The Peasantry
By Tyler Littwin
Photo by Patrick Piasecki

"In general, we all have passive personalities,” confides Jeff Apruzzese, bassist for Boston’s The Peasantry. This dubious statement is made half an hour before the band takes the stage at Jamaica Plain’s Milky Way. During the ensuing set, singer/guitarist Elliot Michaud will nearly collide with wandering guitarist James Bookert, Apruzzese will crash his bass against drummer Nate Donmoyer’s cymbals and singer Stephen Konrads will pound his keyboard off of its stand and onto the stage floor. This is normal. “Music moves me and I respond to it,” explains Konrads.

Loud and soft, bucolic and metropolitan, youthful and reflective, passive and out-of-control. This is the Peasantry, a study in contradictory dynamics. Formed in 2006, the band has toured the East Coast and played innumerable shows in the Boston area. “It’s feel-good music,” says Michaud. “We want people to have a good time.” Their energetic live shows are built around a half-dozen songs from their first EP, the surprisingly sharp Don’t Harm Barbara Gordon. Beautiful piano glimmerings and staccato guitar riffs lock in with tight drumming. The vocals (split between Michaud and Konrads) are far ranging and catchy. It’s a diverse collection of songs and its wide range can be attributed to the varied interests of the members. “Our musical taste is so different but we all meet in the middle,” says Apruzzese. Despite their differences, the band shares a collective appreciation for Pavement, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Velvet Underground, Brian Eno, and Radiohead (“innovators” says Konrads) but their own style is still developing.

“On the last album we were still finding our sound,” says Michaud. The first three songs the band ever wrote (“Tie Off,” “Gee,” “Cowboys & Indians”) were featured on their debut EP. The writing process generally starts with Michaud or Konrads bringing in “an idea or a bone structure” for a song and the rest of the band twisting it into the musical equivalent of “a mutilated alien dog.” Lyrically, Konrads and Michaud draw on life experiences and the rural/urban dynamic they experienced moving from Wisconsin to Boston. The expansive “Merry England” from Don’t Harm... deals with “someone being connected to a world, something pastoral, green, and beautiful, and coming to an urban environment and dealing with that feeling of urban isolation.”

www.myspace.com/thepeasantry