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I've never thought of Peter Holsapple as a particularly happy-go-lucky guy. In fact, based on Holsapple-penned dB's songs like "Amplifier" or "Lonely Is As Lonely Does," he tends to come across as somewhere between dour and morose.
No anymore however.
Check in with the former dB's leader these days and you're likely to find him in an almost giddy frame of mind. The primary reason for his high spirits seems to be Miranda Victoria Cowsill Halsapple, his 6-months-old daughter.
On a recent afternoon, the daughter in question was squalling in the background of Holsapple's New Orleans home while her proud father recounted her first-ever trip to a city park earlier in the day.
"You get all these wonderful first with kids," Holsapple enthused. "I'd highly recommend parenthood, it definitely improves your outlook. I've never even been around puppies or kittens before. Fortunately, Susan has about 17 nieces and nephews, so she's had a lot of practice."
Life these days seems quite agreeable for North Carolina expatriate Holsapple, who has taken up residence in New Orleans and is keeping busy with numerous musical projects. "Susan" is Susan Cowsill - yes, that Susan Cowsill, of "Hair" and the Cowsills fame. Holsapple plays with her in the Continental Drifters.
The Drifters are an alternative supergroup whose lineup also includes former Bangles guitarist Vicki Peterson and Dream Syndicate bassist Mark Walton. But the group doesn't sound anything like what you would expect, based on the alternative pop most of its principals have played in past bands.
"It's not what you'd call skinny-tie power-pop, which isn't to denigrate the dB's or anything any of us have done before," Holsapple said. The focus is more on the band and this sort of swampy country sound we have rather than any of the individuals in it.
"It's been great for me, too. I've gotten to watch Susan progress from playing a little acoustic guitar to playing mandolin. Vicki is playing slide now. Me, I do what I can. I started out in this band saying to the powers that be, 'I don't want to sing much lead or play much lead guitar; I mostly just want to play keyboards.' I've gotten a lot better because I had to. At least I know what all the black keys are for now."
In addition to studio work and productin (Victoria Williams is a recent credit), Holsapple is also keeping his hand in as a solo act. He returns to the area Saturday for his first Triangle performance in nearly three years, a solo acoustic show at Durham's Captured Live Studios.
But one thing Holsapple isn't doing any more is playing with R.E.M., which seems to be a touchy subject. He played second guitar and keyboards on R.E.M.'s 1888-89 "Green" tour and was heavily involved with recording their 1991 "Out of Time" album - Michael Stipe even called him "the fifth R.E.M." when they played an "MTV Unplugged" show that year.
When asked why he didn't play on R.E.M.'s las album, however, Holsapple would only day, "I'd rather not talk at all about that, beyond mentioning that I did play with them."
Well, Holsapple does have his own songs to think about. He hasn't recorded an album since "Mavericks" the very fine 1991 album he made with old dB's band mate Chris Stamey, and hopes to record a solo album soon.
"I don't know what to expect out of a solo record other than self-satisfaction," he admitted. "At this point, my chances of becoming a capital-letter SUPERSTAR are just impossible. It ain't gonna happen, and that's fine. I'm one of six songwriters in the Drifters, so the solo record will be weird songs that ordinarily wouldn't make it out of demo form - more of my goofy stuff.
"There's one called 'No Sound,' about the fear of performing - being up onstage with this phenomenal sound system at your disposal, and longing to be somewhere where you can't hear anything. There's also 'Next to the Last Waltz,' which is not really a waltz. It's about a guy who's bird-dogging a girl at a bar, ragging on her for not looking at him or dancing with him.
"Not to give the punch line away, but it turns out his girlfriend is there, and she's depressed and getting sloshed because he's doing this. But he doesn't care because he's got his eye on this other woman."
Even if he's become more sanguine, it's nice to know that Holsapple's sardonic streak is alive and well, too.
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