The Lowdown - Nick Vallepiano from The Parlor Mob

Face to face at Hammersmith Apollo, London, October 14th 2009

October 23, 2009, 01:50 AM

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In true rock’n’roll fashion, my visit to Hammersmith Apollo for a double interview with Black Stone Cherry and new Roadrunner jewels The Parlor Mob turns into a true Spinal Tap afternoon. Schedule clashes allow me to assist to The Parlor Mob’s sound check, which is enough to totally blow me away. And if that’s not enough, bassist Nick Villapiano, who I’m interviewing in a crowded corridor near the dressing rooms, is one of the funniest most down to Earth lads I’ve met (even if he wouldn’t mind playing Madison Square Garden).

They’re rumoured to be phenomenal live (and so far I would agree) and they have a new album out to promote before going back to New Jersey: can Nick and his cheeky smile sell us “And You Were a Crow”? Let’s see...

Altsounds: We’re here with Nick from the Parlor Mob!
Hello!

Altsounds: Welcome to London!
Thank you!

Altsounds: Is this your first gig here?
It’s actually our third gig here!

Altsounds: Your third?
A couple of months ago we came here and it was our first time overseas, and really we hadn’t been anywhere apart from the States, and we were lucky enough to play twice in London.

Altsounds: Where about, do you remember?
The Water Rats and an acoustic thing at the Hard Rock.

Altsounds: Did you like the London crowd?
Yeah, London is sweet because it feels like our people, we’re very close to New York City (we’re from New Jersey), it feels like being back at home, being in the New York of the UK.

Altsounds: When did you first say “I’m going to be a musician when I grow old”?
I didn’t really decide, which is what is kind of cool about it. I grew up with music, my father is a musical genius, he went to Juilliard in the States, he had a degree in classical composition and all that kind of stuff, so I’ve been around music and had a good musical education my whole life, but never really knew what I wanted to do, I always thought I’d do something with computers or math, something like that, then I ran into Paul our one guitarist in high school, we started a band together and I discovered that playing music was fun. Then I graduated at school and like many people I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. We started playing again, we both got much better and we just kept on going with it and now we can afford the opportunity to... live the dream if you like.

Altsounds: For those who still don’t know The Parlor Mob, what do you sound like? I’ve known now for about twenty minutes, but I’ll let you do the honours...
A lot of people would say we have a kind of classic rock sound, quite kind of a bluesy thing, but I see things from a completely different prospective. I feel we’re more like a mix between a metal band and a soul band, and we kind of found that happy medium somewhere in between.

Altsounds: There are so many bands out there nowadays, the internet made it easy for everyone, every idiot can make up a band from their bedroom and put it on MySpace... So, why should we pick you, what is so special about The Parlor Mob?
We’re outstanding! We write excellent songs and we execute them to a very high standard. We pride ourselves on our ability to play our instruments, play our songs extremely well and entertainingly live. If you like good tunes, having a nice time, maybe throwing back some beers when going out to a show then we’re the ticket!

Altsounds: You have a full length album out on Roadrunner, “And you were a crow”: why should I buy it? Convince me!
Because it’s the best release this year? That album spans a very long time of our career, we wrote those songs across a two year period and it’s really the culmination of our work at this point. I personally feel like every song in there is a nice well written song that any track could be your favourite one, and if you’re a fan of rock’n’roll or want to be one, it’s a must have!

Altsounds: If you should pick one song out of "And you were a crow" to be on a blockbuster movie, say you’re asked for the next James Bond song, which one would you pick?
I would say ‘When I was an orphan’, it’s that kind of acoustic, mellow and it has deeps and swells throughout, it’s a very dynamic song with a kind of crescendo at the end, and I think it captures the whole album in one song. Probably the strongest track on the record.

