The Prids interview – July 2018

Following their short UK run this month, I had a chat with David and Mistina from The Prids to get to know them a little bit more. Here’s how it went…

For those who may not know who you are, introduce yourselves quickly.

David Frederickson, guitar and vocals

Mistina La Fave, bass and vocals

Describe your sound in as few words as possible.

DF – A big sad wall of sound.

Who are your three biggest influences as a band?

ML – Wire for the simplicity, The Smiths for the lyrics and My Bloody Valentine for their articulated noise.

What’s the meaning behind your band name?

ML – Pretty was a nickname he had for me. That somehow mutated in cuteness from Pretty to Priddy to Prid.

What was it like to work with Sean Flora (Black Keys, The Shins)?

ML – We’ve been friends with Sean since early on when we moved to Portland, I think we met around 2001. He’s a great person to work with! Very kind and chill, and always pushes us in areas we are insecure in, like going with louder vocals. We aren’t great singers by any means and grew up on shoegaze so we do like a nice buried vocal.

Do you have any personal favourite songs on the release?

ML – Haunted, English Treasure, Summer Cult

DF – Haunted

Describe the concept of your latest video.

ML – Honestly there wasn’t a big concept going on. Our drummer Gordon Nickle edited this one. We were taking the piss at all the bands that use occult symbols, but also at ourselves for writing dark music. It slowly builds from seeming like a band that takes themselves way too seriously, to us laughing during takes, and then the end is what really makes it I think, where we are playing frisbee on the beach and you can see our friends who came along to help shoot it.

Does it tie in with the themes around the song?

ML – Yes, quite literally.

Was it fun to shoot or did it prove to be quite a challenge?

ML – Both videos were fun to shoot. We love making videos and feel fortunate that we have such talented bandmates and friends who would help us make them.

What are your favourite songs to perform live?

ML – Shadow and Shadow, English Treasure, Haunted

DF – The Shape, Haunted, Lie Here

What are the best and worst shows you’ve played to date?

ML – Worst I can remember was one in Scottsdale Arizona where no one showed up. Another, we were playing with Chromatics and our drummer broke two kick pedals. We played maybe 15 minutes total due to technical difficulties.

DF – We recently got to play 3 shows with a legendary indie band called Treepeople, and I’m still over the moon about that.

If you could open for anyone, who would it be?

DF – Guided By Voices

ML – GBV, MBV, basically bands with BV somewhere in there

Any comical stories from your time as a band you can share with us?

ML – We had a keyboard player who would complain about how playing “hurt his fingers” and we always found that funny. He didn’t even play weighted keys. Needless to say, he didn’t last.

What’s the plan for the rest of 2018?

ML – Writing a new album and coming back to play the UK in the winter.

Any closing comments?

ML – We’re beyond excited to play England! Most of our favorite music was made here.