PAT TERMITE

PAT TERMITE

You have always seemed to possess considerable knowledge of musical theory based on how you compose songs. Did you have formal music training? When and how did you come to write your own songs? Did you have bands or projects prior to forming Beatnik Termites? 

Very good observation! I started playing classical piano as a young child and was reared on mainly Baroque era music. Some of my favorites are Bach, Mozart, and Pachelbel.

I am definitely influenced by those composers, especially Bach. If you listen to any of his compositions, you will hear multiple melody lines that crisscross all over the place, but never step on each other. That's the foundation of how I compose my harmonies...basically Baroque style polyphony. I actually stopped piano lessons when I hit my early teens and picked up guitar, but the classical piano is always my musical core.

Ironically though, I actually never started composing my own songs until I started the Beatnik Termites. Up until that point I was mainly a sideman / supporting musician for some local Cleveland bands including the Terrible Parade, the Mice, and Sleazy Jesus & the Splatter Pigs. It was at a crossroads in my musical career when I was between bands but desperately wanted to play music I loved but I couldn't find an established band I wanted to be in. So I decided to start one but I didn't have any songs. So I began writing my own just out of necessity and drew from my knowledge of music theory and some oldies music I loved. I think at our first show, we only had 7 original songs in our set! We had to fill the rest of the set out with covers.

At the time Beatnik Termites came out, bubblegum pop punk really didn't seem to be trendy or in demand. So how did you decide to form a band that played this style? Did you have a specific vision going into it? The output through the years has maintained a consistent quality and unique sound.

I had a very defined vision before starting this band. In fact, i already knew exactly how it would sound before a single note was played. I knew I wanted to play oldies music with  a lot of vocal harmony but had the intention of adapting the style with a contemporary twist.

It's obvious that your influences go back further than Ramones - and we've talked about Neil Sedaka as an important inspirational figure. Who are the main "classic" songwriters who inspired you? What about on the punk rock side? Besides the obvious Ramones influence, who are some of the other "big" punk bands who inspired your songwriting?

As far as classic songwriters go, my primary inspiration are the pre-British Invasion Brill Building songwriters like Goffin/King, Feldman/Goldstein/Gottehrer, Barry/Greenwich, Sedaka, Hawker/Raymond followed by 50's doo wop bands like the Marcels, Dion, Buddy Holly, and then by early to mid 60's bands like the Beatles, the Who, the Beach Boys, Herman's Hermits, and the Hollies. My songwriting style is much more heavily influenced by these artists rather than any punk music.

I have to say that in addition to the Ramones, Blondie,  the Go-Go's Holly & the Italians, and, the Descendents, are my biggest punk influences, in that order.

Your guitar playing style is unique in the pop punk world - you seem to feel as comfortable playing the open chords as the power chords, and your strumming isn't the typical downstrokes or palm-mute crazy style. You also once described your amp to me as a "low gain affair". How did your guitar style and sound develop? 

I first started out playing fingerstyle on acoustic guitar long before I got into punk music. As you probably know, power chords don't work well on an acoustic. I also work out most of my songs primarily on acoustic guitar or piano. So I usually play it the same way on electric. For most of the typical Termite songs with that grooving surf drumbeat, I use an arpeggiated style of chording combined with a folk guitar style back and forth strumming with open or full barre chords and I'll usually accent with a trill on a suspended forth when I'm on the IV chord. I also use a lot of seventh chords when I'm on the V chord.

On the handful of downstroked songs we have I use full barre chords, not power chords. I get a much fuller sweeter sound by including that third in the chord as opposed to just roots and fifths. Johnny Ramone actually played full barre chords.

I have always played with a moderate amount of distortion on my amp (no more than what a stock JCM800 is capable of). Otherwise it would sound like complete mush with all the open chord voicings and you wouldn't be able to hear any of the individual notes in the arpeggios. I don't need any more gain because I don't do any chugging or palm muting. It's not appropriate for the style of music we play. Also in order to hear individual downstrokes, the distortion needs to be kept fairly low. I compare donwstroking with excessive gain to crashing eighth notes on a wide open high hat as opposed to a closed hat. What's the point of putting forth all that effort when nobody can pick out the individual eighth notes?

