Independent Variable by Pet Buffalo

I went up to her and said, ‘Anyone ever tell you that you’ve got a Rickie Lee Jones thing going on?’ When she responded, ‘Yeah, especially when I’m playing the guitar,’ I knew it was the beginning of something special.” They took the name Pet Buffalo as an homage to Teri’s Cherokee roots (she’s also half Irish), “The buffalo is symbolic of the land for Native Americans and from the land everything comes,” she explains.

After spending the last couple of years playing shows in Southern California and building a fan base, the band has now readied their debut CD, Independent Variable. Produced by Nashville veteran Brian Hardin (with Teri and Christopher co-producing), Independent Variable makes the best parts of the '60s and '70s, the search for truth beyond the surface, new again. Opening with “Free Yourself,” you can immediately hear the rock solid groove of the band, held down by bassist Dave Waller’s fluidity and drummer Andrew Shreve. Aaron Chu’s guitar, laden with effects, recalls the best of past greats while sounding fresh and original, and Christopher’s Hammond B-3 raises the chorus to anthemic heights. On top of all the music are Teri’s vocals – powerful and passionate, displaying range, warmth and an unforgettable vibrato, singing a lyric that she deems “fundamental” to the album: “‘Free Yourself’ leads off the record because I believe that if you can’t free yourself you’re left to live in the shadows of all these conceptions that you carry around,” she says.

There are musical treasures that abound on Independent Variable; from the Fender Rhodes keyboard lines that are set perfectly against the hi-hat kicks and explosive guitar fills in “Expectation;” the simple and perfect guitar lead, slightly reminiscent of Steely Dan, that begins “The Letter;” the stately and gorgeous melody that creates the determined and questing tone of “Picture Box.” Teri’s vocals are a revelation in and of themselves; unrelentingly passionate and committed, they don’t just sing the lyrics, they live them out.

Lyrically, Teri explains the tenor of the CD, “The songs are about waking up and realizing the way things are, but that you can actually have an effect on the world through your attitude and how you think about yourself. Independent Variable came to me as a way of putting that you have to act independently in the world.” “Expectation,” inspired by Teri’s reading of Carlos Castaneda, is about how one’s expectations shape how the world occurs. “With that song,” Teri says, “I imagine sitting on a bench in Mexico, with that surreal feeling that occurs when you begin to see a different reality.” “The Real Part” is the song that most goes back to the vibe of the 60’s, staking a claim for that time in the present. Teri states, “It’s a call to all the people who were a part of that time (‘We laugh and we love and sometimes we give too much/but we’ve got a road and we’re gonna take it, let got of the sorrow and get on with the joy’) and how despite whatever we fill our lives with, the real part is that connection that is beyond the superficial.”

Perhaps it is “Station Open” that best captures Teri’s creativity and imagination as a writer and lyricist and how that inspires creativity in the rest of the band. “That came right out of dream that I had,” she explains. “I had a dream about Armageddon and that people were leaving the cities by walking on the freeways. There were these people that would stand along the way, encouraging people, saying there’s a ‘station open.’ And I woke up and wrote that song. The beginning of the song, Brian put that together, that ethereal, spacey feeling. We hooked up a computer to a Morse code program and got that in the beginning of the song. My feeling on the recording was to make it feel like it was coming from outer space, an out of time feeling and the band delivered it beautifully.”

Pet Buffalo are a band playing for big stakes – searching to move beyond the surface of what passes for contemporary music, they play and sing music that seeks new truths by creating connections between the best of our past and our present, with an eye to the future. Independent Variable will convince any open-minded listener of the band’s skill, sincerity and commitment to music, love and humanity.

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