Pilly Wete

Who is Pilly Wete?

Mike: Pilly Wete is your favorite rock and roll band that you’ve never heard of.



How did you guys come up with the name?

Rob: Well, Willy Pete is a nickname used by the military for white phosphorous. We just switched the letters around to be all clever and stuff.

Mike: When you Google “Pilly Wete” we are the first thing to pop up… then “philly cheese steak sandwiches” pops up next. Delicious.



What are your musical influences?

Rob: How dare you imply that there is anything musical about this band!

Mike: Seriously though, we all listen to The Foo Fighters, Everclear, The Cars and anything you’d hear on classic rock radio but we also have a lot of newer favorites such as The Black Keys, The Whigs, Cold War Kids, Band of Skulls just to name a few. We have some common influences but each band member also has individual favorites as well that help shape the sound of his particular instrument. If it has melody we probably like it. If it’s loud we probably like it. If it’s Lady Gaga we don’t like it.



How do you guys enjoy spending your time? (I know two of the members are now having a good time down there in Afghanistan disarming roadside bombs)

Rob: Yeah, first of all Afghanistan sucks but we make the best of it during whatever spare time we might have. We have a couple of acoustic guitars we jam on and our base chapel has a drumset that a charity group sent last month so Mike has been keeping up his chops. Best of all the USO has a karaoke night once a week so if we aren’t on mission preserving freedom and all then we go wow the crowds with our velvet-smooth voices.

Mike: All the musical stuff aside, we have some pretty serious Skip-Bo games and if we don’t have mission the next day we’ll have movie night on my projector.



Can you give us more info about the new record to be released in the Summer when the guys come back from their military duty?

Mike: No, next question. Haha, actually we are planning to get back and rehearse all the new stuff I’ve been writing and see what clicks with the whole band. It’s been a little different writing with only an acoustic guitar so this next record will definitely reflect that. It worked for the Foo Fighters when they did Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace so that means absolutely nothing for us but we can hope it works out anyway.



What have been the funniest moments you guys have had or took part in while touring?

Rob: The funniest time we had on tour, I remember it well. We were on Isla Nublar off the coast of Costa Rica. Turns out the venue was actually a theme park featuring genetically engineered dinosaurs. Two of the original members of the band were eaten, Samuel L. Jackson and the fat guy from Seinfeld.

Mike: You’re just talking about Jurrasic Park…

Rob: Oh right, nothing funny happens then. We just get drunk.



Are there any plans for the near future besides the record?

Rob: Surviving Afghanistan is our first priority.

Mike: As soon as we get home we’ll get the band practicing again. Then we are going to have a comeback show.



Do you guys feel you are moving in the right direction?

Rob: Yes, I think Mike’s songwriting has gotten progressively better and I think that if you listen to our records you can hear that.

Mike: When we initially started the band Rob and I had just gotten back from Iraq. We had a lot of motivation and we had no idea what we were doing. Now we’ve had to step away for a year and it has given us fresh perspective on what we are doing. We know what we need to do to make great music and we’re going to do it.

Rob: Let me put it this way. When the going gets tough,.. buy our records.



Check out more at: www.facebook.com/pillywete

--June 2012 Vents Magazine
- Vents Magazine

Who is Pilly Wete?

Mike: Pilly Wete is your favorite rock and roll band that you’ve never heard of.



How did you guys come up with the name?

Rob: Well, Willy Pete is a nickname used by the military for white phosphorous. We just switched the letters around to be all clever and stuff.

Mike: When you Google “Pilly Wete” we are the first thing to pop up… then “philly cheese steak sandwiches” pops up next. Delicious.



What are your musical influences?

Rob: How dare you imply that there is anything musical about this band!

Mike: Seriously though, we all listen to The Foo Fighters, Everclear, The Cars and anything you’d hear on classic rock radio but we also have a lot of newer favorites such as The Black Keys, The Whigs, Cold War Kids, Band of Skulls just to name a few. We have some common influences but each band member also has individual favorites as well that help shape the sound of his particular instrument. If it has melody we probably like it. If it’s loud we probably like it. If it’s Lady Gaga we don’t like it.



How do you guys enjoy spending your time? (I know two of the members are now having a good time down there in Afghanistan disarming roadside bombs)

Rob: Yeah, first of all Afghanistan sucks but we make the best of it during whatever spare time we might have. We have a couple of acoustic guitars we jam on and our base chapel has a drumset that a charity group sent last month so Mike has been keeping up his chops. Best of all the USO has a karaoke night once a week so if we aren’t on mission preserving freedom and all then we go wow the crowds with our velvet-smooth voices.

