[OC Music Awards Interview] Preacher’s Sons Preach The Power Of Perfect Folk-Pop

Photo: Jacque Pritchard

Celebrating it’s 10th anniversary, the OC Music Awards kicks off on January 4th with seven weeks of free showcases at different venues across the county. 35 local artists will compete for the titles of Best Live Band or Best Live Acoustic and a performance slot at the 2011 OC Music Awards, March 5 at the Grove of Anaheim. And, the voting is open now!

Fullerton indie-folk band, Preacher’s Sons, is one of those bands vying for this coveted spot, albeit with an attractive modesty that speaks less to cutthroat competition and more as a harmonious highlight of their lo-fi, beautifully delicate and enigmatically elegant musical aesthetic.

“ We never wanted to be labeled a Christian band. We just wanted to make music and be honest about what is important to us in our lives and what goes on.
” Jeremy Pfaff

Dusty Springfield’s 1968 hit, “Son of a Preacher Man.” Undoubtedly, this musical irony is not lost on two of the members of the band as they are both actually preacher’s sons and devotees of similarly constructed classic pop tunes. Comprised of Brandon Pfaff (singer/guitarist), Jeremy Pfaff (drummer/vocalist ), Jared Garcia (guitarist) and Matt Barrios (bassist), the Brothers Pfaff have seamlessly integrated–perhaps with impenetrable super powers of sincerity and brotherly love–their melodic, yet melancholic musical prowess with their honest, yet humble perspective on their Christian faith.

Drummer Jeremy Pfaff openly explained his personal and political stand on what it was like to be the “son of a preacher man” and how his faith has personally influenced both his life and his music.
“That’s a huge part of our background, our lives. It comes through lyrically in a lot of our music. We’re still Christians and practicing in that way. There’s a whole culture surrounding that which is interesting to grow up in; some of it we like and some of it we really don’t like…I like the faith, the Christianity; I think that is something which is important to me personally. I like the people who I encounter in our church that are honest, sincere with what they believe and really try and pursue the truth in that way.”

“I’m not a big fan of what I guess you could call ‘cultured Christianity.’ It isn’t sincere. I’m also not a fan of the–I guess you could say–the ‘conservative right’…Not to get political, but I don’t like that end of things where it kind of becomes conflated with the politics and culture of the US…I just don’t like the synthesis of those things so much.”

“We never wanted to be labeled a Christian band. We just wanted to make music and be honest about what is important to us in our lives and what goes on.”

While Preacher Son’s never wanted to be labeled a Christian band, one such way faith has brought their music closer to fans was through a partially fan-funded, first full-length album, Looks Like a Flood, Feels Like a Drought. The band used a program called Kickstarter to raise funds for the pressing of the debut, offering donation incentives like their favorite books and frisbees. Going above and beyond their initial monetary goal, Jeremy Pfaff credits “a couple of people that we know from our church that were pretty generous.”

If this community-driven generosity evokes a sense of familial spirit, it is definitely because the Pfaff brothers easily attract this energy with their own symbiotic connection and mutual attraction to music, or as Jeremy would describe their childhood musical initiation, “we banged on pots and pans and stuff.” Jeremy explains how this connection led the brothers to inevitably find other musicians with a similar energy as themselves:

“It’s pretty cool being in a band with my brother just because we’re really close. We’re best friends and part of that is probably because we moved out here together and we had a month where we didn’t have school before the next semester started, so we’ve spent a lot of time together.”

“And yeah, we’ve spend a lot of time together making music. It’s pretty cool because we have a connection that is difficult to find with other musicians…We’ve been fortunate enough to find other musicians over the years who we’ve connected with as well.”

The universe (and the OC music scene) have been good to Preacher’s Sons and they have plenty of love to give back. Jeremy elucidated on who some of his favorite OC bands were:

“They may not be technically from Orange County, but like Francisco the Man from Riverside. The Fling, who are from Long Beach. They just went on tour with Delta Spirit. I really like them a lot. There’s a guy Paulie Pesh…he has really cool music. He’s classically trained on the saxophone and he writes arrangements for strings and horns for all his music.”

Preacher’s Sons is really “cool” music; cool like a crisp autumn breeze on a nostalgia-fueled afternoon. Their aptly titled album Looks Like A Flood, Feels Like A Drought, layers a sense of lyrical existential yearning over sparse, patiently organic melodies.

Jeremy Pfaff reveals that their musical influences are just as diverse as their sound:

“It’s pretty broad. Within the band, we all have different artists that we go to as favorites. For me, I feel like Simon and Garfunkel is a big one. The Beatles, of course. U2. There’s a lot of classic stuff we are into, but also a lot of more recent stuff too, like Iron and Wine, Neko Case, The Walkmen, and Tom Waits.”

Not one to end on a serious note, I asked Jeremy a question I am posing to all the bands of the Night One showcase for the OC Music Awards: What is your favorite make-out tune? Jeremy laughed and replied:

“There are so many good options for this. There could maybe be good serious ones or some funny ones too. Anything by Tears For Fears is generally a winner.”

Immediately, visions of the “Head Over Heels” scene in Donnie Darko formed in my mind and I could easily see how the mood of the song arouses similar feelings as many Preacher’s Sons’ songs. Yet the greatest coincidence was when I looked up information on “Head Over Heels” and found that the remix on the 12-inch version of the original song pressing was called the “Preacher’s Mix.”

So eerily coincidental and yet apropos for a band based on positive synchronicity and unfettered faith.
“Space And Time”-Preacher’s Sons

2011 Best Live Band winner will receive a performance slot on the four Southern Christmas Vans Warped Tour stops!

Night One of the OC Music Awards Showcase Series featuring nominees for Best Live Band will be hosted and co-judged by KROQ’s Kat Corbett of Locals Only, Tuesday, January 4th at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa with doors opening at 7:30PM.

READ MORE INTERVIEWS ON KROQ.COM FROM SHOWCASE NIGHT 1 BANDS:

Friday, December 31st - Preacher’s Sons
Saturday, January 1st - The Colourist
Sunday, January 2nd - Semi Sweet
Monday, January 3rd - The Steelwells
Tuesday, January 4th - The New Limb

VOTING:

You have the power to send one Showcase artist to the Best Live Acoustic Finals and Best Live Band Finals.

Cast your vote and enter to win a massive prize pack from the OC Music Awards partners (To be Announced). Voting will begin on December 27 and will be open through the last Showcase on February 15. The votes will be tallied and the band with highest score will automatically move on to their Series Finals! Click here to vote

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