First star to the left, and keep on till morning:
PJ Bond and his neverending tour will return
to his home base, the Court Tavern in New
Brunswick, on Saturday, February 13
by Jim Testa
New Brunswick singer/songwriter PJ Bond paid
his dues performing in local bands like Outsmarting
Simon and The Color Fred. But then his muse
moved him to go solo and acoustic, and he also
got a serious case of wanderlust. As we speak,
he's more than halfway through a project he
calls "Year Of A Thousand Roommates,"
touring the country and crashing with friends,
fans, and anyone willing to put a roof over
his head for the night. As a wise man once said,
clean sheets mean a lot to a guy who sleeps
on the floor. We picked PJ Bond's mind to see
what else matters to this latterday vagabond.
Q: You’re calling your current
odyssey “the year of 1000 roommates”
during which you’re traveling around
the country, performing and crashing with
both friends and strangers every night. That
sounds like a wonderfully romantic adventure
but it must have its pitfalls. Do you have
many horror stories where the places you wind
up are either filthy or sketchy or full of
savage dogs or hostile roommates? Can you
share any good stories with us? What’s
the weirdest place you’ve spent the
night? Ignore this one if it’s too personal,
but do you have any hard and fast rules about
hooking up on the road? I can imagine there’d
be a lot of temptation but also a lot of ways
that could get you into trouble.
To be honest, the majority of the houses
in which I’ve stayed have been wonderful
and the people have been amazing. I’ve
been incredibly lucky and blessed in that
respect, but yes, there have definitely been
situations where I was not happy about where
I was staying. If I were not so against sleeping
in my car there are plenty of times I would
have taken to it, but I’ve had this
weird thing where I wanted to complete the
year having never slept in my ’93 sundance,
sweetpea. I’d say that most prominent
downside is when I enter a house and it stinks,
often because of less than cared for pet,
or when it’s just generally dirty. It
is not fun sleeping on gross carpets that
smell like urine, or showering in grimy, clogged
bathtubs, but occasionally it’s necessary.
I’ve also stayed in places that are
uncomfortable, not in a physical way, because
it’s obvious that the roommates didn’t
discuss the fact that I’d be sleeping
there or just due to interpersonal conflict.
Unfortunately the most extreme stories I
cannot talk about here, but suffice it say
that I’ve seen just about everything
to uncomfortable family situations to near
abuse to drug rooms and most things in between.
As far as weird places, I’d say one
of the more memorable was a double wide trailer
with a recovering meth addict who also did
makeup for stage and film as a hobby. The
kicker is that this dude and his wife and
roommates were some of the sweetest people
I stayed with the whole year and took amazing
care of me, but I think most people would
think it would be a horrible situation. Quite
the opposite.
I don’t mind personal at all, being
honest is beautiful. as far as hooking up
goes, no I do not have hard and fast rules,
unless you’re talking about not fooling
around with people in relationships, which
I think should be a rule for everyone. But
otherwise, I do the same things on the road
that I would at home, which is just try to
make the most of every situation in all respects.
Sometimes I feel a strong connection with
someone, be it personal, emotion or sexual
and depending on what I feel and what the
other person feels, sometimes this turns into
us spending the evening in anything from talking
until sunlight to spending our time in a more
adult manner. The big issue, I feel is honesty.
If two people are honest with each other,
what they want and what they expect from the
situation, as well as are respectful of one
another, I think for the most part things
will go well. Of course there are times where
things get tough regardless of positive preparation,
but those things will happen.
Q:
You obviously have to travel pretty light
with what you’re doing. Is there anything
you particularly miss – books, music,
clothing, hygiene, people, a bed of your own?
The thing I miss the most is a kitchen. The
ability to cook my own meals, which I love
doing, is something I wish I could have more
often, and try to do as often as I can when
people will let me. Surprisingly, I get to
shower pretty much every day, and while I
do miss beds after I’ve slept in one,
I’m rarely allowed the pleasure and
basically don’t miss them when I don’t
have one. I don’t change my clothes
as often as is maybe socially acceptable or
preferred, but that is purely a factor of
laziness; I have plenty of clothes in my trunk
and laundry machines are ubiquitous, but I
always forget to grab a change from my car
and then shower and put on the old clothes.
Oh well. Luckily books and ipods are tiny,
so I’m really not deprived of music
or reading material, though I do seriously
miss the long stretches of road when someone
else is driving, as that is when I read the
most. When I had a home I rarely sat and just
read for hours, but on the road it’s
not only available but one of the best ways
to spend the time. I do however greatly miss
my friends and family, but luckily while traveling
takes me away from some people I love, I takes
me to others, so it’s a healthy balance.