Mike: All the musical stuff aside, we have some pretty serious Skip-Bo games and if we don’t have mission the next day we’ll have movie night on my projector.



Can you give us more info about the new record to be released in the Summer when the guys come back from their military duty?

Mike: No, next question. Haha, actually we are planning to get back and rehearse all the new stuff I’ve been writing and see what clicks with the whole band. It’s been a little different writing with only an acoustic guitar so this next record will definitely reflect that. It worked for the Foo Fighters when they did Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace so that means absolutely nothing for us but we can hope it works out anyway.



What have been the funniest moments you guys have had or took part in while touring?

Rob: The funniest time we had on tour, I remember it well. We were on Isla Nublar off the coast of Costa Rica. Turns out the venue was actually a theme park featuring genetically engineered dinosaurs. Two of the original members of the band were eaten, Samuel L. Jackson and the fat guy from Seinfeld.

Mike: You’re just talking about Jurrasic Park…

Rob: Oh right, nothing funny happens then. We just get drunk.



Are there any plans for the near future besides the record?

Rob: Surviving Afghanistan is our first priority.

Mike: As soon as we get home we’ll get the band practicing again. Then we are going to have a comeback show.



Do you guys feel you are moving in the right direction?

Rob: Yes, I think Mike’s songwriting has gotten progressively better and I think that if you listen to our records you can hear that.

Mike: When we initially started the band Rob and I had just gotten back from Iraq. We had a lot of motivation and we had no idea what we were doing. Now we’ve had to step away for a year and it has given us fresh perspective on what we are doing. We know what we need to do to make great music and we’re going to do it.

Rob: Let me put it this way. When the going gets tough,.. buy our records.



Check out more at: www.facebook.com/pillywete

--June 2012 Vents Magazine
- Vents Magazine

PILLY WETE
Indie rock: It came, it saw, it conquered and fans of the ’80s
college rock movement and ’90s alternative scene bunkered
down, waiting for the worst to be over. Now that the dust is
settling, the slow but steady re-emergence of alternative rock is
well on its way. Still fighting the good fight, local alt-rock band Pilly
Wete sounds like an updated version of Everclear and Weezer with
their own Gainesville twist. INsite caught up with Rob Curtis (guitar,
vocals), Matt Core (guitar, vocals), Matt Caniff (bass) and Mike
Swart (drums) to find out what it’s like to be in a niche genre in a
musical town.





First off, where in the world did you come up with a
name like Pilly Wete?

Mike: We had a list of names that we had come up
with, and that was just one of the names on the list.
We had a couple of military-inspired names, like Willy
Pete, which is slang for phosphorous, and we liked it
and decided to swap the letters around to get Pilly
Wete.

What inspired the military theme?
Mike: Rob and I were in the military; that’s actually
how the band got started.
Matt Core: They were in Iraq and they had the idea
on their time away from duty to play guitar and hang
out together, which is when they had the idea to start
a band up. When they got back from Iraq, Pilly Wete
was born.

How long did you serve in Iraq?
Mike: A year, we were deployed. We were in Fallujah,
actually, and midway through the tour, we just had
the idea that we should start a band. We started
writing some songs and we had an acoustic guitar
we had bought off of a guy who was leaving.

I drove by the 34th Street Wall and noticed the promo
for your upcoming show. Do you do that for every
show yourself? Painting that wall is a lot more work
than it looks.
Matt Core: We’ve done it for our past big Gainesville
shows. We try to do it every time. There have been a
couple times we’ve failed. We’ll promote, get fliers,
chalk up campus sometimes. That time it was Matt,
all by himself.
Mike: He paints. He’s an artist.

You released your EP Equipment in the fall. What sort
of work went into making that album?

Rob: We wanted some material that we had
recorded that we could give to people so they
knew what we sounded like. The reason we spent
the time on a full studio EP was that we wanted to
have a good product; we realized it was a lot of
time to put into making those seven or eight songs,
but we didn’t want to cheat fans and
give them something we had recorded in
our basement—we wanted to give them
something worth the money they were
spending.
A lot of bands are surprised at how much
time a studio recording really takes. Were
you?

Matt C.: We all have jobs. I have to work
in the early morning, and then go straight
there and stay there until 2 o’clock in the
morning, so it was 16-hour days. It was fun,
and it was the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever
done, but I was definitely surprised at the
time we invested and that had to be put
into it.
The artwork looks great for it, by the way.

