In a long overdue post, we sat down with a member of royalty here in Philly, Erik Petersen, to talk about his band Mischief Brew, Philadelphia’s music scene, and his record label (Fistolo Records). This interview was given about a year ago, which makes a new record in an all time low of procrastinating important articles. It’s a bit like saving that last piece of cheesecake for later, but it ends up being pushed to the back of the fridge by leftovers and Red Bull. But seeing as this is one of our better interviews and given our new work ethic, we are releasing this interview with the hope that we had before of getting these guys more attention. Mischief Brew is good shit and a damn good time in concert. Plus, Fistolo is making some damn good music over here. So, it’s about damn time we got this on the site… damn it.

INTERVIEW BY COLIN KERRIGAN AND JOE GALLAGHER

Colin:

Yeah, I think it’s good to go now.

Joe:

Cool.

Erik:

Cool.

Joe:

You’re a Temple Grad, right?

Erik:

Yeah! I am.

Joe:

What did you study?

Erik:

English and Literature.

Colin:

How’d you like that?

Erik:

I had a minor in… I think it was called urban studies, but I didn’t finish that minor. I finished in (just) English. You know, it was a long time ago. I went to school back and forth and finally decided that I should finish so I went to school at night; worked in the day, went down at night and then finally finished.

Joe:

Where were you working while you attended college?

Erik:

I’m still doing the same thing. Kitchens, construction, carpentry…

Joe:

REALLY?

Erik:

Really, really.

Joe:

How much time do you do that out of the year?

Erik:

That’s my day job.

Joe:

Oh, really…

Erik:

(laughs) Yeah. I don’t do this for a living.

Joe:

You’ve been in the scene or a really long time. How has it changed over the years?

Erik:

I think it’s always been pretty constant. There’s always a venue. I mean, sometimes there would be nowhere to do shows, then a couple months later there’ll be three different houses ding shows. There’s places all over. I think that that (the Stalag) is definitely the hay day of West Philly warehouse-crazy-mania. There were like 3 warehouse show spaces all next to each other. There was Stalag, the Kill Time and the Fakehouse. I think the Fakehouse is still there. In any of those venues, I’ve seen the best shows of my life. Crash Worship at the Fake House, one of those times I saw Citizen Fish at Kill Time (amazing), and at the Stalag… I mean, you name it. That was, to me, the most magical time and since then its… it comes and goes. It still a strong scene and people are still into doing D.I.Y. shows and all ages shows and keeping it real. That’s stayed pretty constant.

Colin:

I saw pretty young people at your show tonight… for your show.

Erik:

Yeah, it’s so funny-

Colin:

-getting dropped off by their parents.

Erik:

Yeah, that was ME, ya know? I used to go to all ages shows in Philly to places that aren’t around anymore. I mean, I remember when the Khyber used to have all ages shows, I used to see amazing shows, like: matinee shows. I’d come down and get onto R5 r get on the El; come down, spend the day in Philly, go record shopping, go to a show. It was the best. And I think a lot of older people don’t, adults and people that are over 21, they don’t understand how important  that is. So, to us it’s really really important to do all ages shows. Like this show: it’s more work. Like getting down here early, but as you see it was so much more worth it. We’ve done bar shows- we’ve done GOOD bar shows- and it’s been ok, but our all ages shows are 10x crazier.

Colin:

That was pretty energetic back there.

Joe:

Where’d you grow up?

Erik:

I was born in Upper Darby and that’s where I live now. I lived there since I was 6 or 7, then I lived in New Town Square (my parents moved to New Town Square), I lived in Baltimore for a bit, then my wife and I moved to West Chester and that’s where we know Brian and it all kinda comes full circle. We had a couple apartments there. That was before the era of Stalag for me. West Chester had its own really good punk scene.

Colin:

It was good for a while.

Erik:

Yeah, it was awesome.

Joe:

Really?

Colin:

Yeah, man.

Erik:

Not just The Orphans, but  there were all sorts of amazing (bands). It was so awesome to have that as my first experience with punk. It wasn’t like one of those huge festival shows or seeing Warped Tour, none of that. For me it was the most revolutionary thing. It was lik: “Wow, I can go to a show, buy a 7′ one of my friend’s bands put out, talk with them, hang with them, and watch them. It was almost a mind blowing thing. That shaped my idea of what a punk show should be. Even now, shows like this; I mean, yeah it’s a club, but still. Everybody’s cool, everybody’s dancing…

Colin:

I was on you MySpace and I saw under you influences was Kurt Vonnegut books. How does that influence your music.

