Asking Philadelphia singer-songwriter Peter Marinari to divulge his influences plays out like a pop music version of the sort of license-plate game you might play on a long drive, which is to say he seems intent to name an artist from every time period and genre. The Alaskas and Hawaiis of pop music will not elude him.
"Madonna. Ani DiFranco. David Bowie. Anything Motown, really, especially Marvin Gaye with Tammy Tyrrell. Joni Mitchell. Slightly obscure 50s songs, like "Come Go With Me" by the Del Vikings. Radiohead. Folk artists like Erin McKeown who update Tin Pan Alley classics. Off the Wall. Oh my god, Heart. And the Pretenders."
A central theme quickly emerges - Peter loves pop hooks and the predominately female vocalists who deliver them.
You might wonder how he reconciles major influences like Madonna when he's just one man with an acoustic guitar, but you need only to hear a few of his original songs to understand. Peter treats each tune as a possible hit single, pushing at every angle of his melodies to find the most insistent, irresistible iteration of a song before moving on to the next.
Peter got his start in 1998, playing songs in the halls of his high school between every class. High schools halls transformed into city streets and open mic nights at Drexel University, where he recorded his first studio disc - Relief - and honed his songwriting chops.
"As I began to play open mics and meet other local artists I started seeing the danger of having a certain formula to my sound. So, I forced myself to stay limber.
"If I wrote a funky little folk song, the next song had to be chunky power chords. A ballad had to be followed by an unadulterated pop song. For a few years it was a little maddening, because my live sets had a very uneven, stitched-together quality to them. But, now that I'm on the other side with a few hundred songs to show for my efforts I have a certain coherency to me."
Peter's innovation wasn't limited to his songwriting. In 2000 he launched Crushing Krisis, now the longest running blog in Philadelphia.
"I have more opinions than I have songs," he chuckles," so having my own blog seemed like the most obvious thing to do, at the time."
Another seemingly obvious move was the creation of "Trio," a weekly streaming concert of original and cover songs. Started years before podcasts became an internet buzz-word, Trio is now in it's sixth season. It's archive offers hundreds of hours of audio spanning almost eight years, sketching Peter's evolution song by song.
After a string of solo sets and a stint in a professional acappella group, In 2007 Peter put his solo music on hold to play as Arcati Crisis with his best friend, Gina Martinelli. As a duo they blazed across the Philly music scene, bringing their kitschy, harmony-tinged boy/girl acoustic pop to venues like Doc Watsons, Tin Angel, and the Tritone, as well as revues at the Shubin Theatre and a featured set at Lyndzapalooza's Evolve festival.
In the present day Peter is back to his musical license plates, rebuilding an eclectic solo repertoire to contrast with the tunes he plays regularly as Arcati Crisis.
"It takes time to build an Arcati Crisis song, so as a solo artist now I'm much more willing to put a fresh song out there for the first time to see how it fills a room. But, I'm also reaching back for older songs - things that seemed to be formulaic at the time play very differently against my newer stuff."
Does Peter have a favorite musical state amongst all of his styles and influences?
"Not really. My most enduring influences are artists like David Bowie who can effortlessly cross genres. If I had a favorite sort of song to write or play I'd immediately be crossing those Bowie-aspirations off of my list.
"Ultimately my favorite state is usually the one I've visited the least often."
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Thank you for the Stellar Performance tonight... Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give. One can never pay in gratitude: one can only pay 'in kind' somewhere else in life. Have an incredible week ahead .......... Hugs and Much Love ~.:*"'"*.:::K.M.D:::.*"'"*:.~
THIS IS THE LAST PHILLY SHOW FOR AWHILE and It's FREE.FREE.FREE at The Millcreek Tavern tonight so if you want to come out that'd be cool, 9pm at 42nd and Chester along Pine.......there are FOUR bands and it's FREE.
SUNDAY JUNE 7th at The Tritone 9:00pm TRY ANGLES,LIKE BELLS and another fine band or two. It would be swell if you think you might be able to make it out.
our new album, "best excuses", has been uploaded on www.yearlongday.com. thank you for patiently waiting to hear it, and stay tuned for the official cd release!
Whoa! Holy crap dude! I had no idea that we weren't myspace friends. That's freakin nuts. Well, I'm glad you discovered that. Thanks for adding me. Rock on! -Andra
Peter -- thank you so much for stopping by and playing last night at Coquette at our Open Mic. You were really good, and I am glad that we got a chance to talk as well. Also, you are going to have to practice something with Elise, I am just too curious.
I hope to pop in at Intermezzo this evening, will you be there?
hello again :) What's goin down with the music this summer? I'm meeting someone to start a new project today hopefully so maybe i'll be playing out again eventually. Hope all is well!
hey peter! i hope all the planning is going well. ;) swing by if you're in the area: click on the teeny flier for more info about tomorrow's Tin Angel show!
Oh Peter how I miss you! I hear you are making a storm on the philly music scene these days :) I'll be at Blarney South tomorrow night and would love to see you. It will be an early night since I'm going to Ireland the next day but David said you are normally there and I would love to see you!
Hey hun! I am so sorry I can't make it out to see you guys tomorrow (it is tomorrow- right? ) Keep me posted, though - I will make it out one of these days :)
Hey Peter, I don't play out too much these days,(unless I am filling in at Lyndzapalooza!) I have been pretty with my non profit where we help raise money to send Philly musicians to perform abroad. I am trying to go to at least one open mic a month, so maybe we can catch up at the Dawson or buckets some time.
