The Fuzz Magazine: First, can you introduce yourself and who you are as a musician?

Peter McPoland: My name is Peter McPoland. I guess I started music when I was 14. I learned how to play guitar at 14, and that was all I wanted to do from then on. I had a band in high school and we played a lot, and yeah, I don’t know. I did everything that every other musician my age has done. 

How has touring been so far?

Touring has been very different, but very good. It’s weird- we usually have more people on the stage. There are only three of us and there’s usually five, and we usually have tracks and this time we are just playing the instruments so its kind of a narrower sound, which is cool. I’m not nearly as good a musician. It made me appreciate the band members a lot on this tour. 

Before the interview, you said you just went for a run. There’s a lot to do in Saint Louis. Did you get a chance to do anything else?

No, that was about it, but it was so so nice. It started raining. 

The Saint Louis Marathon was today, actually. 

That was today!? I’ll get it next year. I’ll swing back. I’ll train.

Cool! Saint Louis has some unique energy. I think you’ll agree. 

I am into the city so far. Yesterday, we had kind of a weird show and this is the last show and there are always these weird emotions built up, even if it’s a two-week tour. I’m psyched. I think this is going to be my favorite show. I can feel it.

Do you have a favorite city or memory? Not particularly this tour, but in general? 

So far, Chicago has the greatest audiences. It’s like everything you want as a performer, but the jury’s out on Saint Louis so it could be Saint Louis as well. This has been a very solitary tour because it’s just the three of us. When it’s a big crew you’re all together, and this tour everyone’s just off on their own, which I think has been fun for everyone. I listened to the first two Percy Jackson books on Audible and looked out the window for like 90% of this trip. It’s just the weirdest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but it was fun. 

Do you get to do anything fun on tour or go out and explore? 

You usually don’t have time to explore; at least we don’t, especially on this [tour]. You really have to have a lot of spare time to go and explore. When we have done tours where we can explore it’s fun, but it’s also nice just playing the show, saying hello to everyone, and going back and laying down. It feels very job-like, and it’s a good job. 

Yeah, a nice work life balance. 

Exactly. 

You have a dedicated fanbase. walking past the venue tonight, I saw a few girls with homemade Peter McPoland shirts, AND I’ve seen all the tiktoks and they even quoted the one about the notebook. I’m wondering how that feels, and if it impacts your performances?

I’m interacting with them and they’re interacting with me and yeah, it’s really cool. They’ll come to the VIP and will ask for unreleased songs and that feels cool because it’s, you know, you can have a big snippet on Tiktok or something, but when people genuinely like the songs it’s like a beacon of light in a tough sphere. But yeah, it’s kind of out of my head. They’re all friends and it’s insane. It’s cool to see. 

It’s cool to watch fans make friends with one another. I know when you have big groups of fans who are friends at shows, they bring so much energy. 

Oh yeah. There’s a group - a lot of people here today that will come to every single show of the whole tour, so I will see them in the front row and I will change stuff for them, but it’s also for me. It’s like having a friend in the audience that is in on the joke in a way. It’s really nice; it’s really cool.

That’s amazing. The next questions are about “the Speed of the Sound (of You).” Can you talk about it?

Today was big. Today, I was sitting looking out the window, and I wasn’t listening to Percy Jackson for the first time and I was thinking about it, and the latest release and the way I am approaching everything moving forward, coming off of the album. I was trying to approach everything with this master plan, and it never works out, and it never comes through, and it’s kind of self-righteous too.

I came out of it and I just am approaching this release as well as the next one. I feel very much like the version of myself that got into music in the first place. It’s just like, I have no idea what I am doing and it’s very fun and it reignites a passion, ‘cause when I was treating it like I knew everything, it wasnt fun, but now I’m just kind of ignorantly going through everything and it’s been good.

How do you avoid burnout when you’re touring and writing and just always trying to be creative?

It’s hard not to get burnt out, but it’s essential to be reinspired, you know? Like, I was so burnt out for a while, especially after the last album, and then when I just miraculously wasn’t, it was just like writing a song for the first time again. I get burnt out but also, I’m not sure there’s a solution for it. But I wrote a song on this tour and I haven’t written one like it. I like it a lot but other ways [writing when not burnt out] are simpler. I sort of respect myself more for it. Like this, this is it, you know? And I wrote it on this tour and I am like dying to play it every night and it came out of being tired and burned out from the tour, and like a lot of emotions but something great comes out of it. 

Kind of have to persevere. 

Exactly. It sorts itself out.

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