Robert Long (Peters 1914, Singer/Songwriter, The Lumber Yard)

Not unlike Sutphin, who is also from Mulvane, KS, Peters 1914 is a band that is the cultural byproduct of young weird kids growing up bored in small towns throughout the Midwest. What separates Peters 1914 from their small town contemporaries is that they take their attitude a step further by shaking up their small community with their aggressive and sometimes confrontational music and live performances. Punk in general, is a dialogue rooted in conflict and front man Robert Long is no stranger to this conflict. Raised in the darkest corners of alternative cable comedy and the nihilism of generation z internet culture, he has embraced his tongue and cheek and oftentimes depraved world view to comment on anything from school shootings to local DIY bands hoping to make it big. Robert got his start writing songs on a keyboard where he embraced the postmodern storytelling of 90s anti-folk artists and sharpened it to reflect a unique perspective of small town and suburban life through the lenses of young, fucked up insomniacs having their minds melted by computer screens and social media oversaturation. Similar to how 80s hardcore bands used irony and humor to explore some of the darkest aspects of Reagan’s America, Peters 1914 filters that irony through a darker and more demented cultural landscape than that of 40 years ago. Robert has a lot of criticisms about the local music scene but he still wouldn’t change a thing about it. To Robert, punk is about shaking things up, it’s about calling out what you think is stupid in the most extreme way to enhance a discussion. Robert reminds us that you can love your scene, you can love the bands you like, you can even love the bands you don’t like, because what is most important overall is authenticity. Robert and his band do not claim to be intellectuals, they are just artists reporting on their world as they see it in the most authentic way that they know how; by being exactly who they are.

For those who don’t know who you are, what do you do and where are you from?

I’m a musician sometimes. I play piano in my own stuff and I’ve been doing that since I was 15. Since I was 17, I’ve been singing in a band called Peters 1914 from Mulvane, KS.

How is doing your own stuff different than working with a band?

It’s weird. Writing is easier when you’re in a band because there’s more people contributing. I feel like people are more likely to listen to your stuff. I certainly don’t get as much attention for the singer/songwriter stuff but that doesn’t matter, I’m just happy to be making my own thing. I’m really influenced by the anti-folk stuff from the 90s so that’s where most of the solo stuff comes from.

How did you get into the anti-folk stuff?

Beck (laughs). When he was working on “Mellow Gold,” he was also writing this crazy anti-folk album called “Stereopathic Soulmanure.” David Geffen really wanted the album with “Loser,” because they knew that it would print money, but they let him put out his other album on an independent label. I always thought that was cool.

How did you get into playing piano? Were you listening to this music and decided you wanted to make something like it or did learning piano come before all of that?

It kind of just became a thing. I was interested in learning piano in middle school but never stuck with it because I always thought I needed lessons. Then freshman year I would just be up late and bored so I started writing songs on it. That’s why I got picked to sing in Peters because I had already been writing lyrics and singing songs.

You talk about Beck really turning you on to alternative culture and punk culture. What other things were you listening to that got you turned on to that type of music?

Well when I was younger my brother was listening to a lot of Iron Maiden and Kiss. I don’t know how bad that sounds but I think just being young and hearing music that is remotely heavy or fast will make you like music that is heavy and fast. My dad played me “Gun Fighter Ballads” by Marty Robbins and that got me into telling stories. I got into harder stuff when I started getting on the internet and finding out about more bands. I had a cassette of “Dookie” and from there I got into Black Flag and Misfits and shit like that.

How did Peters 1914 get started?

We were just really bored. Originally, we wanted it to be a collective thing with a bunch of different people contributing. Whenever you have a group of friends and you’re trying to start a band, it’s hard to figure out who all is going to be in it. So we had like six people and we were going to have all this shit going on but then it just whittled it’s way down to the core four of us who had been friends for the longest; me, Ethan, Jordan, and Colson.

How is Peters sound different from the solo stuff?

