Once in awhile, a musician wants, even needs, the audience, to laugh at him. Nice Peter is such a musician, and while his songs are well-crafted, well-sung, and well-played, they are also quite funny. Recently, Lumino Magazine talked to self-taught guitarist and song writer Pete Shukoff to see what he had to say about his music career, where it’s going, and why it’s so silly.
Shukoff is completely self-taught in all things musical. “I play very meager piano,” Shukoff said. “I took piano lessons when I was a kid, but I picked up the guitar with the explicit intent of writing songs with it. So I don’t know that much about structure or theory, especially for song writing." His musical influences include Ben Folds, Rivers Cuomo, and Paul McCartney. He had more to say about his comedic influences. “I used to listen to a lot of Eddie Murphy. I wish I was cool enough to say Lenny Bruce, but I’m not. Steve Martin is ridiculous. He can say the funniest crap, and the delivery is so funny. Eddie Murphy is the same way. Their delivery is hilarious. Eddie Murphy gets on this roll, builds up his momentum, and I think it’s cool. But Steve Martin will purposely break all his momentum, purposely make the whole audience feel awkward. And I think that’s pretty funny. I try to do that. People laugh when they’re uncomfortable. They feel like they’re in the back of the class.”
Nice Peter’s albums and shows are all completely self-produced, which, although a great accomplishment, is beginning to take a toll on Shukoff’s nerves. “Begrudingly, yes,” Shukoff said. “Self-produced, self-financed, self-loathing. It’s just been rough. I didn’t give up but I hit some bumps and I basically lost all the drive that’s necessary to do everything yourself. If you’re going to do things yourself, you have to be willing to do a ton of crap. For a one hour show playing music in front of people, which is great, there’s four hours of driving through the Midwest, which is boring; two hours of carrying very heavy things, and then five to six hours of this garbage calling, promoting, emailing, website crap.”
Shukoff also takes all musical responsibility. His current drummer, Kristin, “just plays the drums,” Shukoff said. “We met at a show. She was going to see another band I was opening up for. A friend of hers was the drummer for it. I used to play solo and then she asked me if I wanted a drummer. She plays on all of my live albums. [We’ve been together] three years, I think. I’ve only done a couple of recordings with her.” Shukoff also prefers to be only a two-piece on stage. “We used to have a bass player, too, but that fizzled out after awhile. He was a great bass player, but it just didn’t work out…Financially, it’s a lot easier to split things in half than it is into threes. We can travel in a hatchback. We don’t need a van or anything. It’s a funny site for people to see, and it’s a lot easier to make up songs because you just change chords and it doesn’t matter. As long as I keep a general rhythm going, it’s fine.” Shukoff’s live shows often include a lot of improvised songs and jokes. “We’ve played so many shows, it may seem to you like I’m making things up, and I am subject wise, but the chord progressions are usually just different words over the same chords. The live stuff is usually the best part of the show. I spend a lot of time writing songs and it’ll be [the improvised] stuff that everyone remembers.”
Nice Peter’s shtick is definitely comedic music, and if you ask Shukoff about doing serious music, you probably won’t be complementing him. “I write [non-comedic] songs. It’s not part of the current show that I have, so it doesn’t fit into what we’re doing. I get asked that a lot. I get people who are like ‘that was pretty cool man, I had a good time, but have you ever considered writing real songs?’ You don’t go to a juggling show and ask people if they’re going to do magic tricks. That’s what we do on that particular show, on that particular name, and I don’t understand why people have a problem with it… you don’t ask a serious song writer if they write funny songs ever. It’s just not what that’s about. That is the show. That’s what it is. It doesn’t mean I don’t write any, but I don’t release any under that moniker.” And does Shukoff plan to ever release any of the non-comedic music that he writes? “Hmm..Solemn Peter? Yeah, maybe. It’s not as easy to be confident about those songs. I’m a little self-conscious about my songs. When you play a song that’s funny, if people laugh, you know they like it. If you play a song that’s serious, and people are quiet, it could be because it’s so bad, or because they like it. It’s really hard to gauge. I like when people laugh at me because it gives me instant approval.”
Nice Peter often performs live and, when questioned about his favorite place to perform, Shukoff had this to say: “I really like the Abbey [Pub], actually. That was nice. Fuck the Double Door. They’re mean people. I remember at the double door, I was walking in with heavy stuff in my hands, and one of the door guys just looked at me while I struggled with the door. He was standing there and he just watched me struggle to open the door by myself. And I just don’t appreciate that. It’s a cool venue, and I like playing in it. I just wish they’d be a little nicer. It’s a nice place and people like to go there. So I’ll probably play there again but I still have a bone to pick. I just want them to be a little friendlier.”
The biggest crowd Nice Peter has ever performed for was fourteen thousand. “I opened for Chicago,” Shukoff said. “It was weird. It was really cool.” Shukoff didn’t get to meet the band, though. “I was backstage, having sex.” On purpose? “Yes… I never would’ve met Chicago. I did three gigs in this big, outrageous venue in Detroit called Pine Knot. I opened for Chicago, Eddie Money, and Dennis Miller. Three different shows. None of the time did I ever get to meet anyone. They got these really unknown comedians to fill the time between the ticket and the start of the show. Eleven thousand people laughing at you is a pretty good feeling.” When reminded that he originally said the audience had fourteen thousand people in it, Shukoff said, “They weren’t all laughing.”
If you have something to say to Nice Peter, you can be sure that’s he’s listening. “I think fans would be surprised t know how much their general input actually affects bands. If I get an email from somebody who tells me they really like what I’m doing, and I should keep doing it, it’ll really make my day. If I get a really nasty message from someone, it fucks me up. It really… it sucks.” Shukoff’s recent song, “50 Cent is A Pussy” has garnered both praise and hatred. “There were a lot of hateful things said to me. A lot of people liked it, too. But the people who liked it usually don’t speak as loud as the people who don’t. The people who don’t like things are usually fucking furious. It’s amazing how much 50 cent means to some people. What bothers me is that he decided to get into music because he had a kid, so he had to clean up his act and stop selling drugs and shooting people. But now he sings about selling drugs and shooting people. That’s stupid to me. Very stupid.”
Nice Peter puts a lot of hard work into the music and it shows. Shukoff had this to say about his song writing efforts: It’s a great feeling [to write the perfect song.]There’s not just one perfect song, but when you write a song that’s as good as that song could be, like there’s no lyric that sucks, I hear a lot of people play songs and there’s one line that you can tell they feel weird about, everyone in the audience feels weird about, there’s something that doesn’t sound right. When you write a song and there’s none of that crap in there, when the song is just right, it feels pretty good.”
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