DJ Depasquale: Pardon the Spins' Newest Member

 COURTESY PHOTO/ DJ  DEPASQUALE

The Clock: How did you become involved with Pardon the Spins?

I was in Jazz band with the drummer, Ben Chappell, the saxophone player, Chris Alberi, and the trumpet player, Ben Michon. They invited me to come jam one night. I expected it to be a private jam, but we ended up playing this house party and before the night was over, 120 people were there. It was really fun but it was kind of scary because I didn’t know any of their songs and I hadn’t ever played with them before.

The Clock: So you were basically just thrown into it?

Pretty much. They called me back for a gig the next day, we did a three day set playing different house parties. And after that third gig they were just like, you should join the band. So I did.

The Clock: Where did you get your passion for music?

I was living on a boat for a summer in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. We went to port for the first time and I walked up on the docks and I saw this, well what appeared to be, this homeless guy playing the guitar. It’s like, the weirdest story but, this guys just strumming away. I was like “I have two guitars at home, I could do that.” And I had just gotten Led Zeppelin 1 on my iPod and I had been listening to that one album over and over again the entire trip. So, I’d say the combination of Led Zeppelin and hearing someone play the guitar, the connection was kind of just there.

The Clock: Who would your other influences be, besides Zeppelin?

Oh man, that’s a tough question. I’ve gone through so many different phases in music, but I started with folk music and early blues music, like Delta and Robert Johnson kind of stuff from 1920’s, 1930’s. From there I just kind of went on YouTube and searched for similar bands and stuff that I liked.

The Clock: How does your musical style and Pardon the Spin’s style come together?

DP: I come from a jam band background, which means just a lot of flowy, long, progressive type stuff. They came from more of a song oriented background. So it was really cool because I had to reign in my straps a little bit and they had to let theirs out. But we ended up finding a cool combination.

The Clock: How would you describe the band’s sound?

Probably a funk rock kind of group. We can be mellow at times, but we like to rage too. We were actually just in the studio and we got a bunch of new songs recorded so that was really cool.

The Clock: How was the recording process?

It was an interesting process. It’s pretty much where all our money went, and our time and effort. But I like the tracks that we ended up getting. The guys we worked with ended up doing a really good job.

The Clock: When’s the new EP coming out?

That’s a good question, we still have at least one more song to record before anything comes out. But I’d say, within the next six months, big news should be dropped.

The Clock: You guys are pretty big in Plymouth, what’s it like having the community support?

Probably the best thing that’s happened to us as a band is that Chase Street Market put out a sandwich called Pardon the Spinach. They put that on their menu which gave us a lot of exposure beyond just students. Biederman’s lets us play at their restaurant once in a while, so does The Lucky Dog. The community is always so helpful, especially with gigs. They’ll help us set up a stage, get the sound stuff together, stuff like that.

The Clock: Are you now playing more professional gigs, or house parties like you started with?

We do more official stuff. But we’re definitely still playing local parties and whatnot. My favorite gigs to play are definitely house parties.

The Clock: What have you played for PSU?

I opened for Sammy Adams with the band. It was fun, it was a really good crowd. For once, we could hear everything. Because we have such a big band, trying to get everything mic’d and monitored properly isn’t exactly easy due to how many people we have and how much space we take up on stage. But playing at that was nice because we got to play on a professional stage.

The Clock: Would you say that’s one of the biggest things that you’ve done?

I suppose, we’ve played a couple smaller festivals, we won Best of New Hampshire thing, which was all in all great for us, and it got us a lot of exposure.

The Clock: Do you have a favorite gig you’ve played?

My favorite gig was at Biederman’s.  Everyone in the crowd was just going wild. The people who worked at Bie- derman’s said they never saw it that wild. That was the best.