Standing in the reality that musical seeds planted long ago continue to grow. . . harkening back to the soulful delivery of another era . . .

Pet Buffalo brings some musical and poetic insights to the table with Independent Variable, a testament to the values of peace, tolerance, and self-discovery -- helping us move through the wall of fog.

Led by singer/guitarist Teri Hitt and pianist/vocalist Christopher Mark Lopez, Pet Buffalo’s roots extend back to 2003, when Teri and Christopher met and first began playing music together.

The name, Pet Buffalo, is in homage to Teri’s Cherokee roots.

“The buffalo is symbolic of the land 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 released their debut CD, Independent Variable. Produced with Nashville veteran Brian David Hardin, Independent Variable makes the best parts of the 60’s and 70’s, the search for truth beyond the surface; feel like new again. Christopher’s Hammond B-3 raises the chorus to anthemic heights in songs like Station Open.  “Teri’s vocals are powerful and passionate, displaying range, warmth, and an unforgettable vibrato”.

ABOUT INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

“Free Yourself leads off the CD because I believe that if you can’t free yourself you’re left to live in the shadows of all the conceptions you carry around,” she says, “and that can get pretty heavy”.

Sounds on Independent Variable include Fender Rhodes keyboard Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, Cello, Acoustic and Electric Guitar, and Percussion. There’s also morse code at the beginning of Station Open that really does say “Station-Open”.

“My focus in making this CD was to do my best to make sure the message and total feeling that I had imagined for each one got translated into the recording.

Anyone that records music knows that it isn’t as easy as it may seem. Brian David Hardin made it as easy as it could possibly be and I think we were successful.”   — Teri

The simple and perfect guitar lead, slightly reminiscent of Steely Dan, that begins “The Letter;” really stands out as does the stately and gorgeous melody that create 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 album, “The songs are about waking up and realizing the way things are, but also that you can actually have an effect on the world through your attitude (your frequency) and how you think about yourself.  Independent Variable came to me as a way of putting that -- 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, the commonality in us all.” 

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.  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.

Moving beyond the surface, the music seeks new truths by creating connections between the best of our past and our present.

“It’s vital we all recognize the place we are in now. This time, this place, these energies. We can pass through the key hole. Indeed we are doing it.”

Independent Variable will convince any open-minded listener of Pet Buffalo’s sincerity and commitment to music, love and humanity.

—Written by Ben Lazar  (with a few changes by Teri & Christopher)
http://www.adeepershadeofsoul.blogspot.com/