Be Your Own PET Issue #25

The Nashville quartet that met in middle school hopes to remain friends through their much-hyped journey to success

By Sara Grace McCandless
Published: September 1st, 2005 | 4:05pm

“It’s pretty much all my grandma talks about,” deadpans 16-year-old Nathan Vasquez, the bassist for the Nashville punk-rock tornado known as be your own PET. Vasquez’s grandma is not the only one bellowing about the band’s success to neighbors and friends.

A surge of music-industry players and diehard fans have been packing the band’s shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the spring 2005 release of their debut single, Damn Damn Leash (Infinity Cat/XL), be your own PET has become a band destined to be voted “most likely to succeed.”

It’s an appropriate accolade, as the foursome’s members — Jemina Pearl, Jonas Stein, Jamin Orrall, and Vasquez — are barely old enough to drink in the U.K., let alone the States, but that’s not stopping them from, well, just about anything.

Pearl — the lead singer and oldest member at 18 — has a voice that thrashes like early Courtney Love meets Debbie Harry. “I think the reason that everyone is paying so much attention to us is definitely our age,” she says.

Guitarist Stein, 17, agrees but adds, “It’s more like ‘they’re good and they happen to be in their teens.’” Good point. In addition, most teens don’t get the opportunity to work on their first EP with engineers and producers who also have worked with Sleater-Kinney, Modest Mouse, and the White Stripes.

The members of be your own PET have a lot more in common than their love for thrashing, dizzy punk music; all of their parents have roots in the music industry, ranging from management to musicianship. “[Some people] say that our parents paid for us to get all of this stuff happening,” Pearl says.]

But don’t get the wrong impression. be be your own PET didn’t ride the nepotism train into the spotlight. The band hit Nashville’s local scene, playing live at a variety of places including local cafés and friends’ parties. Moments later, they are debating whether it was playing live, sending out demos at the same time, or a combination of both that led them to the recording studio. “I get asked how we got people to see us, how did industry people find us, how can they get people to their shows,” Stein says. “I respond by saying, ‘They’ll find you.’”

One thing they did get from their parents was advice, ranging from hard truths like, “Don’t trust anything anyone tells us” to perfect reflections of glorious teen rebellion. “If they gave me advice on what the music should sound like, I probably wouldn’t take any of that,” Pearl says. “I’d probably do the opposite of what they said.”

Vasquez says that his dad suggests he stay friends with the members of the band “no matter what goes down business-wise.” For a group that first met and bonded in the rough hallways of middle school, it’s a solid if simple rule to keep in mind.

The fan base for be your own PET is catching on at feverish levels, particularly in the U.K. where the band just returned from playing sold-out shows to crowds of “really energetic” fans. One U.K. fan recently launched a Web site dedicated to the band, featuring media clips, band bios, and even a discussion forum. “When we met him [while playing some shows in London], he was like shaking and had two glasses of whiskey in his hand,” Stein says. “He was trying to buy everybody drinks.”

Pearl quickly jumps in, saying that she can drink in the U.K. because she just turned 18. “But the boys can’t drink,” she says. “We almost weren’t allowed to play the show because we weren’t old enough to be there.”

The members of be your own PET — the name of which, incidentally, came as a suggestion from drummer Orrall’s dad — are big music fans themselves. “One band I’d definitely love to play with would be Iggy Pop and the Stooges,” Pearl says. Stein says that he’d like to tour with TV on the Radio, and Vasquez reveals, “I’d like to open up for Animal Collective, but that would be totally weird. And awesome.”

Some of their wishes might become a reality in the near future. Be your own PET has plans to open for Le Tigre this fall. Their first full-length is slated for a 2006 release.