Belmont Vision - Features - Nashville's own 'Pet' comes back home

ISSUE: 02/28/07 > FEATURES > NASHVILLE's OWN 'PET' COMES BACK HOME

Photo by Bland Clark

Lead singer Jemina Pearl leads punk act Be Your Own Pet during a Feb. 23 show at The Rutledge, a primary example of Nashville’s often overlooked rock scene.

It’s not everyday you get to see a synchronized teenage rendition of an epileptic seizure. It’s much less common for such a display to be musically innovative and refreshing, but that’s exactly what happened Feb. 23 at The Rutledge when Nashville’s premier punk band, Be Your Own Pet, played their first show in months after a breakout 2006 filled with a frenzied touring schedule.

According to guitarist Jonas Stein, 19, the one-shot hometown gig was designed to “kick out some of the fresh jams” the band has been writing for the past couple months in anticipation of their next album, which they plan to start recording in April and which could come out as early as September.

“We don’t have any specific intentions towards doing anything differently [with the second album], it’s kind of what’s just coming out,” Stein said. “But I’m getting some surfy, raunchy vibes. Surf-Raunch, that’s our new style.”

Stein and frontwoman/singer Jemina Pearl Abegg, also 19, are the only founding members of BYOP left. The group formed in 2003 in the basement of departed members Jake and Jamin Orrall after meeting as students at the Nashville School of the Arts. The Orrall brothers have since been replaced by bassist Nathan Vasquez, 18, and drummer John Eatherly, 16.

BYOP’s debut album, one of Blender’s 50 greatest CDs of 2006, released last March, and their single “Adventure” reached No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart. Since then, the teenage wunderkinds have toured the world, performing supporting slots from the South by Southwest Festival to “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” to England’s Glastonbury and Readings/Leeds festivals.

“[Travel] made me appreciate Nashville […] a lot more,” Stein said. “You’ll have a couple days off here and there to check out the city, but a lot of times you’re just seeing the inside of the van, the inside of a venue, the inside of a hotel, and you don’t really get that much exposure to the city you go to.”

When asked why Nashville bands like BYOP and The Pink Spiders have been getting so much mainstream press recently, the band maintained that the quality of the city’s rock music is the same as it ever was.

“I guess you could say that ever since the Kings of Leon, that hole or whatever they represented […] as far as Nashville is concerned just got bigger and bigger,” Vasquez said. “Nashville’s always had good music, but lots of flukes have happened I guess.”

In addition to performing new material at the Rutledge, BYOP played hits “Bunk Trunk Skunk,” “We Will Vacation, You Can Be My Parasol,” and “Wildcat!” They were supported by Bowling Green’s Cage the Elephant and locals The Hollywood Kills, fronted by Belmont student Jonathon Jircitano.

When asked for what advice they might give to music students their age with high aspirations, the band was speechless at first.

“Start playing music with your friends,” Stein started. Vasquez interrupted, “Only because you want to play music.”

“Not because you want to ‘make it,’” Abegg said. “That’s what worked for us!”

Stein concluded, “Do it for fun and if you’re lucky, something good will come of it."