Robbie Pfeffer, the charming, mullet-ed frontman for the Phoenix band Playboy Manbaby, started making goofy videos during lockdown, and Instagram responded. So did TikTok.
Now, Playboy Manbaby is set to headline their first Los Angeles show July 30.
Before that, The Show's Mark Brodie was lucky enough to spend some time with them earlier this year and spoke with them about their work.
You can catch Playboy Manbaby on TikTok, Instagram and at the Moroccan Lounge in LA July 30.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Have you guys ever played in a parking lot before?
ROBBIE PFEFFER: Yeah, I'm Robbie. I'm the singer, and I'm pretty dang sure we played in a parking lot. We've played in almost any kind of, like, unconventional setting you could possibly play in. So parking lots got to be on that list.
BRODIE: Is that a conscious choice to play in different kinds of venues?
PFEFFER: I don't know if you know about economics, but there's a thing called supply and demand, and there's been various demands for a product called Playboy Manbaby. So sometimes that demand is only in basements or, like abandoned buildings or whatnot. So yeah, it's partially a choice, partially circumstance.
BRODIE: So, let me ask you about this parking lot in particular. Obviously, this is a center that is well known in the music and cultural scene of the city. Any special meaning to play here?
PFEFFER: Oh, I've, I've seen strange things happen in this parking lot, and none of them are radio friendly to talk about. So, but I really, really enjoy this parking lot as a whole, because it's kind of a vestige of, like old Tempe. It's the kind of thing where I remember my English teacher grew up in Tempe, and she can talk about, like, "Oh yeah, you know, Yucca Tap Room has been around since ye olden days."
BRODIE: Have you found that you have written at all, or thought about writing like anything related to your experience over the last couple of years, trying to navigate the world through this sort of new normal?
PFEFFER: I don't know if I have, I don't know if we have, like a COVID kind of album kind of deal, but I think that the biggest thing is that this whole experience has really helped me realize how much I value being around people. I didn't really think of myself as a social person until this all happened, and now I desperately miss live shows and being around people. And it just really kind of felt like by the end of 2019 I was kind of bored of being around people and playing shows, and this just kind of reignited that kind of passion for being around people. So, that was pretty cool.
BRODIE: Were you guys able to at least be together during quarantine, during the at least even during the early part of the pandemic? Or were you trying to, like, do music through zoom or something?
PFEFFER: Oh, man, we were definitely apart for like, a long time we took quarantine very seriously, and we didn't get to practice or see each other for a while. And that was honestly pretty depressing, after doing this for such a long time, to lose out on kind of like this, this little community that is our band, you know, it's our social group, it's our bowling league, it's what we do for fun. So that was kind of fundamental, and that really did suck. But, we did get to go on a couple cabin trips where we kind of like got to write some songs and all that. But definitely there were very depressing elements.
BRODIE: So, like, did you find that when you were able to all get back together and start playing again together and start doing shows again together, was it like leaving, picking right back up where you left off? Was there sort of like a new found appreciation of being able to do this thing that you all love, that led to you guys doing anything differently?
PFEFFER: I feel like we kind of came into it kind of like Shaquille O'Neal on the off season, where we were definitely like eating cheeseburgers, and we were out of shape, because in 2019 we toured the most we ever had. We probably played more than 100 shows that year. So just expecting to go back into it and be like, ‘alright, we're ready to do this’, but then we had to get ready for, like, the biggest show we'd ever played. So is this really kind of like a zero to 60 preparation thing for us and that, you know, I think we all like puzzles, and that was a fun puzzle.
BRODIE: All right, so can you guys play a song for us?
PFEFFER: Yeah, yeah, we're definitely gonna play a song. This is called the "Feeling I Get When Petting a Dog," and it is arguably the happiest song we've ever written, which is not on our brand.
BRODIE: Robbie, I've got to ask you about this, and I hope you take this in the spirit in which it's intended. We only just met, but you strike me as somebody who's kind of like a silly, goofy kind of personality.
PFEFFER: I’m deeply offended.
BRODIE: I’m sorry. I’m totally sorry. How does that sort of manifest itself in your writing? And you can see you, we can see you sort of bopping around when you're singing, but in the writing process, and sort of the behind the scenes process, how does that manifest itself?
PFEFFER: I think, I think, I think we are all very goofy people, inherently, and we all really sign up for that sort of thing. Like, if you watch the videos like the the like music videos, not the like Tiktok videos, you see it's like all of us call like pretty hard committing into like, pretty fun, goofy roles, but I think that's always what I've liked in music, and I feel like that none of us are really that kind of, like, velvet, underground, cool guy sunglasses kind of thing. We're all just like, we're all just weird nerds, and we really, like, embrace that wholeheartedly, because that's really who we are. And, you know, I think that that comes off as hashtag-branding authentic.
BRODIE: I got to say you talked about not being cool guys in sunglasses, but two of the three of you are, in fact, wearing sunglasses right now. Just like to point that out for the record.
PFEFFER: That's borderline medical in the just like we don't do well in the sun. These are prescriptions, yeah.
BRODIE: So what's next for you guys?
PFEFFER: Um, I mean, I really think that the ideal thing would be to, you know, now, be able to operate as a full band, to be able to play shows, to be able to tour, to be able to put out new records, just kind of get back in the swing of being a band, but also incorporate this kind of new, weird internet world that we've now found ourselves in, which has, you Know, opened us up to a bunch of people who we wouldn't have normally been in front of. You know, we always kind of thought of ourselves as a niche within a niche. And it turns out there's a whole bunch of other people who like this hashtag-authentic, weird, you know, personality that we put out into the world.
BRODIE: So, do you anticipate doing more online stuff in addition to working back toward the live stuff?
PFEFFER: Absolutely, yeah. 100%, Yeah. And then just kind of incorporating multimedia elements into the shows, having more video in the live show, and just kind of, it's always been a theatrical project, but I think now we have the opportunity to expand that, and that's going to be really fun. And to do.
BRODIE: Did you have to learn any new skills? Like, were you instead of, like, baking sourdough, over the last couple years learning how to do, like, video editing, something like that?
PFEFFER: I got really lucky in the fact that I was in like, a high school AV Club, which is where all the cool kids were, and I got to learn how to edit video when I was a really, like, a small child and like, I kind of got to, like, re do that in this kind of, like, video editing kind of thing. So I'm very reluctant to learn anything new. I'm very stuck in my ways, but I'm glad to utilize all of these, like, old tricks that I've got.
BRODIE: So can you guys play a song out for us?
PFEFFER: Yeah, this next one is called "Car on Fire." It’s about that peaceful feeling you get when you're sitting in traffic.
