music: September 2007 Archives
Hello! I am Martika and I am the songwriter and guitarist in Peapod Surprise! (The exclamation mark is part of the band's name. Please read the end of that sentence as you would normally.)
Do you like my crop top? As well as being sexy, it is an integral part of my guitar playing. I think of my songs as like my little musical babies, made out of notes, and I need to be able to feel the chords vibrating against my tummy as I play - like a baby's little kicks. Although the kicks come from the outside rather than the inside. So I suppose it's more like my songs are toddlers kicking me in the tummy - but nicely. I think that makes my brain the placenta. Yes.
Also, Peapod Surprise! isn't selling many records (yet!) and so I can't afford a shirt that goes all the way down.
The name Peapod Surprise! was inspired by a real-life incident that happened to me when I was five. It was a Sunday, and I was helping my mother prepare dinner by shelling peas. I was enjoying counting the cute little peas, and also estimating the yield from each pod as I went along. I remember I had a total of 3791 peas from 598 pods, giving an average yield of 6.34 peas per pod. But when I opened the 599th pod, I was astounded to find that inside, rather than the expected 5-7 peas, there was one embryo chicken. It was dead! I was horrified, as you can imagine. It wasn't until I studied matrices at high school that I worked out how to figure that strange proto-hen into my cumulative pea-shelling calculations.
Let me introduce you to the band.
Do you like my crop top? As well as being sexy, it is an integral part of my guitar playing. I think of my songs as like my little musical babies, made out of notes, and I need to be able to feel the chords vibrating against my tummy as I play - like a baby's little kicks. Although the kicks come from the outside rather than the inside. So I suppose it's more like my songs are toddlers kicking me in the tummy - but nicely. I think that makes my brain the placenta. Yes.
Also, Peapod Surprise! isn't selling many records (yet!) and so I can't afford a shirt that goes all the way down.
The name Peapod Surprise! was inspired by a real-life incident that happened to me when I was five. It was a Sunday, and I was helping my mother prepare dinner by shelling peas. I was enjoying counting the cute little peas, and also estimating the yield from each pod as I went along. I remember I had a total of 3791 peas from 598 pods, giving an average yield of 6.34 peas per pod. But when I opened the 599th pod, I was astounded to find that inside, rather than the expected 5-7 peas, there was one embryo chicken. It was dead! I was horrified, as you can imagine. It wasn't until I studied matrices at high school that I worked out how to figure that strange proto-hen into my cumulative pea-shelling calculations.
Let me introduce you to the band.
This is Sascha, our singer. She has the most celestial, beautiful voice I have ever heard. Almost terrible in its beauty - I liken it to a choir of angels trapped in a nuclear bomb, exploding inside a cathedral. On Easter Sunday. Unfortunately, few outside of Peapod Suprise! have ever heard her sing, since she insists on using a banana instead of a microphone. This is because Sascha - a very hairy baby, by all accounts - was adopted and raised by anthropology students who were under the impression that she was an orphaned chimpanzee. Apparently, it would be "culturally insensitive" to take away her banana and make her sing in to a microphone, so we're kind of stuck. Still, she's handy to have around when a gig goes badly, because she responds to booing by flinging her own shit into the audience.
Meet Gustav, our keyboard player. He's like the 'jester' of the band: he can't actually play, his keyboard doesn't have any insides or anything, but he's responsible for Peapod Surprise!'s visual style - a facet of Peapod Surprise! that is almost (but not quite) as important as our music (which I do).
Look at that make-up. It's like his right eye is so shocked at what it has seen in the world that it has actually cracked his face (by trembling in outrage and fear?). This is the theme of many Peapod Surprise! songs - that the state of the world is so crazy right now, it could almost overload your optic nerves.
I used to wonder why only one of Gustav's eyes was cracked at seeing the state of the world, but he explained that the state of the world is so crazy that he has kept the other eye completely closed to preserve his sanity, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
I think Gustav is probably a genius.
I don't know who this kid is. The record company said we needed either a child or a puppy to give us 'that cute factor' and so suddenly this boy started turning up at rehearsals. He never says anything, he just stands there looking a bit scared and drinking sachets of Capri Sun, which he keeps in his accordion. But when we play gigs, he arrives on stage riding a wonderful palamino horse, which is cool.
Eleanor is our soprano sax player. The sound of her soprano sax is eerie and mysterious, partly because of Eleanor's sensitivity and skill, and partly because her soprano sax is haunted. Haunted by quite a fat ghost, apparently, which is why she has to sit down when she plays.
Nobody in the band has ever seen Eleanor's face. We're not even sure if she has one, although presumably there's some kind of mouth.
Finally, we come to our percussionist, Fabio. Just look at the pleasure on his little face. Drumming is one of Fabio's two great passions in life - the other passion he has is being an adult baby. We are hoping to get Gwen Stefani to design his stage nappy.
I just realised: I didn't discover that embryo chicken in a peapod at all, it was in a boiled egg. I am disgusted at myself! Peapod Surprise! is based on a lie!
I am ripping up our Eurovision application form as I type.
Meet Gustav, our keyboard player. He's like the 'jester' of the band: he can't actually play, his keyboard doesn't have any insides or anything, but he's responsible for Peapod Surprise!'s visual style - a facet of Peapod Surprise! that is almost (but not quite) as important as our music (which I do).
Look at that make-up. It's like his right eye is so shocked at what it has seen in the world that it has actually cracked his face (by trembling in outrage and fear?). This is the theme of many Peapod Surprise! songs - that the state of the world is so crazy right now, it could almost overload your optic nerves.
I used to wonder why only one of Gustav's eyes was cracked at seeing the state of the world, but he explained that the state of the world is so crazy that he has kept the other eye completely closed to preserve his sanity, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
I think Gustav is probably a genius.
I don't know who this kid is. The record company said we needed either a child or a puppy to give us 'that cute factor' and so suddenly this boy started turning up at rehearsals. He never says anything, he just stands there looking a bit scared and drinking sachets of Capri Sun, which he keeps in his accordion. But when we play gigs, he arrives on stage riding a wonderful palamino horse, which is cool.
Eleanor is our soprano sax player. The sound of her soprano sax is eerie and mysterious, partly because of Eleanor's sensitivity and skill, and partly because her soprano sax is haunted. Haunted by quite a fat ghost, apparently, which is why she has to sit down when she plays.
Nobody in the band has ever seen Eleanor's face. We're not even sure if she has one, although presumably there's some kind of mouth.
Finally, we come to our percussionist, Fabio. Just look at the pleasure on his little face. Drumming is one of Fabio's two great passions in life - the other passion he has is being an adult baby. We are hoping to get Gwen Stefani to design his stage nappy.
I just realised: I didn't discover that embryo chicken in a peapod at all, it was in a boiled egg. I am disgusted at myself! Peapod Surprise! is based on a lie!
I am ripping up our Eurovision application form as I type.
