Interview with Andre Pettipas and The Giants: ‘There are lots of “woahs” and “ohs” on the album, we want to show our personality’

Nova Scotia-based rock band Andre Pettipas and The Giants will release their sophomore album, No Fools No Fun on 9 July, which encapsulates their no holds barred, kick ass and riffed up ethic.

The band consists of Andre Pettipas (guitar and lead vocals), his brother Travis (bass and backing vocals) Mark Cosh on drums and backing vocals and John MacDonald on guitar and backing vocals. Their name is a reference to former French wrestler André The Giant: ‘The Eighth Wonder of the World,’ Andre laughed. ‘He apparently once drank 160 beers and wasn’t drunk!’

Andre and Travis formed the band six years ago after Andre’s six month battle with encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain: ‘I didn’t know if I’d make it through, I knew I had to seize the day, he said. ‘We met our drummer at a local bar, we played in different bands as kids. I thought he could really play and after the show I invited him into the studio. We met him on a Monday and recorded our debut album the next day.’ They also have an organist, Leith Fleming-Smith, who plays throughout the new album.

No Fools No Fun comprises 13 tracks, including the title track of the same name and their recently released single, ‘Homesick’. ‘The songs for this album were closely put together in stages,’ Andre said. ‘I like to write about our own experiences, I don’t like someone writing songs for me, unless it’s a cover. I’m a huge fan of early 90’s stuff where I can feel something. Our style of writing means I like structure to a song and for a bridge to be fun and to let the chorus shine – that way you hit all the aspects. If I don’t think a chorus is catchy, I won’t put it in, think Spin Doctors, Matchbox Twenty, Poison and Guns N’ Roses.’

‘Let’s just forget about all of that for a while and have a good time’

The title track is about trying to forget about what’s troubling you and just enjoy yourself, a theme that neatly weaves through all 13 tracks on the album: ‘Everyone has enough pain and anguish taking up residence in their minds at any given time. For us, it’s like, let’s just forget about all of that for a while and have a good time,’ he said. ‘That’s what we do at our shows and that’s the approach we took to this album. It’s a proper 90’s style old school rock song, complete with drums with attitude, southern rock guitars and a solid bass line.’

As the track kicks off: ‘She was a Bonnie & Clyde type of chick, lived so fast and died too quick, smoked her cigarettes stick after stick.’

Their recently released single ‘Homesick’ gives a major nod to late 80’s and early 90’s rock and features Christopher Thorn, the guitarist from southern psych-rock band Blind Melon. ‘It’s real riff rock,’ Andre laughed. ‘That one, I was writing it in western Canada after a show. It was winter and cold, I was on the road, I hadn’t made any money that night and thought I had to write a song about it. We had a trip to Edmonton the next day, an eight hour drive. I wrote it in the van and demoed it when I got back. I didn’t tell the band about it ‘cos it was a sad song (laughs) but our drummer found it and said “Dude, what’s this song?”. He really liked it, so we sent it to our producer, who said it was the tune. You can feel the emotion in it. It’s about being homesick for friends and family and wanting to feel ‘full’ again.’

Musically, ‘Homesick’ is one of the most power chord-driven tracks on the album, layering a number of guitar parts seamlessly: ‘The influence for the guitar parts in the first verse was Alice in Chains,’ he said. ‘That dark, resonating chord, with the guitar following the lead vocal, like Blind Melon, it’s got a big chorus like ‘Bright Lights’ by Matchbox Twenty. I like throwing in those big parts to make it impactful. Oddly enough, the first part written for the song was the solo that sounds like a Nintendo game! We’ve also got some tremolo guitar, like in Green Day’s ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ and slide guitar. Chris from Blind Melon does the fuzzed up guitar that you hear on it.’

Another track on the album, ‘Gone’, makes me think of the greats from the 90’s like Guns ‘N’ Roses: ‘It’s a southern rock song that describes persevering and getting through your problems,’ Andre said. ‘Me and my brother were cleaning up the basement at our parents’ house and got inspired there. It’s saying don’t worry about it, don’t drown in your own pity, stay afloat. Musically, I kinda focused on the two guitars in harmony, I wanted a Black Crowes feel. It’s also like ‘Come Together’, where you hang on the bass note – our bassist is a big prog rock guy. It’s got that huge southern feel. Eddie Ryuter who’s worked with Shawn Mendes, played the piano on it. It’s his tag at the end of the song.’

‘We’d like to be like Eddie Van Halen on stage!’

Other songs are very personal to him, such as ‘Last First Date Ever’: ‘I was hanging with my mother-in-law and my now wife and her mom said “You’ve gone on your last first date ever” and the lyrics just came from that, the idea of finding the one you’ll be with for the rest of your life.’ I joke that it’s a sweet sentiment but not very rock ‘n’ roll and he laughs: ‘We’d rather be good role models to young musicians, we want to portray the fun side of the business, not the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. We’d like to be like Eddie Van Halen on stage, the energy he had! He started his own style, his solo on ‘Beat It’ for Michael Jackson was incredible.’

Recorded at the The Chalet Recording Studio in Uxbridge, Ontario, 10 of the 13 tracks were produced by Brian Moncarz (Alice Cooper, Our Lady Peace, The Tea Party), along with some other well-known heavy hitters including: Max Kerman of The Arkells, who arranged ‘Dark Times’, John-Angus MacDonald of The Trews (Glorious Sons) producer of ‘Sympathy Card’, and Jason Jenkyns (The Stanfields, The Town Heroes) and Jon Landry (The Stanfields, The Town Heroes) who co-produced ‘The Swedish Motel’.

