Pinto & The Bean
Presumably…many of you out there reading are in bands or finding your way into music right now…
I often get asked about ‘how’ to answer interview questions from people that haven’t had much experience yet – and today we are not talking to those people.
No…today, we’re talking to two musical masterminds and interview geniuses…Paul and Ivan of the highly melodic band Pinto & The Bean. I simply cannot express the gratitude and thanks enough when looking at how much effort and FUN they had answering my questions…this is literally as good as an interview experience can possibly get if you were to ask me. So not only do they apparently make awesome music, which we already knew – but apparently they could also run a clinic on how the independent artist should answer a written review. You will be STUNNED by the amount of detail, heart and passion these two convey as they progressively stun themselves with alcohol and let the truth all fall where it may. As a result…it’s one of the most compelling I’ve read and I’m STOKED to be able to re-introduce you to Pinto & The Bean all over again in this new interview. If you think I tend to pack a lot into my words…you just wait and see what these two crafty song-writers can do.
Better yet…in the month of August you’ll also be able to HEAR what these two can do direct. Just talked with Ryan @ SBS about editing the SPOKEN WORD edition of this interview into our podcast next month and he’s all about it. Did I mention it’s direct from Pinto & The Bean direct? I mean…it just does not get any more awesome than that!!! Truly excited to play you what they’ve sent over here…make sure to keep an eye out for the latest postings to the podcast on Sundays throughout the rest of 2015 so you’ll be the first to know when Pinto & The Bean pop onto the show.
Can’t say thank-you enough Ivan & Paul – you two absolutely freakin’ rock! In a melodic way, of course….
– Jer @ SBS
Interview With Pinto & The Bean
Jer @ SBS: Paul, Ivan…Pinto & The Bean! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk out the music with us! I’m sure we’ve got people reading now that remember you from the review we did on the Transit-Eons EP…so I’m going to assume they’ll already have an idea of who you are and what you sound like – so rather than start you out with doing some sort of description of the band…let’s talk about content for a moment…what do you feel most compelled to write about in your music? What kind of subjects, emotions, themes, atmospheres…you know…what’s the music all about?
Ivan: First of all, I want to say this is a very clever question. It’s hard for us to respond to these kinds of questions because they involve many things. I’m going to try to answer everything as simple as I can. I have to say that I have an accent and I’m a bit drunk…but…well…anyway – like I said, this is a very complicated question, but I can tell that the process of making music varies, but mostly it’s the same formula. Sometimes Paul starts playing a riff on his guitar and then I join him on his trip. Mostly everything starts with a riff…with a melody, and then we start singing in tongues with no sense – singing melodies, and little by little, we add different instruments. Sometimes I’m just coming with an idea in my head and I talk to Paul and tell him to follow this beat and follow this chord, and he adds guitar. So, it’s kind of two different processes of making music, but in the end, it’s almost the same formula – like music first, melody first, and we end up asking ourselves, “what do you feel with the music?” Like, do you feel like you’re driving on a highway? Do you like you’re walking through the woods? Do you feel like you’re swimming in a lake or something? And then after that, once we’ve felt the music first, we start writing lyrics. I have to say that some songs, Paul feels more like writing lyrics. There are some songs where I feel like writing more lyrics. But we have an agreement about that. We try to make everything 50/50 as best as possible. Anyway, in the end, you can tell which song is more Paul Taneja and which song is more Ivan Sosa, but we’re trying to make everything as fair as possible. And yeah, it’s just like that. Everything starts with something simple, and we’re making everything go through…adding new stuff, new instruments, different instruments – mostly lyrics go in the end – once we finish a song with melodies and structure, we decide what we feel about a song, and then we add some lyrics that match what we felt.
Paul: That doesn’t always happen though. I remember when we wrote Better Off Alone for instance…I mean…maybe I shouldn’t say this but I’m gonna say it – well, I used to take Adderall for my ADD. I don’t take it anymore, but like Ivan asked me one day “what’s that pill that you take?” He just wanted to know what it was and I was like “here I’ll give you one”. I don’t know if you remember but we both took one and it was so crazy just how focused we got, within like 30 minutes after taking this Adderall pill, and I hate to say that Better Off Alone came from a drug, but all I wanna say is, that song, the lyrics and just kinda flowed out that moment. I was just in a weird mood that night anyway and I wasn’t feeling…I wasn’t really happy. I was feeling kind of just…I don’t even know. I don’t remember.