Q: Do most of the people you crash
with feed you? I imagine you must still eat
out quite a bit with all the traveling you
do. Do you have any rules about trying to
avoid fast-food franchises in favor of local
cuisine, mom and pop diners, and so on? Any
amazing meals you want to share, either home
cooked or in restaurants?
I am extremely fortunate to have people be
sweet, welcoming and friendly. Most people
are willing to feed me if they think about
it, but there are plenty of meals where I’m
forced to fend for myself. For quite some
time I kept a box of food in my car and stuck
to that, but after so many months of peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches, canned food and
quickly rotting vegetables, I found myself
desiring “real” food. This also
came at a time when my wallet was a bit fatter,
so I felt less guilty about it. Unfortunately
I find myself eating out way more than I’d
like, both for financial and health reasons,
but for now it’s the quick fix. As for
chains vs. mom and pop, I’m for sure
a supporter of mom and pop places and avoid
chains as often as I can. Sometimes, especially
in middle America, it’s a bit harder
to avoid, or on long stretches of highway,
but when it’s reasonably possible, I
will always choose a local food, beer, deli,
whatever over a chain. The only obvious exception
is when I’m somewhere fairly new and
there are fairly exciting places. Examples
of this are In N Out Burger (I get the “grilled
cheese,” basically a burger without
the burger,) Del Taco/Green Burrito, Harvey’s
(Canadian burger joint that serves veggie
burgers!) or basically any taco/burrito joint
that’s not taco bell.
As far as places I’d suggest, there
is no way you can go to these cities and not
hit up these joints:
Toronto, Canada – New York Subway –
this place is the home of the best burritos
I’ve ever had in my life, but part of
that is predicated on the fact that they are
extremely odd. Think Indian food with some
sort of mayonnaise/ketchup pairing. It sounds
terrible but it is the best and my favorite.
Boston, MA/Providence, RI - Spike's Junkyard
Dogs – amazing “gourmet”
hotdogs. Basically, ¼ lb dogs with
big awesome buns, and lovely toppings. The
best part is that they also serve veggie dogs
for those of us who don’t eat meat.
My favorite one is the buffalo dog, which
is topped with hot sauce, blue cheese sauce
and scallions. Yum. Oh, and if you eat more
than 6 they give you a t-shirt and you get
your photo on the wall. If you beat the top
eater you get all your dogs for free! My great
buddy brian Maguire (drummer from my previous
band, outsmarting simon) ate 7 in allston,
mass, and got his photo up with his NY Yankees
hat, just to spite boston. Amazing.
Los Angeles, CA - Pure Luck – I know
this sounds ridiculous, but this places uses
jackfruit as a meat substitute and it’s
mindblowingly delicious. Trust me, I’m
fully aware of how crazy this sounds, but
it’s awesome. Their bbq “pork”
sandwich rules.
New Brunswick, NJ – The grease trucks
– I have to give love to my home state
and to the best post-bar eats other than pizza.
Pile everything gross and delicious on a bun
and chow down. I get the falafel with fries
and mozzarella sticks.
This is not counting incredible home cooked
meals and I’m only stopping so this
doesn’t become a food article. But suffice
it to say, if I had the money, I would tour
the world as an eater and drinker, but I guess
for now I’ll have to stick to singing
songs.
Q:
What’s your songwriting process like?
Can you find the time to write on the road
when you’re traveling so much? Do you
keep a notebook? I’m sure you’re
accumulating hundreds of song ideas with all
of these experiences?
Lately my writing process has been fairly
quick. Basically when I get the opportunity,
I sit down, work through some chords, sketch
out vocal lines and then as the piece feels
right I start penning lyrics. I’ve found
that if I don’t write the whole song
in a sitting, at least lyrically, I have trouble
revisiting that feeling. That’s not
to say I haven’t worked through songs
over days or months, which I’ve done
quite a bit, but when I feel in an emotional
framework I find it most successful to stay
until the song is done. I’m finding
this to have its limits though, as my songs
are fairly simplistic as of late, so I’m
really hoping to do some more prewriting,
dissection and editing for my newer tunes.
Unfortunately, I’ve not found nearly
as much time to write on the road as I would
like, but occasionally I get a few minutes
alone and can work on songs. When that happens
I usually have to work through a few different
ideas before I get to one that works. When
I was writing for my last record I made it
a point to try and play through old songs
and write new ones every day, and I felt like
I was in practice, so I found that I didn’t
have to dig as deeply to find inspiration.
