Chosen Music: Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor‘s Piper and Skylar Kaplan sit across from me, side by side, at Silver Lake’s hip Vietnamese soup shop Phở. With matching elbow-length golden tresses, they’re unmistakably sisters. Piper, 22, does most of the talking and admits to being an unabashed stoner. At just fifteen years old, Skylar is the band’s lead guitarist — a spunky force of nature who’s quick to defend her sister.

When I touch on Piper’s past indiscretions, Skylar snorts disapprovingly, digging chopsticks in her soup. But both girls are calmer these days — no more purple mohawks — and it shows on the band’s first EP. Lauded as "hazy amniotic murk" by Pitchfork, Something About the Chaparrals is filled with blissful music so California dreamin’ you’ll think you’ve OD’ed on liquid codeine while surfing on a cloud.

Your name’s Kaplan, but you’re blonds. Are you guys Jewish?

Piper Kaplan: No. Our step-grandpa is. He’s totally our grandpa.

So, you celebrate Hannukah?

Piper: Kwanzaa, man. That’s the shit.

I love that Kwanzaa was started in the 60s by an ex-con. Piper: It’s a bootleg holiday. I’m into it. That’s my shit.

Hannukah’s kind of boring anyway. Some oil lasted a little longer than it was supposed to. What the fuck?

Piper: It was hash oil, man. Marijuan-nakah. Isn’t that Adam Sandler’s stupid shit?

I was reading an interview with you… So, you dropped out of high school?

Piper: I essentially did drop out of high school, but I went to independent study. But because I was not required to go to school every day, I spent like 99% of the time getting completely glurped. My teen years are such a haze. I think it’s good that I got that out of my system when I did, because now I’m like 80 and I just want to settle down and have some kids and chillax with a bowl by the fireplace.

That’s exactly what happened with my sister–dropped out of school, got a little too fucked up, and she corrupted the shit out of me . . .

Skylar Kaplan: Like me! Piper: I had a lot of trouble with school, and I kept getting in fights. I used to have this crazy big mohawk, that was this really humongous point of contention with the administration, because it was this rich, wannabe-prestigious public school.

Pearl Harbor’s "Luv Goon"

[To Skylar] Is that where you go?

Skylar: No, I go to LACHSA [LA County High School for the Arts]. They don’t give you shit for anything there.

Oh. So, if you had a mohawk, you’d be all good?

Skylar: Yeah! They live for that there.

Piper: They still treat you like a human and not a martian, like I was.

So, did you learn to play guitar at school?

Skylar: No, I think it was around my birthday like five years ago. All of a sudden I was inspired to learn to play guitar for some odd reason. I remember being in the car with my mom and being like, ‘I want to go get a guitar.’ Both of my parents told me that it was just going to sit in my closet.

That happened to me. Except, I didn’t learn how to play . . .

Skylar: Eventually, I did start playing it.

What was your first song you played? Like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" or some shit?

Skylar: No, my dad taught me something . . . I can’t even remember.

Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water"?

Skylar: Probably.

Piper: Sabbath! No, AC/DC knowing my dad.

Skylar: I thought I was badass because I could play those simple songs, and then there was this one kid Ian who when to my elementary school, and he could shred circles around me. It really pushed me.

Is he in a band now?

Skylar: I don’t know. I never liked him.

Piper: He fell off, man.

He burned out. So, [to Piper] you get your sister into a lot of music?

Piper: Totally, man. I think that’s a big sister’s job. Like, ‘Here’s the good shit I know. Don’t think about all the bad shit I’ve taught you.’

Skylar: If it wasn’t for her I’d probably be listening to like . . .

Piper: Korn?

Skylar: Probably. Piper: I’m just kidding, Korn’s not cool anymore.

What is cool these days?

Piper: MGMT.

Is that cool with the kids at school?

