Freshly Pressed – Pink Leather Jackets “Rock N’ Roll Is Dead”

Toronto rockers Pink Leather Jackets have just released their sophomore EP, Keep That Shit To Yourself, alongside the brand new single “Rock N’ Roll Is Dead”. The album’s focus track features the usual stellar PLJ energy, solid grunge sound, and hard-hitting drums. We caught up with the band once again, this time to chat about the new music, their creative process, and their dream musical collaborations.

From The Strait: Tell us about the new single, “Rock N’ Roll Is Dead”.

Pink Leather Jackets: Rock N’ Roll Is Dead is the tale of the death of rock n’roll as if rock n’roll music was a person. It’s told from the perspective of an onlooking disciple. The witness sees Rock N’Roll at the top of a hill surrounded by gangs of robots, pigs, and pills. When he goes back to town to tell the people what he saw they are dumbfounded. Rock N’ Roll is dead, they grabbed him by the head, they cut off his hair, made him act like he cared, they said two plus two is five, now his soul ain’t alive, they tell him to jump, he asks them how high; Rock N’ Roll is dead. The second verse is more hopeful, evoking the idea that Rock N’Roll can live on through the channelling of his spirit and therefore never really die.

FTS: The single is from your brand new album, Keep That Shit To Yourself. What can fans expect from these new songs?

Pink Leather Jackets: Fans can expect fun, high octane, punk rock music! We’ve already released three songs from this EP throughout the last year and a half or so. There are three more tracks (total of 6) that they haven’t heard before: Keep That Shit To Yourself, BB Gun, and Rock N’ Roll Is Dead. It’s great music to drive fast to, break stuff to, work out to, or just party to in general.

FTS: Every band has their own way of creating songs – what is your songwriting process like?

Pink Leather Jackets: Usually I (Chris – Lead Singer) come in with all the chords and lyrics and melody ahead of time and then the band and myself will work out little parts, licks, and harmonies all together. Then we jam the crap out of it until its performance and studio ready.

FTS: What’s your favourite – and least favourite – thing about being a musician?

Pink Leather Jackets: My favourite part about being a musician is having the ability to entertain, inspire, and bring people together. There is nothing more rewarding than that, that I’ve found so far anyway (ask me again after my first couple million dollars lol). I also really love the lifestyle of playing in clubs, recording in studios, and meeting new people all the time. If I was not a musician I probably wouldn’t have so many friends in so many different towns across southern Ontario, I’m really grateful for that.

My least favourite thing has got to be having to deal with so many obliterated drunk people. Most of the time it’s fine, but every once in a while there’s someone who doesn’t take a hint and has no clue as to how they are behaving. One more thing is having people make requests for a song that is totally outside of our genre and everything we do, just bugs me.

FTS: If you could collaborate with any artist or band, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Pink Leather Jackets: I would love to collaborate with Tim Armstrong, Julian Casablancas, Daron Malakian or Serj Tankian and/or Josh Homme. All of these people’s music has had a huge influence on me. The Strokes were a big influence on our first EP and Rancid was a big influence on Keep That Shit To Yourself. I’d also love to work with Rick Rubin some day, I know he’s not a band or artist but he’s worked on almost all my favourite albums.

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Check out the “Rock N’ Roll Is Dead”, the new single from Pink Leather Jackets!

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