I go back and forth with how I think Peters sounds. Sometimes I feel like it sounds really generic other times I think it sounds cool. I think it stems from a culmination of what we all listen to. I mean that’s most bands, but it’s like the influences are fighting to get themselves in there. There was this guy from Texas who said we reminded him of the first My Chemical Romance album (laughs). I haven’t heard many other comparisons though.

So, playing music for you guys was more of just a response to being bored in Mulvane?

Yeah! It’s fun! I think that’s what a lot of people forget about it. A lot of people go into it and instantly want a career or they want to be famous. That’s why they create this image for themselves to present on the internet and we don’t do that. For us, it’s just about having fun. I like shitting on people, and I like shitting on other bands (laughs). I try not to be mean about it, but I just think it’s funny. I’m reluctant to call ourselves “real punk,” but I think in attitude we are because we’re just a bunch of weird kids from a small town who like to yell.

It’s very much a product of its environment. Kind of in the same way King Slug from El Dorado is. Peters sounds like music that can only be made when you practice next to a slaughterhouse.

(Laughs) It’s hard to imagine King Slug coming from anywhere else but El Dorado. I think it’s the same for us. If we weren’t from Mulvane, we wouldn’t sound the way we do.

I feel like everything Peters does isn’t trying to be like something else. It’s a fresh take on everything.

It took awhile for us to find our sound. The way we used to make music is we would just jam for hours Grateful Dead style and just kind of pick what we liked out of it and cut what we didn’t like. Ethan fucking sucked when we first started, he would be the first tell you that, but that’s how we got such cool things. We were just trying stuff out and seeing what we liked and what we didn’t like.

How did you guys get brought into the broader Wichita scene?

Sutphin. I think that would be the right answer. And playing shows at the fucking Donut Whole (laughs). When we were starting out, we didn’t really know what to do and Wakinyan from Sutphin came down and gave us a bunch of pointers. I think he actually wrote the drums to “My Generation,” and we tweaked it with Jordan. But yeah, he came down, gave Jordan a bunch of drumheads that he got from the old band teacher and showed us the ropes. I don’t really remember getting into the Wichita scene. I remember playing the Donut Whole and then I remember we sent you some demos that we had then more shows started showing up.

I remember getting that demo and Ethan writing something like, “we’re a garage punk band from Mulvane,” and I saw the track titled, “My Generation.” I remember thinking, “Great, fucking Kill Vargas copycats covering the Who.” But I listened to it and it blew my mind. It sounded like the “My War” era Black Flag coming out of these 16 year old kids from a really small town.

(Laughs) That’s hilarious. I didn’t know that.

No, but I was really excited about it. Just the fact that these kids were from Mulvane making weird, aggressive, confrontational punk music got me really stoked. Where does that confrontation come from for you?

I think most of that just comes from the internet. I was very young, like this was 2009/2010, I would frequent internet forums and that was like my first taste of being anonymous on the internet. I learned that talking shit can be funny. I learned a lot of that from TV, too. Shows like Wonder Showzen and the Adult Swim stuff. I learned that sometimes shitting on stuff can be funny. A lot of the time it’s not worth it, because then you’re just being an asshole. You have to do it with the understanding that it’s all in good fun and you’re laughing at a situation and not a group of people. But if I come out on stage and say, “We’re the fucking Cavves,” I just think that’s funny.

Well in your mind, what makes that funny? How do you explain that level of irony?

It’s hard and if you try to explain it you just sound dumb. If you try to explain anything from the internet culture world you just end up sounding like a huge dork (laughs).

You see some of that irony with 80s punk bands especially through the album artwork and on the flyers. Punk bands would shit on all sorts of things. They would shit on each other and shit on themselves. But it was done in a very tongue in cheek type of way. It seems like Peters takes that approach but then filters it through this depraved Generation Z internet culture thing. How intentional is that?