Erik:

Oh, God… I wrote that a while ago.

Colin:

I figured.

Erik:

I think, for influences, I just rattled off in my mind anything that ever inspired me.

Colin:

Yeah, there are some random ones in there.

Erik:

Farm tools are on there.

Colin:

Yeah.

Erik:

I love that book. It’s been a while since I’ve read it. That’s the one where he’s a rich man, but he chooses to set up therapy sessions- he’s like a therapist n this small town. It was all about human kindness and people like “Why do you stay here?”. I love those elements in that. Kurt Vonnegut was good at that; small, amazing, snippets of truth. I should read that again…. Jitterbug Perfume is on there too. It starts in the future, no wait- it starts up in the present in the past and then meets up in the Future or something.

Colin:

So, you guys were saying up on stage that you guys hadn’t played in a month and a half?

Erik:

Last time we played, we did this weekend tour in October. It was Buffalo, then out to Detroit, and back to Pittsburgh. Since then… Greg lives in Brooklyn and we’re here. It’s just been busy so we hadn’t practiced or anything. Then this came up and we were like, “Oh we gotta practice, practice, practice.” but it kinda never worked.

Colin:

So, you guys didn’t practice at all?

Erik:

No. We just kind ran through everything upstairs. Like *bau na bau bau*; just mouthing guitar parts. We messed up a few times, but nothing anybody cared about.

Colin:

It turned out pretty well to me at least.

Erik:

That’s the true test. If we can do that… we’re kind of a mess of a band.

Joe:

Does it suck to have not played in so long together? Or is that how it as to be?

Erik:

In ways it is. We did this new record and this new 7″. Now, we’re kind of “touring on that”. But, our biggest fear is becoming stagnate. We never want to be stagnate. It comes and goes, ya know? You have to keep challenging yourself. We wanna keep writing music, but we’re all kind of spread out. We wrote the last batch of songs though demo tapes and then practiced them and came together in the studio.

Colin:

So, you and your wife started Fistolo (Fist-toe-low)-

Erik:

Fistolo (Fis-toe-low).

Colin:

Yeah- How’d you get started with that?

Erik:

The same way that Mischief Brew started. Just totally by accident. After the Orphans kind of fizzled, I had this idea of a band I wanted to do and that’s kind of how Mischief Brew started. So, once we started making Mischief Brew demos we were like, “Well, let’s make Patch’s, let’s make a little catalogue sheet!.” And, we had Orphan 7″, Orphan tapes, then we started making shirts and it was just this little- it was called a traveling carnival. It was this make up kit full of all these “goodies”. So, then we looked at each other and said, “Well, I guess this is like a label…it needs a name.” So, we came up with the name- which means a devil, in Italian folklore.

Colin:

I would have never known that.

Erik:

It’s hard to find anything (on it). I think it’s derived (from) Fistula. It can relate to the whole “urban scum” thing. It kind of became a monster, ya know? It’s out of our control.

Joe:

You guys put out the Franz Nicholay record.

Erik:

Yeah. It’s excellent. It’s happening now, it’s at the pressing plant.

Colin:

So, our name is the Elitist. What do you think of when you hear that?

Erik:

The name?

Colin:

Yeah.

Erik:

Um, I didn’t really give it too much thought. But if you asked me what I thought of elitist: “I don’t like them.” I’m sure there’s some kind of double entendre there though… maybe…who that of that?

Colin:

Our friend.

Erik:

I didn’t even notice. It’s like the paradigm. If it works, it works.

Joe:

What do you feel about Philadelphia and you place in it? As a city and a scene.

Erik:

Ya know, it’s a love/hate relationship. I consider it my home. Even when I lived in West Chester. It’s not (people would kick me in the head for that), but this is where we’re based out of, this is where we play all our shows, this is where our friends are, our family. We can dwell on the bad parts of it, but there’s good parts. Like, last weekend we were at a wedding for a family member and it was in Philly. So, we stayed on a hotel in Center City for the wedding; kind of like tourists in our own city. Trying to look at it from an outside perspective… when you take away the bells and whistles it’s a great historic city. So much happened here and so many cool buildings and neat little pockets of unique shit going on… pockets of magic. “Seek and you shall find.”

Colin:

There’s just some shady spots you gotta watch out for-

Joe:

But then you stumble upon completely beautiful things.

Erik:

Exactly.