I might also add that we're also a very moderate-volume affair when it comes to stage volume. The loudest thing on the stage are the drums and vocals, followed by the bass and then guitar. We can't have the guitars drowning out our vocal monitors or our harmonies will sound like a bunch of honking car horns when we can't hear ourselves sing.   I use a 5 watt RMS non-master volume Marshall Class 5 head and feed it through the PA with a direct out/cab sim box. This isn't the 60's anymore. Its not the guitarist's  job to get the sound to the audience anymore. That's the job of the PA and sound engineer. Sometimes I even turn my guitar amp around and face it towards me away from the audience and use it strictly as a guitar monitor.  That also eliminates the guitar bleeding into my vocal mic allowing for a cleaner more distinct separated sound.  Also loud stage volume just sounds like a mushy wall of white noise. There's such a thing as being so loud that you can't hear any distinct parts, resulting in mass confusion and mistakes. Our goal is to reproduce what's on the records in a live setting as much as possible.

As the Beatnik Termites started to gain momentum, how did you see the band in the context of what was going on with Lookout! and the SoCal labels like Fat and Epitaph? You guys always seemed very independent in terms of the products you released. Was this choice a conscious one? Did you ever get offers from any of those or other labels?

We did get an offer from Ben Weasel to be on Panic Button, however, a series of personal issues with our drummer at the time, prevented us from moving forward with the deal. Unfortunately his personal/financial problems with women always seemed to get in the way of our success when we were on the cusp of breaking out. Also other issues with bass players (mental, financial or otherwise) had us perpetually grounded on the proverbial runway just as we were about to take off. However we always dusted ourselves off and just kept chugging along with a DIY ethic regardless of lack of label support, as we do to this day. The worst thing for a band is to feel entitled and sit on their hands. If you want something done, you need to do it yourself and not rely on others. Currently we're still looking for someone to release our upcoming record but the recording is still a work-in-process. So once its completed, I'll be ramping the search for an interested label.

Bubblecore! is regarded as a classic album, and one that combines the classic Beatnik Termites sound with a more aggressive punk edge. Do you recall your process for writing those songs? It's release date in '96 was at a time when the Warped Tour skate punk bands were at their peak popularity. What did you think of all that stuff?

My thought process at the time was to write an album geared more toward the contemporary aggressive sound at the time for the crowds we were performing for and bands we were touring with. I personally don't consider it my true writing style but I knew I could write with a target audience in mind and that's what I did. However I knew that I couldn't do that forever or I would feel stifled. So I reverted back to my oldies inspired power pop style on the next album.

The consistent aesthetic of colorful anime-esque characters on your album covers is an interesting and unique choice. Are you or any of the classic line-up actual fans of anime? Did you ever establish a significant connection with the Japanese pop punkers?

The guy who did the art for our first full-length (Taste The Sand), was a Anime geek. The Anime style wasn't preconceived. Its just the way the chips fell. So for the sake of consistency, we decided to go with it. I might note that we're not beholden to any particular style of artwork. 

As far as actual Japanese bands, we know the guys from Mach Pelican. They're a great band.

You've always had a career in addition to being a musician. How do you feel about that choice compared to trying to make a living from touring? Obviously times have changed, but was there ever a time when you thought you might be able to do that? How clued in are your colleagues with regard to your music career?

Sure, I was young and naive once. I always wanted to do this for a living, but the adult in me always kept me grounded in reality. That's not to say I didn't try. I went on a couple successful tours and a few really bad ones too.... enough to know that putting all my eggs in the band isn't the smartest thing to do when it comes to my livelihood. I learned that the hard way when I embarked on an 8 week tour and came back broke, starving, and thousands of dollars in debt. Luckily I was able to find employment in my field (software development) not long after I returned.

