Hustling the band together with unsuccessful lassoing words, the mumbling Pains of Being Pure at Heart didn’t expect the hearty questioning shocks from SUPERSWEET’s Gemma Dempster after their ATP weekend shows. Never one to turn away from a challenge, we woke the fatigued band with scorching metaphorical prods and discovered their chunder-thunder experiences, why having sex with your sister would rile up Grandma and their next adult baby fetish video. The final probing clincher? Give POBPAH ribbons and they become cat-like putty in our hands (even the shy drummer Kurt Feldman got involved – victory!)

HOT PROD 1: ON ATP AND TACKY, GRANNY FLATS
Alex Naidus (bass): We just played ATP, better than we ever thought it would be.
Peggy Wang (keyboards, vocals): In a place called Butlins. We didn’t know anything about Butlins, it was like surreal...
Kip Berman (vocals, guitar): It was a cool place for a festival...
Peggy: Definitely unexpected. We stayed at these chalets. Well it’s called a chalet to sound like really fancy...more like dorms!

HOT PROD 2: WORST FOOD EVER PUKED
Peggy: Taco Bell. I’ve never eaten it since. That was when I was like seven.
Kip: You’ve gone your whole life without Taco Bell?
Peggy: Ok, I’ve not gone without Taco Bell, just what I had that one time.
Kip: We’re never going to be sponsored by Taco Bell now...
Peggy: It was like a Chicken Taco or something. When I was in college I would like eat the Mexican Pizza. That’s really good.
Alex: Do they still make that?
Peggy: No...
Alex: Whoa, things to consider...
Peggy: It was delicious...
Alex: I have a steel stomach. But there’s a place in Queens, where they do really good Indian food. So I went with some friends and thought “I’ll just pick anywhere” but it was really bad. Not a fun night, or next day.

HOT PROD 3: BEING BEAUTIFUL AND STALKED 
Alex: Not me...I think Peggy attracts the fresher fans...
Peggy: I think it was kinda cute, these kids came to see us in Spain, and they made a Facebook fan page for my purse, because they really liked my purse.
Alex: That’s a pretty adorable version of stalking.
Kip: I signed a guys butt in Spain, but very carefully! It wasn’t in a weird way; it was a standard butt signing.

HOT PROD 4: TAME FANS AND BONDAGE 
Kip: We don’t play creepy music; we don’t have scary bondage songs....
Peggy: Ha! Our next video will adult baby fetish. That would be amazing: us in all baby diapers!

HOT PROD 5: INCESTUOUS LYRICS “IN A DARK ROOM WE CAN DO JUST WHAT WE LIKE/YOU'RE MY SISTER, AND THIS LOVE IS FUCKING RIGHT” (‘THIS LOVE IS FUCKING RIGHT’)
Peggy: Well if you take it literally...
Kip: I guess I always assume like Marvin Gaye says “Brother, Brother, Brother what’s going on”. There’s a way of using familiar phrases, using the figurative in this song. It’s not about incest. I wrote it, it’s not about doing it with your sister! Let me get this out there...
Peggy: He’s an only child!
Kip: I don’t have any siblings; I don’t have any desire to have sex with any members of my family. Grandma, if you are reading this, I want you to know I’m not weird. I know my Grandma does find these things on the internet:“But you don’t even have a sister?” “Grandma, it’s figurative!” It’s about how close you are to someone, not actually what they are called.

HOT PROD 6: IMITATING PIXIES IN ‘HEY PAUL’
Kip: That song is actually influenced by a band pretty explicitly, but not the Pixies. It’s my friend named Paul and he had a band called Cocaine Unicorn, and they are my favourite band! Noone knows who they are because they put out a CDR then called it quits. All the lyrics of ‘Hey Paul’ are references to Cocaine Unicorn songs, using his lyrics to tell the story about him in a weird way. It was meant to be weirdly homage to my friend who wrote songs I really liked. Then I guess musically it’s sort of like a chord progression, not really from one of their songs, but it would be a version of their songs if you sped it up and put a lot of distortion on it. They sounded more West-Coast psychedelic pop and jangly, so we put a lot more fuzz on it. I never really thought about ‘Gigantic’, I like ‘Gigantic’, so maybe subconsciously it came through without noticing. Here I was thinking about ripping off Cocaine Unicorn, but I was ripping off The Pixies, which is a fine way to live your life!

HOT PROD 7: POBPOH IS A CUTESY BAND
Kip: If you wanna call us cutesy, that’s cool, does that mean we’re cute?  At least we’re not an ugly core band. (Mimics journalist) “You’ve been accused of being really unattractive, what do you say to that?” We know our music is pretty superficial and basically pop music.

HOT PROD 8: TOURING RITUALS 
Peggy: We listen to the Utah Saints!

HOT PROD 9: MARKS AND SPENCER AND MOTTOS
Alex: I like the vegetable samosa personally.
Peggy: They have the best Pink Lady apples I have eaten in my entire life.
Kip: There’s this prawn salad there that’s always out. What’s that water that tastes like lemon? Lemon lime flavoured water; it’s really refreshing and keeps you hydrated!
Peggy: Spend your pence in Spence!

HOT PROD 10: END OF THE DECADE SACRIFICE
Kip: These shoes got pretty beat up on tour. If it was a matter of life or death, I’ll sacrifice to my pampers Gods so I could see 2010. I like ‘em, but this is life and death we are talking about!
Peggy: I wanna grow my bangs out…
Kip: Grow them out, more than they are now?
Peggy: No more bangs.
Alex: I’m leaving my job, I worked for a digital music company, but I’m going to be a full-time Pain, starting anew. Pains all day, every day!




Words: Gemma Dempster