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"My motto
as I live and learn
is Dig
and be dug in return".
~~~~Langston Hughes
DB.What was the last disc you listened to?
MPAN."Tiny Voices" by Joe Henry.
DB.Tell me about Pan & the Goddamns. What kind of music do you play?
MPAN. Adventure Music. The merger of highs and lows. American music. Sophisticated hobo music. Polished trash. AN ALTERNATIVE AMERICANA. We are an uncompromising group of individuals who produce accessible scenes of sound. We run the gambit, turning styles in and out like skateboarders turn tricks.
DB.What are you going for with this project?
MPAN. An eclectic mix for those who like to sit, dance, think, drink, whatever. Something different than most of the stuff we all hear, but familiar enough to relate to. You know how most americana acts follow a country/blues feel? Well our approach doesn't forget that jazz is a huge part of what it means to be American. Strong individuals. Musically? O.K. Follow me here: Jimmie Rodgers meets Jelly Roll Morton; Robert Johnson meets Duke Ellington; Woody Guthrie/Charlie Parker; Gene Vincent & Eddie Harris: Bob Dylan meets Miles Davis; The Velvet Underground/Sun Ra; (Ya Get It?) Soul Coughing meets The Lounge Lizards; Joe Henry/ the Pixies; Greg Brown/ John Zorn. Hah!! A Waitsian dance band. A Marc Ribot tribute band. We kind of fit into the post/punk freeprov thing. But we offer some sunshine too. Man--I don't know. I would like to say that the songwriters would be Thomas Pynchon and O. Henry. Anything could happen. Staged by Chaplin. Directed by Joseph Campbell. Produced by Poe.
DB. Right. What was the last disc you listened to?
MPAN. Tribe Called Quest. "The Low End Theory."
DB.Does Pan & the Goddamns (P&GD's) have a mission statement?
MPAN. No.
DB.Who's in the band?
MPAN. Our drummer is Matt Farina. Solid. Inventive. I don't know how many hands and feet he has but he uses them all with style. He plays with a bullwhip precision. As cool as a cat walking on the top of a fence, and as hard as riot police helmet.
DB. Where did you meet?
MPAN. Matt and I met in a chat room discussion about poultry preparation. You know, basting, brining, marinating. There was a bunch of people talking about ostriches and emus and other ratites. (By the way, the best way to prepare the wing of an ostrich is to marinate in a pan at 160*F. It is a tender meat since they are a flightless bird, so don't overcook.) Yeah--I'm not sure how it happened, but the topic somehow changed to Elvin Jones and DJ Shadow. We jammed shortly afterwards. Just we two. Drums and Sax. It worked, so we started the search to find like-minded musicians to expand our options.
DB.Who did you meet next?
MPAN.Our bassist Chris Petryszak. He holds down the bottom like gravity. 41.2 Hz of pure Ukrainian tendencies. A theater jam man. I mean he's partied in hotel rooms with the Dixie Chicks. What more do you need to know?
DB.Well, where did you meet him?
MPAN. I met Chris at a Pitbull Grindcore Anonymous meeting (P.G.A.). And, as you can see, I've already said too much.
DB.What was the last disc you listened to?
MPAN. Pixies "Surfer Rosa." Why do you keep asking me that?
DB.How do you write songs?
MPAN. Writing songs is like rolling a smoke in the back of a pickup, you have to do whatever is necessary to accomplish the mission. Sometimes there's no wind behind the cab and it's as easy as pie. Other times it's raining and the wind is whipping you around. Sometimes there's to many people on board to even reach the pouch. I don't have a set way of writing. I like to, as you can tell. At times I feel as though I have to dig to the core of the earth with my hands to get a song out. And then there's those surprising times when a songs falls out of your pocket and you just pick it up and it's there. Those are the best.
DB.Where have you written songs?
MPAN. Home. While driving. Boxcars. The side of the road. Hiking. Coffee shops. Bars. Buses. Trains and planes. Strip club once. Sailboats. Beaches. Wrote one at the Arctic Circle too. You know, the earth is bi-polar. In bed. On the roof. I write em at work. In the bath. Shower crooning. Daytime. Nighttime. Twilight and dawn. Digging the garden. While waiting for pizza. On the john. While listening to John. Uptown. Downtown. Outskirts of town. And at a rodeo in Nicaragua.
DB. What kind of music do you like?
MPAN. Well, Louis Armstrong said there's two kinds of music: good and bad. I like to think that I like the good stuff.
DB.Even country?
MPAN. As Thelonious Monk said, "You deaf?"
DB. John Lennon believed that it is impossible in the modern world to not be political. Are you political?
MPAN. When asked that same question, Duke Ellington told his reporter that he lives in a world of sharps and flats. My songs are social, though. It's hard not to see politics behind everyday life if you are looking. Stripped down they are folk songs though.
DB.What's the deal w/ you and hats?
MPAN.Hey--that's not all my doing. The story goes that I popped out of my mothers womb with a two day stubble, a Cuban cigar and a '26 Stetson and said "What's up, Doc?" You can verify that with my old man. Now, it's like, well you know, you wear a hat long enough it feels like it's not even there anymore, but as soon as you take it off it feels like it's still on. I feel incomplete without a lid. Is that sad or what? I do like how a hat holds an image and tells a story though.
DB.Where would you like to see yourself in 5 years?
MPAN.Alive.
DB.What was the last disc you listened to?
MPAN. Shostakovich: Symphony 5. Or was it Buddy Holly? No no, it was "Back in Black" by Amy Winehouse or was it "The Shape of Jazz to Come" by Ornette Coleman?
DB.Hmph. How would you like to die?
MPAN.Um---I don't think I would like to.
For more of the interview with Michael Pan go to
www.myspace.com/mpan
<a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm11c2ljdHdlYWsuY29tL215c3BhY2UvbXlzcGFjZS10d2Vha3Muc2h0bWw=" target="_blank"
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