As far as my work colleagues go, I try to keep my musician persona separate from my work. So most of them have no clue. No professional I/T managers want to hire a guy in ripped jeans and a biker jacket. I tend to keep it professional at work.

That being said, I'm not under any type of pressure to crank out songs for the sake of having new material in order to put food on the table or pay the rent. I do it when I feel inspired, not because I have to. I feel that makes for better quality songs. I do it out of love not because its a job. Sure, it would be great to make a living off of doing what I love, but once it becomes a job and only a job, that's when its time to quit.

Getting back to songwriting - what is your typical process for writing a new tune? Do you tend to hear melodies and structures while you're out doing random things, or is it a more focused endeavor? Are you involved with composing for bass and drums as well? How did Reggie's drumming style impact the sound of your songs? Did you write with him in mind?

It's all of the above. I've written songs while driving to work, sitting on the toilet, jogging. as well as sitting down with the guitar or piano. The first thing that usually comes to me is the chorus or "hook line". That part of the song usually comes to me with the melody and lyrics simultaneously. Then I work from there and focus on completing the melody, lyrics and arrangements. At other times, I'll sit down with the guitar or piano with my laptop and write by brute force with a goal in mind. It takes a lot of perseverance, trial and error to get everything to line up correctly, rhyme, and make sense without sounding corny. I feel a lot of bands don't put in the effort and their melodies end up monotonous and/or repetitive and their lyrics end up sounding trite. I have to admit I've been guilty of it on a couple occasions where a bad song slipped through and made it on an album. However, I've tightened up my standards as I've gotten older. Writing a good song is hard work. It's definitely a refined craft that requires intense concentration and effort.

I make demos by recording all the instruments and vocals myself on my laptop.  Then I upload MP3's for the rest of the band members to learn their parts based on what I've laid down. While they might not play them note-for-note, the basic style I have laid down on the demo is generally adhered to with minimal deviations. When we're working out the song at practice, we refine it further with accents, syncopations, additional vocals, etc. This has always been the case regardless of who was in the band. 

How did Insubordination Records start and what was your role in the beginning? What are some of your most significant recollections of the Insubordination Fest? Do you feel that those events were important in creating a distinct pop punk scene at that time? To what extent were you involved with the Pop Punk Message Bored, and what do you think about its role and impact on the scene?

The label was originally our way of releasing our own material. Eventually we started releasing other bands. Then we met Chris Thacker from Imperfekt Records and we decided to merge our labels. Later Mark Enoch from Knock Knock Records came on board. Not long afterwards, the label diversified into not only a record label but a live promotion company doing shows and festivals such as Insubordination Fest.

My best memories of the Fest were the first couple of years we did it. It was a small time affair at that point but it was so much fun because it was so intimate and grass roots. Later, I do think that the Fest was a big part of the scene and made us a major player alongside many of the other fests happening at the time. It was one of the "must play" fests for any band in the scene. Towards the end, it just started getting so big that it became a major undertaking for me being that I was the primary person responsible for running the event. Mark and Chris did most of the legwork to arrange the lineups and work out the financial arrangements with the artists. Unfortunately I had very little say in what bands were included in the lineups. I really had to pull teeth with those guys to get a band I wanted on the Fest. I do feel that after Lookout Records dropped the ball on the so-called "pop-punk" scene, Insubordination took it and ran with it for a while and was the only significant label that was carrying the torch.

I was never much involved in that message board other than popping in there occasionally. That was pretty much a Mark and Chris thing. They utilized it to stoke up interest in all the things we were doing and it was an effective tool. It was a microcosm of the scene and a go-to one-stop place to get the latest show news and gossip. At this point most of its relevancy has faded as most of its members have entered middle age and moved onto family life and work. 

You've continued to gig regularly in Baltimore over the years, and with various line-ups throughout the years. Is it difficult to connect with musicians in your area who're enthusiastic and knowledgable about the style that you play? Is it safe to say you're the captain of the ship?

