by Kenneth Morton

Big City Someone is the solo acoustic project of Vince Pierri, a talented young musician beginning to make a name for himself due to his catchy tunes and Myspace presence. Currently on tour as the bassist for fellow Windy City act Breathe Electric, we had a chance to make the acquaintance of Mr Pierri while he was out on the road. Read on for a recent interview...

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Big City Someone, and how long the project has been together.
My name is Vince Pierri. Big City Someone is my solo project. I write the songs and perform by myself. I’ve played in bands since I was 13, but started the solo thing October, 2008.

Where are you from and what is your local music scene like there?
I’m from the northern Chicago suburbs, Lake County to be exact. The scene has been composed of mainly hardcore and experimental indie rock, but in the last few years there has there been a growth of pop music, which is awesome for me. It would have been a lot harder to try doing what I’m doing two or three years ago.

What made you decide to name your project Big City Someone, and what significance does that name have to you?
The name doesn’t really have any significance. I had recorded a couple songs and was asked to play a show before I had a band name. They needed a name to put on the flier and I thought it sounded aiiight.

Do you enjoy performing on your own or would you like to get a full band together and tour full time?
I do enjoy performing on my own. Trying to get musicians together to back me up would be such a large task that I think it would take most of the fun out of it. I’m hopefully going to start touring soon, but it will just be me, a guitar, and maybe a lap top. If things ever got to the point where I am selling a whole bunch of CDs, and could afford to pay a professional band, I’d love to play with other people... but I’m a long, long time away from that.

Young And In Love With You sounds amazing. Where did you get the ideas for the lyrics?
Well thanks a lot! That song is about a guy who is frustrated that a girl doesn’t remember things quite the way he does. It is something that I have felt at many points in my life, so the lyrics came pretty naturally.

I Think I Like You was released as a separate demo. Why was that and where did you get the lyrical ideas here?
My Demos 2008 CD was basically a compilation of all the home recordings I had done in the past few months before releasing it. I wrote and recorded I Think I Like You right after I submitted the Demos CD to Itunes, so I had to release it separately. The lyrics are about when you first feel the butterflies... meaning when you meet someone and immediately feel a strong attraction. This was another fairly easy song to write. It took a whole bunch of re-writes to try to get the verses how I wanted them, but I’m sort of overly in touch with my emotions (at least for a guy, if that’s not totally sexist...) so the lyrics came pretty easily.

Tell me about 4th of July and did you move around a lot as the song indicates?
Yes! I did. It’s weird to say, because I don’t really see myself as the adventurous type, but since graduating high school in ’04, I’ve lived in about five different cities around the US. I transferred schools a couple times, dropped out of college to play in a band, and moved somewhere to be with a girl I was dating, all of which took me different places. It’s been cool to get to meet all sorts of different people, but it’s also hard because nowhere really feels like home. I’m a Christian, and that’s sort of what the song is about, not having a home, but having your faith to keep you going.

Shingles is definitely a different song for you, with you screaming at the end. What is this song about and will there be more songs like this in the future? Do you secretly want to be in a screamo band? :-)
Haha, a very legitimate question! I’ve played in a whole bunch of hardcore bands. Hardcore sort of is in my blood, so yeah in a way, I will always miss that. The screaming at the end of the songs is actually my little brother Frankie, who fronts an up and coming band called Monsters. I don’t really see myself writing any more songs like this, but honestly you never know! haha
Let’s just say this song is by far the most autobiographical. It talks about two different relationships that I was in and how they both crashed and burned. There were lyrics that I liked a lot more, but took out because I was afraid that the people who they were about would hear them and be hurt by them. It was a difficult decision, and one that a lot of artists would probably disagree with, but at the time it felt like the only fair thing to do.

How difficult is it to record the xylophone (or bells) in your songs, and do you play those live as well?
They were very easy to record, because they’re actually just midi! For anybody reading this who’s not familiar, that means that a computer simulates the sound and plays it perfectly in time. When I play live, I’ll either just play acoustic, or play along with a prerecorded track. So either way, I haven’t had to play any xylophone or bells yet. Keeping my fingers crossed!

How is the tour with Breathe Electric going and how did you become involved with that band?
Grant is a huge part of why the pop music scene is doing well in the Chicago/southern Wisconsin scene. Him and a couple other people started renting out a venue in Kenosha, Wisconsin called “The Unity Lodge” and booking pop and hardcore shows there about two years ago. At the beginning, only a few kids showed up, but as Breathe Electric grew in popularity, the scene as a whole grew as well. A whole bunch of other amazing pop bands have sprung up.. Shows at the Unity Lodge now rarely bring less than 300 kids and pop shows in general have been doing really well.
I met him right around the time he was starting and it’s been super fun to watch Breathe Electric grow to the band that it is today. This tour was great, lots of Breathe Electric fans showing up and lots of new fans being made. It’s definitely a bittersweet time right now, cause after this summer, I’m gonna be focusing 100% on Big City Someone. Breathe Electric has a really bright future, and it’s been really fun to be a small part of that. But I’ve decided I really want to be focusing on my own music.

What made you decide to cover Heartless by Kanye West and are you a fan of his music?
I am not really a big fan of his music. I mean, I do like it, but I’m just not all that familiar with it. I covered that song mostly as a challenge to myself to see if I could make it work with my voice/style or whatever. I’ve gotten a lot of negative responses about it, but a lot of positive ones too, so I guess it was at least partially a success.

When could one expect Big City Someone to play California or other parts of the country?
Well, to be honest, probably not until next summer. I’m gonna finish school up, and hopefully make a whole bunch more music. If I can sell enough music then I should be able to get onto some decent tours and head out west 2010. :)

Why should someone rush over to Itunes right now and buy all the Big City Someone music they could find?
Haha, Well if you like the music, that’s a good reason. If you don’t like it, then there’s probably nothing I could say that would make you want to buy it! But, I will say that there are certain bands, like Jimmy Eat World, or Brand New, or Me Without You, that me and a whole bunch of people will always care about. I’ll always want to know what they’re doing, what their latest record sounds like. So many of their songs will remind me of a certain time or place or person. There are bands I will never get sick of, because what they’re doing is genuine, and it only gets better over time. If I could be that kind of artist, even for a handful of people, I will be happy.

Any final words of wisdom?
Well, I guess I’ll just give a little bit of advice to those of you who are musicians or artists of some kind. I recently watched an interview with Dave Matthews. He said, (and this is just a rough quote) “If you want to be famous, go on a reality show, don’t play music.” He went on to say something to the effect of, “Find out what you love doing, and then do it. If it pays the bills great, if it doesn’t, find some way to pay the bills and then do what you love on the side.” I’m trying to approach music that way. I don’t want to make music that I’m not a fan of just to get popular, even though I have definitely tried to do that on some level at different times in my life... So I guess that’s my advice, whether it be music, or another kind of art, make music that turns you on. Make music that makes you feel something, not music that you think will make someone else feel something.

Big City Someone links

Big City Someone on Myspace: The Official Myspace Page for Big City Someone!
The Highwire Daze Home Page: Return to the Main Page!

Counter