URB: It sounds like you’re really happy! [Laughs]
JP: Yeah, yeah! I am! [Laughs] What’s nice is that we’ve been doing this band for a long time, and still we’re just very good friends with each other. We’re not one of these groups that really hate each other and can’t stand to be in the same room as each other. We’re genuinely friends. That’s the nicest thing, really.
URB: Any big resolutions for the coming new year? Finding a house?
JP: [Laughs] Actually, we finally bought a house! I got the keys to it last week, actually. It’s really, really cool. My wife is really excited about it. I think my resolution is to fix this place up; there are tons and tons of things that needs sorting and re-decorating. And I think I’ll be working on this next year. It’s cool because we actually just made a song called “Build a House,” it’s a tune influenced by old Chicago house music, and the lyrics talk about wanting to build a house with someone, you know, build a home. It totally fits my kind of thinking at the moment; people call it “nesting.” I think I’m doing that.
[Both laugh]
URB: I don’t think you’ll be nesting when you hit the road.
JP: Yeah, I know. That’ll be the direct opposite. [Laughs]
URB: Do you have any favorite venues or memorable show experiences?
JP: Yeah, I have loads. I think some of our favorites venues… We love playing the Fillmore in San Francisco, we’ve played many shows there. We played our first show there supporting Stereolab, which is a band that I really loved growing up and I went to see them probably like ten times as a teenager and it was really great to play with them there. The people there are just wonderful. The history of that venue is just fantastic. We’ve really enjoyed playing at Webster Hall in New York, where a member of Liquid Liquid called Dennis Young came onstage with us and played the marimba and that was a fantastic time. Where else? [Pauses] The last time in Paris, we played a beautiful old theater and it was kind of like a sprung floor and you could see the fans bouncing and the chandeliers moving, and it was kind of shaking and that was a fantastic moment to see that. We love playing the Paradiso in Amsterdam, which is a really great place.
URB: Is that the venue that used to be a church?
JP: It could have been a church, it doesn’t particularly look like it was a church. It looks more like it was a factory or something, it could have been a church [Editor’s note: it was a church]. There’s a record shop across the road from it called Record Palace and I spend five hours looking through the records. I could go on… There’s great places in London, like the last time we played Brixton Academy we had a great night. We love playing certain festivals, like Coachella and Glastonbury. We had a great year of touring… I always try to find a record shop and look for vinyl. There’s a great record store in Chicago called Gramaphone and I spend hours there.
URB: There’s many acts breaking out of the UK right now, and you’ll be touring with The xx, are you listening to them and other bands like Friendly Fires and Florence and the Machine? Are your ears open to new sounds or do other people bring it to your attention?
JP: I try to listen out for new things. I’m DJing with Friendly Fires on Friday night in London at a big show that they’re doing. In terms of new stuff, I’m really enjoying UK dance music from the last year or two, been looking out for new producers and bands coming out of that scene, and at the moment there’s a ton of new stuff like Floating Points is amazing, and this guy Roska is what they call funky, he’s [got a] new variation of house music. I think there’s a lot of new producers like Roska, he’s a genius. I go to record shops a lot to pick-up stuff.
URB: Wait–how big is your vinyl collection?
JP: Oh, I don’t know… thousands. I’ve got them in all different places at the moment. Some are in my parents’ house in London, some of them are in storage, some of them, you know, I’m constantly carrying around the world while I’m DJing. I’m going to have a whole room in my new house that’s dedicated to them. I’ve never had all my records in one place, so I’m going to create big shelves and sort it into different genres of music and have turntables set-up constantly. Yeah, I just spent like $150.00 on records today by going out really quickly at lunchtime, just got in a cab and bought lots of old house records and hip-hop. Yeah, I just really love it.
One Life Stand comes out February 9th via Astralwerks.
“One Life Stand”
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