1. How did the band form? Who were the original members and who’s with you now? Before Pet Peeve, Ryan and i played, and met, in a short lived project called Caveman Technology. After that band dismembered, the two of us kept in touch but did not play music together due to both of us becoming busy w school and work. I started college and at the same time began listening to other kinds of musics, mostly foreign, which led to me writing, recording and in the end posting new songs on myspace under the “pet peeve” name. I came up w the name “pet peeve” almost impulsively. After all, music is a positive irritation for me. Eventually, i decided to ask Ryan if he’d be interested in playing some drums for these new tunes. He agreed. We played our first couple of shows as a duo under the name Pet Peeve. After we posted an ad on CraigsList, Mark came to see us at one of these shows. He liked what he heard and soon enough he joined us. Dan Rogers was our first bass player. He helped solidify our songs and also played on our record. Our current bass player, Elliott Esparza, has been with us since last summer and completes the current lineup.
2. How long have you been playing together? Pet Peeve has played together in previous lives and eras but in this age, we’ve been making music since 2007.
3. Being an indie band; What’s it like to play and manage the band simultaneously? It’s a very collective process and we’re all involved in one aspect or another. It’s not an easy task balancing our personal lives and schedules and the band, which i guess now has mounted to our lives and it became more than just a hobby. But i do wish we had a manager or someone else to deal w all the logistics. After all, we’re musicians and what we do best is write and play music. Sometimes doing managerial chores can be very distracting and time consuming.
4. Any EP’s or Albums released? Where? We released our first record “An Attic Abroad” last year. We’re not on a label so we distributed it ourselves. Amongst other sources, you can find it on iTunes and Amazon. You can also hear the entire record on our website – www.petpeevemusic.com
5. Where do you normally play? Usual spots or do you like to travel? We’re still fairly new in town therefore other than Indianapolis and a farm in Kentucky, we have not played out of Chicago but we are planning a short tour of the great mid west this summer. Generally we’re part of the local rotation playing the usual indie band spots – Double Door, Reggies, Quenchers, Lincoln Hall, Martyrs. But we love playing more intimate places, like your kitchen or living room or a porch or rooftop. Also weddings bar and bat mitzvah, brit milahs, funerals, divorce parties are suitable celebrations for our music. Just make sure to get paper plates and plastic cups if you hire us because people are known to break dishes when we play.
6. Any past favorite tours? Do you have any upcoming tours? A tour is in the works at the end of June. We’re considering WI, MN, IA and MO. Eventually we’d love to travel to Romania and do some shows there.
7. How do you write your songs? All together, lead by one person, magically? Definitely magically all together as one. Usually someone will come up with a riff or an idea then we all chip in until it becomes structured. Then we stop, pat ourselves and each other on the back, get a bite to eat and go at it again with greasy fingers.
8. Any major musical inspirations to you and the band? We’re four guys with very different musical backgrounds so there is a lot of various inspirations being poured into this band. Ryan comes from more of a rock and jazz background; Mark and Elliott went to school for music. Im self taught and compose a lot by ear but it does help having two guys in the band who know music theory along with a drummer that can adapt to pretty much any style. We try not to stick to a genre of music because everybody, in the band and in our audiences, listens to many categories of music so we love to play what feels natural. But our ultimate goal is also our live inspiration – people dancing. Im a huge fan of bands like Cafe Tacuba, for example, that do not limit themselves to a singular style of music.
9. What song is best received by your audience? It depends on the venue and the audience. We did notice that the songs which hold an Eastern European flavor are usually the ones that people dance more to. But many of our songs are so different in style that i think audiences appreciate the fact that they are so dissimilar and in turn show their appreciation.
10. What was your best /worst show? Our best shows are the ones where people dance. It doesn’t have to be a packed room, but as long as people dance we know our music has reached its purpose. Our worst shows are the ones where we break a guitar string right off the bat.
11. Future plans? Yes.
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