We were lucky to catch up with Pierre Booth recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Pierre, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

When I first started my band Dry Ice, I could not even play a barre chord. Guitar players know this to be a basic, foundational skill and in such a hierarchical industry my aspirations might have been considered laughable. However, high-school Pierre did not consider their abilities to be a barrier to entry in making music. Growing up forever immersed in arts (dancing, painting, drawing, piano, guitar and writing), I had a need to create and perform. Whether I knew it or not, the most important thing to me was always making art for art’s sake. This continues to be a notion that I return to, otherwise I lose myself in comparing myself to others and forgetting why I make art in the first place. I returned to guitar lessons after taking an 8 year break after I had already started my band.
One thing I always hear is “I wish I could be in a band but I am shit at guitar”. I also commonly hear this from femmes which is not a coincidence. Seeing primarily male guitar players put on the “rock god” pedestal has real effects: it makes young women and femmes feel like their only place in rock music is being an often highly sexualized singer. This is not to harsh on iconic performers like Pat Benatar, Joann Jett, Tina Turner, etc. It is rather to point out that we are made to feel like we do not have a place in experimenting with being self-taught on instruments or starting at what might be considered a lower skill level. This is one of many things my guitar teacher Ray Baiocco got so right. He not only made me feel like I was talented and deserving of performing on guitar, but he also showed me countless female guitar legends like Bonnie Raitt, Sharon Isbin, and Nancy Wilson.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Pierre Booth (they/them), and I am an artist. I could list all the labels I wear such as: multi-instrumentalist, song-writer, singer, performer, textile artist, etcetera etcetera. However, I think Artist encapsulates my philosophy, mission, and primary occupation. Ever since I could remember, I was obsessed with music and performing. I would listen to shoegaze on the school bus in elementary school and loved to lip-sync to “I Need a Hero” (the Shrek version) for my family. I learned piano first and then guitar, and for a few years took a pause from my musical studies and danced competitively. After quitting dance at the age of 16, I decided to form a band.
Since Dry Ice’s founding I have been consistently writing music, arranging and performing shows, and managing all aspects of the band. The music we make has taken many forms: psychedelic rock, sludge-metal, punk, shoegaze, and a little indie-rock in there. I figure the only way to make progress in the cutthroat music industry is to learn all the crafts myself. That led me to learn production, sound engineering, and operate the “business” side of things.
Not only is the progress I have made (especially considering my relatively young age) something I am very proud of, but so is my art. I make music both to express myself and to make a statement. In my music and in the way I exist in the music industry, community and liberation are at the forefront.
By nature of being a mostly trans/queer band, Dry Ice not only is forced to navigate an often hostile environment but to take a stance. And we do so unapologetically. Including marginalized artists and challenging the status quo of the music industry is what I think art–and especially punk music–needs to be about.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think something that non-creatives–specifically those who attempt to mold art into a business–get wrong is just the idea that music can be created like any mass produced item. Art is not something that can be cranked out on an assembly line. And if it is, that art probably came at the expense of a creative in one form or another. For the majority of artists, creation is a deeply emotional process that can sometimes be hard to materialize. It’s even scientifically proven that accessing the part of your brain responsible for raw creation is something that requires a lot of brain power and nourishing. That is why it is so frustrating when the mainstream entities that claim to want to “support up-and-coming artists” only look for the artists that have either already been incredibly lucky or have had to go through hell and back to make themselves marketable and have a bunch of Tik-Tok followers. I am pleading the powers that be to just listen to the music or see a show! Let the art itself be what you want to support, not the return on investment.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think one of the most powerful and crucial things people can do to support the arts is to simply shift the way they think about them. If we actually believe art to be the foundation of all life and something that inherently has value, that will force us to treat it with the respect it deserves. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is influenced by it every day of their life. It is asinine to believe that art doesn’t have a utilitarian purpose. Even if you actively choose to live a life without listening to music, reading books, or consuming any media in any form, we are still surrounding by art. The food that we choose, cook, and like is art. The clothes we put together, the way we decorate our homes, the way we wear our hair is art. We are affected by the colors of the buildings and the way the trees are planted in a city. Art is all around us, art has created and enhanced everything that we touch, art is life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dryiceband.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dryice.band/
• Other: https://dryice.bandcamp.com/album/mt-charismatic-heart-2

Image Credits
Full band/Kaleidoskope shots: Chloe Barkley Black & White: Jeremy Baxter Portrait: Bug Jones On stage: Mike Pope