by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The words of Pernice Brothers’ singer/songwriter Joe Pernice are reverberating off the tiled walls of the bathroom of a Red Roof Inn hotel room where he’s trapped. He’s been doing interviews for the past two hours and has two more to go. In order to let his guitar player catch some extra Zs, Joe has been relegated to the bathroom until he wakes up.

He doesn’t mind all of the ink being spilt on him but don’t try and get him to read the stuff. "I really try to not read reviews or press and will occasionally read one just to remind myself not to read them anymore."

Pernice has been a busy man outside of the bathroom as well. After leaving Sub Pop, he started running his own label Ashmont, but the added work load has paid off in spades. "Before this I actually had people telling me how to dress for pictures and stuff. I don’t want to deal with that shit. If anybody is reading this, especially if they’re young, they should really start their own label - get smart and learn about it. Just read some books and learn how to do it. It’s not rocket science."

Pernice also keeps busy by serving time in his other bands like the Scud Mountain Boys and Chappaquiddick Skyline. If that wasn’t enough, this man of many hats was also involved in a project that encouraged writers to write short fiction based on actual records. Pernice picked the Smiths song "Meat Is Murder" and created a character who is obsessed with the record as well as trying to feel real emotions. "It takes a lot of time to write fiction and I am on the road until Christmas. I would love to do more of it but I also have a couple more records I want to get around to and I just started working on a musical, not to mention I’m getting married soon. I have to get economical with my time now."

If only he could get out of the bathroom.

WITH THE SADIES AND THE TYDE AT CAFÉ CAMPUS ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 8PM, $10

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