Words by Rene Rosierse
Singer and guitarist of early 90’s band Adorable, Pete Fij has returned to the studio to work on his first solo album. A small touring through Europe is also on the agenda for April so we were curious about what he’s got to mention about his activities and plans. It’s early in the evening when we’ve contacted him and he’s just returned from the studio.
So how was your day, you’ve been working on your solo album?
“So I’ve already finished the album that will come out in July, but I’ve already started recording the next album. I’ve already completed two tracks and I’m just working on a couple more today. So yeah, it was good. It’s kind of that realisation everything takes so long that you need to just keep on working. So that hopefully maybe I could get this second album out next year. I’m really enjoying the process. I’ve always enjoyed doing stuff with Terry Bickers and stuff with people in bands. But yeah, I like working on my own.”
What made you decide to go solo?
“There’s a couple of things. I mean, it’s quicker. It’s only me I have to satisfy. So I enjoyed that. It’s quite hard to find people in a band and you all get together and everyone’s got busy lives. So trying to get everybody together to rehearse or to write or to record just takes a lot of time and it slows everything up. And I just sort of feel now’s the time just to bang stuff out. It’s just to get on with it. So, I enjoy being able to kind of just speed things up. Just go at my pace.
I made a couple of lovely albums that I’m really proud of with Terry Bickers (ex House of Love), which were very kind of low key, very quiet, melancholic. And this is kind of like, it’s got a lot of energy and I’m really quite enjoying, you know. I really love the kind of more performance-based aspect of playing live, most of this material is quite up tempo and with loud guitars. And it’s really nice to have a bit of feedback and the energy of that.”
Talking of live performances, You’re doing to do a small European tour.
“I was just approached to do a couple of shows and then just had the opportunity of doing it. You know, I probably wouldn’t have come over if it was just two, but because I then kind of put the word out, I got a couple more offers quite quickly. So coming up for four shows, that’d be great. Four shows in a row would be really good fun. So, yeah, I’m really, really looking forward to it. I did a very short tour just at the end of November, December in the UK, a five-day tour. And that was really nice.
And it’s really nice just to do gigs one after another. There’s a real energy that you get from being on tour and playing consecutive nights. Plus, you know, it’s a chance to go abroad, meet new people, see new places. I’ve never been to any of the places that I’m playing at. So that’s always exciting. See new places.”
And to check out the response of your new material live.
“Yeah I mean, when it came out in the UK, the response was really good. It went really well. So that was really nice. So I think some people kind of weren’t sure what to expect of me, but maybe they thought it was going to be a continuation of the sort of melancholic, quiet Pete that they’ve been used to from the stuff that I’ve done with Terry. And so there’s one or two people kind of it was a bit like a jolt. You know, this is kind of, this is electric and with energy, you know, and elements of it hark back to some of my earlier work in Adorable or Polak. And hopefully it’s got that vibrancy.”
Will you also be performing the older Adorable songs?
“Yeah, there’ll definitely be an Adorable song or two in the set. They’ve gone down well as well. I’ve really enjoyed doing it. It’s not kind of completely, it’s doing it in the style of my new album. It’s not just like a copy of Adorable, but I think it really works. And those songs have gone down well. I’ve really enjoyed doing those as well.”
The timing for the Adorable songs is spot on, At the moment you’ll be touring in Europe, two 12 inches (Homeboy & Sunshine smile) will be released during Record Store Day.
“It was the band ourselves who decided to do this. We’ve negotiated a license deal with Sony to release it. So these will be coming out on record store day and then about three weeks later, the band will be selling it on our own Bandcamp pages as well if people can’t get hold of it. So I think there’s only about 500 copies going out to Record Store Day.”
Rewriting the ending of Adorable.
“We got back together in 2019. And that was us trying rewriting the ending. Our final show was in Bruxelles, Belgium. You know, our experience at the end of the band, it was quite a negative feeling. We were all kind of fed up and tired and felt like we’d been in a fight with the world. And, you know, we weren’t selling many records. Our label had dropped us. The band, you know, there weren’t many people coming to our shows or as many people as before.
And the band weren’t getting on very well within the group dynamic. So it was quite often when we look back, you know, when I look back on the band, I kind of look back with a sense of negativity. It’s a bit like when you’re in a relationship and the relationship finishes, what often happens is when you think of that relationship, you don’t think of all the good times and all the lovely times. You tend to focus on how it ended. And you focus on the negativity. And I found that a bit when for several years, you know, that was my memory of the band.
It wasn’t the good times, but it was that last, you know, it was the best part of the year when it was really quite fraught and lots of tensions. And we were, you know, it was a really tricky time for everybody. But when we got back together again, we kind of decided this was an opportunity to almost rewrite the ending, like a director’s cut of a film. So we did the shows and the shows were euphoric. And it was an amazing feeling to be in a room with so many people who travelled from all over the world to come and see us and who, you know, there was such a lot of love in the room in a way that we had never experienced in any show that we had ever done before.
Because everybody who came to that show was a massive fan. And everyone, we’d start every song, even at B-sides, and people would be cheering along and singing along. You know, it was, it was amazing. And we, we actually hadn’t packed it in. We, we hadn’t thought just what the experience would be like, you know. So it was really nice to do, but we’ve, we’ve done it now. And we’ve really enjoyed that. And to get back together again, my fear would be, what would we achieve? We, I feel that we’ve achieved everything that we wanted to. We’ve rewritten the ending. And we’ve, and now, when I think of Adorable and how the band finished, I think of it in 2019. And that’s how it’s finished in a really, really positive way. And it makes me really happy. And I think, oh, everybody in the band feels the same.”
Back to the new material and the planned touring.
Beside the new electric songs, can we also expect new material with you and Terry Bickers?
“No, not for now, I’m kind of very much focused on this project. Maybe, there’ll be a time when I’m older and a little bit deaf from the electric, the feedback from the electric guitars. And, I’ll sit and maybe going out with an acoustic guitar and, you know, for a quieter audience. I love Terry to bits. So never say never about, us recording something again and releasing something. But for now, this is kind of my focus. I’m kind of interested in the mixing with the mix between electronica and guitars. I think it’s really interesting.”
Will there be bitter tours planned after the release of the album?
“Yeah, the plan is to tour in the UK and Europe in October and November. There’s already been quite a lot of interest in Europe for days. I’ll definitely be coming back to the Netherlands to do some shows. But also Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Spain. So it’ll be quite a big European tour, I think. I’ll be touring for about a month in the UK and Europe, at least I would hope. But we’ll see.”
So there’s plenty happening for you this year.
“Yeah, it’s a busy, busy year. But really looking forward to it. So there’s so many different elements to when you’re releasing music. I happen to like a lot of them. So, you know, I’m having to make videos, but I really like directing videos. And I’ve got to do the art. I’ve got to finish off the artwork for the next single and for the album as well. Some of them are photos that I’ve taken myself. So I really enjoy the photography element and the design element. And I really enjoy performing live. And with that it’s time to thanks Pete for his time. We will definitely check him out on the planned gigs in The Netherlands and are looking forward to the release of hiss solo album in July.”
Live
16/04 Theater Branoul – The Hague (NL)
17/04 SoundVille – Rotterdam (NL)
18-04 Palethe – Pelt (BE)
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