The South By Southwest 2007 festival lineup seemed to have been filled with just as many musical acts from the U.K as anywhere else. Most of the bands, coming from the smaller music industry of their home country, are in the U.S. to further their careers and sell more records.
"The main thing I'm looking forward to of being in America, touring here, releasing the record here is the fact that we get to be a “new” band with the year and a half experience of being a signed band. We get to do everything again, but it should be much better and sound better."
The Automatic are not one of those bands.
The group's origins lie in a rebellion against formal education, in that they had a choice between moving into college careers or playing rock and roll for a living. For the boy, the choice seemed obvious. Now, after touring the globe and filling the world in on their sound, they've brought their posse to America in the hopes of playing cool shows and seeing old friends.
On Thursday, I had a few minutes to sit down with Pennie and talk all about the goals of the band, and why they value rocking out over selling out. We chatted inside the John Lennon tour bus in the Purevolume parking lot and he laid everything out very simply.
M&C: What are your first impressions of South By Southwest?
Pennie: Umm...it's quite busy. We've just been doing stuff, rather than enjoying it. It's kind of what I expected, because we're here to work. Even though being in a band isn't a practical job, it's still hard work. Yesterday it was all rainy...today is different. It's nice that it's all uncomfortable and humid for me, because it actually makes me feel like I'm somewhere else. Yesterday I felt like I was at home because everyone spoke English and the weather was the same. It's cool though...I haven't really seen any bands that I like yet.
M&C: How old are all you guys? Partying age?
Pennie: No...our guitarist is 20, which is bad for him. I just don't drink...I'm pretty much straightedge I guess.
M&C: I read something earlier today and you said you weren't happy with your performance at your first show this week.
Pennie: Yeah, I mean...we just could've done better. We're out of practice. We haven't played in a while. I've got a really bad memory as well...I forget things really easily. I'm used to just playing a lot. Over 14 months we recorded a record and did 10 tours, and so not playing really throws me off. It's quite weird...and it's been a long time since we played to such a music industry-esque crowd and a sort of intelligent music audience that just stands there objectively and tries to let everything sink in. Our album has been out so long in the U.K., [there] it's like people come to see you because they know the songs or their just looking to have a good time. People here come to hear music, and it's harder to get into a show, but it's good fun.
It was cool...we played alright, but I'm a kind of perfectionist.
M&C: You were the one they quoted saying that?
Pennie: Yeah, probably. It's cool...I mean, I'm a really strange person. I'm always very underwhelmed by everything. Only really simple things really make me happy. The best thing about being here is that I get to see all the friends that I don't ever get to see when I'm at home touring, because they're all in bands as well, and these kinds of festivals are the only time when we're kind of supporting each other. It's nice to see them...cause I have loads and loads of friends from back home that are here.
There's loads of British people here too...it's bizarre. I mean, you bump into two people from opposite sides of the U.K. in Austin. It's like, “This is really weird. I haven't seen you in months.”
I keep saying the same answer...we've done a lot of interviews today. I don't really think an interview is the best way to put a band across. I guess I would say that we're better live than we are in any interview.
M&C: So then, when somebody goes to a show and sees you live, what's different or exciting about what you guys do? What can they expect?
Pennie: Lots of bands really care about how they look, and how cool they are, and how many records they're gonna sell, which girls in the front row do they wanna sleep with and how many drinks can they finish. We don't...we just want to play, and have a good time. There's such a lack of punk rock ethics and guts in bands in the world at the moment. There are bands out there that care about playing good songs, and then there are ones out there just looking to make money.
M&C: It's pretty formulaic now...how to be a successful punk band.
Pennie: But we're kind of a pop band as well, based on our records and stuff. But I think we've got some substance...a lot of pop music is if you throw enough shit at the wall, some of it will stick. Music’s just hammered into people...if you hear something 300 times a day, the next day you wake up humming it and then you want to go buy it because it's in your head. I'd like to say we're different than those bands...but I'm sure those bands would say that they're different from other bands too, so you kind of go around in big circles.
M&C: I've read that when you guys formed up, you had planned on going to college, but then had to make a choice.
Pennie: At the moment, I'm pretty sure that would not have gone. I kind of get sick of education. I think forcing people to learn things is one of the worst ways to get anyone to learn anything. I probably would've done something else like go and take a music technology course or something.
M&C: Is that when you decided to be professional rock stars?
Pennie: I wouldn't say we're professionals.
M&C: ...when you decided to be rock stars?
