Anyone that knows me will know I’m a big Trixter fan, and way back in the early days of the website I caught up with both Pete and Mark from the band to talk about the 20th Anniversary of that first record. Ten years on and earlier this year I caught up with guitarist Steve Brown to talk about the latest ‘Tokyo Motor Fist’ release, and now I finally get to chat to the missing man – bassist P.J. Farley who has just released a second stunningly good solo album ‘Accent the Change’. With P.J. and Steve making some of the best music of their careers it might just be a Trixter 1-2 in this years ‘Best of’ list! Seriously you have to check it out!
PJ: Here we go!
Mark: Great to talk to you P.J. – the last time we spoke was a while ago now back in 2010!
PJ: 2010, where were we?
Mark: Oklahoma.
PJ: Oklahoma?! I believe you man (laughs)!
Mark: It was at the ‘Rock in America’ Festival, you’d just come off stage.
PJ: Oh yes, I was playing with Lita right?
Mark: That’s the one, and Trixter played too the night before with a stand in on bass, I think you had another show with Lita on that day. A year prior to that I caught you at Rocklahoma as well.
PJ: Yeah, that was a quick one!
Mark: (laughs) it was interesting wasn’t it with the tornado cutting your set short! Not many bands can lay claim to that.
PJ: (laughs)
Mark: We had to call after listening to the new album ‘Accent the Change’ it’s incredible. How long has it been in the making? I loved the first solo record, has this been a work in progress since then?
PJ: Thank you very much. Not really, it’s been coming to together over the last two years or so. After I put out ‘Boutique’ (His first solo album ‘Boutique Sound Frames’ in 2016) I was just happy that I got the songs finally out into the cloud, into the universe, and then I had little kids at that time, and so I was really happy to be able to do that then because my hands were kinda full. But it wasn’t until the last two years or so that the writing machine kinda started up again. And then I wrote a song and I thought, wow I finally started and finished a song, that’s cool, because that hadn’t happened in a while. Then it happened again not too long after that. But I wasn’t really goal-oriented at that point I wasn’t thinking “I’m gonna make a record” because nowadays as always there’s a lot of effort that goes into making a record, especially when it’s just yourself. So I was just taking it one step at a time, I thought “Cool I wrote some songs, I’ll record them, maybe I’ll do an EP, or a shorter-length record as I call it!” But then I just kept writing and before I knew it I was over that ‘EP hump’ – I had five or six songs and I thought if I do a couple more I guess I’m doing a record now! (laughs) And once I hit that point I reached out to Bill over at ‘HiVol’ and asked if he wanted to jump in on it and get on board with getting this record out.
Mark: So what’s driving you at the moment? You always seem to be on stage and over the years you’ve played with some big names and still are, obviously Covid has changed things for everyone out there too. Is that part of the equation that made to easier to complete the record, or was it already in the can a while ago? I remember Andrew from Melodic Rock handing me the first record and loving it, but this one is seriously good!
PJ: That’s great to hear Mark, thank you very much. What really drove it was just that I started writing again. I had a lot to say and a lot has happened to me personally since I wrote those songs on the first record – hence the title ‘Accent the Change’ – it’s kind of means coming to something new, making a splash – like the musical phrase to ‘accent’ a new part of a song, make it big. And a lot of things have happened so when I sort of ‘popped the lid’ and started writing again I had all these things to write about so it drove itself, so to speak.
Mark: You mentioned that one song came to you first – what was that starting point?
PJ: It was the second song on the record, a song called ‘Walking Backwards.’
Mark: That is one of my favourites on there I must admit, in fact you’d be hard pushed to find a better opening to an album all year with those first three – ‘Wait and Fade’; ‘Walking Backwards’ and the video ’Let It Rain.’ What are you hoping comes from it? I know obviously now it’s not practical, or even possible to Tour it, but it deserves to be payed live.
PJ: Yeah, I’d love to play it live, I’m determined to. I’ve been kind of touring since August really, I’ve been out there. I just got back yesterday, I’d been out on the road for a week. I did some shows with Eric Martin, and I’ve just been tracking bass on the new ‘Ra’ (Ra Band) record all last week. I toured with Fozzy and did some other shows with Eric, I’m out there, you know doing it safely and responsibly as long as we can manoeuvre properly we can live our lives. So I have all intention of paying it live. I have a show booked in November, it’s a solo acoustic where I’ll play all the songs off the first two records, but next year I hope to get the band back together and to do as many shows as I can.
Mark: That would be great to see, you’ll have to come down to Australia and do a double-header with Steve (Brown) and his new band. I was talking to him the other day and he told me to call him back and talk about a certain Anniversary. Can you believe its 30 years since that first Trixter record!?
