On Mommy, Be Your Own Pet’s first album since their 2008 disbandment, the Nashville punks make it clear that they aren’t kids anymore. Compared to their prior songs inspired by old horror flicks and Valley of the Dolls, the 11 tracks on Mommy are grounded in the highs and lows of real life—kink, love, sexual assault, the fallout of forgetting to take medication, living in a town that reminds you of every version of yourself no matter how hard you try to forget them. “We all contain multitudes,” frontperson and main lyricist Jemina Pearl explains over Zoom alongside bassist Nathan Vasquez. “We wanted to have more variety on this record for sure.” Adds Vasquez, “There were moments when we were kids where it was just pass around the yellow pad, write a thing, and whatever is on there is going to be forever.” Jemina laughs in agreement.
Over 17 years after their debut self-titled album, time is still a vital element in pushing the band to the limit—only in a completely different capacity than when they were teen rockstars. They’re not making an album in a pressure cooker for a major label. Instead, there’s only the pressure of finding time in their busy lives to connect in the studio. Now, there’s no childish insecurities or cliques. And whereas the roles of the band were once stringent, now all four members—Pearl, Vasquez, guitarist Jonas Stein, and drummer John Eartherly—have grown into songwriters in their own right. “We’ve kind of gone from two dudes who kind of know how to play guitar and Jemina as the lyricist to having four songwriters in the band now,” Vasquez states.
Although their breakup in 2008 was sudden and inconspicuous, the aftermath was still devastating for the crew. The band’s rebirth—initiated in 2021 to support Jack White on a string of live dates—is a form of healing for all parties involved, mending not just their craft but also their friendships. The resulting album still maintains that bold voice that many fell in love with in Be Your Own Pet’s early years. Their high-voltage sound is as ready as ever to call out assailants and gaslighters, to have a good time with whatever party favors are available, and to lay to rest adult woes—if only for a night—and allow youthful spirits to ascend.
I want to hear about how this record took form. Were you thinking a lot about your previous albums?
Jemina Pearl: We were just talking about doing reunion shows, and then Nathan was like, “I only want to do this if we write new songs, too.” That hadn’t been in my mind at all. So once he said that, I started thinking, “What would new Be Your Own Pet music sound like?” It’s been so long and we’re in different places now in our lives that it can be anything. We were trying really hard not to think about what outside people would expect from us, and more just about what do we, personally, like? What is inspiring to us?
Nathan Vasquez: What’s transpired in the past two years has far exceeded anything I had in mind. But I’m so thrilled, and I’ve really been missing that collaborative spirit of the group. It’s so rewarding to bring in a little seed of an idea and watch it totally blossom into a full-band effort that’s a million miles away from what you were thinking about.
Pearl: We were doing this funny thing where we were seeing some parallels to old songs—“Oh, this is kind of like the updated version of ‘Becky.’” There’s a throughline from the old records to now. It was important to us to keep the same spirit of the group, if that makes sense.
“We were trying really hard not to think about what outside people would expect from us, and more just about what do we, personally, like? What is inspiring to us?” — Jemina Pearl
Were there any ideas you had throughout the years that you held onto that you brought into the studio?
Pearl: I think we had some lyric ideas that we’d written over the years, but I don’t think we were ever holding onto them with the thought that maybe this will get used for Be Your Own Pet. None of us ever imagined that we would be doing this right now. Now that it’s happening, it makes sense that we’re doing this.
Was there a conversation where you figured out what the core of the band is that you wanted to maintain?
Pearl: We had conversations about things that we felt were the vital pieces that make up the identity of the band. The music could be anything, but the core of the band needed to stay the same. We didn’t take ourselves too seriously because we were so young, but also I had things that I wanted to write songs about that are maybe a bit heavier, like sexual assault. We wanted to have roots in punk music, but be free to explore that. I was looking to bands like Blondie—this punk band, but they’re really a pop band.
Vasquez: It also felt like no matter what we did, the four of us being in the room and doing whatever, it would still be us. There’s definitely an undeniable chemistry since we spent such a formative period playing and writing music together. It’s obviously a different world since 2008. Even though I didn’t write some of our boldest lyrics that are actually making a statement, it still very much feels cathartic for me to stand with it. We wanted to still be punk, because we all love punk, but when we were 17 being like, “That’s not punk!” or something, you still have that idea to mock everybody else for the sake of being cool.
