INTERVIEW: Alex Paioff, Pilerats Mag
We thought we'd have a chat to one of the head dudes behind Pilerats.com, Mr ALEX PAIOFF to chat about where the project spawned from.
PILERATS are a killer Perth based lifestyle website, fortnightly iPhone/iPad magazine and expanding creative collective. We thought we'd sit down with one of the head dudes behind the operation, Mr ALEX PAIOFF to chat about where the project spawned from.
How did Pilerats first come together?
Before Pilerats was a digital magazine it was seven of us living in a warehouse in the middle of the Perth CBD. At that point we had no interest in doing anything proactive other than walking across the road to the bottleshop and hosting parties seven days a week. We built a half pipe in there, slept with few walls between us and there was no shower so we connected a hose to a urinal pipe and used that.
Plug into the latest music with our FREE weekly newsletter
At 6am on Sunday morning when the club we ran, around the corner, would close loud drunken chants of “back to the pile” could be heard from an army that would even make Khaleesi and her Dragons purr. No memories later here we are.
I read that you dropped out from studying an engineering commerce degree to pursue a career in music. Had you always wanted to be a part of the music industry or was it a revelation from studying something completely different?
I’ve always loved music and arts but was never particularly talented in either field; I wanted to be an engineer. The decision to leave university was an arrogant one. I felt time spent learning what others held as right and wrong business held no relevance to me and my path and could be better spent getting my own projects and plans going and learning as I go. Irony at its finest, Entrepreneurship was the last unit I studied before dropping out.
With an already insightful website, how did Pilerats make the next step to the magazine app?
Truth is the magazine has been the sole goal of Pilerats since day dot. We felt that many print publications around were missing any sort of edge and genuine voice. For example looking into the Vice offices and seeing 200+ staff in shirts and ties in a massive room generating content for the machine and comparing that to our team in shorts, a t-shirt and I’m even wearing jellies. We also realized if we put a digital magazine out there that was not restricted by the limitations of print it would be something genuinely new for people to experience.
Roughly how many hours go into one issue of the magazine?
It takes all the hours you can put into it to make it happen. We have a team of nine people who work tirelessly on each issue. We are attempting to build something from scratch in a market that isn’t used to using their phones and tablets to read magazines; it’s a rewarding uphill battle. We even tried that polyphasic sleep thing where you sleep for 20minutes every four hours, it didn’t last long.
When you first started the Pilerats mag, did you ever expect to make it to issue #8?
Definitely. We started this project over a year ago and have only had the magazine released for the last four. This is going to be a long journey and it feels like everything we have ever done has naturally led us to this point. This is our dream and we are going to chase it.
You tend to ask your interviewees what their definition of a Pilerat is. What is Alex Paioff's?
A pilerat is the guy you see 9am on a Sunday morning bargaining with the bus driver to get on for free because he lost his phone, wallet and pants the night before.
Who is currently your favourite Australian artist?
I think it’s impossible to look past Flume and what he is doing for Australian music on the international level at the moment. The most recent remix ‘A Baru In New York’ has been on repeat and getting me through the most recent all nighters. Mostly though I’ve been listening to everything by Ta-Ku, bloody legend released his whole catalogue for free download like three times now and it rules.
What has been your favourite article out of all the Pilerats issues?
Not an easy one to pinpoint. The magazine covers not only musicians but photographers, travellers, designers and artists in general which appeals on different levels. Music based it would have to be what we did with Dune Rats. You can play a track while you read the interview (which is funny as all hell when talking to two stoners trying to navigate a car and answer questions at the same time) but the key to the feature is the acoustic video we filmed of them playing in a kinda old castle kinda sophisticated ballroom with the biggest chandelier in the southern hemisphere.
Pilerats have just released a video titled 'Introducing Pilerats Magazine' that documents the ease of using the mag, as well as the content you can expect. What is your favourite feature of the Pilerats magazine?
I love the rotate for video feature and the navigation. No load times, instant and in high definition makes them awesomely interesting to watch. Many of the people advertising in the mag have jumped on creatively and given us create videos to accompany the static image. Lives & Levels had a full 5minute skate clip when you rotate their ad – awesome.
Can we expect any Pilerats tours/parties in the near future?
We don’t want to give too much away but we’re going to be doing a lot more gigs and parties around the country with great national and international acts.
Words by Hannah Galvin
SEE ALSO:
More From Our Network