Ivan: He’s talking about lyrics…
Paul: Cause he’s asking us what are the subjects, emotions, themes…what are the songs about?
Ivan: Yeah, well I dunno. I can tell that Paul is more concerned about lyrics and I’m not that much concerned about lyrics…
Paul: But Ivan wrote the lyrics to Eagle Kid. So…
Ivan: Yeah, well, I just remember – probably we’re going to talk more about this EP in the future because I saw some other questions that are very interesting. For example, each song has its own story. I don’t know why Paul brought this Adderall to the lyrics to Better Off Alone. Each song has its own story, and I remember that Paul was in Michigan hanging out and I started making beats and playing keyboards and stuff like that to make this song Better Off Alone happen somehow. He liked the idea a lot and he added the guitar, and that’s the result of what happened. You might be surprised at all the backgrounds. That’s why we called this EP Transit-eons. I was planning to call it Transitions.
Paul: And I was like, let’s do a play on words with it.
Ivan: It’s because these songs – they have too much involved…they each have their own story, feelings, and everything, you know. So, you might be surprised we recorded these songs’ raw recordings probably like a year ago – a year and a half ago and we just picked out these songs, and we worked on them. But each song has its own story. I have to say that we’re complicated individuals. We’re complicated musicians. Every time it’s kind of hard to have an agreement, but it some way, it’s cool, because I’m proud of what we got in the very end.
Paul: To sum up this whole question – you say subjects, emotions, themes – emotions, a lot of it’s just sadness or frustration, although Safari is kind of, I dunno, more like excitement about what life is bringing on. Anyway, let’s go to the next question.
Ivan: Just to end this question, I think as I said before, everything starts with music. Like Paul is playing a riff or I bring an idea and I’m playing some chords on a keyboard. Everything starts from there. It’s like, what do you feel? What do you feel about these chords? Everything starts from there, and in the very end, it all becomes one idea.
Jer @ SBS: Overall…do you guys think it’s all been done in music more or less – or is there still new ground left to be broken? What creative gem might still be left uncovered innovative enough to change the landscape of music?
Paul: I don’t know man. I mean, at this point…I used to think about that kind of stuff, but I swear now I just write, and I hope…I don’t know. It’s just different now. It’s like I don’t have anything to prove anymore. I just wanna make music and hope that other people like it.
Ivan: I consider that everything in music is done. I support…I think it was Sting from Police when he said everything in music is done. Yeah. I don’t know. It’s like creativity means – we have the same ingredients. We have the same chords. We have the same structure – history behind.
Paul: When you think about the music we write, a lot of it is very cheesy – like if you look at just the basic chord progressions that we’re doing, but you know, I think yeah it all has been done before really. I mean, we know that. We don’t…
Ivan: I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. All your questions are very clever actually. Thank you so much for asking these questions, because they’re making me think. Yeah, I can tell that everything is done, so it’s – how can you make a different cake or a different recipe with the same ingredients. That’s the secret. It’s like – the same ingredients from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, and how can you mix these ingredients to make a nice dish. Like something that tastes weird and different from what you have been eating for many years. We don’t have answers for our secrets or for the answers to what’s the secret to make good music. I think the most important thing is to do what you feel, and that’s it.
Jer @ SBS: How important is melody to a song? To Pinto & The Bean? There seems to be a tremendous focus on writing unique melodies with well thought-out harmonies placed within your music… As singers…it can be tough to imagine new ones without borrowing from an old one somewhere along the lines of music history…how do you put yourselves in the right mindset to find the inspiration for the melodies to be created?
Ivan: So, I dunno. I remember when I met Paul a long time ago…like 8 years ago. I always thought and I’m still thinking that the melody is the main ingredient. It’s the main instrument to make a good song. Probably there’s gonna be out there punk guys or another style of music that won’t agree, but it’s part of my nature, kind of, to write kind of melodic songs. I know some other people are going to consider this kind of cheesy, but this is the way I am, and probably Paul is the same way.