Skylar: Probably. Actually, now they’re talking about ‘indie-pop.’ Piper: Maybe they’ll like us! I’m amazed, in Los Angeles, they looked like trick-or-treaters hanging out at the Cold Cave show the other night. That was the first time in my fucking life that I went to a show and felt like I was older. There’s a changing of the guard.

I feel like this has never happened before. There’s a strange dynamic in American music where kids younger and younger are getting into strange ass bands.

Piper: That was the missing ingredient for the longest time in mainstream-possible music. I don’t think three years ago, me and my sister would be sitting here doing an interview.

Skylar: I don’t know. Kids listening to that kind of music is still rare. I’m in theater at my art school, and there’s just so many people that are listening to Paramore and all this shit.

Piper: What the fuck is Paramore?

Skylar: It’s like the ‘new No Doubt.’

We need a new No Doubt?

Piper: I saw Tony [Kanal from No Doubt] in the record store Origami–the night that I went to see Cold Cave! I was like, ‘Hey, you’re fucking No Doubt, man.’

[To Piper] You DJ all over town. When did you start collecting records?

Piper: When I was 15, that’s when I started buying vinyl religiously.

Was there any record that changed you? Not the first record, but the turning point . . .

Piper: The wormhole into the world . . . I think the record that first taught me that music has healing capabilities was [The Jesus and Mary Chain’s] Psychocandy. I was 16 and my boyfriend at the time, I just found out he cheated on me, so I broke up with him. I was destroyed. I didn’t eat or sleep for two weeks, but I listened to Psychocandy. I just remember laying in my bed, staring at the ceiling, sobbing, but listening to that. I was like, ‘God, this is so fucking good.’ Everything that I was feeling was channeled into this sound, and it cradled me back into sanity. I still think they’re one of my favorite band personalities. You can’t understand anything that they’re saying [in their interviews], but there’s this one quote that just stuck with me, and they described themselves as ‘awkward, fucked up little idiots.’ That’s who should be making music. Maniacs, freaks . . .

Pearl Harbor’s "Lost at Sea"

So, how’d you guys come up with becoming a band?

Piper: I had just come back from a DJ trip. I DJed an R. Stevie Moore show, and I hung out with him. We recorded a song together. You know the song ‘Chantilly Lace’? You know that weird girl in the beginning? We sort of recorded this 2000s version of that. I was just reading off a bunch of his bizarre lyrics. But it was really fun. Up until that point I hadn’t attempted to do anything musically, because I was really self-conscious. I was being a total geek, record nerd, [thinking] music is so precious. I don’t want to be like fuckin’ Sawyer Brown or some hack, shitty, dollar bin reject guy.

Had people asked you to sing for them before?

Piper: No. I don’t think anyone ever thought I had any kind of music capabilities. I didn’t think I did, to be honest. I was just like, ‘Music’s not for me. I just like to listen to it.’ So, I came back [from the DJ trip] and got a bass from a friend. It was just some hand me down. The knobs were missing, some fucked up starter kit Fender. I just started fucking around with that, and I went over to my sister’s house, and was just like, ‘Let’s fuckin’ just start playing music together.’ It was just something to make me feel better. I had just got into some weird break-up situation with some dude, and I was bummed.

It seems like relationships factor in a lot in your motivation… Skylar: It’s not even really relationships, it’s the sadness.

Piper: It’s love. What is it, unrequited love? That shit’ll do a lot to your creative juices. I’m glad it happened, in retrospect, because I wouldn’t’ve even thought to myself to [start a band].

You’re going to school right?

Piper: I go to community college. In February I start again.

What’s your day job? Piper: I don’t have a day job. Unemployment.

Skylar: Hangin’ out . . .

Piper: I have SAG [Screen Actor’s Guild] membership, so I can keep collecting [unemployment].

What did you do to get a SAG card?

Piper: I did commercials when I was my sister’s age.

Anything I’d know?

Piper: Yeah. Cingular. Some other shit.

