn’t know if I could afford to keep making music, so there was all of this add pressure. It was kind of dark and not fun for me. I lost touch with the reason for why it's enjoyable to make music. After the success the record had, Mint approached me to make something short, which really got me inspired again. Like I said, it was extremely organic and fun to make. I think the songs are better on that short EP than on the actual LP if I’m being honest. They're more creative, and more of a direction that I want to go in.
br: If you could delete or rewrite a song entirely from your discography, what would it be and why?
Are there any other projects in the works for you guys right now?
A.H.: That's an interesting question. There’s one piece of music that I’ve always considered taking down for some time. I'm not embarrassed by my first record, but as I was writing it, I didn't know that I'd be doing music 10 years from now. I just kind of did it for fun, and all the songs sound super amateur. I enjoy art like that, but I don't really want people to listen to that record and have it define me as the musician that I am now, you know? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great how I captured such a different a time in my life, but I’m so much more proud of being a better musician today.
br: What music goals do you have for the future?
A.H.: I definitely want to establish more of a schedule where I work on music. Right now, I’m going through some writers’ block, but if I push myself work on music for like an hour a day, then two or three hours every day, it becomes routine. Another goal I’ve had is to start collaborating with other people more often. It's something that I've thought about investing in or just like, hitting up other people. I've seen other musicians do it, and I'm like, “oh, why don't I do that?” Why not hit up Allison and ask, “hey, can you help me come up with like a chorus or like a better lyric here?” I cannot stress how talented of a musician she is, and I really trust her. And of course, there are things that I'd like to achieve that are so far-fetched and out of my control. I always like having one of those goals. For example, I’d really like to write music for an animated series. Who knows if I’ll ever get that opportunity, but it’s always something to think about!
I'd like to thank Allie for giving me her time and doing this interview. I hope you guys will go check out her new EP, as well as my own radio show, "UNCUT JAMS," streaming on WLUW- 88.7 FM from 8 AM to 10 AM CST on Thursdays (through December 10)! Thanks again to all of you guys for reading this article, too, and I hope to see you back here for more bazzreviews posts!
To stream Lucky Star EP, go to https://peachkellipop.bandcamp.com