Paul: Yeah, I mean I’ve never been able to write lyrics first. I can’t write lyrics unless there’s a melody because a melody helps me understand like, I dunno, it’s like everything – the melody along with the music helps me understand, like, what kind of vibe, what is the feeling that this song is. I don’t know, but we don’t really, I don’t know if we try to write unique melodies really. We just…we definitely definitely both are extremely passionate about melodies and we both work very hard to make sure that the melodies in our songs we’re very happy with when we have them. But I don’t think that we’re ever thinking that we stole that from somebody else or we borrowed it from somebody else. We just sort of…when we’re happy with it – I don’t know, we’re just happy. We do think about melodies a lot.
Ivan: Yeah, it’s kind of unconsciously. For me, I have my phone full of recordings when I’m driving, when I’m feeling emotional, when I’m walking, when I’m in a bar – and I’m recording melodies – like humming things and that’s the little thing that ignites the fire of a song and I don’t know – it’s like, I don’t like to think…sometimes I think that it’s cheesy, but I don’t want to think about that. It’s just part of it for my personality – and I think Paul is the same way. So how can we get together enjoying the same thing? I can tell right away that there are some melodies that probably he doesn’t like, and we just discard that song and sometimes Paul is bringing some melodies that I don’t like but mostly, as I said, at the beginning, it’s something that we both like. But yeah, melodies are something really important for us.
Jer @ SBS: I swear I could be completely out to lunch on this one guys…but I’m going to throw it out there anyway… When I reviewed Transit-Eons…I shied away from making a few comments on the vocals. Nothing bad…and I’m certainly not trying to offend you guys…but either one of the two of you has an incredibly high voice for a dude…or there was in fact a female back-up singer that popped into the mix every once in a while on the album. So…yeah…pin that one down for me! Were you two solely responsible for all the vocals on the EP?
Paul: Yes, we were both responsible for all the vocals on the EP.
Ivan: I think when I was reading this question, it made me laugh.
Paul: It made me laugh too.
Ivan: The guy who is speaking to you right now is the one that recorded all these female voices. So, I have to be very honest. I don’t like to hear my voice. I think my voice is kind of annoying, but I heard from many people that my voice has a special pitch or something like that. The only thing I have to say is that probably my subconsciously, I learned things from amazing voices that I always admired, like Robert Plant or Perry Farrell and I think I absorbed this kind of singing way since I was a kind growing up, and being a teenager and stuff, and I dunno – I like to sing high pitched all the time and you are not the first person who is asking if there is a girl singing. I’m not offended at all. It’s just like, I dunno, like we – on this EP, I can obviously – you can tell there’s a very female pitch, but also I’m already doing some African voices. So, my voice varies from dark, like super low to high pitch, but I do love to sing in a high pitch. I can’t explain it. All I can say is it’s probably something from my subconscious since I was growing up and admiring Led Zeppelin and Janes Addiction. That’s the only answer I have right now.
Jer @ SBS: I was shocked to learn from Paul that the band was kind of on the shelf for a couple years prior to the release of the EP! What took you away from the music and what was it that brought you back to it? How did it all of a sudden become important again?
Paul: Honestly, one day Ivan just said – I think he just said ‘let’s put some songs together and make an EP’.
Ivan: No no…being honest – this is what happened. I don’t know. We made an album in 2010.
Paul: 2011
Ivan: You know, like any band. You know, you start having issues, you know. So I started making my solo music, because I thought Paul was in a different world than mine, so everything ended up, like let’s try this – I suggested to him to start doing something – like a new beginning. Why don’t we just release an EP and probably that’s gonna make us do something and forget, and start everything all over.
Paul: Yeah – it’s weird cause this EP really just – it’s like you either just sit on the shelf and just stay there but Ivan just suggesting that we make an EP suddenly made us come back to life. I don’t even know how else to explain it. It’s like – there’s no other explanation as to why we’re here again. It’s just – we have all these songs that we’d written over the last few years, but there are pieces, like all the songs on this EP are actually parts and pieces of – we have enough music for another 2 EPs easily. We just randomly chose these 6 songs. We sat down one night. Ivan chose 6 songs that he would want on an EP, and I chose 6 songs that I would want on an EP and then we looked at each other’s answers, and then sort of came to a conclusion together as to which 6 songs would be the best for this EP. They don’t even make sense exactly – these 6 songs all together, but we just put them together anyway, and we’re happy with it.