Ok, I have some regular interview-y questions left. What’s your favorite lyric that you’ve written in one of your songs?

Piper: I don’t want to be that asshole!

If you could pick any band to cover your songs, what band would it be?

Piper: I would pick, for "Lost at Sea": Roy Wood. For "High Road": The Alan Parsons Project. For "Luv Goon": Fleetwood Mac, but Mirage-era.

How about producers, any you’d want to work with?

Piper: I think Jeff Lynne [from Electric Light Orchestra] would make our band sound crazy. One thing I’ve always wanted for our band is to transcend the 8-track warrior vibe and have an orchestra play the songs the way that they sound in my head.

You’ve recently added a drummer and another guitar player. How is that going?

Piper: I think there’s a lot of potential. He’s got tams on deck. He’s got the 60s chops we need. It helps encapsulate our band in this sort of ‘non-time.’ We have all these different elements. Our music sounds like the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, through the future. The free-and-easy, everything goes from the 70s definitely comes through.

What is the influence of Los Angeles of your music? I read a quote that said you were like the Fleetwood Mac on the beach or Hollywood Boulevard . . .

Piper: I guess we are Hollywood babies. We’ve never lived anywhere else, so I can’t really remove myself from the context. L.A. effects me in multiple ways. It stresses me out and inspires me, all sorts of things. We’re a product of our environment, I guess. But I don’t drive, I live in a cave in Lincoln Heights. But I’m vegetarian.

Do you surf?

Piper: I don’t surf, but my sister surfs. And I’m very eco-conscious.

What’s your ideal tour?

Piper: You know Festival Express?

Fuck yeah, that’s where they go from one end of Canada to the other on the train, right?

Piper: Let’s say we turned the Trans-Siberian Express into the Festival Express.

What bands are on Pearl Harbor’s Trans-Siberian Festival Express, living or dead?

Piper: Haunted Graffiti, Merrell Fankhauser, Stan Hubbs, Martin Newell, Spoons, Fleetwood Mac circa-Tango in the Night, Chris Rainbow, Wizzard, Bobb Trimble, Gary War, Grateful Dead, Beach Boys, Gene Clark, Neil Young, Amon Duul II, Unicorn, Margo Guryan, Wendy & Bonnie (the bombest sister sunshine pop band), Dunes, Freddy K, Animal Style, Technicolor Yawn, NODZZZ, Wonder Wheel, Nite Jewel, Steely D, Panorama, Shturcite (Bulgarian for "Crickets" they’re like the Beatles of Bulgaria), Dwight Twilley, Modern Art, Suicide, Richard DeVora, Butch Batson, Aaron Broomfield, Todd Rundgren, Further, Teenage Fanclub, Thin Lizzy, William Onyeabor, The Boss, Lynsey DePaul, Kevin Ayers, Slapphappy, New Dawn, Kino, Mark Eric, Michael Farneti, Modulated Envelope, Stone City Band, and Via Talas. R. Stevie Moore is the conductor.

Last thing, Piper . . . Make us a mix called "Maximum Bliddix."

1. Locust- "Foot Character of Love"

2. Modern Art- "Beach on the Horizon"

3. Chris Rainbow- "Tarzana Reseda"

4. Merrell Fankhauser- "Some of Them Escaped"

5. Talas- "Brodovi"

6. R. Stevie Moore- "I Wanna Hit You"

7. Michael Farneti- "Georgia Peache"

8. The Westwoods- "I Miss My Surfer Boy Too"

9. Bing Selfish- "Government of Love"

10. Cleaners From Venus- "Factory Boy"

11. Leland- "I’ve Got Some Happiness"

12. Stan Hubbs- "Seems Like It’s A Rich Man’s World"

13. Gariel Pinque- "Don’t Talk to Strangare"

14. НИИ Косметики- "Îáîðîòåíü Ëèñ"

15. Spiral Sky- "Wanting Love"

Download the Mix HERE

What do you think?