Pearl: When you’re younger you have your little baby ego and you’re so scared to step out of whatever box you put yourself in, because you don’t want to be judged by others. With age definitely comes the, like, “I don’t give a fuck anymore, we’re gonna do what makes us happy.” I’m really thankful that I have bandmates who are up for me to sing about whatever I want to sing about and stand behind it with me.
Was there a dynamic in the band that wasn’t working that you were conscious of the first time around that you changed this time?
Pearl: Oh yeah, we were teenagers, so communication skills were basically zero. I also felt we could be so cruel to each other sometimes. Or three people would have a union and then one person would get left out, and alliances would change. When you travel a lot with people, these weird cliques form and then get disbanded and a new one forms. We were in such an intense situation with a lot of pressure on us. None of us really knew how to deal with it, so sometimes we’d end up taking out those negative emotions on each other. Now, thank goodness, we’re all much better at communicating.
Everything is dramatic when you’re a teenager. Everything is to the highest degree.
Pearl: Totally. There’s no gray areas with anything, it’s like zero or 100. Also at the time, I was undiagnosed bipolar. I wasn’t on medication. That was obviously really hard for me to deal with. But I would imagine it was also hard for my bandmates to deal with. We all have our mental health in check this time around.
“The music could be anything, but the core of the band needed to stay the same.” — Jemina Pearl
Vasquez: I’m also diagnosed bipolar and found treatment and regiment and routine that works for me, too, over the years. I was kind of emerging in some of those signs toward the end of the group. The rock-bottom lows and hitting the sky-highs, it’s very volatile on the way.
Pearl: Me and Nathan have this in common where our insides were very volatile, but then everything going on outside of us was kind of also that way. It made it even more confusing for us to know what was my mental state and what was actually kind of crazy that was happening in our lives; the two really blurred together in a lot of ways.
Was there a period where you reached a point of exhaustion having to reflect on your pasts?
Pearl: The thing that’s given me the most healing and closure from what happened during the first go-’round of Be Your Own Pet is literally doing it all over again. As a band, we’ve had these really thoughtful conversations that we never would’ve been able to have when we were younger about our experience. Getting a second chance at it, but having the wisdom and the confidence that we have now, it’s been incredibly, incredibly healing.
Vasquez: I used to have dreams all the time where it would be like, “Oh I’m in Be Your Own Pet again and we didn’t practice.” I’m like, “I don’t remember how to play the songs” or something. Now, I don’t have those dreams anymore. I’m happy about that.
I’m curious if you’ve thought about what your younger selves would think about this album—or if you’ve thought about what you want other people to take away from this album?
Vasquez: Well, first off, if 18-year-old Nathan walked through the door right now I’d want to beat the shit out of him or give him a swirly…
“I used to have dreams all the time where it would be like, ‘Oh I’m in Be Your Own Pet again and we didn’t practice.’ Now, I don’t have those dreams anymore. I’m happy about that.” —Nathan Vasquez
Pearl: This is the second part first, but I hope that people will relate to the subject matter in the songs and find comfort or joy in the music. The record is about looking back and growth and healing, and also trying to keep the pieces of your younger self that are good, but shed the bullshit and kind of be your best self.
As far as what my younger self would say, gosh, I don’t think my younger self thought I would be alive right now, so she would probably be impressed with what we created. But I also think that when the band broke up, it was the single biggest heartbreak of my life. I think that I would be so happy to know, “OK, you’re going through this really shitty, horrible thing right now that’s breaking you, but you have to go through this because if you don’t, then you’re not going to make this record in your thirties that you’re so happy with.”
The first go-around of Be Your Own Pet, that was my identity. That was fully how I defined myself. And then I lost that. So then I had to go through this process of, “Well, who am I now?” Now I’ve come back to the band and I’m, like, a fully formed person. The band is not my identity, but it’s something that I do.
I also have to wonder about the meaning in the album title. Motherhood is a really strong theme on this album.
Pearl: Definitely. Becoming a mom, your whole world gets flipped upside down in the best way. It really empowered me in a way that I didn’t feel before I was a mother. It also radicalized my politics in a lot of ways: You know the system is fucked, but then after you become a parent, you’re like, “Wow, this system is really fucked and this country does not give a single shit about children and parents,” even though they love to preach the family values that they don’t actually give a shit about. If that was true, our entire society would be completely restructured. Those [themes] are all on the record.
I love that there’s a really good balance of getting to the truth of how messed up things are, but the record’s also very funny. The hard-boiled eggs on the cover are really funny to me for some reason.
Pearl: Eggs are a symbol of fertility. I almost wanted to call back to our album artwork on Get Awkward a little bit. This is the grownup version. FL
