Veteran Milwaukee guitarist Peder Hedman almost gave up on music. “I got the idea that I’m not going to do this anymore—I’m not real happy on stage, I’m not as good as I want to be,” Hedman says. “And then one day I woke up and said, ‘That’s bullshit!’ I just enjoy playing music.”
The epiphany helped inspire Hedman’s latest band. The Winning People is a trio fronted by Hedman on vocals and guitar and backed by Kurt Bauer on bass and Rusty Olson on drums. Hedman’s presence in the local music scene goes back to the early 1980s with the punk band Null Heirs. He reached local stardom during the second half of that decade with the psychedelic pop of Liquid Pink. They were among Milwaukee’s most popular original music bands. Expectations for a national recording contract were high. “We had momentum at the time. We made mistakes on not following up on stuff—like high-profile shows out east that we didn’t do,” Hedman explains.
The Winning People brings together elements of many of his recent bands, including the Peder Hedman Quartet’s psychedelicized Americana and the punk of Bicentennial Rub. The repertoire includes new Hedman songs as well as material from as far back as Null Heirs and Liquid Pink. Songs such as “Beautiful Girl with a Hammer in Her Hand” feature jangling Beatles-esque pop melodies performed with an astringent edge. “Lines on Paper” suggests melodic hard rock from the ’70s.
“It’s song-oriented but there are some jam elements,” Hedman says. “We like to break it down and go off. That’s part of our thing. My influences haven’t changed a whole lot. Big Star is still a touchstone. But I’m becoming a better player—I like old deceased guitar players like Roy Buchanan. We don’t play blues but learning that music helps my playing. People used to tell me I’d have to learn to play the blues to get better. It made me resentful but now I’m digging it.”
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The old and new songs on The Winning People’s set list flow together well in live settings. “I love writing songs and I love hearing them get polished by the band as they turn from ideas into actual things,” Hedman says. “It’s also fun to hear us play the old songs. I used to slave for weeks writing a two-chord song—and the work still shows!”
Mainly, Hedman wants to remain true to his musical ideals. “I know there’s a real rage for reunions,” he says. “We did a Liquid Pink reunion a couple of years ago but I don’t particularly want to keep doing that. I want to keep making music. The stuff we do now is equally if not more important to me than what I was doing then.”
The Winning People and The Dog Style Dandies perform Saturday, May 14 at 8 p.m. at Circle-A Café, 932 E. Chambers St.