I would say it's quite a challenge to find competent musicians who are free of mental health and substance abuse issues. There seems to be a direct correlation between musical talent and psychosis.  

It's extremly hard to find musicians who have the ability to harmonize in a genre of music that de-emphasizes musical vituosity. In my experience, only one out of every 1000 people I know have that ability.  So in the past I've had to take anyone with that ability, warts and all. I never knew when the next person capable of it was going to come along and I had to keep the ship afloat.   I consider myself blessed to have finally found two normal extremely talented guys in Chris and Mikey...it only took 31 years. lol.  I'm never letting go of these guys! Not only are they great bandmates, they're also like brothers to me and have become my closest friends.

As far as being the leader, I was always shoved into that role because no one else would do it and nobody else had the desire to write music. I was more of a Corporal than a Captain...there was nobody else of higher rank around to take the reins. so I usually got stuck holding the bag. With this latest lineup, things are different. Everyone in the band has stepped up to the plate and taken ownership and responsibility of the band. So you could say it's more democratic than it's ever been. With this lineup, my role has evolved into that of a "coordinator" rather than being the boss because we're all leaders in one sense because we all take pride and ownership of the band. None of the guys view themselves as hired guns like many of the previous lineups. That's the kind of band I've always wanted to be in.  While I'm currently the sole songwriter, I plan on working our bassist Chris into the songwriting process as a collaborator because he has a great sense of melody. 

You had a band for a while where you played drums and there was a female singer - could you talk about that experience? Did the perspective behind the kit shed any light on songwriting or being a successful musician? 

Like the Termites, the Firecrackers were also a preconceived band. I always wanted to do a project with female vocals since I love the early girl group sound. So I recruited a few people over Craigslist and formed the band. I had only one song written but it was a seed to be used as a template for other members to write and it worked like a charm. With 4 songwriters in the band, we had a full set worth of material in a short amount of time. As far as being behind the kit, it was really fun to be in a supporting role from a performance standpoint. I've always written songs from a listener's standpoint, not from that of a particular instrumentalist. So really, switching instruments had an inconsequential effect on my songwriting perspective.

You taught yourself to play drums and are also able to play fingerstyle bass - two challenging skills that enable you to play any part on a record. How did you develop the discipline needed to accomplish these goals? Have you ever considered releasing albums in which you're the sole player on every track?

It was just a matter of dedication and determination. One thing to note is that when I learn a skill, I do it by the book using best practices following the prescribed "proper" way. So when I decided to pick up drums and bass, I got some instructional books and learned proper sticking technique or finger picking technique when it came to bass. It really makes for more efficient cleaner playing. Being someone who is formally self-trained on those instruments, I learn to recognize telltale signs of formal training among other musicians. For example, if a drummer uses mostly his wrists and keeps his left foot pumping on quarter notes on the high hat to keep time demonstrating 4-limb independence, chances are he's had some formal training. If a bass player uses his fingers rather than a pick and does a lot of walking lines, it's usually a sign that he's not just a guitar player who was "relegated" to playing "rhythm guitar on the bass"  like so many punk bands have.

While I certainly have the ability to do that, I've never considered playing all the instruments on a Beatnik Termites album as long as I have a full current competent lineup. To me its very important that all members feel like they're fully part of the band not just hired guns. That means being on the recordings and being eligible to collect royalties same as myself. I did play bass on Bubblecore and one track on Girl Crazy out of pure necessity but that was because we lost our bass player in both instances and had a timeline to adhere to. 

Doing a "Pat Kim solo album," where I play all the instruments just doesn't make sense to me either since it would come out sounding exactly like the Beatnik Termites. So I may as well just save my songs for the Beatnik Termites instead of a solo project that won't sell as well due to the lack of the Beatnik Termites name.

