pillbelly

Band: pillbelly

Members: Tara Seaks, 22 (vocals), Caleb Banas, 23 (guitar)

Where'd the name come from? Banas: It was kind of like my modern tribute to Lead Belly. I wanted an alias to use while just playing around, so that was my little tribute to him. . . . I always put (the P in pillbelly) lowercase. It keeps it kind of low profile, like our music. It's not rock-star stuff. We're just doing what we love.

You two are also both in a metal band, The Ghost of Hannah. How did this side project start? Seaks: We started off playing acoustic music together when we were 15, 16 years old. It ended up being a full band with a completely different sound until we decided we really needed two different outlets because we both share so many different emotions that just can't be portrayed in one project.

Who are your influences? Seaks: It probably ranges from lighter acoustic stuff like Bright Eyes or alternative stuff like Sheryl Crow or heavier influences like the Deftones. Anything that's really emotional really drives us to be musicians.

Worst song on the radio right now? Seaks: My Chemical Romance, "(Welcome to) The Black Parade." I don't know what it is about that song, but I hear it so often, it just drives me insane.

Banas: I think anything by Nickelback bothers the hell out of me.

Who is your biggest musical guilty pleasure? Seaks: For me, it's Justin Timberlake.

Banas: I'm a big, big Tori Amos fan, so I get picked on a lot by the guys in our metal band.

What songs do you like to cover? Seaks: We've done "Heaven Beside You" by Alice in Chains, an acoustic version of that that I absolutely love doing. Besides that, the one I would love for us to be able to do . . . is "Tomorrow" by Silverchair.

Banas: Tara does a cover of "Hey You" by Pink Floyd that I really enjoy. We also do "Twenty Years" by Placebo that I always think comes out really nice.

Plug one other local band: Banas: We have a good friend in Ninetail, and they're doing some wonderful things for themselves right now.

There's a real dearth of women in the local music scene. How's it feel to front a metal band of all dudes and have a duo with another guy? Is it intimidating at all, or do you just kick ass and take names? Seaks: I pretty much kick ass and take names. For me, I tend to connect better to at least the guys I've met and played music with. . . . Caleb is simply my musical soul mate, and as long as I'm playing with him, it really doesn't matter who else is there.

Shoutouts: Seaks: Anyone who's come into contact with us in the entirety of our lives. Everyone is important to who we are and what we do.

- JASON COX, FLIPSIDE STAFF