by John Breerwood

Pandemic is an up-and-coming, Northshore-based rock band. Since their first independently released album, Lessons in Trust, they have been touring the southeast region of the United States. They are currently working on their next album. The band members are Mark Pecoraro (vocals), George Butler (guitar), Isiah Pierce (bass), and Paul O’Brien (drums). Paul took some time with me to talk about Pandemic.

How long has Pandemic been a band?

Paul: Currently we’ve been with Pandemic for a little over three years now. We spent the first year writing and recording our first album, and the last couple of years touring coast to coast, but mostly focusing on our region, the southeast. But, we’ve all known each other for a long time; over 10 years.  The years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, we were all in separate bands that played shows around New Orleans, and we used to joke whether we’d be in the same band. Well, Hurricane Katrina came and turned the whole scene upside down. All of our bands broke up for one reason or another, whether they were hurricane related or not. We regrouped and formed Pandemic, and here we are.

Describe Pandemic’s style of music?

Paul: I’ll call it straight up, modern rock. We take a lot of influence from classic rock like Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, and things of that nature, but I don’t think we sound anything like those bands.  We sound more like a modern day Incubus or a Soundgarden of sorts.  We all have our different backgrounds and natural influences. Personally, my youth was infatuated with metal, and that’s a big part of who I am as far as playing drums. But, I did go to California and went to contemporary music college and studied a lot of jazz, blues, and Latin percussion. When I went to school I didn’t want to learn what I already knew, I wanted to learn different things. So I draw influences from a lot of styles of music, and we all have the same mentality. We’re just looking for music that moves us.

Where are you guys based?

Paul: We’re based out of Mandeville, Louisiana. Isiah and George are Northshore natives, but Mark and I are from the south shore. I was born and raised in Kenner. You know, “I’m from Kenna, bra.” But, we all live in one house in Mandeville now. We still claim New Orleans when we go do shows out of town, because no one knows Mandeville. Everyone’s familiar with New Orleans.

Do ya’ll play a lot in New Orleans?

Paul: We try to play once every couple of months, so that way we really don’t split up our crowd. When we do shows in either New Orleans or the metro area, we like to draw big crowds. Every time we do play, we try to bring a new song or funny cover just to keep it interesting for the people that keep coming back. We’ve played at The Bar (Metairie), Southport Hall, the Howlin’ Wolf, and the House of Blues.

Is there a demand for your style in the area? Do any places have more of a demand than others?

Paul: Definitely Northshore, because simply we draw more people when we play there because it’s where we live. Our roots run deep on the Northshore. They run deep in the south shore too, but it's never going to be as packed as when we play the Northshore.

Where else are you guys reaching out to? Are you playing in other states?

Paul: We are. We do reach out to other states pretty often. As far as Louisiana goes: Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Shreveport, New Orleans, Mandeville, Covington, and Houma. We tear up Houma whenever we go down there and play at the City Club. And that’s Louisiana. That’s what we’re developing here in Louisiana. As far as out of state goes, Texas is like a home away from home by far. Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and even all the way down by the border where you can spit on Mexico, like Laredo. They treat us like family when we play there. For Alabama: they love us in Birmingham and Mobile. In Florida: Fort Walton and Orlando loves us. And, we have people in Georgia that we call family pretty much. Places like Atlanta, Columbus, and Macon. In those places I’ve mentioned, they have been our strongest shows. There have been many places we’ve played in between those cities, and those were more of a trial and error. It’s always a trial and error process, weeding out the venues that don’t treat bands right, like the promoters like the snakes in the grass that want to take whatever little money we get paid while we’re on the road. We’ve paid our dues and played at some pretty bad places. After you’ve been on the road for so long, you start to understand when it’s going to be a good night or not.  And, you start to know who to trust and who not to trust. We pride ourselves on being able to see through people that come up to us and offer us things we can already do for ourselves, or just see through the lies that they have.  There’s nothing worse than chasing some guy’s pipe dream to a dead end.  It’s just something to look out for, sort of a way of life on the road.

When you say, “see through the lies,” does that tie in with your CD titled Lessons in Trust in any way?

Paul: In a sense. Lessons in Trust is a vague representation of that as well as relationships, the system, and things like that. Mark wrote a lot of lyrics on the album, but from time to time we’ll all get together with a pen and a pad to come up with lyrics that really makes sense to us and that we feel people can relate to. When it comes to Pandemic lyrics, it’s a very collaborative effort. “Lessons in Trust” is a lyric that I picked out of one of the songs that Mark wrote. There’s a song on the album called “No one and Everyone” and the chorus starts out with those words. And, I said that was a good three-word statement that could sum up this whole record, and it sounds like a great title. Everyone agreed, and we just went forward with that title.

Any festivals or special gigs?

Paul: We’ve played many festivals in the past. We’re scheduled to do one in a couple of months in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at the Druid City Arts Festival (March 27). It’s a big festival for the school. They have a big outdoor stage all day with food and drinks. And, afterwards, I think they have all the bands playing at different clubs in the downtown area. With your festival ticket, I think you can get into those shows for free and hop around. We’re one of the bands that play during the day. That should be fun.

Is there something that makes your performance stand out from everyone else’s?

Paul: High energy. Extremely high energy. We pride ourselves on delivering when it comes to stage performance. It’s what we live for, and we’re always looking for ways to make it bigger and better. I mean, I can only do so much on the drum set, but I can speak for the other three guys that are upfront. I can tell you they do a lot of moving around, they run around and jump off of things, they bump into each other, and they laugh. I think the fact we have such a good time on stage, that energy passes along to the crowd. Big time. You know, you see us have a good time and it makes you feel at ease, I think. And, it makes it okay to have a good time instantly. Now, I can only say that from the inside looking out because I’ll never know what it’s like to see Pandemic live on stage. But, I know that feeling that people describe to me from personal experiences going to concerts and being moved like that. Enjoying a band on stage, it sets certain bands apart from others. And, we don’t toot our own horn or anything; we’re very humble pie about a lot of things. But, let’s just say we are extremely confident in our stage performance.

Anything that I missed that you’d like to add?

Paul: We are hitting the studio again. It’s been two years since we released Lessons in Trust. Our producer is Jeremy Parker, who’s worked with Mudvayne and Evanescence, and he’s got quite a reputation and is a really good friend of ours. He helps us out a lot as far as producing and recording and writing with us. As soon as he’s finished with the new Godsmack record, he’s flying in from Arizona and spending a few weeks with us in February. We are excited about that. It doesn’t have a title yet, but we’ve got a jump start on it with a few new songs. So we’re really excited to get back in the studio.