Ivan: Yeah, I told Paul that we don’t have anything to lose. But as I said, the most important thing is to be honest and I remember that – what I can tell is Paul is my best friend. As a musician, probably complicated, just as Paul is. So, we’re trying to not mix feelings as friends and try to be probably complicated musicians, because we are. It’s hard to work with him, but sometimes I feel it’s worth it. You know. It’s like – in the end, what we got is something that involves many feelings, complications, happiness, sadness, frustrations – many feelings. You would be surprised that, if you one day can spend a week with us, you’re gonna feel what’s going on. So yeah, we’re good friends. Paul is my best friend, but as musicians, we have very strong standards that we’re trying to combine, and to try to be polite and kind and respect each other.
Paul: And somehow, shockingly, we just – yeah, it’s, I dunno…we just decided to stop sitting around and being annoyed by each other as musicians, or what, but we just decided, let’s do this and we just did it, and that’s it, and here it is.
Jer @ SBS: Since the release of Transit-Eons…has there been an effort to make Pinto & The Bean incorporated more into your daily lives to keep the music going? Honestly I really think you guys are onto something and it’d be a shame to see it become a dormant project again! Just thinking about it makes it harder for me to sleep at night guys…how can we be certain you’ll continue making new music?
Paul: Well, Ivan and I are…well, first of all, it’s a really nice question and…
Ivan: All of them…
Paul: They’re all awesome questions, but it makes me happy that, you know, that the music means that much to you. Like I said, these 6 songs were just 6 of maybe 20 that we randomly chose. I think that all the other ones that we have left are equally, if not, possibly better than these songs. We randomly chose these six, but we have so many more, at least for 2 more EPs and Ivan – we weren’t expecting such good reviews of this EP. We didn’t even know what we were doing. We just put this thing out, and just started getting some reviews and then, the first 3 reviews we got, the reviewers really loved it, and we were kind of…I was shocked, kind of, cause I don’t know – we haven’t done anything in so long, and so, Ivan suggested, why don’t we make another EP soon. And I’m all about it. We did this all by ourselves too. This is the first time we’ve produced and engineered our own album or music.
Ivan: Again, this is a really clever question. Oh gosh. I don’t know…as I said. I mean, I have like, an idea in my brain that we have tons of songs, in the past.
Paul: We’ve got songs that are so good man, that we’ve got to put on another EP.
Ivan: There are some songs that I don’t consider are good and some other songs that I consider good, and some that are really bad.
Paul: But we’ll never put the bad songs anywhere. We both have to agree that we like something before it goes anywhere.
Ivan: As I said…as Paul said. We have songs that probably can make another 2 EPs. But the thing is, that’s why we called this album Transit-eons…like I said, I tried to call this album ‘Transitions’ because I used to play drums before, and now I’m playing drum machines, but I want to say that this EP ‘Transit-Eons’…it’s about old songs, but also new stuff. So it’s a combination of feelings from the past and feelings from the present, like what we’re feeling today. And if we make another EP…
Paul: We’re going to!
Ivan: …I would try to do the same thing – to pick up songs from the past. Combine all those feelings with new feelings we’re having right now.
Paul: Yeah, the newest one is Gunshot, but the other 5…they’re not old, they’re from within the last year.
Ivan: Last year, year and a half. But what I’m trying to say is every song has its own story, but the formula that I’m trying to do for the next EP is to combine what we recorded before and also what we are bringing now.
Paul: I mean we’re practicing regularly. We’re definitely talking about the future more, and a whole bunch of stuff, yeah.
Jer @ SBS: Do you two stick to defined roles within Pinto & The Bean or is there a freedom to grab any instrument? Obviously there’s a bit of pressure on you both to arrange, write and perform all of those parts…so is there a formula of some sort you’ve found that works for you guys when writing the music? How do they start…how do you know for certain when they’re completely finished – who makes that call and how is it made?
Paul: Sometimes I don’t even know how a song finally exists. Like I don’t know. We just…
Ivan: I don’t know. We have to say that this is a two piece band so, that’s why the name of this EP makes sense in many ways. Let’s say Paul mostly plays guitar. He plays keyboards also and piano and some other instruments.
Paul: The melodica is the newest.
