Jemina Pearl

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pitchfork interview

When I saw Be Your Own Pet play Manhattan's Mercury Lounge last February, some dude tried to get a little too close to lead singer Jemina Pearl...so she slapped him across the fucking face. Then her band mates tackled him. It was great-- a perfect summation of this unruly punk band that never met a stage it didn't want to flop all over. So when they broke up last August, it sorta made sense. A band that wild isn't built to last. But what of 21-year-old Pearl, the group's unequivocal centerpiece and go-to shit-kicker?

Since BYOP's last show, we've only heard Pearl on "Gossip Girl", singing a version of Ramones' "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" she recorded with her Ecstatic Peace! label boss Thurston Moore. But now she's back-- Pearl will play her first post-BYOP show opening for the Fluid tomorrow, January 17, at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg.

It's only the first step for her new project, which doesn't have an official name just yet. "I like to think of us as something similar to Iggy and the Stooges," she told me in a chat earlier this week, "but right now it's just Jemina and the Somethings." We also talked about the BYOP breakup, what her new band sounds like, and going to see The House Bunny with Thurston Moore.

Pitchfork: Are you anxious about your first post-Be Your Own Pet show this weekend?

Jemina Pearl: Oh no, I'm super excited. It's been so long since I've played a show. I've been compensating by doing karaoke and stealing the microphone from people. So it's probably good for all my friends that I'm getting back onstage.

Pitchfork: What are your karaoke jams?

JP: Last week I did David Lee Roth's "Just a Gigolo", and then I did a version of "Magic Man" that made a girl cry. That was a shining moment for me.

Pitchfork: She was crying because your version was so, you know, emotionally wrought?

JP: I hope-- I hope it wasn't because I was that bad!

Pitchfork: When I heard Be Your Own Pet broke up, part of me was like "that sucks" and another part was like "that kinda makes sense" considering your unpredictable reputation...

JP: I was kind of surprised along with everyone else that the band was breaking up, to be honest. I felt like I was the last one to find out. I didn't feel like I had to stop-- it wasn't like, "Oh my God, this is horrible!" But we could only take that band so far.

Pitchfork: Usually when a band breaks up people assume that the lead singer is the main reason why, but you're saying that wasn't the case?

JP: Yeah, it was more brought to me. We broke up in June and waited a while to announce it because of technical things or whatever. All summer I was going stir-crazy because I didn't have anything to do. I was really shell-shocked after the experience. I knew I was going to keep working but I was like, "Where do I go from here?"

Pitchfork: Do you want to go into any more detail about the breakup?

JP: That's a loaded question, my friend. I probably shouldn't! I feel like it's been a scab that I keep picking at. It's just now starting to heal, so I need to leave it alone. I'll probably talk about it eventually, but right now it's too fresh.

Pitchfork: Fair enough. Let's move onto your new project, which includes BYOP drummer John Eatherly, right?

JP: Yeah, me and John started writing songs when BYOP was still a band. We'd write these kind of 60s girl group-sounding songs. Once the band broke up and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, John brought me some music that he'd written, but he was having a hard time coming up with lyrics and vocal parts. He moved into my house in Nashville and we would just stay up all night writing and it felt really natural.

We had both been wanting to move to Brooklyn, so we just left Nashville and took a Chinatown bus up to the city for like $40. It was kind of like, "Fuck it, there's no reason to be here." Nashville's an interesting city but it's one of those places that's better to visit. I'm sure everyone in Nashville's going to be like, "fuck you," but I'll say "fuck you" right back to them. It was really a spur-of-the-moment move. I brought two suitcases and my guitar; John brought one suitcase.

Pitchfork: Do you think it's easier or harder to get in trouble in New York compared to Nashville?

JP: Oh, you can get into trouble anywhere as long as you try hard enough. It's more fun to get in trouble in New York because you don't have to drive yourself home. Everyone in Nashville's got DUIs because there's no public transportation and everyone's too lazy to call a taxi. It's way easier up here-- you can get a car easily or throw yourself on the subway and get groped by some random stranger when you're passed-out drunk. It's really fun! I'm joking. Well, half and half.

Pitchfork: So is this new project an official Jemina Pearl solo thing or are you still trying to think of a new band name?

