{"id":147956,"date":"2020-06-02T07:12:02","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T23:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hongkong\/?p=147956"},"modified":"2024-11-20T19:40:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:40:28","slug":"the-pains-of-being-pure-at-heart-interview-the-echo-of-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hong-kong\/the-pains-of-being-pure-at-heart-interview-the-echo-of-pleasure\/","title":{"rendered":"Memory is a kind of echo: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart chat about music, writing and family"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those who always keep an eye on the underground music scene, you’re probably aware of the indie musicians that have visited in Hong Kong recently, such as Christopher Owens<\/a>, Beach Fossils<\/a> and Mount Kimbie<\/a>. After appearing twice at Hong Kong\u2019s biggest music festival Clockenflap within the past six years, it seems local music fans can\u2019t get enough of the New York favourite – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. So we interviewed frontman Kip Berman about their release: The Echo of Pleasure and the stories that have influenced the band.<\/p>\n

An interview with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart<\/h2>\n

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is one of those names you won\u2019t forget because of its embedded poetic sentiment. Following their last album Days of Abandon \u2013 which brilliantly conveys melodic representations of sadness, disappointment and loneliness \u2013 the Brooklyn-based indie noise-pop band\u2019s latest release in 2017 The Echo of Pleasure leads their listeners to euphoric ecstasy with a richer and more mature wall of sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, you started your own band and named it The Pains of Being Pure at Heart based on a story title you came across in Portland. How did (and do) you reinterpret this sentiment \u201cThe Pains of Being Pure at Heart\u201d then and now?<\/h3>\n

I wonder if along the way there has been some corruption \u2013 understandably inevitable \u2013 of my intent and dreams. When we started, we were pretty inept musically and this bothered me. I felt like we were constantly disappointing people every time we played a show. I used to say we were \u201ctoo true to be good\u201d \u2013 and in a way, we were. As we got better, I think there was a degree of worldly ambition to be \u201cbigger\u201d, and it poisoned us a bit. When we didn\u2019t get \u201cbig\u201d the other members left to do work that was more stable, and I was left with the pieces of something that was now tainted, yet remained the best or only way I had of expressing what I wanted to express.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart live band consists of Christoph Hochheim (guitar), Jacob Sloan (bass), Chris Schackerman (drums), Kip Berman (vocals, guitar) and Jess Rojas (keyboards, vocals) (Photography: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart via Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your latest album is called The Echo of Pleasure. How did you come up with that title to represent this album ?<\/h3>\n

When looking back on life, memory is a kind of echo. Each reflection is a bit duller or less vivid than the initial feeling of the thing remembered. But I also think of love as an ongoing conversation \u2013 each reply, or echo, is a variation of the thing said before. It\u2019s not simply a mirror \u2013 a mirror is static, exacting. A mirror is, both literally and figuratively, vanity. The reason you seek intimacy with another person is not to have another version of yourself, but to know experiences and feelings that return back to you in ways that are different. When a partner is absent, that back and forth ends, and the feelings just sort of fade out into oblivion, into silence.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favourite song on The Echo of Pleasure and why is that?<\/h3>\n

The Garret. It reaches places that I don\u2019t think our music has gone before. If you had played it for me when we started the band, I wouldn\u2019t have thought it possible that I could be part of a song like this.<\/p>\n