Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet reunite after a decade, set to take on The Bottleneck this Thursday

Photo Courtesy of Be Your Own Pet

Nashville punk band Be Your Own Pet disbanded in 2008 after a string of singles, two amazing full-lengths, and a series of tours where the band melted the faces and blew the minds of anyone lucky enough to see their frenetic and energizing live shows. In the aftermath, frontwoman Jemina Pearl would release a solo album, Break It Up, and guitarist Jonas Stein would focus on his psychedelic garage rock project, Turbo Fruits, which for a time included Be Your Own Pet drummer John Eatherly.

After over a decade of silence, the band reunited in 2021 to play some dates with Jack White, who’d specifically requested Be Your Own Pet open the shows. That was followed by a brand-new album, Mommy, in 2023, and now the band is on a headline tour that will hit the Bottleneck on Thursday, July 25. We spoke with Jemina Pearl and Jonas Stein to discuss just what brought Be Your Own Pet back as a music-making entity.

The Pitch: I don’t think I ever expected Be Your Own Pet to be playing shows again, much less putting out new music, especially after such a lengthy hiatus. What got you all together and talking about this a few years back?

Jemina Pearl: I don’t think that we ever thought we would necessarily do this either. It kind of happened because we had talked loosely about reissuing our old albums ’cause they’ve been out of print for a while, and then from there, we kind of hung out.

We all hung out for the first time after the pandemic and we were like, “Oh, this is really fun to all be together again. Maybe we could play a couple shows, reissue our old records and just kind of have it be that,” and then Nathan Vasquez, our bass player, was like, “I only want to do it if we write new songs,” and I was like, “Oh, okay.” I hadn’t even thought about that as being a thing that we would do. So, from there, it put the seed in our brains and then it just evolved.

The thing that really surprised me, and I assume has surprised you all, is that everything got fast-tracked in terms of playing shows. How did you cope with it being, ‘Oh, we’re doing this now’?

Jemina: We had loose plans of trying to maybe book a couple of reunion shows and then Jack White found out that we had practiced and he is always a really big supporter of our band. We went on tour with the Raconteurs in Europe back in, what was that?

Jonas Stein: Probably 2006.

Jemina: So he was always supportive of the band. When he found out that we had played together and he was getting ready to do a tour for his new album, he was like, “Would you guys want to open some shows?” And I was just like, “Yeah.” I didn’t even ask the guys, I just said yes and it spun things out. Like, “Oh, now we’re actually on this timeline that we’re going to do this.” Before it was just a loose idea.

Jonas: It was a little nerve wracking finding out that our first show back in 14 years was going to be at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. We met up a week before that show started and we just practiced every day and went through a lot of our catalog and put a set list together. We were able to book a secret show in Manhattan the night before just to kind of dust the cobwebs off. We went under a fake name called Bring Your Own Poppers.

That was probably more nerve wracking for me than the Barclays Center because it was the first thing back, it was very intimate, and everyone was there just to see us. I remember just walking up maybe a couple hours before the show started and there was just a line of people out the door. I had to take a left and walk away from the venue for a second because my nerves were going crazy. I started recognizing people from a long time ago that were standing in line.

That show was a lot of fun—the secret show. We kind of went full tilt on that show, but our bodies in our mid-30s couldn’t really keep up as well. I think about two-thirds of the way through our set list, we were all just huffing and puffing, but we got that out of the way and it was great. Then we went and did the Barclays Center and it’s Jack White show, not our show, and we’re also on stage 20 feet away from everyone, so the nerves, for me, personally, felt considerably less than that secret intimate show.

Jonas, you’ve been making music since Be Your Own Pet split with Turbo Fruits and things like that, so I imagine you’re still somewhat used to being on stage, but I’m curious as to what it’s like for all of you to revisit old material that you haven’t touched in a decade and a half.

Jemina: Well, we could practice a whole bunch, but then there’s this sort of unknown element of playing a live show that you can’t practice, other than by just playing a show. It was stepping out into the unknown, but it’s funny to play some of our older songs. I clearly wrote these lyrics as a teenager and they’re very violent sometimes. I didn’t really think about being that violent back in the day, but now I’m like, “Damn, I guess these are kind of violent.”

How have you all been getting ready for this tour? Because it’s like a tour tour and you’re first in so long. When I’ve talked to folks who have been off the road for a while, it becomes a lot more complicated when you get older because you’ve got spouses and kids and all of that to deal with, rather than just like, “Oh, let’s throw some shit in the van and go.”

Jonas: We did some touring in the fall and that was kind of a good sample size of what it was going to be like. And for the most part, it was all right. We all had to navigate our personal lives in different ways, but we got through it pretty smoothly for the most part.

And I think Jemina’s life is probably the most complicated because she has two kids and a husband. I think the rest of us is probably a little less navigating schedules and such, but as far as preparing for the tour, I think we’ve been playing consistently enough since we started playing again that we’re able to get together, run through a set a couple of times, and, musically speaking, we’re able to pull it together pretty quick.

The tour has been a lot of fun and it’s been cool to get back out there and play for a lot of people who never got to see us back in the day, ’cause maybe they were too young or we broke up before they got to see us on a tour they had tickets for. But yeah, I think, as far as preparing for it, musically speaking, we are at the point now—For example, we just did Just Like Heaven festival in LA, we got together the day before, ran through the set two times, and we were good to go.

Jemina: More than two times, but I think so much of the old songs are like muscle memory too, where it’s like riding a bicycle. We played them so much back in the day that we really have them ingrained in our brain in a way. A few things stick with you, like performing songs every night for a few years.

I definitely have my favorites off of the new record, but what are the ones that you’ve come to find that are your favorites to perform live or that folks really respond to in a live setting?

Jemina: I don’t know. It’s really fun to play the new songs. The old songs, I remember like, “Oh, I would do this dance” or “I do this thing on that song,” and now with the new songs, it’s kind of like coming up with all of that fresh. So that’s really exciting. People have really been responding to the singles, like “Worship the Whip” and “Hand Grenade” and “Good Time” when we play those live and I’ve been surprised. People seem pretty into the new stuff, which is great for us because we’re excited to play it. Sometimes I think when you go to see a band that’s like reunited, you’re like, “Oh God, now they’re going to play their new album,” and it’s a bummer, but it seems people are genuinely into it.

Be Your Own Pet plays the Bottleneck on Thursday, July 25, with SCUD. Details on that show here.