The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
New York indie pop outfit The Pains of Being Pure at Heart released their self-titled debut album in 2009 to widespread critical acclaim from the likes of The New York Times, NME and Pitchfork. Since releasing their sophomore effort “Belong” to similar fanfare in April of this year, the band has toured worldwide and is one of the international headliners of our very own Clockenflap 2011. Suhail Stephen talks with keyboardist/vocalist Peggy Wang about touring, Clockenflap and the relevance of the “indie” moniker.
HK Magazine: You’ve toured extensively this past year with Belong, even playing in Brazil. Did you basically dominate the world?
Peggy Wang: We kind of crawled wussily. [Laughs.] I wouldn’t say that we dominated or rocked that hard. We have covered a lot ground though.
HK: Have there been any significant cultural differences in how people have interacted with your music at shows?
PW: I would say that Manchester is really crazy for some reason. It’s hard to say, I feel like with our band, people either kind of stand there and stare—and it will still be a fine show—or sometimes they actually go crazy. That happens in Manchester. Sometimes it happens in Spain. They’re really cool in Spain—they ask to take pictures.
HK: Have you visited Asia before?
PW: I’ve only been to Taiwan and Japan.
HK: How did you get connected with the Clockenflap festival and what was the attraction of participating?
PW: I really wanted to go to Hong Kong. Some friends of mine played in Hong Kong in May and said it was really awesome. They knew a couple people who set up indie pop shows, so when the opportunity came up we just took it.
HK: You know the festival is free this year?
PW: I didn’t know that! The nice thing about that is that even if people haven’t heard about your band, they can still come out.
HK: "Indie" is a pretty broadly applied term these days. As an indie band, how important is the associated ethos to you?
PW: I think as a band you have to do whatever’s best for you and not really think about what other people think of you. If the best thing for you to do is to make a million dollars then that’s fine, I’m not going to judge you for that. I guess for me personally—I don't want to sound like an indie snob or anything—but growing up I got into indie stuff before I got into other stuff like The Cure or The Smiths that you’re supposed to be into. [Indie] was something I grew up on and it was so cool to be on a label with other bands that you like. A band name gives you an identity but being on a label also gives you an identity. We’re on a label we love and have bought records from since I was 19.