Ivan: The melodica is the newest instrument. I started as a musician, as a drummer – percussionist. But I always considered myself as a songwriter too. And…
Paul: And, by the way, that’s one reason why Pinto and the Bean works, is because I think a lot of the bands that you performed with, maybe…I dunno, you played drums with them, but I see you as the complete artist that I know you are as a songwriter too.
Ivan: Very kind from you Paul.
Paul: I’m just saying.
Ivan: No, it’s like…for me, the name of this EP was perfect, Transitions…Transit-Eons. It’s because on the first album, I played drums and percussions. I wrote and I was singing too. But now, on this album, I’m…from now and the future, I’m going to still play drums and percussions, but now I’m more into keyboards, playing keyboards, and also looping things, to make our show more attractive. I don’t know. There are many things happening in my life right now. But I’m glad this is happening. I’m so excited that I stopped playing drums for a little bit, and now I’m playing drum machines, because I always dreamed of playing all those amazing drum machines from the 80’s, and playing keyboards and stuff and that’s why it’s so appealing…the name of this EP.
Paul: I mean, we’re definitely doing things differently now. I mean, in so many ways. Even with just recording. It’s so much more fun to just do whatever the hell we want to do, rather than…I mean, not that we didn’t before. We always did I guess. It just feels different now.
Ivan: It’s funny because I remember our first album. It was in 2010 if I remember. It’s funny. Recently, I just went back to listen to our songs. In the beginning, it was like, oh gosh, I just don’t want to hear those songs anymore! And then after a huge break, I go back, and I just pushed play, and I was listening to the songs, and you know what? I feel proud. I feel, it was our baby, and it was beautiful. And I can appreciate it more now. But I cannot deny that I’m growing up somehow, I’m trying to learn new things, and I’m trying to play drums and play more keyboards and stuff like that, and I know many people who liked us in the past from our first album – probably they may not like us, but I have a feeling that somebody is going to support this feeling of me growing up and learning new things and being a better person…musician somehow.
Jer @ SBS: Transit-Eons itself was basically made in 2 months if I’ve got the story straight here…is that correct? The incredible amount of details and fine-tuning that feel like they were put in make it seem like you would have had to have stayed up all night, every night for 2 months to get it sounding as golden as it does – so give us an idea of what the schedule was like! It might not have been quite that intense, but it still must have been a challenge – how did you accomplish it all? Was there a plan?
Paul: Well, that’s the thing. These songs, except for Gunshot – the other 5 songs, sort of were – at least, mostly written for the most part, over the course of the last year and a half, but we’ve been practicing. We just haven’t been playing or performing publicly or anything like that. We’ve just sort of been in the living room practicing randomly, and we just kinda sorta chose the songs that we thought were really good to put on an EP and they were close enough to being done to where we wouldn’t have had to do too much more with them to get them to exist on an EP. But the 2 months still were really tough, because we’ve never mixed or recorded our own music before. We’ve always had…
Ivan: Somebody working for us…
Paul: Yeah, like an engineer. So, for us to just do this…to trust our own ears – to hear the instruments – like is this too loud? Is this too quiet? Is it too loud too quiet, are our vocals matched up? That was definitely a challenge, because you’ve got to listen over and over and over and over again. But it wasn’t all night every day. It was just …It was definitely every day, you know, sending a new mix to each other…I dunno, but the songs themselves existed before, except Gunshot. That one’s brand new.
Ivan: So, this is what happened. As we explained before. We picked up songs from the past. Like 6 months. A year. A year and a half. And also new songs, like – I think on this EP, the newest song is Gunshot. But you know what? This is the thing. It’s easy to record a song. That’s the easy thing. The hardest part of any recording is mixing. That’s what makes sense of everything you’ve done before. It’s like a diamond. A diamond, when you get that piece with no structure, it has no value. So when someone is working on that, pulling it and making the figure and shape and stuff like that, is when the diamond gets value. So it’s the same thing with recording. Recording is easy. Mixing is the hard part. And what happened is we picked songs that were kind of raw. So we picked some songs…old songs and new songs. And then we decided to…so we have many songs, let’s pick out six songs and we have a deadline. From today – in two months we have to finish, and whatever happens, we have to stop by that date.
Paul: And that’s what we did.
Ivan: That’s what we did.
Paul: We just set a deadline.
