The Pettit Project
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Pettit Project | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Origin | Burlington, Ontario | |
| Genre(s) | Pop Power Pop Pop Punk |
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| Years active | 1999—Present | |
| Label(s) | Affluence Music Group | |
| Website | The Pettit Project official site The Pettit Project official MySpace page |
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| Members | ||
| Scott Komer Mark Speer Alison Morris Paul Shields Christine Wallis Sam Guaiana |
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Contents |
[edit] Biography
The Pettit Project is a huge-sounding, hyper-melodic, and sarcastically cute 6-piece power-pop band from Toronto, Ontario. Their songs have a pop-punk-mixed-with-80s-synth-rock feel, alongside strong lyrical themes of pop-cuture and high-school/college relationship issues. Although on paper the lyrics of their songs can read moody and tormented, the feel, musically, is upbeat, intensely melodic and hook-driven. The large audience that gravitates towards this unique sound has shown its love by helping the band reach over 200,000 plays on PureVolume, 100,000 plays on MySpace, and over 150,000 downloads on the now-defunked MP3.com. Although the bulk of these plays come from the US and Canada, a large number of fans hail from Australia, Japan, Great Britain, and Brazil.
In their 7 years as a band, The Pettit Project has toured Canada and the US countless times, and shared the stage with many established artists, including Hellogoodbye, Hedley, FeFe Dobson, Alexisonfire, Silverstein, Protest the Hero, and Boys Night Out. They've also played the Vans Warped Tour on the Drive-Thru Records stage. Although many bands claim to have a killer live show, The Pettit Project’s high-energy, uniform-clad members - including two cute blonde females on keyboards - complex instrumentation and huge amount of gear, are definitely a must-see.
“I bet you a Coke that these guys will sign a major U.S. deal within the year.” – Zack Werner of Venus Management and Canadian Idol, after seeing a Pettit live show.
Teen television shows Radio Free Roscoe, Life With Derek, and Naturally Sadie have featured dozens of the band’s songs; however The Pettit Project is most recognized for their appearance when the band was featured in an episode of the The-N show Radio Free Roscoe. This particular episode revolved around The Pettit Project coming to play the local coffee shop and school dance, in attempt to help the show's heros win back their respective love-interests. The show is syndicated all over the world, and is responsible for a number of Pettit fans in Great Britain, Australia and France in particular.
The ages of the members range from the mid-teens to mid-twenties. There have been a few line-up changes since the band's inception, and past members have gone on to be in Avril Lavigne's band, Boys Night Out, and Not by Choice. The Pettit Project's frontman and founder, Scotty Komer, was formerly a professional lacrosse goaltender for the Buffalo Bandits, and has produced some major punk, hardcore, and rock bands. Combined sales of Komer-produced albums by Silverstein, Protest the Hero, Boys Night Out, and Closet Monster are in the hundreds of thousands. Komer runs the studio for Chris Smith Management (Nelly Furtado, K-os, Fe Fe Dobson) in downtown Toronto, and co-runs The Pettit Project’s record label Affluence Music Group, with the band's manager. He is responsible for the songwriting and production of The Pettit Project, as well as writing songs for kids TV shows, co-writing with Carter Family daughter Leslie, and has written commercial songs for Double Bubble and Hawaiian Tropic. Komer has collaborated with actress Kate Todd, FeFe Dobson, and the Shania Twain tribute act, Shania's Twin. He has also had extensive voice training with "Vocal Coach to the Stars" Ron Anderson, who's other pupils include Axl Rose, Nelly Furtado, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The Pettit Project has been completely self-contained in its 7-and-a-half years of existence. Every duty within the band, both creative and business-oriented, is taken care of within the band's tight circle - from the typically punk-rock tasks of DIY tour booking, poster and merch design, to music production and manufacturing. They've even been know to make their own guitars and pedals (Scotty fashioned a lead pedal for his guitar solos called "The Chick Killer"). The band self-funded all of their releases, the purchase of a tour bus, and a full-production music video for "3 Cheers 4 Me" (shot on good old-fashioned film), which was in light rotation on Much Music.
The Pettit Project has had two releases on their record label, Affluence Music Group, which has national distribution through Sonic Unyon, and is run by Komer and the band's manager Mark Lea (Fe Fe Dobson, Philosopher Kings). The first release was an 8-song EP entitled cheeROCKracy that hit stores in the summer of 2004. The single of this EP, "99 Lives", was featured on Radio Free Roscoe (later being released as the second track on the show's compilation CD), and was in rotation on radio stations around Ontario. The second release came in early 2005 which was entitled 6 Week Summer Vacation in Hell and documented some of the band members' personal struggles in the previous summer.
