When Ivan was on the road with his previous band, they had a show one night where they opened for Peter Bjorn and John. Ivan texted me from the stage before their set saying the adrenaline everywhere was incredible and he wished that one day we’d be playing in front of die hard fans just as he was about to that night.
It was back before we started Pinto and the Bean. I still had a day job and I was back home in Chicago just…day jobbin’ and writing music.
He had told me the stories of being on the road, living off McDonald’s $1 menu, crashing on random couches, being flown out to different cities to shoot music videos, and the ups and downs of being signed to a major record label.
When we formed this band, we decided that all we needed were our vocals, Ivan’s drums and my guitar. Everything else would fall into place. We dove head first into the Chicago music scene, and have since performed incredible festivals, toured various cities, recorded two albums, shot some pretty cool music videos, and met amazing new fans who have become friends along the way.
Fast forward to today…I’m not even sure how we got here…but Pinto and the Bean has gone through dramatic ups and downs both. We’ve survived heavy bruising and broken bones yet we’re still here. I truly believe what makes a band work goes far beyond the music though, cause no matter what happens…shit will always get in the way of where you’re going in life. Somehow, this band survived battles that many others lose. Ivan is like a brother to me, and it may take that kind of relationship to push through tough times and stay focused on what’s most important…the music.
Our record Transit-Eons, is just a play on the word ‘transitions’. We aren’t the same people now as we were even a year ago. It’s as if though the world around us has shifted and we’re living a new reality. My publisher, who has placed my own music on various popular shows such as the Real World, Road Rules, L.A. Ink, Smallville, Catfish, and countless others, commented that our new songs weren’t as “MTV friendly” as our previous music. That kind of got me in a funk for a day, but then I thought to myself, why on earth should we need to please anyone but ourselves?
To our surprise, as soon as we got our first reviews of the record in, they were RAVE reviews and a number of the critics actually considered the songs to be some of the best of the year. One critic in fact, happened to be a guy who helped launch the career of 30 Seconds to Mars back when they were just starting out…and it’s damn cool that he really dug what we’re doing with our new sound.
We’ve got enough new material to release at least 2 more EPs and we’re stoked about that. One of our unreleased songs we’re very proud of is called “Rabbit Hole”. It’s not currently available for sale or anywhere on the web for that matter. We’d love to give that song to you here as a free download gift. It’s only accessible to our mailing list subscribers as a thank you for joining us on this musical journey. Click Here To Get It.
If you like the track, you might also consider checking out our Transit-Eons EP. It’s the record that’s been recently receiving the rave reviews mentioned above. Wee wrote and recorded it ourselves in our home studio, which was a first, and we’re quite proud of it :).
Talk soon!