PJ: No! (laughs) I can’t believe it was ten years ago I talked to you!
Mark: (laughs)
PJ: (laughing)
Mark: Time has flown, and the incredible thing for me is that this year two of you from the same band have both individually put out what I think are two of the very best releases of the year 30 years on! Is there a bit of healthy competition going on there! (laughs)
PJ: Oh absolutely not (laughs) me and Steve are attached at the hip. This is the one thing we do on our own – he does Tokyo Motor Fist and I do my solo records but pretty much everything else we do together. So we both wholeheartedly support each other. However I did have him appear on a song on this new record and as you know I recorded the whole first record at his house, so he’s always going to be very much a part of anything I’m doing and vice-versa. But there’s no competition, we’ll always be on the same team.
Mark: Let’s talk about a few of my favourites and this may take a while as there are so many, let’s start with ‘Walking Backwards’ where it all began, tell us about that one.
PJ: Well it really wrote itself and just the way it starts “Boom!” It’s all in! (PJ sings the first line) “It always amazes me!” it’s just ‘balls-to-the-wall’ and spewing, and it just kinda came out like that. It’s a very inspiring song, so I think the way the song sounds is just the way I wrote it, really heartfelt and genuine. It’s ironic that it just came out like that and I’m actually just realising that talking to you.
Mark: And ‘The Good Life’ is another cracking song!
PJ: Yeah actually I kinda had that kind of progression left over from the Trixter ‘Human Era’ session. We were kinda towards the end of finishing that record and we needed kinda one more song so that was one of the progressions that I came up with, and then I came up with the song ‘Human Era’ so I kinda put that one in the background. I liked it so I knew I would use it and I knew I would finish it. I had that chorus idea, the melody, basically the bed of the song but I put a pin in it because I came up with ‘Human Era’ which I knew was the one for that album. So I kinda had this one kicking around and knew I had to go back to it and finish it. It’s definitely something a little different, kind of a moodier with almost like a Pete Yorn, who I love, aspect to it. So I just went with it and followed through –I didn’t really think too much about it not having big rock guitars or anything, the chorus is kinda big, but I just liked the mood of it.
Mark: Do you always know with a song like that, that it might not be right for a project but that you will come back to it?
PJ: Within reason yes, I mean there’s Exhibit A – where I wrote another song that I felt was more suited to Trixter, but generally it depends, if something comes to you in a gush you’re just so anxious that you have to get it all out, it’s like that for me when I write something like that I know I have to record it. It’s like I have to clear the hard drive in my head before I can really wholeheartedly write more. I’m not one of those guys who can have a whole library of songs in my head. I’ll have a couple, or at least a couple of good ideas but I like to get the down because I’m insecure. I sit there and say to myself – I think I wrote a good song, so let me record it and really get it done the way I want to hear it. Then I can really sit back and know if it sounds like it did in my head and if it’s really good. Then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. But first I have to convince myself that what I did was good enough, and that’s kinda my process. So the answer is really yes and no, you kinda know where something belongs when you write it, whether it’s for the solo record or something else.
Mark: So what other music are you listening to at the moment PJ? One of the things we’ve been asking people to do in these strange times is recommend a few records that people might want to sit down and get to no, or even reacquaint themselves with. What would you recommend? Apart from your album of course which everyone out there should be checking out!
PJ: Believe it or not I don’t recently listen to music all that often because I’m so busy playing it or working on it. When I go to the gym, and I go every day everyone’s always listening to music on their headphones, but I can’t even listen to music at the gym because I get so hyper focused on the music that I’d hurt myself because I wouldn’t be breathing right or paying attention because I’d be lost in music. Really when I drive or when I fly is the only time I can really listen. But at home I’m either playing, writing or practicing or learning material. But to answer your question there are a couple of bands that I’ve stumbled upon as of late that are really exciting. There’s a band called ‘Dead Sara’ which is kind of a throwback to the 90’s, think a female Nirvana, kind of, but poppier but so energetic. I did ‘Shiprocked’ this year with ‘Ra’ and they were on it and I’d never heard of them but I thought I’d check them out on one of the stages and I’m glad I did – I was blown away. So they’re like one of my new favourite bands and another band ‘The Highly Suspect’ I really like the, and then you know I listen to one of my friend’s bands called ‘Ours’ a guy by the name of Jimmy Mako we grew up together and I did some of the songs on his new record, an incredible band. And then I always go back to bands like Hall and Oates, John Meyer, Kiss, Jeff Buckley – I’m really kind of all over the place.