JP: I guess it goes by my name, but I think of it as a band. It's hard to come up with a band name. Every time I come up with one I like someone's already taken it. I like to think of us as something similar to Iggy and the Stooges...but right now it's just Jemina and the Somethings.

Pitchfork: What are some of names you've nixed?

JP: I don't want to say. It's like when people are pregnant and they don't want to tell you what they're going to name their baby. They don't want people to be like, "Oh, you shouldn't name it that." But if you've already named your baby people have to accept it because it's the name of that child. People don't second-guess it as much.

Pitchfork: Have you ever met any babies with really terrible names?

JP: I don't know that many babies. I kind of avoid them.

Pitchfork: What can people expect to hear when they go to the show this weekend?

JP: They can expect to hear the most awesome music ever! [laughs] I'm really happy about it. It's going to be kind of similar to BYOP; I mean, it's still my dumb voice and John. But he's playing guitar now instead of drums. Hopefully it's some kind of growth from BYOP. It's hard to describe your own music-- I'm sure I sound like a bumbling idiot right now.

Pitchfork: One of my favorites from BYOP's Get Awkward was "Becky", which was totally exaggerated and wrong and hilarious. Are you still writing stuff like that?

JP: Yeah, definitely. Actually, me and John were the two main songwriters on "Becky". Maybe that's closer to what some of the newer stuff is going to be like.

Pitchfork: Is it safe to say that it's not a drastic change from BYOP?

JP: Well, it's a drastic mental change from BYOP. With any band that's been together for a while, there becomes unspoken things that you can and can't do. But with this new thing it's like the whole world is open.

Pitchfork: But it's not some hippie folk thing?

JP: No, I'm not going to be sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar singing about my troubles anytime soon. I mean, I'm going to sing about my troubles but in an aggressive way. In my own way.

Pitchfork: Any synthesizers?

JP: No synthesizers. Maybe we'll get one of our friends to come do some Brian Eno noise, but there are no synthesizers in the music.

Pitchfork: Any Stomp-style percussion with brooms...

JP: ... and trash cans and stuff?

Pitchfork: Yeah!

JP: No one's doing that in our band.

Pitchfork: BYOP was known for its controversial and sometimes banned lyrics. Are you toning it down at all?

JP: Of course not! I'm still writing all the lyrics and, since the last year was really crazy and intense, I've got all these different situations and things to draw from. If anything, it's probably more controversial.

Pitchfork: So the whole album is about killing babies with bad names.

JP: Yeah...and eating them. It's an album for everyone.

Pitchfork: Now you've gone too far.

JP: I always take it one step too far.

Pitchfork: Have you started recording?

JP: We're actually about to go do our first real batch of demos in Northampton [Massachusetts], where Thurston lives, after the show. We want to record the album in March. And I think we're going to try and start playing around New York and New Jersey pretty frequently.

Pitchfork: Are there any new songs you're particularly excited about?

JP: I'm excited about all of them! I wrote my first-ever love song, which is kind of strange. One's called "D Is for Danger" and one's called "Heartbeat", and there's one called "After Hours" that I really like, too. It's named after that Martin Scorsese movie! Not really. That movie's so bad!

Pitchfork: I missed that one.

JP: Yeah, there's a reason why! Go watch it and you'll quickly discover why you've never heard of it.

Pitchfork: Have you seen any other terrible movies recently?

JP: Me and Thurston went to go see The House Bunny and that was the biggest piece of shit ever. You know when you think it's going to be so bad that it'll be really funny? The movie theater was empty-- by the end we were throwing our sodas at the screen. It was just painful.

Pitchfork: Speaking of Thurston, you recently recorded a version of the Ramones' "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" with him for "Gossip Girl". How did that come about? Are you a fan of the show?

JP: I've watched a couple of episodes here and there and it's so ridiculous. The "Gossip Girl" people asked Sonic Youth to cover a song for the show but they were busy. Then Kim and Thurston were like, "Jemina should do a song with Thurston!" They were really into the idea. We recorded it in one day-- we barely practiced.

Pitchfork: Did you get to see the actual episode on TV?

JP: I didn't! They told me the wrong day that it was going to be on. My mom was so upset, like, "You were on TV and I didn't get to see it!" Sorry, mom.

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