Hey Chris, how’s it going?
Not to bad man, answering lots of questions about myself, I start to feel silly after a while. ‘Why did you do this, why did you do that’. I never really have a good answer for those things.

Shit, so we’re off to a great start then!
(laughs) Well we’ve had a bit of drama around our house today. I gave my son a hair cut he very much did not want, and now he’s upset at me.

What sort of hair cut did you give him?
Well it’s summer time over here, and I gave him a buzz cut. I put it on the longest extension, but it wasn’t long enough. Personally I think it’s great, but he hates it. It’s my favourite haircut to get, after you’ve let your hair get shaggy for a while, you go to the barber and get him to clipper that thing down, it’s the most liberating feeling in the world.

Like hitting the reset button?
Exactly, and it usually goes in hand with stopping drinking or renewing your gym membership or something.

So lead guitarist for the Foo Fighters, front man for Jackson United, now Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants, you’re almost as busy as Dave Grohl these days!
Well you know, we try to keep up. Believe me, it’s hard to match that work ethihic, that man is the king of the side bands. But that’s good because it gives the other band members time to do other things as well.

What’s your favourite song of your new album?
It’s hard to nail just one down but I really like ‘Get Along’. That’s my all in favourite. Sometimes you write a song and when you record it, it doesn’t come out that great, but that one came out better than I had hoped. Also the last song on the album ‘Death March’ is great. I came up with it very late in the making of the album, and it just all came together, and became this whole other thing. It’s really satisfying to not know what something is going to be and then you’re like ‘yeah that’s really cool.’

Your music goes best with…
Well I think there’s a few different moods on it. Some of the songs sound like Saturday night and some sound like Sunday morning. If your looking for Foo Fighter rock then this ain’t it, but I’d say this new album would go great on a road trip. Put it on and go for a nice long drive.

Why the dead peasants? Were they cheaper than live peasants?
They are normally, yes. You know what. I was initially going to call it, Chris Shiflett and the Cheaters, but everyone whinced and said ‘what does your wife think of that’. But I meant as in cheating at dice or a game of cards. So then I called it Chris Shiflett and the Campesinos, but there’s a band called Los Campesino, so that would be confusing. So then I saw the last Michael Moore movie ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ and there’s a section in that movie where he’s talking about these life insurance policies taken out on their employees without their employees knowing. The policies are know as dead peasant policies, so when I heard that I was like ‘perfect, I’ll steal that’. No one seems to get the reference, so it might be bad news for Michael Moore, maybe no one saw his last movie.

Hopefully Michael Moore likes your tunes and doesn’t want his name back.
It’s funny actually, I got an email on facebook from some young kids saying ‘we’re a punk rock band called The Dead Peasants, will you please change your name?’ to which I replied ‘no’. (laughs)

The Foo Fighers have so many awesome film clips, to you have a favourite?
If I had to pick one I’d think it would definitely be the ‘All My Life’ video. Up until that time the band was known for it’s funny and silly videos, but the band isn’t silly you know. I mean Dave is funny, and he’ll say funny stuff between songs but when it comes to playing, we’re not a silly thing. There’s moments in a Foo Fighters live show that are heavy and rocking, and I think we captured that with that clip.

If you could rid the world of one shit band, what band would it be and why?
(laughs) Um, oh god. You know what, I wouldn’t rid the world of any band but I would rid the world of how modern records are produced. I would rid the world of people over editing and making everything so damn clean. A lot of bands you think are crummy wouldn’t sound so crummy if they didn’t sound so slick. If you put on a old Beatles album or an AC/DC album it’s not perfect stuff, it’s loose and it’s human. That’s what’s wrong with music these days, it’s all overproduced, if we stopped that, maybe some of those shit bands wouldn’t sound so shit. 

Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants self titled debut album is out now.

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