I used to keep a notebook of ideas, but I
find my blogging helps me remember things
or at least I like to tell myself that when
I’m too lazy to write things down. This
also falls into the same category of reading
books, wherein the fact that I always need
to drive myself, there are less opportunities
for me to write. But, as you suggest, driving
alone provides me with plenty of hours to
sit and think and scheme and storm. So, yes,
there are quite a few ideas running around
my brain, and there are many times when I
wish I could just sit and write all day to
get out all of the stuff I’ve been thinking,
but let’s be honest, more than half
of that stuff people don’t want to hear.
It’s debatable I even want to write
some of it, so I just work towards what feels
like it is the most important.
Q: Your bio says you’re from
New Brunswick. Did you grow up there or go
to school there? Were you exposed much to
New Brunswick’s famous basement show
scene growing up? Any favorite bands or shows
that you discovered there?
I grew up in northern NJ (though this is
a point of contention with people from “north
jersey,” the most extreme of which draw
the line at route 80) but went to Rutgers
university in Piscataway and new Brunswick.
This is where I came of age, at least musically,
and began the trek that eventually led me
to my current musical status. I was most definitely
exposed to the basement scene, and much more.
I lived in a house that had somewhere in the
area of 40 shows in 3 months before getting
shut down by the feds. It’s a long story,
but suffice it to say, sitting on my front
steps telling kids to keep walking so they
didn’t get arrested while two unmarked
but obvious cop cars sat across the street
was not the best way to spend a Friday evening.
Also, my band outsmarting simon made a home
in new Brunswick basements and it greatly
shaped whom I’ve become.
Picking great bands from new Brunswick is
really not tough, but of course I’d
have to reference Paulson, mother night and
the assistant. There’s tons more, but
these were ones that really shaped certain
times of my life.
Q: What’s the last book you
read, and the last book that changed your
life?
The last book I finished was the omnivore’s
dilemma by Michael pollan, and was sad when
it was over. Before that I read in defense
of food, also by pollan and I’m currently
in the middle of fast food nation by eric
schlosser. As you can tell, I’m super
into food, but as previously referenced, reading
opportunities are unfortunately few and far
between.
Q: I’m going to ask what’s
probably a pretty hard question, but what
makes PJ Bond’s new album different
from the other 10,000 singer/songwriter albums
that came out last year?
This is a tough question, but probably because
it asks me to be both reflective and potentially
egotistical. The thing is, I’d think
the biggest difference I’ve found is
my ability to somehow be incredibly self centered
yet completely relatable to other people.
I’m not exactly sure how it happened,
but I wrote a record that is completely about
me, things I feel, or people I love, miss,
fear for, etc., and in the process painted
a picture that seemed reflective to other
people. I suppose my thoughts are not nearly
as unique as I assumed, and others see themselves
in my words. That feels great to me, but was
not the intention, and perhaps the difference
is other people may write trying to relate
to others or write stories about things that
don’t exist or any host of other things.
I just write about things I think about and
apparently others do too. That works out for
me.
Q: How did you hook up with The Black
Numbers? The label seems like it’s really
connected to the New Brunswick music community.
Are you happy with your experiences with them
so far?
My hook up with the black numbers was unexpected,
but I’ve known those dudes for years,
played shows with all their old bands and
hung with them periodically but never really
expected to work with them. However, when
I decided to take my solo music full time,
I asked these guys for some suggestions with
booking, and that led to a conversation about
working together, and I couldn’t be
happier about it. It would definitely take
an extremely well connected label with lots
of money to take me away from those dudes,
and I’m proud to be part of the family.
There is definitely a new Brunswick connection
but it doesn’t run as deep as it once
did. This makes sense though, because when
they started they’d obviously work with
their friends who they’d built a love
and respect for over years, but now that they’ve
spread their wings a bit and their bands are
traveling more, they are able to open up their
roster and have done so in a beautiful way.
I’m really excited with what these guys
are doing and hope we can all continue to
build something rad together.
Q: Let people know where to find
you on the Internet, what you’ve got
for sale, and what the rest of 2010 looks
like so far.
People can find me at yearofathousandroommates.com
if they want to read about my various adventures,
schemes and love. Myspace.com/pjbondmusic
will take you to my music, various information
and links to other sites. www.theblacknumbers.com
is where you can buy my records, meet my awesome
brothers in arms, and follow our family’s
radness. Oh, and if you’re into the
twitter thing, I’m @pjbondmusic.
The rest of the year of a thousand roommates
will take me to India to visit my younger
brother, then to the UK and Europe. After
that I will probably have to rest my bones
and work a little bit, but then I will take
back to the road. I have a new idea for another
project that will take me all over the world
in a different style than this year, but in
an equally exciting way. Please stay tuned
for that.
I hope you are all wonderful and laughing.
Be well, stay safe, have fun, don’t
stop!
