Scene Point Blank: I was very interested in your lists of favourite bands and musicians in your book. New York Dolls is one of those bands. There are certain records I can listen to over and over and still have the little hairs raised on the back of my neck. One band you mentioned that I was excited to read you loved was The Only Ones. Another Only Ones fan in this world! I saw the Replacements do a version of “Another Girl, Another Planet” actually.
Peter Jesperson: Yeah, absolutely. Peter Perrett, the singer has a new album. He's made two other solo albums already. I had a chance to hear it early and it is fantastic. All his solo records are utterly brilliant and of course The Only Ones.
Scene Point Blank: I played a part, at one point, in trying to get Peter over to Toronto. I was just trying to link him up with promoters and there was great interest and then it kind of morphed into, well, maybe The Only Ones could come over here and I started writing Alan Mair and John Perry and Mike Kellie. It fell apart as I believe there were visa issues. Regardless, leading up to that point I was writing back and forth with Xena (Peter's wife) before Peter was online. She was very cool. I ended up writing them for some time.
Was it always in your mind to write a book or did you have others telling you that you should write your thoughts and stories down for others to read?
Peter Jesperson: It's funny. I have had people for years say, “Oh Peter, you have to write a book.” I'd always go, “Yeah, you and I and about 10 other people would be interested.” That was kind of the way I felt about it. I thought maybe I could write something that would be interesting to a very small number of people, so I never really took it seriously. Although I do write a lot and I love to write. I get a buzz from writing kind of like I get a buzz from listening to music. So there's something there and I write all the time for myself and I compose emails to friends like people, at one time, would compose a letter. It's just something that I like. I've written a lot of shorter pieces, record reviews and interviews with bands and different things like that.
The thing that's interesting about it is that I had probably, in the back of my head, kicked around the idea: maybe someday I'll write a book. I was always thinking I was so busy with work that I would just never have time to do it because I tend to be a bit of a workaholic. I love to work so I'm always doing something -- especially when I was at New West, the last sort of full-time job that I had. I was there from 1999 until 2016, seventeen years all told, and that was like a job and a half. We were a small independent label and the work was intense. I loved every second of it -- or I loved most of it, I should say. as it was a lot of work -- so I didn't have time to even think about the idea at the time.
Once I stopped working at New West in 2016, I started doing freelance work and then in the spring of 2018, I got an email from a guy at a publisher just saying, “Would you be interested in writing a memoir about your work in music for us?” I think it was one of those things where it was almost like a cartoon where my eyes bugged out and then I rubbed my eyes and I thought am I dreaming? I looked at it again and I was like, wait, is somebody offering me a book deal? I just couldn't believe it and so that's really what started it. It was a small publisher in another state. I grew up in Minnesota so you would think it would be somebody from Minnesota that would have reached out to me first, but it was somebody from elsewhere. I started working on the book for them and then about a year into it, we haven't signed a contract as it was a very loose deal. We had talked about doing it and we just never got around to it. I didn't push it because I trusted that they wanted it. They wanted to keep moving forward and they were not going to back out. I thought, what if I get into this and I suddenly realize, “Peter, what if you really can't write a book” What a dope you are!” Then I can back out without having to break a contract. So anyways, I never pushed to get a contract done and then about a year plus into it, a Minnesota publisher came on and just said, “Hey, we hear you might be writing a book and are you already committed to a publisher?” I said, “Well, I gotta be honest, I'm not committed. Although I'm beholden to them and I like the people. But what do you have in mind?” They kind of put an offer on the table and then I had to be honest with the first publisher and say, “Hey, I didn't see this coming, but somebody else has offered me a deal. I haven't signed the contract with you and I don't want to be disrespectful to you. However, if they're going to offer me a better deal, I probably need to take it.” So they made an offer that wasn't as good as the new publisher and that's what happened. I went with the number 2 choice.
Scene Point Blank: So that's the Minnesota Historical Society Press?
Peter Jesperson: Yes. They have been a pleasure to work with.
Scene Point Blank: When speaking to Greg Norton we spoke about The Suburbs and the Suicide Commandos. His take was that if The Suicide Commandos would have stuck around they would have taken the crown. However, I believe they still periodically do reunion shows.
Peter Jesperson: Oh yeah, they played at a show in Minneapolis that I was present for last November. We had done a record at our label Twin/Tone in 1979, a double album compilation, sort of like a snapshot of the local music scene. The compilation had about 12 to 15 bands on it. Eventually, it went out of print. Then it was only available digitally. A small record label in Minneapolis (current record label) asked us if they could put it back in print, and we were thrilled that somebody else wanted to do that so we did it. We agreed with them and we helped them. We got the masters to them. We helped them put the package together from the original artwork and everything. So yeah, that album was reissued last November and they had a concert with a bunch of the bands. The Suburbs did not agree to play, which was complicated as they had internal disagreements -- I think within the band, so it didn't happen. The Suburbs are still together, slightly different lineup, of course, but they're still fantastic and the Suicide Commandos played, and a group called the Hypstrz played, who were also on our Big Hits of Mid America comp. A group called Fingerprints, which was one of the first records we ever put out also played. So anyway, yeah, it was really fun and the bands all played well. I was so proud to see them all these years later and to see how well they still work together.
