16 Pounds of Pet

The OFFICIAL Bio Page

Once upon a time, there were three guys, well, actually two, and they decided to start a band because they are best friends and they both loved music (isn’t that how most bands start out?). 16 Pounds of Pet began their career in late 1997, under the name of Catharsis (they were Goth). They have had a revolving door at the Bass Guitar position since the band started, although that has since changed. 16 Pounds of Pet became the official name of the band in 1999 when the band recorded a 15 song demo. It was produced, and recorded at Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC (if that is not a promo, then I don’t know what is!). It took a period of two and a half months for the whole album to be completed. But, enough about that, here’s the band (in no particular order)!

Alex Beaumont- Guitar, Vocals, Bass

Natticus Maximus- Drums

Patrick Hefner-Guitar, Vocals, Bass

In the beginning Patrick was in various bands with the most recent one (before 16 Pounds of Pet) being Anti. Anti was together for about 4 months and played a few shows, with their final show being the farewell for a local Hardcore band named Deadlock. Patrick and Anti soon parted ways and each party moved on to other activities. A few weeks later, Patrick joined up with the rest of Deadlock, minus the singer and formed a new band called One Adam 12. It lasted for about 6 weeks before Patrick blew out the speaker in his amp. So that ended his very brief stint in a hardcore band. He soon joined up with Alex and they began to jam as often as they could. Alex and Natticus had been jamming together previously, but Natticus went on to be the drummer in another band called Melodious Culture. So when Patrick arrived on the scene, it was just he and Alex. They were able to then get a string of Bass players such as Monty James, Seth Jones, some other dude, some girl, and finally Amber Grant. None of them recorded any demos with the band, although Monty has been recorded on some of the bands earliest videos that they made on their home video camera (you know, the old ones that were huge and used VHS tapes!). Amber played one show with the band, but they soon parted ways when she could not make practice anymore. So the band returned to a two piece until late November of 2001 when Patrick returned home from Spokane, WA. Alex and Natticus had been jamming together for the previous few months and had begun playing new material. Alex had written a few new tunes when he was in the Philippines. He actually entered one into a local radio station contest and almost won. When Patrick returned, the band was finally whole. They quickly wrote new songs and revived some old tunes from a few of Patrick’s other bands and quickly had an impressive list of 30 or more songs to play. The most impressive one is entitled “We’re Straightedge like Henry Rollins”. The song started out as an improvised jam, but after playing it a few times, the band came up with a strong rhythm for the song. The band has a great knack for following each other while playing.

All of the songs the band has recorded have been without a Bass player. Natticus Maximus was brought in to play Drums in the band, so now Alex and Patrick play Bass whenever the other is playing Guitar. This is the current (and hopefully final) lineup for the band. The band plays primarily Hard Rock music right now, but the band is thinking of taking a new direction in the way of Folk Metal, maybe they can pull it off.

The bands main influences are bands like Nirvana, The Melvins, Faith No More, The Pixies, to name just a few. Many influences will come and go, but these are the main ones.