Fast rising indie stars The Drums have spoken about the religious background which prevented their singer from listening to music.
The United States is a deeply contradictory place. Enshrining personal freedom in its Bill of Rights, the religious beliefs the country fosters can also restrict the way its citizens interact with the arts.
Brought up on a disciplined, Christian household Jonathan Pierce didn't discover music until relatively late in his life. Introduced to vintage indie pop, the would-be singer formed The Drums in his native Florida.
Now enjoying vast success on both sides of the Atlantic, the frontman spoke to ClashMusic about his illicit love of music. "I wasn’t able to listen to bands that I wanted to listen to. I mean, I did what every teenage boy does and did it anyways, but I’d have to be a little bit clever about how I did it" he said.
"I think my first introduction to that whole world of music, what started the whole thing, was this band out of Orange County, California, called Joy Electric. Their first album, ‘Melody’, really changed my life. To this day I reference that album and I think it’s a masterpiece in its own right. It’s eighteen songs and they’re all short and sweet and beautiful and melancholy and sad."
Through his love of Joy Electric the future Drums singer was able to discover other types of music. "In one interview he was talking about The Smiths and called them the greatest band in the world, so of course I ran out and bought their ‘Greatest Hits’. From then on I really fell in love with music" he said.
"Naturally I found Orange Juice pretty soon after that, and then you find The Wake, and it just goes deeper and deeper. So that’s kind of how all of that started, and the whole time I had to keep it under wraps at home. While most boys were hiding Playboy under their mattress I was hiding vinyl."
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