Ivan: So we, honestly – it was daily listening and listening and listening and listening and listening. So, that was…
Paul: It was the greatest thing that we set a deadline because now we’re all excited again about things. I dunno. It’s just…we just…
Ivan: Yeah.
Paul: It’s so weird. Cause it’s like we’re on The Twilight Zone.
Ivan: Yeah. That’s correct. Because if we hadn’t set a deadline, that would have taken forever. I can tell right now that I’m not happy 100% and I’m pretty sure I will never be happy 100% about these songs.
Paul: But it’s 99%
Ivan: I dunno. It’s like, you know, as a musician, you’re never gonna be happy. Especially because we recorded. We mixed. We were doing everything and it’s hard. It’s not that easy but it’s enjoyable, because every day, listening to these songs, and then – let’s change this and let’s fix this, and what if we add this? And what if we mute this? So these 2 months were the hardest part of this EP. Resuming everything – recording is super easy. Yeah, you put your emotions in it and go crazy and yeah! Let’s rock. But mixing is a pain in the ass. And I don’t know if we have done a good job, but I’m proud of it. I’m really proud of it.
Paul: Yeah. I mean, I don’t even know who to compare it too. I’m proud of it mostly because we did it all by ourselves. And personally, I enjoy listening to it. Like, I don’t think it sounds…it’s…we actually…it sounds like we actually kinda knew what we were doing. So, I’m happy with it.
Jer @ SBS: This leads me naturally to my next question…what did you learn from recording the Transit-Eons EP that you’ll be able to take with you into your next recording? When is that happening again? It was coming by the end of this year right? Right? I swear I remember you mentioning something (ok maybe not)…it’s soon right? 😉
Paul: It’s kinda funny – that question, because. He sent us this interview after you and I were having this discussion at the bar the other night. And Ivan and I mentioned…should we release another EP by December? You said that right?
Ivan: Yeah.
Paul: And I thought. Yeah that’s a really good idea! Yeah. We haven’t gone out and played a show in so…we have, but we used to be a part of the scene, and now I dunno, we need to like, become present again within humanity.
Ivan: Yeah. We have a lot of things to…a lot of things to do. We are setting up shows and stuff. I would love to release another EP, but it’s always important what our friends tell us. Sometimes, as musicians, we’re blind. And we don’t see what’s going on out there. Luckily, our friends…our closest friends really love this EP. It’s really nice to find people like you, who is appreciating somehow what we have done. So, I don’t know. I’m not sure about releasing another EP before 2016…before the end of the year. I dunno…but let’s say this. Give us your opinion.
Paul: He’s saying he wants us to. Look at the question! That’s the whole thing. When is it happening? It’s coming before the end of this year, right?
Ivan: Well, we have enough time to work from today, which is July 11th, so we can make another EP by then.
Paul: We probably have to figure out a lot of things before that, but I would be really excited to release another one, because we have so much good…so much more music that we’re really excited about.
Ivan: Yeah. I think we have enough time to work on…like picking out songs from the past, and new songs.
Paul: It keeps us busy. It keeps us productive, and I just like it.
Ivan: New songs… I think my concern right now is to to play shows.
Paul: Yeah, we have to play shows, but that’s the thing. Ivan and I will never ever have a shortcoming of songs. We write…I don’t even know how. We just…when we get together with our instruments, it is not hard for us to write music. It just happens.
Jer @ SBS: What do you feel are the most unique qualities within the music of Pinto & The Bean…from your perspectives. With something special always comes the desire to protect it and keep it special and unique…how do you prevent yourselves from becoming a copy of someone else out there, or even yourselves as you start writing new material? Any plans to challenge yourselves in new, exciting ways on the next record you’ll make?
Paul: I don’t know about the next record. I know Ivan’s always challenging himself with new instruments and new sounds.
Ivan: Yeah, it’s like. I don’t know. My story goes back to deep things that happened to me…where I’m coming from. I’m kind of proud that probably, I don’t have a big house or a nice car, but at least I have all the instruments that I always dreamed to play one day and I have them here at home. So, I don’t know the secret of being different and unique, but as I said, answering your question before…I don’t like my voice. I don’t like to hear me singing, but at the same time, I appreciate commentaries from other people saying that my voice is kind of unique. But the combination of working with Paul, since I first met…the first time I was listening to his songs, I thought he has a unique, charming, warming voice. So I think it’s a combination or all these feelings and learning stuff. So, the ‘unique’ word makes me happy.