Matt Core: Mike’s sister did the photography for it
and made it look real cool. In the inside of it, we
went with the World War I theme and borrowed that
from Mike’s job.

Pilly Wete’s sound is distinctly that ’90s, Everclear/
Weezer alt rock that is being hailed as the “new
classic rock.” What brought you to this genre?

Matt Core: We’re all over 25; we’re not straight out
of high school. We were introduced to music and
rock mostly in the ’90s, and we all kind of listened
to it on our own and were somewhat isolated from
any scene, and we all have similar (but different as
well) influences. I like garage blues, but we have the
Weezer and Foo Fighters kind of thing in there too.
We weren’t very cool; that’s what did it.

Do you ever get the sense that the alternative
and college rock scene was pushed aside by the
emergence of the indie music scene, or do you still
find a niche out there for your music in Gainesville?

Rob: Gainesville is like, to me, it’s a magical place
that has a lot of potential. In its heyday, and maybe
it will have another heyday coming, it had some
really, really good music that was being made by
really cool cats, but I think as of late it’s not doing
what it should. It’s not producing what it should be
producing with the amount of talent from its musical
heritage and the University of Florida right here.
I think Pilly Wete is more of a straight rock band as
opposed to all that other bluegrass stuff; we’re not
music majors. We’re not trying to show you that
we can play 7,000 chords—we’re trying to play
a really good rock song that will make you jump
up and down. You don’t need embellishments to
show talent. If you have feeling, that’s your talent.
Gainesville is good, but I think it could be better. I
really hope that it gets back to where it once was.

You have a show at Common Grounds coming up on
April 23. What can we e - INsite Magazine

Great straight-ahead rock in the tradition of Weezer from Gainesville FL-based Pilly Wete with the latest add to the Big Med Playlist for The Big One ‘Under the Weather.’ Currently on hiatus while two of its members are on tour in the ‘Stan detecting and defusing roadside bombs and other attractions, Pilly Wete expects to retake the stage later this summer.

The band was formed in the winter of 2008 in Fallujah, Iraq while band members Mike Swart and Rob Curtis were deployed with the U.S. Army. Being fellow platoon members, Mike and Rob began playing music together on an acoustic guitar purchased from a soldier from an outgoing Army unit heading back to the States. As the idea of going home moved closer to a reality, by mid-tour, Mike and Rob began writing songs and discussing ideas about how they should start a band.

Mike suggested that his high school friend and bandmate, Matt Core, should be brought in to accompany Rob as another guitarist. Simultaneously, Rob had a high school friend and bandmate, Matt Caniff, in mind to play bass and round out the rythm section with Mike on drums. After taking some time off to spend with family the four got together and instantly meshed musically.

Instrumentation

Mike Swart – Vocals, Drums
Rob Curtis – Guitar, Vocals
Matt Core – Guitar, Vocals
Matt Caniff – Bass

Discography

“Hello Again My Friend” -2011
“equipment” EP – 2009

Follow Pete Willy on Facebook

-June 2012 Big Medicine

- Hal Newman - Big Medicine

Great straight-ahead rock in the tradition of Weezer from Gainesville FL-based Pilly Wete with the latest add to the Big Med Playlist for The Big One ‘Under the Weather.’ Currently on hiatus while two of its members are on tour in the ‘Stan detecting and defusing roadside bombs and other attractions, Pilly Wete expects to retake the stage later this summer.

The band was formed in the winter of 2008 in Fallujah, Iraq while band members Mike Swart and Rob Curtis were deployed with the U.S. Army. Being fellow platoon members, Mike and Rob began playing music together on an acoustic guitar purchased from a soldier from an outgoing Army unit heading back to the States. As the idea of going home moved closer to a reality, by mid-tour, Mike and Rob began writing songs and discussing ideas about how they should start a band.

Mike suggested that his high school friend and bandmate, Matt Core, should be brought in to accompany Rob as another guitarist. Simultaneously, Rob had a high school friend and bandmate, Matt Caniff, in mind to play bass and round out the rythm section with Mike on drums. After taking some time off to spend with family the four got together and instantly meshed musically.

Instrumentation

Mike Swart – Vocals, Drums
Rob Curtis – Guitar, Vocals
Matt Core – Guitar, Vocals
Matt Caniff – Bass

Discography

“Hello Again My Friend” -2011
“equipment” EP – 2009

Follow Pete Willy on Facebook

-June 2012 Big Medicine

- Hal Newman - Big Medicine