Scene Point Blank: I believe the Suicide Commandos adopted a portion of a highway in Minneapolis? I always thought that a passerby might find it strange to have a piece of road named after the Suicide Commandos.
Peter Jesperson: Right. Well, the sign said “This part of the road is maintained by the Suicide Commandos, a punk rock band” or something like that. So it did identify them.
Scene Point Blank: I went to see a band years ago called Alien Sex Fiend. I don't know why I went as they weren't my thing. Anyway, I bought an Alien Sex Fiend hat and I would wear it around Toronto. Then I started to realize people were looking at me oddly on the subway. I thought it was my fucking hat. So, you know, not everybody knows it's a band name, so I kind of drew that parallel to the Suicide Commandos road sign. [Laughs.]
I also can draw a parallel to how, in your book, your son described that listening to music made him feel [such a way] that nothing else gave him that same feeling. I, too, get a feeling from music that I don't get from anything else. My sister always thought my dad and I would go into some type of trance when we listened to music on our headphones. We'd lay back and just kind of go off into another world, which I still tend to do when I'm listening to music or I'm seeing bands live. With my immediate family, I can tell them about people I am interviewing and I see their eyes glaze over. It's not to say they're not interested, but I don't think they want the level of detail that I'm giving them: this guy used to play with this band and this guy used to play with that band. I ruined biopics for them because I give them lines like “This isn't historically accurate,” and I'll start shouting facts at them like a machine gun. We went to see that Queen movie together and after it was over I was waving my arms around spouting out inaccuracies. I was told to shut up and that they just wanted to be entertained essentially. [Laughs.]
Peter Jesperson. [Laughs.] I get that a little as well.
It would be nice to see a reset where some of these egregious financial aspects get changed and reduced.
Scene Point Blank: Your wife is in the music business loosely or tied to the movie business as well, isn't she?
Peter Jesperson: Well, she does music clearance for movies and TV shows. But, yeah, she started as a music nut. She originally worked in a film and TV department for Warner Records and now she's with The MGM Division of Amazon. Amazon bought the movie company MGM, and she's technically employed by MGM. So that's what she does. She clears music for film and TV, she's been doing it for 35 years or so. She's a real specialist in that and has been doing it long enough that she just knows all the ins and outs a lot of newer people get into that business, but don't know yet.
Scene Point Blank: Isn't that quite lucrative for a band to get their music into a film or TV show.? Well, I guess if they own the rights to their music that is.
Peter Jesperson: It can be but, of course, there's also a lot of real cheap deals that are done. The bigger bands, the bigger artists get big money for it. My wife has licensed Led Zeppelin songs and that can be in the million-dollar range or it could be a license for an old Suburbs track and maybe we get $1,500 for the recording and $1,500 for the publishing. It's not lucrative in all cases, although it is something that a lot of people are trying to do. It's a tough business because the traffic is so staggering.
My wife was around at the time, before, when it was common that this music was licensed for commercials or movies or whatever and a lot of artists were reluctant to do it because they thought it was, quote-unquote selling out. However, then when people found that, “Gee, this is a way to provide another income stream, another revenue stream,” they loosened up and as long as you know the artist controls the decision on whether or not they want to be part of a film or tv show. I read this morning that Céline Dion ripped Donald Trump a new asshole because he was using one of her songs in his campaign and she said, “I don't support you, and I don't want you using my music.” There can be record labels who own the track and control the track. They might license something to maybe a movie with a subject that would be unpleasant for the artist to be part of, but they can't do anything about it. So it works both ways.
Scene Point Blank: I've never watched the series, but my kid was watching that Wednesday series based on the Addams Family
and The Cramps’ song “Goo Goo Muck” suddenly became this huge song again. I'm sure that probably generated revenue for Poison Ivy or the estate of Lux Interior.
Peter Jesperson:Yeah. My wife did that deal. She did the music for Wednesday, the TV show you mentioned.
Scene Point Blank: Oh, did she? that is cool. Perfect song for that dance sequence. I like how they sometimes can expose kids to stuff from the past as well.
Peter Jesperson:Yeah, that is great isn't it. We were just watching the third season of that TV show called The Bear.
Scene Point Blank: Yeah, me too.
Peter Jesperson:I didn't notice it because it was so quiet in the background, but my wife suddenly grabbed my arm and she went, “Oh my God, they're playing The Replacements’ “Within Your Reach” from the Hootenanny LP. It is a solo Westerberg song. Anyway, I just couldn't believe it. Certainly, The Replacements get licensed but it is usually one of the more big rock songs like “Bastards Of Young” or “Can't Hardly Wait.” I found it extremely cool that they picked an obscure song and were quite honoured at the same time.
Scene Point Blank: I haven't finished watching it but I'll keep my ears open. There was another song that was played in The Bear and I said to my wife, as I heard it in the background that someone has good taste in music. I can't remember what it was. I think it had a Velvet Underground connection.
Peter Jesperson: Yes, they must have a good music supervisor.