I say that I noticed that his songs typically kick off with big guitars and that he’s clearly a fan of big riffs and he gets very animated: ‘Oh yeah, I like to start a song with a guitar interlude, I love the fact that you can set the musical style right off like that. Live, I’ve got a B9 Hammond organ pedal, filling the gaps with reverb, with a bit of a delay on the pedal board, It helps us to expand our sound.’

‘I love that one thing you say here can end up somewhere else’

His love of big opening riffs is particularly clear on upcoming tracks such as ‘The Swedish Motel’, which erupts with a bluesy, immensely hooky riff and showcases the band’s ability to combine disparate genres of rock ‘n’ roll into a sound that’s undeniably their own: ‘I was listening to a lot of ZZ Top, I wanted something dirty, a greasy rock ‘n’ roll riff!’ I tell him it has that in spades and that it’s one of the catchiest openers on the album for me: ‘So, with the capo on 3, it starts on an A, third and fourth fret, hammered on second and fourth D string, then G string back to D,’ he said. ‘The song is about a touring vehicle that our mentor had, it’s the name of a Swedish station wagon. It’s about how tight-knit the music community is, I love that one thing you say here can end up somewhere else. We recorded part of the music video in Sweden when we played at the ‘Live at Heart’ festival (in Örebro), it’s a South by Southwest kind of festival (a yearly tech, film and music festival in Austin, Texas).’

As the song goes: ‘We got the desire, we’ve got the need, plenty of road, an abundancy. It’s not that we’re afraid of the future, it’s returning to where we’ve already been.’

We get chatting about interesting sounds in music and the talk turns to ‘Making A Fire: Mark Ronson Re-Version’, Mark Ronson’s re-imagining of the ‘Making A Fire’ track from Foo Fighters’ Medicine At Midnight album, which had come out the day before we chatted. The new version features members of The Dap-Kings and The Tedeschi Trucks, among others, not to mention Dave Grohl’s unmistakable vocals and a back-up quartet featuring his daughter Violet. ‘Man, isn’t it amazing?,’ he exclaimed. I say that it is and that I’ve been playing it on a loop and he says that he has, too. ‘Actually, I met Dave Grohl in Toronto once at a conference,’ he said. ‘I’d just got some great news and I got off the phone and Dave Grohl was just sitting on the couch in front of me! I blurted out that I’d just had some good news, I was kinda nervous and he was like “Yes, man, go celebrate!” He was so nice, I snagged a photo with him.’ I ask him if he saw the drum battles that Dave Grohl did on lockdown last year with 10 year old British girl and drumming wonder, Nandi Bushell: ‘Oh my god, yeah!,’ he said. ‘They were soooooo good! That’s the thing, musically, I think Dave has done everything he wants to do and now he gives opportunities to other people. Live, the Foos are an amazing experience, they’re a big influence of mine, just the energy behind them.’ I say how much I love their last album, Medicine At Midnight. ‘I friggin’ LOVE that album!,’ he grinned. ‘I had it on repeat!’

‘It has a similar feel to ‘The Swedish Motel’ lick but we wanted to go Stonesey’

Other tracks on their upcoming album, including ‘Labels’, have a far bluesier vibe, with feathery drums and an overdriven lead guitar lick. ‘Yeah, it has a similar feel to ‘The Swedish Motel’ lick but we wanted to go Stonesey,’ he laughed. ‘We thought it would be super cool. It’s greasy – or, as our producer would say, slutty! We thought it would be cool with a harmonica so we added our bud and mentor, Gord Stensrud, on it.’

Andre and Travis don’t just make music together, they work together as well: ‘I’m a sheet metal worker with my brother but I also do video work and graphic design. My brother and I design our logos.’ The band’s close-knit relationship is evident when you see clips of them performing live: they combine a high-energy performance with visibly having fun together: ‘There’s a real camaraderie, we’re best friends doing our thing,’ Andre said. ‘I’ll get a kick in the ass onstage from my brother!’ The fun they have onstage has very much seeped into the album, which is one glorious pick-me-up: ‘There are lots of “woahs” and “ohs” on the album, we want to show our personality,’ he said. ‘There’s some rock ‘n’ roll attitude, forget about your problems, just enjoy it!’

Bands like their hometown rock band The Trews have been a huge influence on him. ‘I grew up listening to their stuff, they come from a small town just 30 minutes from here but made it big,’ he said. In addition, Nova Scotia’s strong Gaelic and Celtic history has shaped his music. ‘It’s a very Celtic place, we have a lot of bagpipes! It’s very different for rock ‘n’ roll. We grew our most recent fan base via breweries and distilleries.’ I say that I have spoken to other bands who have grown their fan bases in a similar way and he nods: ‘People like to have their drink and music to go with it. It’s tight-knit.’

Locally, he is also a fan of multi-instrumentalist Adam Baldwin, his buddies’ rock band, The Royal North, and The Collective, whose lead singer Leah Samson reminds me of Amy Winehouse. However, his earworm at the moment is Royal Blood’s ‘Trouble Coming’: ‘It’s been in my head for a week! And ‘Choices’ by George Jones, a guy was busking it last night.’

If they could tour with anyone, he is quick to say Foo Fighters: ‘Just for the quality of their live shows,’ he enthused. ‘And the personalities in the band, they don’t have egos, they help other bands. They’re one of the ultimate bands. We should focus on them as idols. It’s crazy how long Dave Grohl has been around. They’re THE rock band of our time.’

(Photo from left to right: Travis, Andre, John and Mark)