Interview with Peebot, 18 June, 2011Interviewer: You just sent me a Melvins Fan Club Newsletter, the first time I’ve seen one. How did they come about?
Peebot: I have to say, looking through that newsletter again made me feel pretty embarrassed. It's pretty shitty, overall and, as a graphic designer these days, it’s not exactly a portfolio piece, you know? But shit, I was what, 20? and it was a hell of a lot of fun to do, and I really loved doing it at the time. The history of it goes something like this (apologies in advance if this is too much info): I moved back up to San Francisco from southern California in 1990 to go to college and almost immediately started working on a music 'zine. It was to be called "Hissy FIt" and I knew immediately that I wanted Melvins to be the main article and be on the cover. Those guys have been the top of the mountain musically for me since I first heard "Ozma", and then when I saw them in LA with Mudhoney I fucking lost my mind. Game over man, game over.
So I got in touch with Tom from Boner and he gave me Dale's phone number and I set up an interview. He and Buzz met at a pizza place in the Upper Haight where I was living at the time, which went well, and then Dale invited me over to his place a couple of days later to look through some photos to use to go along with the interview. He also put me in touch with Brian Walsby who ended up drawing a cover for me that would have been pretty awesome. Dale and I hit it off and started hanging out fairly regularly after that, and became really good friends. Despite the fact that the 'zine never came together (my car got stolen right around that time and I ran out of money and it just sort of died on the vine...something Buzz delighted in giving me shit about any time he saw me from then on), we continued to get closer and when Joe joined up and they decided to do the solo albums, he and Buzz and I got to talking about completing the Kiss vibe by doing a Melvins Army fan club. I offered to run it, create the content, answer mail, get the good mail and questions and stuff to them, etc., and in return Dale made sure that I got every release and piece of merch that I wanted for free, and put me on the list to every show that I wanted. Pretty fucking cool. He's such a sweetheart, that guy.
So I opened a P.O. Box for them; they printed the fan club info on the inside cover of the solo albums (and the address on the inside cover of Lysol) and off we went. We decided that fan club members would receive four newsletters a year, a sticker (red lettering from the vampire shirt), and a Melvins Army t-shirt iron on. I had a pal who worked at a photocopy shop at the time, so he let me use the machines after hours, and we found some iron-on transfer paper that we were able to copy onto to get the iron-ons done. Those went over really well. I still have the reversed transparency that we copied them all from. And the last little thing that we sent out was that membership card that I sent you. Dale and I designed that, and Margery is his mom. He wanted her to be the head honcho who was gonna whip your ass into shape in the Army.
I ran the club for about a year and a half. We were really late getting one of the issues out 'cause the touring schedule kept the band from providing me with some of the stuff that they wanted in that issue (plus I got a little lazy with that issue), so we ended up sending out some extra bits and pieces with the next one (flyers, hand-written cards from the band, set lists, etc.) and then their management company offered to take over the fan club duties, so that was it for me. I was happy to hand it over at that point, but I really loved doing it for that time. The management company only did one or maybe two issues after that and then they got dropped by Atlantic and the rest, as they say, is history. I've still got some pretty cool artifacts in that box...if you ever make it over here I'll let you root through it. Old backstage laminates, hand-written notes from Buzz, Dale & Mark, tons of old flyers, their tour schedule and rider from the Primus tour, those Bullhead photos, etc. I'm going to scan some of that stuff and put it up on my Flickr page, so I'll shoot you a link when I do. I also got to enjoy a lot of really, really amazing experiences through Dale at that time. Backstage with them when they opened for Rush at the Cow Palace in SF (plus seeing the beginning of Rush's set from the side of the stage...insane), went to A&M studios to see them recording "Stoner Witch", watched them shoot the "Lizzy" video, went to Dale's wedding (with Lori from Acid King), met tons of bands, big and small, who either played with them or stayed with Dale...it was fucking amazing. I felt like I had won the lottery at the time. That good fortune was not lost on me then and certainly isn't now.
Dale and I stayed close while he lived in SF, but once he moved to LA we lost touch (no email address for him back then, and he and I were never much for chatting on the phone). I've said hi to him at shows here and there over the years, and I know he catches me in the audience when I see them sometimes (especially since he and Coady have moved up front on the stage), but no steady contact for years. I miss it in a way, but it's so far back now that it sorta seems like a different life, and in some ways really should just stay back there as a moment in time. Trying to rekindle it would feel forced now, I think. But fuck, those guys are still by far the best thing on this earth musically for me. I've seen them live close to 50 times now, and they never cease to blow my fucking mind.
So anyway, that's the scoop. Like I said, sorry if that was more than you bargained for, but at least now you know the story. Glad you're getting a kick out of that stuff.
Interviewer: 