Well I chose this type of punk rock to make because it’s not super political. Even though I write political songs, I feel like overtly political punk takes punk too seriously. I’m not an academic person. I don’t know much about leftist ideologies so the best way I can talk about the stuff I’m seeing through being in a punk band is to just kind of shit all over it. I can shit on everything whether it be other bands, things I’m seeing happen in society, or even myself. I smoke a lot of pot, but I’m writing a song for the new Peters EP that makes fun of potheads and stoner culture. I remember hearing about Frank Zappa writing this song in the 60s shitting on stoners and I always thought that was funny.

I went to a show once at Oasis and saw this emo band who started all their songs saying they “wrote this song while high on pot,” and I thought that was the corniest shit ever. They weren’t a bad band, but I just thought that it was weird that they would start every song like that. Like they couldn’t write a song without it being about being high.

Nothing is off the table for you.

Well except for like being racist (laughs). That should go without saying though. Mostly just like every band that is more popular than us that we don’t like is on the table (laughs).

Well what about the Wichita scene do you like?

Well what I like about it is that there are a lot of people that really care about making it their own and doing their own thing. I’ve never really cared for emo but I think it comes from a good place and I’m glad that it’s alive. I’ve met a lot of nice people from the scene but personally most of the pop bands just aren’t for me. To me, what’s enjoyable about going to a show is seeing bands you don’t like and talking to your friends about why you don’t like it. Maybe one of your friends likes it and they can help you see it in a different light. It’s about being exposed to things that are outside of your comfort zone. I don’t think it’s a bad thing that people don’t like your music. If you go in expecting everyone is going to like your music, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. The best you can do is make something that you and your group of people like and if you accomplish that, I think you have it made. I think in Wichita you will always have at least a small group of people who like your music.

That’s one of the more unique things about punk in general is that it’s really a living, breathing community with its own culture and everything.

Definitely. When Peters plays in Hutchinson, it’s a totally different reception than what we get in Wichita. We were supposed to headline the Skate Farm Festival before it got cancelled due to COVID. In Hutch, you are the biggest shit. And you’ll go see bands like Deep Throat and they might be drunk and play the same song twice, but they don’t care, and you don’t care either. The trip to Hutch is very long but it’s so worth it. You leave with some scrapes and bruises, but you have the biggest shot of dopamine to the brain. That’s what makes it exciting.

You guys started booking shows at your practice space in Mulvane at the Lumber Yard. How did you get started booking shows there?

The Lumber Yard was just a place that my dad and uncle would go to drink with their friends. There’s all this wood and all these rusted saws, so I can believe it was a real Lumber Yard. Now that he’s in his 50s, he doesn’t really use it anymore. We started hanging out and practicing there. I left up most of my dad’s shit. Like there’s pictures of him up with his friends and they’re all shirtless drinking beers (laughs). I think everyone who shows up gets really surprised that there’s just this little punk haven tucked away in Mulvane. There’s this high-end restaurant that I used to work at called Luciano’s and I hope we’ve gotten to ruin some meals (laughs).

How has the pandemic affected the music stuff?

It’s something for sure. I was getting more action from my job and I quit on the spot. I hadn’t been to Peters practice for like 2 months and with my solo stuff I only cranked out like 2 new songs. But we’re back to practicing like once a week and we’re getting ready to record a new record. We’re going to go through the guy that recorded my last solo record and do it all on a four-track recorder. We aren’t running our old songs as much because shows are probably not coming back anytime soon, so we might as well work on new stuff.

Where do you want to see things when shows start back up again?

I’m just going to be excited to see people again. See bands I like; see bands I don’t like. Smoke a ton of cigarettes. Just regular degeneracy.

See bands you don’t like?

Yeah, man. I hate the type of people who see your band and come up to you and tell you they loved it when you know they didn’t really like it. If you don’t like the music just say something and offer something constructive. I’m a big boy. I’m not going to cry about it. You just have to accept that some people won’t like your music and some people might. You’re going to see bands you don’t like and that’s part of the fun of it. Everyone is showing their own thing and if you suck, you suck. Just keep working at it.