Altsounds: I’ve heard great things about your live show which I’ve actually kind of witnessed earlier on... But let’s pretend I haven’t: are you really that good live?
I think so, I mean, you have to ask around to find out about that one, but we definitely pride ourselves on our live shows, we expend tons of energy, we’re extremely loud, we take a lot of pride in being very tight and we try to entertain, no b***s***, no pandering to the crowd or anything like that but solid musicianship and a lot of fervour goes into our playing.

Altsounds: Could you describe with one word yourself and your bandmates? They’re not here, so everything is allowed...
One word ah? Chilled. We’re all chilled dudes, trying to get by.

Altsounds: There’s a sixth member I’ve heard about, producer Jacquire King, can you tell us about him and his special relationship with The Parlor Mob?
Sure! He’s not a proper sixth member obviously, but he became very close with us while we were making our record. He helped us with years worth of ideas, and really taught us how to make ourselves better during the recording process. He was always open to ideas and really wanted us to explore everything we could do sonically to make the songs better and that’s a credo that really formed us as a band, where none of us is as important as the band itself and the song itself and he helped us bring that out on our record.

Altsounds: You were dropped by Capitol with an EP in the pipeline in 2007 and you ended up releasing it online for free, right?
Yes, Capitol signed us to a small deal, was the first label interest we ever really had, we did a four songs EP with them and then they merged with Virgin Records and during that whole struggle we got kind of pushed up to the side and they wouldn’t release our album so we thought “Screw it, anyone who wants it, come and get it!” and we’ll give it out for free, put it on the internet, put it on MySpace, you send us an email we’ll send you an MP3s...

Altsounds: Do you think that helped in any way?
I think so, it definitely didn’t hurt. It was cool to be able to have quality recordings to give people for free. Who doesn’t like free stuff. Anytime we can hook up people we’re trying to.

Altsounds: So there is a good side in downloading?
Oh yeah, for sure, absolutely! You know, this all internet thing, people boo-hoo it, “it’s ruining careers”, whatever, but how many bands are out there that wouldn’t have a deal if they hadn’t been discovered on the internet?

Altsounds: How did you catch Roadrunner’s attention?
A few years ago we were playing the SXSW Festival in Austin, we had just been dropped by Capitol, our manager got in touch with some Roadrunner people, they saw us there, and actually the A&R man was a friend of ours, he saw us a bunch of times in New York City, we started doing a few more gigs for them in New York and the rest is history, I guess they liked what they heard.

Altsounds: What would be ideally the highest dream moment in your career (I mean like playing for Obama, opening the Superbowl, headlining Download Festival, something like that)?
Playing for the President would always be amazing, especially for a calibre of President we have now, a couple of years ago it might have not been so cool, but you know, the benchmark changes. When I was young the benchmark was being signed, that was the ultimate, then it was putting out a record, and we did that one, then it was going on tour, overseas, but we’ve done all that now, so I think the next big one would be playing at Madison Square Garden, that would be really cool!

Altsounds: Back to Earth, while we wait for Madison Square Garden... what’s next for The Parlor Mob?
Finish off this tour, we’re doing a bit of Holland, Germany, France, coming back here for a little while, then we’re going to take a break for our holidays, see our families that we miss dearly, all our loved ones, and then it’s back to work on a new record, so expect a new release for next year!

Altsounds: Altsounds is an online music magazine with a higher ranking than Kerrang!: do you think online press is on its way to replace traditional journalism?
It would make sense. There’s Twitter and all that stuff going on now that are a strong claim that internet journalism is the way of the future and I can’t see why it wouldn’t be, it just makes sense, you can’t stop the march of progress. I’m sure there’ll always be a place for press journalism, tv and other forms of media, but the internet consumes our daily habits as it is, so why not with music.

Altsounds: So, you’re reaching a lot of people today all over the world, and we’re giving you some free Altsounds space... Say whatever you want to our readers!
Hi! (laughs) Keep a look out for us, hopefully we’re going to have some new songs on the internet in the next couple of months, we just wrote some real cool, epic new tunes, so please keep us in mind!

And let me tell you, after the live performance I’m about to witness, I surely won’t forget about The Parlor Mob anytime soon...

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