What's your favorite Ramones album? How did the Ramones inspire and inform the music that you ended up creating? How do you feel about the multitudes of bands whose primary mission is to emulate the Ramones? Do you feel that pop punk bands tend to stick to well-worn paths musically? What advice would you give to aspiring songwriters?

I would have to say its a pretty even tie for Rocket to Russia, Leave Home, Road to Ruin, and Pleasant Dreams. Those albums still get regular rotation on my iPod to this day. I love them for all the different sides of the Ramones they show. Of course from a pop sensibility standpoint, Rocket To Russia and Pleasant Dreams have influenced me the most since they are pure infectious power pop gems. Pleasant Dreams had a profound effect on me the first time I heard it because it has the most doo wop influences out of all the Ramones albums, which is why it was the most appropriate one for us to cover.

From an delivery standpoint the Ramones inspired the formula we use to play our songs. We always thought of our sound as Oldies played with distorted guitar inspired by the Ramones. The drumming is inspired by both the Ramones and surf music. The bass parts are mostly inspired by Paul McCartney not the Ramones.

I think that a select few of them are great like Teenage Bottlerocket, the Leftovers, and the Unlovables because they still are doing their own thing regardless of their Ramones influence. They've made something original by combining the Ramones style with something else to make them stand out. It also helps that all those aforementioned bands have phenomenal vocalists and songwriters.  However the vast majority of Ramones inspired bands sound exactly like either Screeching Weasel or the Queers (both great bands in their own right) and often I have difficulty telling them apart from each other. To me it's better to create something new and unique by combining an influence with something else rather than straight up cloning a band.

1. Whether you're inspired by other great bands, don't do a carbon copy of the band you love. Take what you love about them and combine it with something original and create something new!

2. Get a good singer and songwriter(s). Have a focused vision of your sound. Set any ego's aside and have everybody write towards that common agreed-upon style. If you have more than one lead vocalist, make sure that they don't sound too dissimilar, otherwise you'll end up sounding like 2 different bands when you switch off vocals. Make sure that they can both sing harmony to each other, not just gang vocals. Three part harmonies are even better but that's a pretty tall order to meet! When it comes to pop music, harmonies are what separate the good bands from the great bands as far as I'm concerned. Studying music theory or taking singing lessons will yield infinite benefits.

3. Try to create music from the standpoint of a listener, not a musician. Play what's appropriate for the song and only add parts if the song calls for it.

4. Maintain your humility. Be able to recognize that for every hit you write you'll crank out 10 turds. If a song sucks, don't get emotionally attached to it. Be prepared to throw out everything and start from scratch again over and over until you chance upon that golden hook.  Never settle or try to polish a turd. Otherwise you'll have an album full of "filler" tracks that everyone skips past. Try to make every song on the album an A side hit.  Don't be afraid to critique yourself and take criticism and apply changes as needed or start over.

5. Work hard and always strive to write the perfect most infectious hook no matter how painstaking or tedious it is. Don't give up! With enough drive and determination, you can overcome!

6. Don't be afraid to take a break if you have writers block. Everybody gets it, including myself. Sometimes you need to walk away from it and come back the next day, next week or next month with a fresh mind.

What are your future goals as a musician? Can we expect some more Beatnik Termites albums? Are there any other styles of songwriting that you're interested in exploring? Who are some people who've supported you throughout the years and helped you maintain motivation to continue?

Our immediate goal is to finish this record we've been working on for the past 2 years release it and embark on a tour in support of it! While there aren't any other types of writing I'm interested in, I do love to play as a supporting musician for other bands when I have the time. I'd like to mention that in addition to my bandmates, Chris Hubbard and Mikey Methven, my former partner at Insubordination, Chris Thacker has always been in my corner. I'd also like to say that Doug Etcher from the Putz, the Dewtons, and the Devious Ones has been a very loyal and steadfast supporter (as well as a former fill-in member) and is also like a brother to me. All those guys have been there for us and kept the band going even when things looked bleak.We'll forever be in gratitude for their support.