Be Your Own Pet
Interview by Cameron Cook
Photography by Jesse Winter

My musical love affair with Be Your Own Pet started sometime around Siren Festival 2005-BYOP's teenage squeals and brackish punk rock were the standout event of the day, making standing in the scorching sun watching Saul Williams worthwhile. Fast-forward to May 2006, the self-titled, debut album is about to be released, every music hack this side of Under the Radar are pissing themselves with anticipation. Luckily for all parties involved, Be Your Own Pet is an adrenaline-jolting mess of a good time, with rarely a song over two minutes, titles like "Bicycle, Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle" and "Fuuuuun!", and all the white-hot guitar riffs one man can handle without devolving into a grunting Neanderthal. Awesome. The sensation you get from listening to the album is quite similar to the one you get witnessing the band's live performances: sort of like halfway between wanting to scream and wanting to giggle. Frontwoman Jemina Pearl is like a little bleach-blonde gremlin, attacking everything in her midst, from her mic (broken at Siren) to the audience's self-esteem (at a Knitting Factory gig, after getting a folded piece of paper thrown onstage: "Oh, it has a number on it. It says Bob. Wow, someone actually gave me their number! Too bad I don't care."). Hard not to love seeing a grown man get verbally beat down by an 18-year-old rockstar.
I sat down with Be Your Own Pet on the day before Valentine's Day on a dilapidated couch in the dressing room at Knitting, and talked about their pleasantly DIY videos, lavishly spending record labels' money and the perils of being young and in the jaws of the music industry.

I saw you guys at the Siren festival last year...
Jamin: We got a lot of flak for that show.
Why?
Jamin: People got mad because we didn't play long enough, or something.
Jemina: It was really hot.
It wasn't the best line-up, either.
Jamin: I just remember people getting mad.

I wanted to talk about the album for a minute. It's your debut album, how did you go about recording it? How did you get inspired to write and record? Are you excited?
Jamin and Jemina: Yeah, we're excited!
Jemina: It's such a long time since we've been writing these songs, and touring then and playing them, I'm really excited that they're finally going to come out.
Jamin: The album's coming out.
Jemina: The album' gonna drop. We recorded it in Nashville.
Nathan: Back in October.
Jamin: At Treasure Isle.
Jemina: With Steve McDonald, from this band called Red Kross.
Nathan: He produced it.
Jamin: They're a really good L.A., West Coast punk band.
Nathan: We biked a lot.
Jemina [to rest of band]: What was the inspiration?
Jamin: Food?
Nathan: Half of the songs are old, and half of them are new, written while we were practicing in our rehearsal space.
Jamin: There's nothing else to do in a rehearsal space, but to write songs!
Jemina: The recording was fun, looking back on it, but during the time, we were stressed out about how it was going to turn out.
Jamin: I wasn't stressed.
Jemina: I was stressed.
Jamin: Jonas, were you stressed? Participate.
Jonas [leafing through a copy of 'Sup 15]: I am participating.
Jemina: But you're not saying anything, you're reading.
Jamin: You guys were doing so well. I was just about to jump in.
Jemina: Whatever.
Jamin: I'll talk soon. I want to read it though. I'm looking and listening.

Jemina, you said you were stressed out; was it because you didn't know how the songs were going to turn out, or--?
Jamin: Pressure from the record label?
Jemina: Um, no.
Jamin: When we finished the record, we hadn't signed to a label yet.
Jemina: Yeah, we weren't signed to anyone.
Nathan and Jonas: Yeah we were.
Jamin: No we weren't
Jemina: We hadn't signed a contract.
Jonas: We signed something. It was their money.
Jemina: Anyway, I was stressed because it was the album, and I just wanted it to sound good.
How have the old songs changed or evolved from when you first wrote them to their appearance on the album?
Jamin: It changes a lot.
Jemina: Yeah. It kind of just naturally evolves.
Jamin: Yeah, I mean, you get into this groove, and you sort of just riiiide the waaaave.
All: [laugh]
Jonas: Jamin changes a lot of things.
Jamin: You carve the wave, and then there are little variations.
Nathan: The recorded versions are the best of the variations.
Jamin: Sometimes.
Jonas: Yeah, a lot of those songs were recorded face-fresh, and even now when we play them live, they're different.
Jemina: Yeah, they're a little bit different.
Jamin: We totally reworked all the songs.

