The Pier (Pilipo)
Interviews | Oct 1st, 2008
Lets start off by telling all of the Readjunkies a little bit about The Pier.
The Pier first launched online August 2007 – the creation behind the site was to positively promote reggae-hip hop-rock music and give fans the opportunity to read and interact with their favorite bands from the scene. We want to take the summer beach good vibes to the virtual world when you cant be there in the reality.
In our first year we have had over 60 in-depth interviews with the likes of Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, Kottonmouth Kings, Pennywise and more. Plus the site features daily news, album and concert reviews, chat boards, FREE music, plus a helpful musician advice section called Ask Weege (lead vocalist from 880 South).
Lately The Pier has been covering it all, any band is welcome no matter the style of music. It’s all about spreading the good times and putting a smile on your face. In terms of what bands we will feature, we are the sluts of internet music world and will pretty much hook up with anyone.
Was there any particular reason for starting a website dedicated to reggae/ska/dub/punk, the bastards of the indie scene?
Pretty much out of boredom. Actually the whole reason was to build on the excellent work web-sites like SublimeArchive.com had done in unifying this scene. By bringing everyone together under one neutral banner, all the bands world-wide could benefit from a unified community.
I also think the bands from this scene seriously deserve something like this and I was frustrated that it didnt already exist. I feel that summertime feel-good music often gets unfairly dismissed by the mainstream media as it just views it as frat-boy party music. Those writers take themselves way too seriously to appreciate the fact you can be a talented musician, take your craft seriously and yet also be able to express music about the good things in life.
I really believe this scene has some of the most talented musicians in the world today and just because it is not delivered in an angst wrapped bow doesnt mean it is not a valuable musical contribution. Third-wave ska when it broke in the mid 90s also faced the same prejudices.
Right now there are so many original bands from this reggae rock scene that are not Sublime clones or Jamaican imitators, that are successfully doing their own thing and deserve to be heard, like Dirty Heads, Passafire, The Expendables and Ballyhoo just to name a few.
Why the switch from print media to digital media?
I personally like nothing more than chilling and reading a great magazine, but obviously with digital media you can now get your message out in more real time. These days, everyone wants everything right now. We are even too impatient to wait for bands albums to hit the shelves, we are frustrated if we dont get an album leak before it is actually officially released (haha).
Seriously though, besides being able to do more with audio and video, the main benefit of doing this all digitally is the networking opportunities it creates between the bands themselves and the fans. The Pier is really aiming to create a musical community of bands, fans, and companies across the world working together to support one other.
What drew me to the Pier were the free mp3 samplers that you have released on the website over the past few months. Where did that idea come from and how did you manage to bring it all together?
We had been kicking around the idea of doing compilation albums for some time. The main aim of the Samplers was to be in the same spirit of the site, which is to try and expose all these bands to many people as we can. –
