Scare City are hard to pin down, but I didn’t become the Providence 24/7 champion just by my looks. Well, maybe I did but that’s not important now. What’s important is that I spoke to the band Scare City about worm town and rock and roll.

HASSLE:
Who is in the band and what do they play?

P:
Lars plays Bass, Pete plays Guitar, Ace is our robot drummer.

HASSLE:
Did you ever have a drummer?

P:
We’ve never had a human drummer.

HASSLE:
Are you going to get a drummer?

L:
I wouldn’t rule out getting a human drummer.

P:
I’m open to it. It would be a big change, but it would take us to a cool level of rock. I’m also content with what we do live right now tho. Some people really like what we do with our lo-fi drum sound tho, they also like when we talk about Ace, it wins some people over. Others hate our sound and that’s fine too.

HASSLE:
Don’t be hatin’! How did the band start?

P:
Lars other band Talchemist was supposed to play a Worcester show and his mate had to bail. The show needed local support so we wrote a set of 4 songs and ended up playing it at 3 shows that week (2 in Worcester and one at Cold Spring Hollow) after that we just kept moving onward writing more songs and expanding our sound. I think we’re still doing that.

HASSLE:
Cool. How did you come up with the name?

P:
We played our first few shows as “Pete + Lars” then we went with Scare City. It’s a band name Lars had been talking about using years back.

HASSLE:
What are some of influences on band?

P:
I’m a big fan of all the lo-fi and hi-fi incarnations of Sebadoh over the years and I think that comes through here for me. I love that band in any form and all the solo projects. I’m most influenced by bands that work hard all around and do it for the right reasons. Minutemen, Dinosaur Jr and Devo are some of my all time favorites. Screaming Females are a band I love to book and they work super hard all around. I think Lars is into Faith No More and we like to listen to Klaus Nomi on tour a lot.

HASSLE:
Any touring plans right now?

P:
We had a couple tours in the works before the pandemic we’d still like to do them at some point. We are playing a show in Charleston, South Carolina Sat Aug 14 and visiting some different friends down south. Kind of a tester tour with just one (maybe 2?) shows. We hope to go to Ohio in the fall or winter and few other shows around that if the world is feeling right. We like playing and traveling, so I think we will continue to do it!

HASSLE:
Tell me about your recordings so far.

P:
We have a 2 song demo we recorded 3 years or so ago up on Bandcamp. We have a 10 song tape available if anyone wants one mailed, or they can purchase it at a show. We record in Lars basement, simple quick process usually.

HASSLE:
What’s coming up down the road for the band?

P:
Working on new songs and we hope to have a new tape/CD out in 2022. We’re open to shows in general anywhere. We like shows!

HASSLE:
What do you guys do outside the band, musically and otherwise?

P:
I play street hockey, I collect old 45s and hope to DJ a bit soon, I work as a custodian at Millbury MA public schools. I like to walk/hike in the woods w earphones rocking my ears : ) Lars is a glazier, his family has a stained glass business called “Paulson Stained Glass” We both book a lot of shows for tourers in Worcester. Thanks for talking with us.

HASSLE:
No, thank you guys. Rock on, Scare City!