Panther’s sophomore album, 14 Kt
God, came out last week. Where does the title come
from?
Joe [Kelly, drummer, formerly of 31 Knots] came up with it. We were
driving and he saw a sign and thought it said “14 karat god,” but it
said “14 karat gold.”
What about song titles like “Beautiful Condo” or “Total Sexy
Church”?
Well, “Beautiful Condo” is basically about all the shitty condos
going up in Portland. It’s just like everywhere you look, there’s a
new, horrible condo. But “Total Sexy Church” just sounded fun. I wish
there were a better story about that.
How did Panther get started?
Panther got started in 2002, when
I was with my old band, The
Planet The. Somebody asked me and a whole bunch of other people from
bands to do a solo night kind of a thing, like a solo-acoustic thing,
and then I kind of just for fun decided to quickly record some shitty
drum beats on a four track and I kind of just sang to that—so
just kind of starting from that, almost as a joke, really. Just to mess
with this one night, then it kind of kept going from there.
And now you’ve grown to a duo. Do people take you more
seriously now that you’ve added Kelly on live drums?
I hope people take it more seriously, but I guess you never know. I
think it’s made a big difference as far as the live show is concerned.
It’s so much nicer. It’s more real. I got so sick of doing it by
myself. My last record—I probably shouldn’t say this—but I
didn’t even really like my last record. It was just kind of finishing
it off, I suppose. Then I had to tour on it, and that lasted almost a
year, and so it was kind of a bummer. It was so nice to get someone
else in the band and have it be different.
Your last album, Secret Lawns, was
all electronic, but the new album sounds like it was recorded
completely with live instruments.
Yeah, there’s no sequencing or anything electronic involved.
What prompted that shift?
I just got totally sick of most electronic music, and I’m also not
very good at programming stuff, so I figured it was time for a change.
I just didn’t want to hear fake drums. I’ve been playing a lot of
guitar and cello, so I thought it would be fun to see if I could do
that instead. Plus there were a lot of people doing the one-man-band,
electronic thing. I was trying to distance myself from that as far as
possible, I suppose.
You think that’s run its course for a minute
now?
I think so. I mean, it has for me. I don’t know, nothing against the
people who are doing it, because I did it for a while, but now I’m just
like, “Jesus Christ, it’s kind of boring to see some dude up there,
just a white guy with a microphone, singing and dancing.”
Live, though, it’s still just the two of you, and a lot of
the live instruments are still sequenced or prerecorded. Have you ever
thought about assembling a full band for shows?
Yeah, that’s what’s going to happen next. I’m playing guitar and
keyboards more now, and for the next tour I’m definitely going to try
and make it a full band. There’s more improvisation now, but there’s
still the prerecorded track, and it would just be so much nicer to be
able to feed off other people.
What’s the worst reaction you’ve ever had at a live show?
Any rioting? Near-rioting?
I’ve had people get up on the stage and try to stop me, which is
really weird.
How did they try to stop you?
I had a weird show in a basement of a Chinese restaurant in San
Francisco, and this guy got up onstage and tried to put me in a
headlock. Then some other guy ended up putting him in a headlock. He
was just trying to stop me; he was really bummed out by it. The
weirdest thing was I saw him the next night, I played in Oakland, and
he was in the front nodding his head or whatever;
I was like,
“Okay….”
So you converted him?
I don’t know if I converted him or maybe he hadn’t taken his meds
that night or what. There was another time with The Planet The where a
guy got up onstage, and he was huge! He wouldn’t get off the stage, and
the bouncers wouldn’t take him off the stage, either. They were totally
afraid of this guy. So he was just up onstage, hanging out for 20
minutes. I just got so bummed. Everyone else was confused or thought it
was a joke, and it just kept going on and on. The weirdest part was his
girlfriend was on the side of the stage, giving us the finger and then
showing us her breasts. It was psychotic. I was like, “Oh my God, this
is like David Lynch.” 
Panther play Tues March 4 at Nectar, 8 pm, $10, all
ages.