Peter III: It started out as just my father and me. I couldn’t even tell you when we started to actually play together; I believe it was 7 or 8 years ago. We were just trying out the music thing as father and son, and then we started to record ideas. I even remember the name of the song, “Sunrise in Paradise”. We had tried recording this song and a few others; when we sent it to Jens, he happened to have an idea in his head and put clarinet on the song. It turned it from a regular old jamming in the garage song to an intelligent sounding piece. The band name was conceived by my father, myself, and an old friend from high school throwing ideas around the room. We started to get on a water theme, and eventually I screamed Feisty Piranhas. We thought nothing of it at the time, but my father and his handy dandy notebook brought the idea up later some time, and we ended up using the idea.

Jens: I joined the group by "accident". Peter Sr. and I got together for an earlier art project and when it came to designing a logo for the band (at the time two members) he called me and asked me to come up with some ideas. Doing so he also sent me a few short demo songs. When I listened to them I had an idea to play and add a melody over one of the songs, to show them what it could sound like with a clarinet. The demo was far from being good but at the time the two Peters thought it was something out of the ordinary and liked the idea, so they made me their 3rd member.

Peter Sr: It is very interesting from the father’s perspective. As the normal day to day things that a father is responsible for needs to be done and I try to be a good father always setting the path for Peter and my other children to follow, yet once Peter Alex and I enter to studio and get behind our musical instruments, that all seems to disappear and total focus of just putting out good music and good performances is the only goal.

Peter III: It actually makes it harder for me. Fathers and sons naturally don’t get along, so when you mix music and a father with a large ego and a son with an even bigger one, it gets pretty hectic. It helps amazingly in being able to know what each other is going to do musically. We bond together pretty well, once we get into the “Zone” we are unstoppable. There are lots of arguments, mostly between my father and myself. These only strengthen the music and the band. The arguments also help me write new lyrics; and hopefully on this next record you’ll be able to hear a lot of the aggression and depression in the lyrics. Jens and I see eye to eye very much. I see him as a big brother, because I was always only into Punk music growing up, but Jens helped me break out of the bubble of only listening to punk. Now I have a huge musical library, music is my life and I think that’s what brings us all together.

Peter Sr: No my father was a journalist, historian and an author who courageously stopped the merciless killing of baby seals.

Peter Sr: Yes. My mother Evelyn Heymansohn was an opera and pianist on the Lawrence Welk Show in the 1950’s. She was a strong influence in me sticking with an instrument. She started me on piano and then guitar and I finally settled on the drums. She bought me my first drum kit at 10 years and put them in the dungeons of the 350 year old house I was brought up in Montreal Canada. So up to now I have been playing drums for 35 years.

Jens: Yes, as funny as it seems my father Reinhard Schnabel actually was a pretty good singer and he also could play some simple rhythm on acoustic guitar. My brother is a trumpet and harmonica (blues harp) player, our sister used to play the piano.

Jens: No, the actual change from music scenes was not difficult; it's more a development than change. My advice to other musicians who'd like to come to LA - that's not a simple question, but it really comes down to the individual's goal as a musician. Don't ever think you're going to be discovered because you come to LA. The rules are almost the same everywhere, probably even stricter here, because this city is so overloaded with bands and musicians. So DON'T come here to get discovered, come here to learn and develop.

Jens: Thank you for your compliments! I always wanted to be a musician from an early age on. But somehow at the age of 14 I discovered art and began to practice drawing, later painting. It was so difficult to do something well therefore I concentrated full time on it and played my instrument in between painting sessions. At the time I played with a Big Band and a small ensemble. Sometimes I'd also play little jazz tunes accompanied by a piano. I had reached a certain level musically that I was content with and with the "new" discovery of art and a certain basic gift (if you will) that I brought along, I tried to reach the same level in art as in music. Both are essential to my being, I can't go too long without either one of them. The biggest problem with the band is that my personal art suffers massively while concentrating on the band-projects; they are not only time-consuming but always interlinked with each other. I used to work for the WB Studios' Scenic Art Department for about 10 years but I finally decided to concentrate on what I really want to do and if I wouldn't have quit my work, I would not have been able to get ready for all the life shows, not even talking about all the projects that go along with it and the recording of our album. It's a full time job, if one takes something like that seriously.

Peter Sr.: Stay focused on an instrument. Always take lessons from those whom are willing to teach. Always look for new musicians with different styles and try to pick up the slight nuances that make them unique. Then constantly work to improve with this input. It is the key to developing your own style that will stand out when you apply the knowledge of others. Always be humble and appreciative, as there are always musicians that are better. With this recipe you will always stay true to music.

Peter Sr: I have always believed that every person needs to stand on 2 legs in the world. By this I mean that you must have a profession that can earn continuous income to support family, children, marriage, the dream of a home, life in general and in the end the love or music that is the other leg. Then to have fun in life all people need a strong hobby that keeps the mind busy. In my case I put my business and engineering first and then with all the time left over I put it into playing music. I try to do both to the best I can. In the end my hope is that the effort and strong music ability will result in our Feisty Piranhas music being enjoyed by everyone that listens. The Aerospace people whom work with me in my profession are appreciative of what we are trying to do, because we are trying our best to create the best music we can with quality and intelligence. These are the same attributes that are needed as an Aerospace Engineer.

