Laura Peek and the Winning Hearts
WL 354 - Sunday, March 11 - 10pm
Purveyor of: the best rock and roll name, perhaps ever

To say that Laura Peek is cute would be an amazing understatement. The link icons on her official site are kittens at play, for crying out loud. It’s adorable. But even if she didn’t have that, she’d still have her lilting voice and literate lyrics doing the trick. Miles Baker called Laura on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

How are you doing?

Okay. I’m puppy-sitting which is good.

That sounds like fun. So you’re originally from the GTA?

Yeah, I’m from Scarborough originally.

Are you excited about coming home?

Meh, I was just there over Christmas. But it will be good to see my family again.

How old were you when you realized you had one of the best music business names ever?

(Laughs) I don’t know. I didn’t realize that.

Have people not told you that before?

I guess people ask me if that is my real name. I’m always like, “Yes, yes it is.” Or I get suggestions of really annoying, clever album titles. “A Peek at Peek,” that kind of thing.

There’s been promise for a full-length album, how’s it doing?

It’s been mastered finally, so I’m being sent a disc for approval. We still have to do artwork and all that but at least the physical recording is finished.

When do you expect to see it released?

March? I don’t know, I’ve been meaning to put it out for so long I’ve stopped giving people dates.

What is the philosophy behind your stage show?

Well, we always try to look good. We figure, if nothing else, at least we’ll be pleasant to the eye so I like to dress up. I have two guys in my band and they usually co-ordinate somehow. So that’s something I always look forward to: call around before the show and say, “What are you wearing?” The bass player doesn’t really own much stuff so we always have to find clothes for him and hope that it fits. But it’s usually too tight, which is kind of better.

Can you talk a bit about Just Friends Records?

Yeah, it’s more of a collective I’d say, because there’s no real money involved. We’ve been together now for two or three years but it’s literally just a bunch of friends that play similar music and play in each other’s bands. We decided that if we formed a collective it would be easier to get promotion, grants and stuff, which it has been. We’re splitting ads in Exclaim next month. There are a handful of bands in it, all from Halifax and all in love with the ‘60s, I think.

What do you do in the collective?

Well I’m in the Winning Hearts and I also play in Brent Randall and his Pinecones and I hang out a lot. There aren’t really clear roles or anything. It’s more like an association so that we motivate each other to get stuff done.

Does it feel like you’re wearing different hats a lot?

Yeah, I guess so. Writing grants and that stuff, I’m pretty terrible at it. But my drummer Dave, he’s one of the guys who started Just Friends, he’s been pretty good doing business-y stuff, getting grants and all that. He works at a recording studio so that’s been helpful.

Is there any question that you haven’t been asked but would like to be asked?

I haven’t done many interviews. Dave, my drummer, and our friend Matt do a radio baking show called Let’s get Baked with Matt and Dave. It airs on the campus station here and it’s syndicated and it’s going to be on Radio 3 actually, which is really funny. So I’m always trying to think of questions for their show because whenever I call over if they are recording an episode they put me on speakerphone and make me ask something. So all my questions are like, “If you had to describe your band in terms of the dish you’re making, who would be what ingredient?” So they’re mostly food-related.

By Miles Baker