Pilot to gunner

Thrasher Magazine, July, 2004 by Rob Erickson

WHY IS A GUY WITH THE NAME Scott Victory Padden at home in a bar on a Wednesday at 11:00 am? Suppose this be a stout case of Murphy's Law. Intentional and not worried in the least, Scott is a git slinger for a Brooklyn quartet called Pilot To Gunner--and yes, Victory is a birth name. Pilot To Gunner flyers used to find their way under my door when Scott lived downstairs in an apartment owned by one crazy fucking lady. I never really paid attention to the flyers, or the landlord for that matter. Years go by, Mr Henry (read the masthead, lowbrow) calls and asks if I could interview Pilot To Gunner. "Rings a bell ... Oh, yeah, Scott was my neighbor ..." Perhaps listening to their music would be a good idea. Then again, going cold to an interview seems better. One side of a band is the music, and the other two sides are the people in the band. The people-side of the band is getting more and more interesting as these things carry themselves out. It's about what people do when they are not wiping boogs on their instruments that make playing those instruments all the more worthwhile.

Are you in a fight club?

I should be; I think I've probably earned membership. Actually, I should be in a fighted-upon club, because I've been punched far more times than I have thrown punches.

Is this an extracurricular thing for the band?

No, just for me. It is not planned. I somehow get myself into situations where I get punched. It has nothing to do with my personality.

Does this have anything to do with the cover over your new record?

I don't think it does. I don't think the other guys are amused enough to incorporate it into the band aesthetic. That was just Patrick's idea, being bound, gagged, and beat up.

Who punched whom for the record cover?

We all took turns. We rotated. I think Patrick took it the hardest.

Was it a bonding experience?

Yes, one of those stupid testosterone-driven macho things. We got it all out.

How does the title Get Saved tie into the pictures?

Coincidentally, we didn't come up with the title of the record until a couple of months before the record came out. The rifle track wasn't written until after we went in the studio, and we already had the cover idea planned out with the photos and everything. It was a total coincidence between the artwork and the title.

Did you get into fights as a kid?

Like I said, I always got beat up as a kid. I don't think I ever won a fight.

Do you think it has affected your personality?

I am an asshole sometimes, so probably I think some people would tell you that it has.

If, say, someone new joins the band, do they get jumped in?

Well, we are thinking of adding another member to fill out the other instrumentation we recorded on the record. It looks like its going to be my roommate Dan, and if anything he would beat the shit out of all of us before we were able to put a scratch on him. So there won't be any jumping in ceremonies this time around.

What does big man Dan play?

Dan plays bass, but he'll be playing some keyboard parts and stuff like that.

Have you ever had a near death experience?

I got pulled out to sea once at the beach after a hurricane in these huge waves. But I am a really good swimmer so I didn't panic. And then this guy popped out of the water and started punching me in the face. It was really far out, to the point where I knew I was in trouble, where it's like, "I need to collect myself and swim diagonally back into shore." I saw a ghost once while we were on tour in Memphis one night, but that wasn't like a near death experience.

What did the ghost look like?

The ghost was an old woman. I saw her as an old woman sitting on a couch and Kurt saw her as an old woman decomposing standing up in the middle of the living room during the night. We were on tour and we stayed in this house outside of Memphis. There was this one, old, broken down house fight in the middle of all these warehouse buildings. So we went to sleep and I kept waking up and seeing extra people on the couches where two of the guys were sleeping. They were old women. And these were kids we were staying with. And after I woke up a little more I realized they were all the same woman, all dressed the same. So I kept going back to sleep and waking up and seeing them and I finally realized what they were. And honestly, your hair literally stands up on end. You can feel your head tingle. I couldn't talk, I couldn't wake Kurt up to tell him, I was so scared I just put my head down on the pillow and fell asleep. I woke up the next morning and totally forgot about it, but I knew I was awake the night before 'cause I looked at my watch, remembered what time it was, the clothes I was wearing, etc. So we were loading up the van the next morning and Kurt was all grumpy, like throwing things into the van. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he had seen a ghost, saw a woman decomposing in the middle of the room with like bugs and snakes on her. The kids we stayed with were like, "Oh, you saw her. This old woman lived here by herself, but she died and we kept all of her furniture." So we took off.