Pennie: I wouldn't say we're rock stars either, but that's just me...I'm funny with words. We just wanted to have fun. Got some proper keyboards and started a band. Practiced a couple of times, recorded and sent a demo around to different labels. We kind of made it a point to be ready to go out and play loads of shows. It's not like we said, “Ok...we're a band...now lets go get a record deal.” Nothing would happen if you tried to do it that way. I don't think we really decided, it was just something that we knew we would kick ourselves for if we never tried.
I'm sort of a “what if” person...I always want to see things through and if they're going to work out or not.
M&C: What's in the future for you guys ... you'll probably make a lot of friends at Warped Tour.
Pennie: Yeah ... I'm hoping to make friends with Bad Religion.
M&C: Oh yeah? Me too...but you probably will.
Pennie: Yeah, hopefully! After Warped Tour, we're doing a headline tour around the U.S. I don't know where, because I never really know anything...I'm really bad with schedules and stuff. They're the sort of things that I look at once and then I go in a draw.
Our new record [‘Not Accepted Anywhere’] comes out in June, like two days after we start the Warped Tour. It's nice to be on tour with a record to promote. We've been out in the U.K. promoting the record and it's been out there for two or three months. It's just nice to be able to come out and say, “This is the new record and these are the songs on it.”
M&C: Because it captures the band now, instead of the bands from a year ago, or two years ago.
Pennie: Yeah...definitely. After that I really don't know. We're doing something in the U.K. I think, and then in the states in October....I really don't know. Lots of stuff. We'll be on lots of websites...lots of interviews and stuff like that. All the things I don't like to do.
M&C: Why don't you like interviews?
Pennie: I don't mind interviews...like, I don't mind sitting down and talking to someone. I don't like the four of us being sat in front of a camera and asked questions. I don't like it when four people get asked one question, because then four people try to answer one question, and the you get a half-assed answer from all of them.
M&C: Or you get one guy saying he's the leader of the band.
Pennie: Yeah...and we don't really work like that. That's why I like interviews like this because it's just talking. You don't have to worry about it too much. But I don't really like acoustic shows...it's just not very punk rock, is it?
M&C: There's kind of a collision of two worlds at South By Southwest...indie bands who are here to get deals and well-known bands who are here to work.
Pennie: I dunno...it's kind of cool. Because back in the U.K. We're a bigger bands, but here we're not...and it's kind of refreshing to remember that the world isn't really a small place, even though it feels like it sometimes.
The main thing I'm looking forward to of being in America, touring here, releasing the record here is the fact that we get to be a “new” band with the year and a half experience of being a signed band. We get to do everything again, but it should be much better and sound better.
M&C: And so you've had time to get everything laid out and nailed down really tight and then you come here...
Pennie: And people say, “Who is this brand new band?” We've been a band for three and a half or four years now.
M&C: How big are you guys in the U.K.? You've had a gold record.
Pennie: Yeah, the previous record went gold and came in on the charts at number three. And we had like one single. Again, with the record sales, it's not something I'm too big on...but it's the best way to carry on being a band...sell records and then you'll carry on being the band you want to be, and then eventually you sell so many records that you don't need a record label. It's all about control...I mean, once a band gets to their third or fourth record, they get to do whatever they want with it. It's not like we don't now, but you have to sort of think in your head, “This has to be accessible to some people.”
M&C: And if you have something big on your heart that you want to say, and it offends a lot of people...
Pennie: Yeah, then you can't...you can't do like a Nazi symbol or something. [laughs] I don't really see that happening, but I don't rule anything out either. Record labels are some thing that I don't really think about... I dunno, they're kind of just people I argue with. Even though they're nice people, they've obviously got money to worry about...as long as we've got enough money to keep being a band...that's what it's always been about. We spent two years without a record deal, and that's how it was. We'd work our jobs and play anywhere we could. But now it's nice that we can play everywhere. We've played in Japan...it's nice to be able to do that.
Ahh..now I'm sounding grateful...[sigh]
M&C: Yeah...just don't say you love money.
Pennie: I don't love money. I don't even understand how much money is worth here. I don't even get the exchange rates. I haven't bothered to be told, and I haven't asked how much it is. All I know is that to me it looks like Monopoly money.
Visit M&C's music reviews section for our exclusive SXSW concert reviews of Redman, The Dollyrots, Girl in a Coma, Ari Hest, Joe Purdy, White Rabbits, Star Deaths and White Dwarfs, and Nicole Atkins. Visit M&C's music features section for our exclusive interview with Kelly O. of The Dollyrots, Aqualung, and Ari Hest.
Your Talkback on this Story