Without distribution outside of Canada, The Pettit Project wanted to treat their international fans to an internet-only, free release as a token of appreciation. In the spring of 2006, The Pettit Project's Free Dating Service, a 6-song EP, was converted into a zip-file and offered as a free download through the band’s website. These basically un-promoted songs (who's whereabouts have been spread only through the band's mailing list, MySpace, and word-of-mouth), have been downloaded with numbers in the tens of thousands since they were first offered less than a year ago.
The band is currently recording a third full-length release, Super Awesome Fun Party, which is expected to be released this summer.
“The best band you may not have heard of -- Canadian edition!” – Virgin Online Magazine
[edit] Discography
[edit] Upcoming Album
- Super Awesome Fun Party (2007)
Track Listing Coming Soon
[edit] Albums
- Six Week Summer Vacation in Hell (2005)
- “Wishingly Waiting Patiently”
- “Gonna Leave you in the Summertime”
- “Time Apart”
- “Heartbroken”
- “Everytime, Girl o' Mine”
- “The Sad Clown”
- “A Life Divine”
- “NYC”
- “Not Perfect is Me”
- “Lauren (I Will Wait for You)”
- “Perfect Summer”
- CheeROCKracy (2004)
- “3 Cheers 4 Me”
- “Used to be Alone”
- “99 Lives”
- “When Scott got Dumped”
- “Cutie Stalker McCutie-Stalk”
- “I'll bury you at makeout creek”
- "Autobot Love Song”
- “Girlington (Canadian release only)”
[edit] EPs
- All The Pettit Project wants for Christmas is for people to stop calling them "Petite Project"(2003)
- “Mistletopriation of Funds”
- “Stupid Christmas Song”
- “How Do You Giftwrap a Young Boy's First Broken Heart?”
- “Disclaimer!”
- The “We Need Money for Gas on Tour” EP (2001)
- Pretty Girls Make Me Nervous (Prozzak Cover)
- Guess I Gotta Guess
- Scott and Connor Are Both Dorks
- As Soon As We Are Back Home
- You’re Champagne and I’m Shiznit
- Simple Song, Simple Plan
- Even if You Don’t
- Stupid Christmas Song
- The Secret Diary of Allen (2000)
- You’re Champagne and I’m Shiznit
- I’m Spoken For
- Used (To Be Alone)
- Katie
- Oh, I’ll Get Her Alright
- When Scott Got Dumped
- Bury Me At Makeout Creek
- I’ll Bury You At Makeout Creek
- Even If You Don’t
- Me Moving On From Me
- Be Mine... If It's Not Too Much Trouble (200?)
- Guess I Gotta Guess
- Used (to be Alone)
- Too Shy
- Fully Aware, Fully Prepared
- What I Want
- Pretty City/Bad Times
- I'm Down With That
- Interlude
- When Scott Got Dumped
- I'll Bury You at Makeout Creek
- For Miles In Denial
- You’re Champagne and I’m Shiznit
- Dressed To Die
- Me Moving on From Me
[edit] Band
[edit] Current Members
- Scott Komer – Vocals / Guitar
- Mark Speer – Vocals / Guitar
- Alison "Ton" Morris – Vocals / Keyboards
- Paul Shields - Bass
- Christine "Tuba" Wallis – Keytar / Vocals
- Sam Guaiana – Drums
[edit] Past Members
- Connor Lovat-Fraser (Singer of Boys Night Out) – Vocals / Guitar
- Gregory Perets – Vocals / Guitar
- Bob Anderson - Guitar
- Dave Partridge - Vocals / Guitar
- Jeff Davis (Guitarist of Boys Night Out) – Bass
- Charles Moniz (Bass Player for Avril Lavigne) – Bass
- Neil Hamilton - Bass
- Fatty McGinty - Bass
- Dave Palmer - Bass
- Liam Killeen (Drummer of Not By Choice) - Drums
- Matt McCausland – Drums
- Shawn Butchart – Drums
- Corey Wood - Drums
- Dave Thomas – Keyboards / Vocals
- Hugo Bugg - Keyboards / Vocals
[edit] Recent Touring
The Pettit Project has played with several established bands over the years. In 2002 they were featured on the Vans Warped Tour on the Drive Thru Records Stage. They have played with Fefe Dobson on several occasions, including a mini tour alongside Hedley in the summer of 2006. Pettit has also appeared with the similar-sounding pop group hellogoodbye.
[edit] Videography
- “3 Cheers 4 Me” (2004)
[edit] Trivia
- The band name is pronounced the “ped-it project” not “petit project”, they’re not French
- The band took it’s name from the street where the band was established, lived and recorded.
- They are best known for their appearance on television show Radio Free Roscoe.
- TPP’s music has been used on television shows including Life With Derek, Naturally Sadie and Radio Free Roscoe.
- Past members have moved on to play with Boys Night Out, Avril Lavinge, and Not By Choice.
- Every member of the band wears glasses or contact lenses.
- The Song 99 Lives is a reference to old school Nintendo cheat codes.
- Their album "6 Week Summer Vacation in Hell" was written over a 6 week period one summer.
