Man’s Best Friend Is Be Your Own Pet

The hottest thing to come out of Nashville isn’t country line dancing (at least, we hope you don’t think so); it’s Be Your Own Pet and their special brand of frantic garage punk, which has driven all of us at peta2 into a frenzy. Packed to the brim with screaming female vocals and thrashing guitar, this teenage outfit has been described as a cross between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and At the Drive-In. So, needless to say, we love them.

We especially love BYOP’s drummer, Jamin Orrall, who coined such brilliant lyrics as “You’ve got me on a leash, a damn, damn leash. And it’s hard enough to be myself.” Not only has Jamin been drumming since he was in the single digits, he also has a soft spot for animals. Jamin recently gave us the skinny on BYOP, a turtle named Boxer, and being vegetarian.

What inspired your band’s name?
It was a song that my dad wrote a long time ago.

Really? What’s the song about?
It’s about being your own pet.

Why would you want to be your own pet?
So you can take care of yourself.

Do you have any companion animals?
I don’t. I’m allergic to cats and dogs. But I used to have this turtle—his name was Boxer. I would hang out with him in my room. I caught him when I was really young, then had him for a few years and let him go, because he looked really bummed out all the time.

Did you write any of the lyrics for “Damn Damn Leash”?
Yeah, I wrote all of them.

What’s it about?
It’s about not being tugged or yanked around or anything like that.

Would you say that you guys are all animal lovers?
Yeah, I know that Jemina has two cats, and Nathan has a cat. I wish you could talk to our guitar player. He has like three dogs that he really, really loves. I just don’t because I’m allergic.

How do you think people should treat dogs?
I always felt kind of weird about people having pets in the first place, like people buying them, because it’s strange how you can buy a living thing.

We were wondering what you think about schools that don’t give students the right to choose whether or not to dissect animals.
I went to an alternative school, a Montessori school, so there were definitely options on that kind of thing. I’ve heard people that I know that had to do it, and it was just kind of strange that people would make you do something like that, even if you didn’t want to.

How long have you been vegetarian?
For almost three years.

What are some of your favorite options that are vegetarian?
There are a lot of good restaurants. There’s a really good one in London, called Mildred’s, that’s really, really awesome, and I went there for my birthday when I was there a while ago.

Cool. Do you cook at all?
Yeah, sometimes. Spaghetti a lot.

Do you have any advice for somebody who’s thinking about going vegetarian and isn’t sure how to get started?
It’s really not that hard. I think a lot of people think it’s really difficult, but I don’t think it is. There are a lot of really good options that people don’t think about.