An interview with Mike Park Dan Hase got lucky enough to do an interview with one of his idols, Owner of Asian man Records, Plea for Peace founder, as well as a first class musician, Mr Mike Park. Dan caught up with him midway through his UK tour in Newcastle...
Could you give me a brief introduction about yourself and what it is you do? My name is Mike Park and I run a record label called Asian man Records and I play music too. Usually when I tour it’s just solo guitar and vocals but I also do some side projects with some musicians, but it’s vary rare that I get a full band going and I also run a non-profit organisation called the Plea for Peace Foundation, it’s based out of my home town and we just work with the youth of our neighbourhoods and we use music as the main ingredient to try and keep kids off the streets and stuff. How’s the UK tour going so far? It’s going good, this is our fifth show I believe, it’s been fun but we have actually been having a bit of a tough time getting to sleep, the time difference and the fight over has really thrown us off schedule, so last night was the first night we actually got more than 7 hours sleep.
I read in one of your recent blogs that you were asked to play a wedding in Derby, how did that go? Oh that was yesterday, it was good, it was little awkward cause we just didn’t know what to do, but it was fine we had a good time, to an extent, there was a lot of waiting around, we had to wait like two hours before the meal started, so they invited us also to stay for the meal which was great, but just the waiting around was so long. The couple met at one of my shows, which was great. How are you finding family life alongside running the label and playing shows? It’s great, I like it a lot to be honest, it’s actually going to be very difficult for me to do much touring after this, so I don’t know when I will be able to come back to the UK or Europe, so I don’t foresee myself coming back for at least a few years, but yeah I really enjoy being a father and I like spending time with my family at home so it’s definitely a good positive thing in my life. Will you be doing anything with Plea for Peace in 2008? Well this year, gosh it’s been so long but I think we have finally secured a permanent home where we can put on shows and gigs for the all ages crowd. So I think within the next few months that going to all start to become a reality and come into fruition so I think it will be a busy year for Plea for Peace You have played shows all over the world with some amazing bands, is there any one show in particular that is memorable to you and why? MP: Gosh, it’s hard to say, I mean I’ve played well over a thousand shows; it’s hard to remember so to pick out one would be impossible.
A special tour, which comes to mind? Well I did that Alkaline Trio tour in the UK, and that was memorable because I got to tag along with them and be part of their crew, I got to ride on their bus and do everything that they do, so it was quite luxurious and nothing like that would ever happen to me if it was just me. So in that scenario, it was something that I got to experience in the music world and it’s something that I probably never would have been able to experience if they hadn’t taken me on their journey. You have been to the UK a few times now, what do you enjoy most about coming over here? I just enjoy the friends that I have met through the years, a chance to see them again, it’s also a easy place to tour in terms of the train system…the fact that I’m able to buy a tourist rail pass and travel for quite cheap all across the UK makes touring much more pleasurable. Is there anywhere that you haven’t played yet that you would like to? In the UK I’d love to do Ireland, I’ve never played Ireland and of course other countries - I’d love to play Russia, I’d love to play Spain and I’d love to do South America, Australia, New Zealand; they’re territories that I’ve never been to and I’d love to get there.
You were due to release a new album later this year, is there anything we can expect from it? You know I don’t know if that will get done to be honest, I’m way off track in terms of finishing it, and with this current state of the music industry I don’t know how necessary it is to put out a full length album, I can just record songs myself, and then put them up on my website and just offer them for free. Do you feel becoming a dad has influenced your song writing? Sure, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a children’s album, so it’s definitely started putting me down the path of writing songs that would appeal to young kids. Apart from song writing do you have any other hobbies or other creative outputs? Yeah, the thing I love to do is I love to play basketball, it’s my favourite sport, and I love it with a passion. I also still skateboard and I like bowling. Are there any bands that we should keep and eye out for in 2008? Well new bands on Asian man, there’s a tonne. There’s Lemuria, Bomb the Music Industry, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Kepi Ghoulie, which is the front man of front man of the former great band the Groovie Ghoulies, The Hot Toddies, Shinobu, there’s a lot of new stuff coming out of Asian man, but I don’t know if they will be able to get over to the UK but if they do I think people will be quite pleased to see them, they are all great bands. This is a question from Suzy (one of the editors on the site) and her friend from Chicago… they both asked if you had ever thought about releasing your newest stuff on vinyl or doing a series of 7 inches and if so, when are they coming out as they would like to order them (laughs) Yeah, well actually we are working on that right now, I think we are going to actually release both of my records out on vinyl and then also definitely I think 7 inches should be coming after that. And these last few questions are from the vinylcollective.com forums: What’s your favourite piece in your record collection? Well you know I would have to say it would be the 7 Seconds’s first 7 inch the committed for life 7 inch. Do you have any advice for soon a soon to be father? Enjoy it, don’t be afraid and embrace it. What does the word ‘Shootz’ mean? (laughs) Shootz is a Hawaiian slang, well it can mean like, well it’s hard to explain, it can mean anything! It could be a good thing, like ‘man I just found 20 bucks SHOOTZ!’ or it could be a bad thing, like ‘man I just lost my wallet’ and you could say Shootz!
Thanks go to Mike for taking the time to talk to Dan Hase, Anth Bell for helping organise this for us and Dan for interviewing Mike Park. All photos accompanying the interview were taken by Dan Hase at Mike Park's Newcastle show in February 2008. Check out Mike’s music at www.mikeparkmusic.com Visit his record label at www.asianmanrecords.com And read about Plea for Peace at www.pleaforpeace.com