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(Note: Yes they spelled John's name wrong)
The Bangles and Cowsills mainstays' Americana outing
Tell us a bit about your latest project.
Vicki Peterson: Other than vocals for other people, this is the first time that John and I have worked together. It's a love letter to two of his late, older brothers, Bill and Barry, who were huge contributors to the Cowsills band. It's mostly from their solo work.
Jon Cowsill: It's been on our minds for years, and we've done six each of Barry's and Bill's beautiful songs. What film could it soundtrack?
VP: A Peter Fonda-era hippie Western, with classic country and out-there romantic rock.
JC: Buckaroo Bill Rides With Uncle Spunky!
If you could revisit any of your albums, what'd you change?
JC: I was talking to Vicki about remixing or re-recording a few of The Cowsills' albums. The 60s-70s mixes tended to be very drum-light and thin. When we recorded II x II, I was 14. I want to hear clearly what we played, so I'd remix the originals and do re-recordings of songs where we have control over the masters.
Is there anything still unissued?
VP: Yes, but it'll never see the light of day!
Have you done anything that fans may not know about?
VP: Harmonies on many records for other people, including John Doe, Matthew Sweet, Belinda Carlisle, and Hootie & The Blowfish.
What was your favourite record shop when you started out?
JC: Moss Music Store, Newport, Rhode Island. Records, sheet music, instruments. From age seven, I'd get the latest Beatles single or Petula Clark (sigh), and calf skin drumheads and drum sticks.
What was your first record?
VP: The Cowsills' We Can Fly.
JC: Marty Robbins El Paso, age five, with 50 cents from down the back of chairs and from under cushions.
Was anyone in your family a musician?
VP: My mother’s cousin was a big band leader in the early 50s.
What records most influenced your style?
JC: Meet The Beatles for the drums, and lots of people for singing, such as The Beach Boys.
Did you ever write songs 'under the influence'?
VP: In the Psycho Sisters band with Susan Cowsill, we'd get together to "write", which usually involved a fair amount of cheap champagne. But we did write songs like Timberline.
Have you kept studio notebooks?
VP: A number of journals from The Bangles days, where I recorded what I was feeling about the sessions. I don't think that I'll be publishing any of those, though!
Which of your songs is the most personally meaningful?
VP: I wrote Who We Are Where We Live after my fiancé passed away, and Susan Cowsill said of the people who'd died too young, "It's who we are and where we live."
Would you change any of your artwork, given the chance?
VP: The Bangles never had a logo that we loved.
Do you have a go-to 'comfort album'?
VP: Dusty Springfield Dusty In Memphis. It's a Sunday morning record that reminds me of my early days with the Continental Drifters, especially after a late night at the Batch Pad. Sexy and soothing.
JC: Steveland Morris Talking Book. I first heard it age 16 at Virginia Beach's Jolly Roger club. I met a girl named Patti, a dancer on the club strip, and we'd lay around with her friend, Diana, playing Talking Book. Also, Elton John's second album. Your Song, 60 years on . . . And Brahms, my classical junk.
Do you keep a diary?
VP: I've sporadically kept unreadable journals for decades.
Do you plan a book?
VP: My best friend, Amanda Podany, and I, have outlined a book about my pre-bangles days, when we were in high school and college in Los Angeles.
Of all the people that you've worked with, who taught you the most?
JC: Chuck Plotkin, from 1976, a creative force and incredible producer, about song structures and much more. We spent five years with Chuck at Clover Studios, and he'd get us to sing and play on other people's albums. I sang and played percussion on Tommy Tutone's 867-5309, and The Cowsills sang on Harry Chapin's Living Room Suite.
A cool time to make music.
Is there a myth about you that you'd like to set straight?
VP: Do people really think that The Bangles didn't play on our albums? We did. That myth rankles a bit, so let's get rid of it!
Dying peacefully on your deathbed, what'd you like to hear?
VP: My beloveds singing to me.
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