Meet Pigeons Playing Ping Pong

A foursome banded together in the name of funk, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong are committed to creating and performing music that’s enticing, infectious, and downright groovy. With their unrelenting psychedelic sound and infectious guitar hooks, the Pigeons have made a name for themselves and grown a rather large and committed fan base, known as the Flock. All the while, this band is committed to their exciting live show - an experience that’s a little kooky, a bit genius, and totally funky. 

We sat down with guitarist/singer Greg Ormont and drummer Alex Petropulos at Sea Hear Now music fest to dish about the Pigeons.

Would you rather always break out in hives when you wash your hands or always fall down every 20 steps?

Greg: You know what, I feel like I would fall down every 20 steps because I feel like I could keep count and use it to my advantage, like if I walk 19 steps in a day, that last step’s right in front of my bed. And if I’m vacuuming, my next step is right in front of the couch, then I’d just get back up and get right at it

Alex: I guess it would depend on how long said hives last. I mean, I’m kind of a germaphobe, so I like to wash my hands...maybe you can add some kind of sleek kneepads that can fit under your denim? You can plan, I think, more for the fall than the hives.

Do you want to go into more detail about how you came up with your name? Like what was going through your mind?

Greg: Let me put it this way, there wasn’t a lot going through my mind. There wasn’t a lot going on upstairs when we came up with this name. I saw it in a textbook when I was in a psychology class with our guitarist. And we were just an acoustic duo at the time, so it was a pretty low-pressure, silly decision. It’s funny listening to other people interpret why we’re called Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. They’re like “Yeah man, I saw your set, I totally get it. Like you guys are just pingpong-ing back and forth and bopping.” It’s just taken on a life of its own. And I always embrace whatever interpretation people have for our whacky band name.

Alex: This one time a group of people come up to us - and they were dead serious - they said, “Is it true that you guys stopped playing music and, like, all got a degree in science to, like, do experiments with the pigeons?” And I was like, “yeah, man, 100%.” [laughs]

Can you give me an idea of what your creative process is like? Do you have any weird rituals or anything?

Greg: We practice regularly, and we all live in Baltimore, so whenever we’re at home we’re working on our own stuff on our own and getting together and practicing a few times a week. Sometimes a band member will bring in a song idea and we’ll flesh it out. Other times we’ll just jam and practice and improvise, and if something’s catchy, we’ll try to morph it into something with a little more structure. We’ll also record a lot of our practices, so we can go back and listen. And when we come back to practice the next time, if there’s a jam from before that we still remember -  we call it an earworm - if an earworm is still in your head and it’s catchy, we’ll try to flesh it out into something a little more substantial. It’s fun

Alex: Yeah, I pretty much agree totally. I think a good thing with us  - and it’s good to have some certain patterns or ways to do things, but I think what’s good with us is that we’re able to draw inspiration from a lot of places. Like sometimes it comes from just singing in the van, as opposed to always at a rehearsal or something. We come up with funny, interesting ways to perform stuff, too.

So when you guys are travelling, driving around, do you guys listen to your own music.

Both, simultaneously: No. [laughs]

You never listen to your own music?

Both, simultaneously: Well… [laughs]

Greg: You know, we like to be inspired by the other music around us. And we play so much that we listen to ourselves all the time the night before we’re performing. You do have to go back and listen to it, like a football team goes back and watches game film. You know? You gotta listen while you’re not playing so you can analyze what it’s actually like for the crowd. But I think it’s also important to take a few steps away from it. Let your head clear. Listen to other music and treat that as a refresh, like a palette cleanser between shows. Otherwise, if it’s just you, it’s not going to grow as much without other influences.

Do you each have an album that you could listen to, front to back, without any skips?

Greg: All of Pink Floyd, for starters.

Alex: Yeah, I’d agree with that. Waiting for Colombo always pops into my head. But I agree, any Pink Floyd. There’s just no bad tracks.

Greg: And it’s interesting, because nowadays, I’m not sure if everyone - with Spotify and all that - listens to albums front and back. It used to be more important to have the flow. And when we create an album, we still try to have it flow from top to bottom, but also try to recognize that a lot of people are just kind of clicking and choosing their own adventure when they listen to our album.

Alex: It seems to be very polarizing, all that. Because you either have streaming now or, like vinyl. Vinyl, like not even  CDs. So it’s like there’s this weird polar opposite where people are just gung-ho analog vinyl or, you know, streaming. It’s interesting.

What is the funniest thing that’s ever happened to you on tour?

Alex: Whew. It’s hard to pick one. We like to have a good time.

Greg: Yeah. Well, we’ve told this story before, but when we first hired this guy who at the time was our merch guy, his name was Dante. And on his sixth day, he woke up in Idaho and missed the bus leaving to Seattle. So he woke up and was, as we call in the industry, oilslicked. Because when you  walk outside, all that’s left is the patch of oil that’s left from where the bus was. And long story short, he had to borrow some funds and take a 400-mile uber to Seattle. He made it 5 minutes before the tour started. 

Alex: Yeah, he had no shoes on. He had to walk to a shoe store first. Because it was snowing out. And he walked in with his socks on like a crazy person.

Greg: We had to send him a picture of his credit card, he had no wallet. Fortunately he had a cell phone, otherwise he might still be in Idaho. And that location was Sand Point, Idaho, where we were playing the night before. So we changed what he called him from Dante to Sandy. Just to continually rouse him and remind him to make the bus. 

Alex: We got him a shirt that said Sandy on it and everything, too.

Greg: And more recently, like last night, we were playing a festival in Pennsylvania called Resonance. And after our set, or it was our third set, our manager came on the bus with one of our vinyls. And I saw some scribble on it and thought maybe a fan wanted us to sign it, or something, because we’re always doing that. But it turned out it was a gift for us, and the signature was George Clinton, on our vinyl. One of our fans was hanging out with him after the show and he had one of our records. So we have our own record signed by the father of funk, so that was really cool. That was last night. An unexpected tour story.

What is your go-to karaoke song?

Greg: When my wife and I do karaoke, we discovered “our” song recently. Sweet Dreams, by the Eurythmics, that Annie Lennox band. We crush it. We did that on our honeymoon and it was instantly our karaoke song.

Alex: I have to go with Owner of a Lonely Heart by YES. I just love that song. 

Greg: I’m learning a lot! I did not expect that at all. All I can say is YES, you know?

Alex: I’m just really into that song. [laughs]

Anything else for me?

Greg: We love playing Asbury Park, we’re stoked to be playing a festival with Dave Matthews, one of the best out there. And after this we’ll actually be back in New York City for our Halloween on the Friday of Halloween weekend, at the Playstation Theater right in Manhattan, in Times Square. And we’ll be announcing a really cool Halloween theme, too, which will make it a really special Pigeons show. So that’s November 1.