Mark: Some very good stuff in there. Going back to your album though, as you mentioned listening to music in the car, that’s where I do most of my listening and your record so far has passed the test in there since I got a copy a few weeks ago, and the more I listen the more I’m drawn to the closing track ‘Comfortable Silence’
PJ: Oh yeah, that came tome about a year or so ago, and it was just a great chord progression, it was just so lazy and laid back. It’s a song about that point you get to in a relationship where, and I remember me and my wife in the car we were two and a half hours away from Atlantic City New Jersey and we drove back to our house, we were just driving, we didn’t talk and it was fine. It’s just about my relationship where we can just sit in a room, you don’t have to talk you don’t have to watch TV or stare at a phone, although we do, don’t get me wrong, but there are also some times when we don’t. It’s about getting to that point in a relationship when you can just sit and it’s quiet and it’s not awkward. And something just felt right about that progression and for some reason I just started singing about that over that progression.
Mark: And it turned out beautifully, another one of the really great moments on there. It’s at that point in the interview now when we get tour traditional closing pair of questions for first time interviewees. The first is – if you could have been a fly on the wall for the creation of any great album, just to see how the magic happened in the studio – what would you have liked to have seen being made?
PJ: Um, wow, there’s a million! I don’t know. I think I’d have to go back to Jellyfish – ‘Spilt Milk’ I mean there’s the obvious like ‘Sergeant Peppers’ but I think I’ve just read so much about all those classic albums, you know like ‘The Wall’ or anything by Led Zeppelin. But this Jellyfish record, both of them actually they’re just as monumental to me. They have the kitchen sink in there! And there’s not a whole lot of documentation or history on it, so I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that because I know a lot went into it.
Mark: Such a shame they didn’t do more, but I see members of the band crop upon things now and again. And our last question, to leave you with an easy one is: what is the meaning of life?
PJ: What is the meaning of life? I would say being able to get through it without having too many regrets if any, and for the most part being able to say at the end of it, that you really did enjoy everything that you were doing through it. That you didn’t dump too much crap in anybody’s lap, or leave too much of a mess behind you, and that enjoyed the ride.
Mark: A great sentiment. I know that music means so much to so many people and most that check into our website do so because they want to find something great to listen to, because what’s the point in reviewing something we don’t love. And here we are today surprisingly out of nowhere your new release is right near the top that pile for me this year, so thank you so much for making ‘Accent the Change’ PJ.
PJ: Wow, oh man, that’s awesome and that means such a lot to me. There’s no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow these days, so the only way we know if we’re doing a good job is by talking to people and seeing what they think, seeing if you can connect with someone, and when you say something like that “Boom – mission accomplished.” That’s all I need from this, because let’s face it we’re not getting rich doing this! (laughs)
Mark: Let’s take it back to the beginning then to close – 30 years since Trixter’s first record – what is one of your favourite memories of that record?
PJ: You know probably hearing ‘Give It To Me Good’ for the first time in demo form. It was the last song, Steve finished it at the eleventh hour and we were all huddled in the car outside of the diner waiting for him to pop it in (the cassette tape) and listen to it. We knew we were onto something big even before we had ‘Give It To Me Good’ but once we got that song I would have better anything that was coming to me in the future, on the fact that everything that happened to us was gonna happen after I heard that song it was just such a confident moment and we were so confident going into that whole time period. And that feeling of just zero uncertainty that’s probably the most memorable thing out of all of it, you know, not all the great things that we did, it was that inner feeling that just made you hyper-focused and confident. Just like walking up a hill with no resistance, and that’s an amazing feeling. Your mind’s not cluttered – you have a goal and you’re just going to it.
Mark: It was a great album, I’m still playing it thirty years later and I imagine I’ll still be playing yours for quite a few years to come.
PJ: Yeah, thirty years ago and here we are. Like you said Steve and I are for one – still alive, and two still making music which we both believe to be our best music at this point. And it’s all because of that first record. Had that first record not done anything we would have been forced into day jobs and what not, that first record was absolutely the foundation of what me and Steve are doing right now.
Mark: A lot of great memories for a lot of people. Thank you so much for your time PJ and thank you for a great new record. It’s been great to talk to you. When’s the next show?
PJ: Well it’s next week actually, Steve and I Joey Cassata and Eric Martin are playing at Chris Jericho’s house in Florida for his 50th Birthday party, and I’m also playing with Fozzy too! So I’m going down there and doing double duty.
Mark: Now that’s a great lockdown show! Stay safe and good luck with the release!
PJ: Thank you Mark, thanks for listening and thanks for the review, I’m so stoked that you enjoyed it. I really appreciate it.
