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Back home from a whirlwind US tour, this stay at home dad is ready to go from Peter Turns Pirate to just Neal Reed.
Reed is spending the day taking care of his two children (4 and 2) and making sure they don’t bring dirt into the house before getting their lunch ready, but less than two weeks ago he was cramped on a tour bus, nearly dying twice and living life on the road.
“We had two incidences on highways where we were very close to tragedy,” said Reed. “One was a car coming from the opposite direction that would have crashed into our bus had the guardrail not been there and the other was one that even the driver said he’d not seen before. We had a trailer hooked to our bus and it somehow came unhinged and we could see the hitch hitting the road and sparking; it could have been a lot worse for other drivers had it not been also safety-attached with chains but then we were concerned slowing down that it was going to either flip and take us with it or come crashing into the back of us.”
The 33-year-old Reed lives a typically quiet, regular life in Barrie with his school-teacher wife and day to day chores, but when on stage his moniker of Peter Turns Pirate takes over and he gets right to the task at hand of entertaining the fans. With 18 years of playing music under his belt, Reed has taken his time and done things his own way as an artist. Making his own music and creating 11 albums has been a lot of work, but he was noticed by the headliner of the recent tour, industrial rock stars Grendel, as well as some record labels.
“The headliner asked me to be on the tour with their band and I said I would love to, but I wanted Peter Turns Pirate to open,” said Reed. “It was a huge deal for me to be playing not only on the tour with Grendel but in Grendel as they are considered one of the best in the industrial rock genre. I was also approached by three or four record labels who want to sign me, so by the end of this year I will have signed with someone.”
Life as a travelling musician has many ups and downs whether it’s playing in front of seven fans in Oklahoma City to sold out shows in Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle and other west coast venues. Reed admits to having a little post-touring syndrome as doing 34 shows from April 1 to May 13 puts you in a routine, but missing his family and devastating news from home upon starting the tour made him realize that he enjoys always being the regular guy with the regular life.
“For sure you get into a groove but then you get thinking of the wife and the kids and being happy as a husband and dad and you just love being home,” said Reed. “Its also hard because when we started the tour I got word that my sister-in-law was involved a major accident on Highway 11 and we weren’t sure how she was going to be; thankfully she survived but it will be a while before she is out of hospital; had that gone another way I would have come straight home but not being here for my family was tough.”
Jennilyn Reed’s mini-van was hit on Wednesday April 11 on highway 11 by a driver going the wrong way; her two children suffered minor injuries while Reed had life-threatening injuries that she is now recovering from.
Back at home, the man known by fans as Peter Turns Pirate will be known as daddy and will continue to do daddy things while also running his lighting and videography company, Side FX Entertainment. The newly started venture sees Reed film and produce videos for other bands, manage the lights and effects on the tours he goes on and even film property ads.
“It’s kind of like everything else going on with me I guess,” said Reed. “It’s a wide mixture of things that are happening, but in the end it is all creative and I enjoy doing it; and it lets me stay with the family when I’m not on a tour of course.”
Peter Turns Pirate will be involved with Gothfest on September 21-22 in Montreal and his new album, View As Strange is now available for purchase.
PTP and Side FX Entertainment can be reached on Facebook and Instagram at @PeterTurnsPirate