Paul: He also wants to know what prevents us from becoming a copy of somebody else. Like for me, I’ll tell you it’s just cause I live under a rock. I don’t know what else is out there, and I never have, my entire life. Ivan introduces me to music, and other people introduce me to music. I don’t watch television and I don’t pay attention…it’s horrible I guess. I just don’t know what’s mainstream or what’s not mainstream, so I just…like writing music for me, I just kind of write what I feel without – I mean, yeah there are bands that I grew up with and I love.
Ivan: Yeah. There are going to be people always who are trying to compare you with somebody else, which is good…which is nice because as I said before, I think everything is done. Everything is…you cannot be different anymore. I don’t know. It’s like – I feel like if someone is comparing you to somebody else, especially good bands, that would be an honor, you know? But I can tell right away, that probably we are not unique. But we are different from many other bands in Chicago. I can tell this right away. That’s why I always dreamed to go to other places to experiment, to try to see the reactions of listeners.
Paul: We will.
Ivan: Yeah, it’s really nice to find people like you, or like other people who are contacting us already.
Paul: Honestly, this interview, and your review helped spark the journey that…we don’t even…you know, we just made this EP. We don’t…I don’t know. It’s like the way we’re living our lives now – we don’t really know what comes next, but logically we’ve got to start playing shows, and we’re probably gonna tour, and we just…getting reviews and interviews like this help us…just inspire us to…I don’t know…it just makes us feel good about what we’re doing, and it makes us – cause it’s such a – your review is so authentic and so honest, and this interview is so detailed.
Ivan: Let’s finish this question saying that probably we are not special or unique, but we are…
Paul: We are drunk.
Ivan: No, we are different.
Paul: We’re different and we’re drunk.
Ivan: We’re weirdos somehow.
Paul: Yeah. We are.
Ivan: Our personal life is a reflection of the music we’re making, and since we were kids, everybody called us weirdos.
Paul: That’s true.
Ivan: And probably when I was a kid, I wasn’t that proud, but now, I swallow it and I don’t give a fuck.
Paul: Yeah. It’s funny, cause when you’re older, the same things you disliked about yourself when you were a kid cause you were an outcast…you’re older, you’re an adult, and then you realize, oh yeah, all that stuff is kinda good because it makes the art that we create like, somehow different, because we don’t really fit into little boxes.
Jer @ SBS: Websites gentlemen! You’ve got’em and we need’em! Where do you want people to go online to find the music and more about Pinto & The Bean?
Paul: So it used to be pintoandthebean.com – I don’t need to get into detail about this question, but some company in France bought our old domain, which I don’t know who on earth would want pintoandthebean.com, but anyway, our website is pintoandthebeanmusic.com so anything that you wanna find out, we’re gonna be updating that website, and hopefully we’re gonna be able to get pintoandthebean.com back, but for now it’s pintoandthebeanmusic.com.
Jer @ SBS: Welcome to the SBS ‘Open Floor!’ I’d like to say a massive thank you to you both for taking the time to answer these questions of ours and sharing some insight with us. Take this next space to say anything at all that you’d like to mention or bring up anything you would have wanted to talk about that I missed! All the best to you Ivan & Paul – looking forward to hearing more from Pinto & The Bean!
Paul: Well thank you tremendously Jer, because these questions are awesome. And we can tell that you genuinely care, and that you genuinely really like what we’re doing, so it just means a whole lot to us.
Ivan: I can see and I can feel from you a real passion about music, which is something that I share with you. I don’t know if you play an instrument or if you play music. I dunno.
Paul: He does.
Ivan: He does? Alright, well, awesome. So we have a connection somehow. The only thing I have to say is I really really enjoyed these questions because they made me think a lot and I like people making me think a lot. Hopefully you can feel…I mean, I know we’re under the influence of alcohol, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not honest in our responses. So, thank you so much for these clever questions. They’re fucking amazing. And hopefully we can hang out someday.
Paul: Yes.
Ivan. Hopefully hopefully.
Paul: Thank you so much. We absolutely loved this. Yes we will definitely keep in touch with you. Thanks again so much. And this is over and out Pinto and the Bean.
Ivan: Bye.
Paul: Bye.
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