Peter III: I have to say that recently graduation from high school has definitely opened my life up. My High school experience was nothing more than a prison where people THINK they know how to teach you and your peers still act like 3rd graders. Unfortunately in this world, you can’t do anything without a full education, so kids, STAY IN SCHOOL!!! Minarik Guitars has made music easier for me; before I met Marc Minarik, I would always struggle to find “the tone” in the studio. Any guitar player knows what I mean when I say “the tone”. Once I got an inferno I could all of a sudden be able to get the ideas in my head on protools and I wouldn’t have to tweak the sound for hours on end to get the sound I wanted. Now with having a Minarik Manta at my disposal along with every shape Minarik makes, I will be forever in the studio with a smile on my face. I have gotten College to give me a relatively simply schedule which will give me more time to write and produce this next record.

Peter III: Stay in school, it sucks, but you’ll survive it and then you can get on with your life.

Jens: To write music with a new sound, that meets the expectations of our listeners. To be the best musicians we can be and in the end just have some fun.

Peter Sr: My personal influences are Rush, led Zeppelin, Cheap Trick, Elton John, The beatles, The Babies, Styx, Buddy Rich.

Peter III: My influences would really be too long to list. I grew up listening to pop punk and Rush, later in life Jens got me into Blues and old school rock and roll. I’d say my overall top 5 would be: 1: NoFX 2: Bad Religion 3: Pink Floyd 4: AC/DC 5: Pepper

Jens: The list ranges from the 1960's all the way into the new century.

Peter III: I really don’t know how to explain it. It has a large element of Punk rock in it, but it doesn’t come out as punk at all. I always like to have our music be as melodic as possible. I like to have a balance between the fast political punk songs and the tasteful emotional songs. I really don’t want to limit ourselves to any style or styles. If I start to get into reggae, I’m not going to limit myself from writing reggae songs just because it’s not our “Style”. For a short answer: mature pop punk with blues, hard rock and classic rock elements.

Peter Sr: The band has taken the position that we each need to have our own unique influences and specialties to make us overall successful. In this Peter Alex writes all the music, melodies, plays guitars and does all the primary vocals, Jens takes care of any and all things that are visual with the band and writes the lead clarinet and plays the clarinet, Peter Sr, handles all the business and managing aspects for the band and writes all the percussions and plays all the drums.

Peter III: We recorded most of the shows from our 2006 “SHOCKED” tour and created a mini-tour-DVD. It includes a truly breathtaking collage of photos from the tour along with 5 full music videos from venues including The Roxy, The Whisky Agogo, 14 Below, and Warped Tour.

Peter III: It feels great, I’m glad that people acknowledge the record and I hope these chart listings and nominations will help more people hear of our band and check us out.

Peter III: We’re working on a new record. I’ve been writing songs since the day after our “SHOCKED” tour ended. We’ll go into preproduction in the end of September and hopefully we’ll have a cd ready for release in the first or second quarter of 2007. This next record is going to be a much more mature record. It’s going to be a concept record about the end of the world. The best I can tell you at this point is that the record is coming from the perspective of a young adult who finds out that there is 24 hours left in the world. It’s going to include political, religious, spiritual, and emotional aspects that go through your head when you’re put in this position.

Peter III: You can get our record on Itunes, Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, yahoomusic.com, rhapsody.com, towerrecords.com, and newartistsonline.com... of course you can always check out our website also: www.thefeistypiranhas.com. I also have been working on a myspace page for the band at: www.myspace.com/feistyp

Jens: We're not quite like other bands, simply because of the different characters that the band is made of and the search for a new sound, that is evident on our first release, with all the different musical directions, from "What Happened", "Desert Piranhas" over "Don't Leave" to "Perfect Life". That's another trademark of the band and will continue to be.

Peter Sr: We would like to give special hanks to those you have supported the band. Marc Minarik, and Minarik Guitars, Piranha Music, Madfish® Publications, My loving wife and Peter III’s mother - Ruth, Scott Haas and Hear Technology, West LA Music and Glenn Noyes, Tony Brock, Chris Delisa, Heather Naylor, Will MacGregor our new incoming BASS Player, Ford Drums, Ryan Paco our dedicated Drum technician, Soren Powers, Tyler Raynard, Lil’ Cuddy, Damian Greenberg, The whole road crew, Station 22 and Noah Clark video productions, CD Man and All Access magazine, and all those fans who supported us and came out to the shows, buy our CD’s and give us the moral support that is so important. 2006 has been a good run for the Feisty Piranhas. I hope next year will even be better. Thanks to AAM who truly showed genuine interest in the band and didn't just come with empty words but with great support!

Peter Sr: With the new Live DVD released on August 22, 2006, we will start to work on new venues. The dates and places are TBD right now but keep posted on our website for updates. Also all those whom email us at info@TheFeistyPiranhas.com will be put on our email listing and will get updates as they happen.