Talk about precocious. As a gradeschooler, Jemina Pearl Abegg crisscrossed the country on summer vacation, on tour with her father Jimmy’s outfit, Vector. With dad’s encouragement she formed her own awkwardly tagged band, Be Your Own Pet, three years ago (the whim hit while bouncing around on a backyard trampoline, she swears) and she’s since gone on to:
1. Climb BBC Radio charts with her very first single “Damn Damn Leash”
2. Tour the U.K., continental Europe and even a curiously BYOP- obsessed Japan
3. Release a brilliant, eponymous full-length debut on Ecstatic Peace, the
Universal-distributed imprint of BYOP booster, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.
And all before Abegg turned 19.
Why so serious about music so young? “We’re not really serious about it yet,” giggles the blonde lead singer, adjusting the strap on her George Romero/Land Of The Dead baseball cap (she composed an ode to zombies called “Ouch” on Be Your Own Pet, alongside other snarled/crooned anthems like “Wildcat!,” “Bunk Trunk Skunk” and “Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle.”)
“Well, I guess we’re serious about it,” she clarifies, “but we don’t take things very seriously. And we still live with our parents—we don’t really have a reason to move out, just ’cause I’m always on tour, and I’m not gonna be home that often anyway.” Drummer Jamin Orrall is the son of folk-pop musician Robert Ellis Orrall, who co-produced BYOP’s early demos. Did the industry-steeped folks warn their kids to stay away from shady showbiz or offer tips and encouragement? “Neither, really,” says Abegg. “We make our own decisions, and we make mistakes like they made mistakes. But our parents are there if we ever need ’em, and if I want advice I can always go ask.”