I'm just going to quote Vish Khanna in Exclaim here: “Gorgeous and glorious, Gregory Pepper is the surprise underground pop find of the year, and With Trumpets Flaring is an astounding display of crafty musicianship.” That record came out in 2009, but little's changed. I for one still have it on high rotation, and with his successive releases, including 2012's Escape From Crystal Skull Mountain, he's proven that he's an ocean of creativity. You may not have heard of him because he doesn't tour much, preferring instead to spend his time as a producer and illustrator, among an assortment of talents (I recommend his mixtape podcasts). Ryan McLaren sent him questions to which he graciously replied.

First, I'm positive Brad (McInerney, founder of Kazoo! Fest in Guelph) has referred to you as Greg, but BlogTO says that's not your real name. Is it? Do you care what people call you? Does it matter?

I don't mean to call BlogTO's journalistic integrity into question, but my name is indeed Gregory. It doesn't really matter though. Betty you can call me, you can call me Al.

You've released a lot of your music yourself, but With Trumpets Flaring and Escape From Crystal Skull Mountain came out on Fake Four Inc., based in Connecticut. Is that right? How did that come about?

Yeah, the guy who owns that label heard some harmony-heavy hook thing I'd recorded on this rap song and decided to take a chance on a basement-pop weirdo who rarely tours. We're actually pretty good buddies now and I usually make it up to the eastern United States once a year or so to play shows.

 If someone wanted to look up your catalogue, they'd find Common Grackle and The Dymaxions, which are both sonically similar to And His Problems. Can you explain a bit about these projects?

"Similar" is putting it lightly. I wrote and recorded both those albums, so my fingerprints are all over the crime scene. The Dymaxions was my band in Montreal, circa 2005 or so. After we called it quits, I recorded all the songs from our ill-fated sophomore album as Gregory Pepper and His Problems and released that myself. Actually, three quarters of the Dymaxions played on all three GP&HP records, so that probably adds to the sonic similarity too.

You've always got your tongue planted firmly in cheek ("The Great Depression" being a notable exception. Forgive me if there's more...). Where does the dry, dark humour come from? Do you intentionally keep an emotional distance from your work?

I recently found a long forgotten Chapters gift voucher in an old jacket, which I used to buy a David Sedaris book. So, I had to look in the “humour” section to find it, among titles by Rick Mercer and Larry the Cable Guy. That kind of irked me. Sure, his stories are playful and funny, but that doesn't mean they're not well-crafted and introspective... What I'm trying to say is that the most effective route towards expressing some heartfelt, intangible thing is seldom ever the most direct one. I don't know if it's called “allegory” or “metaphor” or what, but all I can tell you is that flowery, emotional verse about sadness and loss is booooooring.

How do you feel about sincerity?

Aside from being able to sing in key and properly play your instrument, it may be the single most important element of a great tune. That, and being able to actually write said great tune, which I sincerely think a lot of bands have a rough time with.

There's so much else to ask you about, the podcasts, your illustration and production work... How do you focus? Or do you...?

Seems like a lot of people get bogged down with social lives, physical activity, work, friends, etc. By cutting most of that stuff out, I've found plenty of extra time to focus on artistic endeavours, though I'm not half as productive as I ought to be.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Fat and bald, appearing in the "Where Are They Now?" section of the Wavelength Music Blog. See ya in the pit, kids!