"Ideas are Coming at You All the Time": An Interview With Pall Jenkins of Three Mile Pilot and Black Heart Procession (con.)

Scott Thill

ST: "What are they thinking about me?"

PJ: (Laughs) Yeah, things like that. I used to get really nervous around people, and it came out in all these neat ways. I was examining the things that went on around me all the time, and I still do, but it's a bit different now. I think it has something to do with getting older. But I still have a lot of ideas and juice in me. You just go through these stages in life and I feel really happy about that time of writing.

ST: It's funny because you say you were really shy. But that album was really loud -- you were screaming.

PJ: Yeah, when I was singing, I'd get up there and let it all out. But all of a sudden off-stage I was like … (he ducks and cowers).

ST: What about Black Heart Procession? Is it more extroverted? I guess the transition is that you're taking these painful subjects and throwing them out there now.

PJ: Yeah, it was based on a nice relationship that ended horribly. And Toby had the same thing going on. We were living together and Three Mile Pilot was taking a break, so we both just started writing music. We did it all in like a month or three weeks. We wrote all these songs and it was like these ideas were coming out of us, but they were so sad and corny. So we said, "Who cares? Let's just make them as sad and corny as we can." And yet be serious about it and add a little element of sarcasm in there, as well. Let's just go with this flow. It just came out of us, all these songs that had the word "heart" in them, and we took it to this extreme of making things really sad, talking about love. It's a little bit of that thing where you are so sad that you're laughing at yourself. You know, where you get so upset, you're just going, "God, I can't believe I'm this sad." (Laughs)

ST: But you're still stuck in it like, "How come I can't get out of this?"

PJ: Yeah, exactly, and that's how we were at the time. And that place isn't so far away for most people. I think a lot of people can connect to that and understand it. And that's how it all came together. We started writing some songs, had a friend, Mario, play some drums, booked recording dates, and said, "Let's put out a record, let's do it." We went on tour and started having fun. The shows were fun -- we'd dress up in semi-costumes and just go with it. And then Touch and Go liked us -- they've been my favorite record label since I was fifteen or sixteen, buying all those early punk records -- so I was thrilled they wanted to do something with us. So we made the second and then the third, and now we're working on the fourth.

Baby, it's art. Pall has put his creative pen down on most of the Black Heart Procession and Three Mile Pilot catalog. "The art is fun because it's relief."

ST: What label is Three Mile Pilot affiliated with now?

PJ: We don't know, and that's a really cool thing. We don't have contracts with anyone, so it's totally open. I think we have nine or ten ideas right now that aren't finished but maybe partially recorded and almost done. A lot of them are lacking words, some of them have singing, scratch tracks and stuff, but we're just working on it. I've been buying a bunch of recording equipment and so has Zach [Armistead Smith, bassist for Three Mile Pilot and one half of Pinback], so we've just been taking things back and forth, slowly developing ideas. We're trying not to rush this next Three Mile Pilot album because we want to make it like, "Ok, it's been a long time since we've made a record, so the next time we put one out let's make it feel really good. And not rush it."

ST: When you do get together, does the vibe arc back towards Another Desert, Another Sea, Songs From An Old Town We Once Knew, or anything in particular?

PJ: Well, I feel that every Three Mile Pilot record -- except for Songs From An Old Town We Once Knew, which was kind of a mix-and-match of all the records -- was pretty different, when you go from the first to the second, and so on. With Black Heart, they're a bit more similar. And this Three Mile record is heading in a new direction, too -- we've all learned how to record better, learned how to write better song structures. But the thing we're waiting for is to feel that emotion where you go, "Yes!" We're waiting and writing and not rushing, so we feel that we're putting our hearts into it. Because we could just pump out something and go, "We have a new Three Mile Pilot album out! Ok fans, buy it!" (Laughs) And it's not about that -- we want to make something that we feel really good about, so that when somebody buys it, they'll know we meant it. To where we feel like they're getting their money's worth and we're releasing something that we're proud of that takes us to a new level. And I think that it's coming together nicely. We've got some cool ideas that we're feeling good about, but I think that there's some more writing that needs to be done.

ST: I think it's a brave move, because obviously fans are going crazy for something. But in a way, you're staying true to the music. If it doesn't feel right, why mess with it?

PJ: Yeah. I would love to have it done and be working on the artwork tomorrow, you know? But it's really not ready. Unfortunately, we're not quick enough for it to be ready and Pinback's leaving on tour soon. But hopefully, we'll get this next Three Mile Pilot album done and we can do a tour with all three bands.

ST: Speaking of artwork, are you still painting?

PJ: With art, it doesn't happen for me like it does for my mother, who wakes up and starts painting. I'll go visit her and she'll have paint all over her, trying to hug me. With me, art is something that happens as a result of having an album. Or every now and then, maybe two or three times a year, I'll get inspired to do a painting or a drawing. It's usually not paint, it's like ink and white-out, pencils and pens. And little bits of paint. But when we finish a record is when I'll really sit down and focus, try to decide what the record's imagery feels like it wants to be. Then I'll mess around over the course of a few weeks and get something together. I don't paint on a regular basis -- usually, when I find myself wanting to be creative, it's through music. When we finally do get done with a record, it's the best moment for me, because I'm making artwork describing the record. It's the coolest moment, and I really save it up for that time.

ST: Do you get the biggest high from the art, the music, or the lyrics, or just all of it together?

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PJ: All of it together. The art is fun because it's relief -- we're finished, completing the whole thing. And it's cool because I get to see what the packaging is going to be. But I enjoy it all.

ST: Ok, I think we talked just about everything except your San Diego Chargers? How about them Chargers?

PJ: Yeah, they're doing good. I like watching the Chargers, I'll admit it.

ST: Most rock and rollers are afraid of talking about sports.

PJ: Nah, I like soccer, I like football. I used to play a lot of sports when I was young but not high school -- by then I was more into music. Mostly as a kid growing up. But Zach is a huge Charger fan and he's not afraid to admit it at all. He always gives me these pop quizzes like, "Junior Seau, what does he do with the football when he makes a touchdown?" So I go, "He cracks it open like a coconut and drinks it!" (Laughs) He gives me all these random questions that I'm supposed to know.

ST: You better brush up on the new roster!

PJ: Yeah, he's gonna be hounding me pretty hard. When we'd tour together, he'd come from out of nowhere and ask all these questions and by the end of the tour, everyone in the band would know the whole deal. Like, "Who's in the Two Tons of Fun?" I don't know now [Shawn Lee and Rueben Davis], but I actually did used to know who made up the Two Tons of Fun. We knew all the positions! (Laughs) He wouldn't shut up until we knew, and if we got it wrong he'd be like, "No, it's blah blah blah blah! (Laughs) Get it straight!"

ST: "I'm not playing a lick until you answer me!"

PJ: Yeah! "I'm not gonna shut up until you tell me who plays this position!" So we'd all say, "Blah blah blah plays that position." And then he'd say, "Now remember it!" (Laughs) And then there would be another pop quiz later in the day. And then we'd actually start knowing. He's pretty fanatical about the Chargers. Just to be an ass, I'd bet like five bucks that the Chargers weren't going to the Super Bowl or something.

ST: That'd be something. They only won one game last year.

PJ: Yeah, that'd be great. I'd pay him five bucks for that.

Halloween 2001

Scott Thill -- a media fanatic who finds the time to write on everything that does not include the words "boy band" -- is a gainfully employed dotcom editor currently finishing his first novel, The Dangerous Perhaps.