Why did you choose "Let's Get Sandy (Big Problem)" as a first single off the album? While being awesome, it's 58 seconds long. Did you have any say in it at all? Jamin: It was a little bit of a compromise.
Jemina: We wanted to have a different song for our first single, but the label wanted another song.
Jamin: So we met in the middle.
Jemina: Yeah, so we released "Let's Get Sandy" and the second one's going to be this song called "Adventure".
Nathan: This was just for the U.K. though.
Jemina: Yeah, ["Let's Get Sandy"] isn't going to come out [in the U.S.]

I've never really seen in the press the fact that Jamin directs all of your videos.
Jemina: Yeah.

They're really DIY and funny. Is there some sort of ethic to it, or is it just like, 'Let's do this and see how it comes out'?
Jamin: Well, it's very 'We'll just do this', but I think the "Damn Damn Leash" video was much more planned-out, but like, with the "Let's Get Sandy" video, we didn't want it to look planned-out.
Jemina: We had a different idea for it.
Jamin: It's kind of just like, get everyone in one place, and them do something with those people.
Jemina: It's fun, we get all of our friends to come and run around and chase us and stuff. We have a new video we must made, it's all high-tech.
Jamin: I didn't direct it.
Jemina: This guy Monte Buckles did. Do you know who the Black Lips are?

Yeah.
Jemina: have you seen their video for the song "Fad"?

No...
Jemina: It's really cool! They're dressed up as Indians and they go kill these cowboys and stuff. It's pretty bloody, so they can't show it on TV.
Jamin: It's a great video.
Jemina: [Monty] did that video, and we thought it was really cool, so we asked him to do our video. I think they just started playing it in the U.K.
Jamin: "Adventure".
Jemina: Yeah, the song's called "Adventure".

Cool. This past year has obviously been a really big year for you guys. You're been signed, you're all pretty young. How does it feel to be one of this year's big buzz bands, for lack of a better word?
Jemina: Pretty unexpected.
Jamin: Slushy.
Jemina: Slushy?
Jamin: Jonas, what do you think?
Nathan: 2005: describe it in three words.
Jonas: It was kinda-
Jemina: There's three words right there!
Nathan: 2005: It Was Kinda.
Jonas: I was preparing my three words!
Jemina: Oh I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Jonas: It was kinda... really fucking crazy.
All: [laugh]

I always feel somewhat concerned for really young bands with so much pressure and focus on their like, first couple of singles.
Jemina: Sometimes I wish we could have a little bit more time to do things ourselves. Put out the first album ourselves, then do some independent touring across the U.S. But, you know, that's not the way it worked out.
Jamin: It's not what we planned.
Jemina: But we feel lucky to be able to travel and go places with the band. It's pretty cool.

I feel like the music industry is so cruel to bands who find success really early. I mean, you could say: 'Oh, I'm going to take a year off, do and album', but by the time you do that, the next big thing has come along.
Jonas: It's like, 'Come on dudes, the music isn't going to change at all. Just hold on.'
Jemina: People get bored. I think part of the reason there are so many buzz bands is that they feel it's some sort of secret thing that only they know about. They like to think that. So then, once everyone is well aware of this band, they kind of move on to the new, secretive underground whatever. I think you should like music because you like music, not because it's a big cool secret.
Nathan: It's just about an image.
Jemina: No it's not.

I do think image plays a lot, though.
Jemina: I guess it does-
Jamin: Yeah, are you going to take pictures of us?
[laughs]

One of the things I enjoy about your songs is that they're all so short. Is that and aesthetic choice, or one of necessity?
Jamin: It just happens.
Jemina: I like short songs, I have a short attention span. When a song's four minutes long, you get bored of it.
Nathan: I like bands that play really shot sets too. Gone in a flash.
Jemina: Then you're like, 'Whoa, what just happened?' It's always better to play too short than too long.

That's very true.