Photo via Ladybird/Bandcamp
Ladybird
“Want to be in my Drive-By Truckers rip-off band?”
Pete McDermott’s sales pitch for recruiting members into his new alt-country band Ladybird certainly seemed to undersell the product. One could argue that in McDermott’s defense, it was likely difficult to foresee that the band would hit Milwaukee’s music scene as if it had been here all along—releasing a four-song EP shortly after announcing the band’s existence, packing a debut show at Cactus Club and then embarking on a short weekend tour out east. But considering the amount of dedication McDermott is putting towards the project, one might also suspect that he knows exactly what he’s doing.
“It’s like I’m betting on myself,” McDermott says. “I believe in these songs and even just saying that out loud—it makes a lot more sense.”
McDermott is more recognizable as the Milwaukee-based folk singer Pete Freeman—who made a splash on the internet with his musical response to Vogue’s 2018 article attempting to spread nation-wide awareness of Milwaukee’s coolness. Under that name, he’s released two full-length albums, two EPs and the oft-requested “Front Row Amy” single, a love song dedicated to the Milwaukee Brewers superfan.
More Serious Approach
And if the theme of that song doesn’t make it obvious enough, Pete Freeman navigated its storytelling with a light-hearted tone that often teetered into the realm of tongue-in-cheek humor. Ladybird, on the other hand, sees McDermott taking a more serious approach to his writing.
“The themes I notice now having listened to these songs a million times deal with dreams and broken dreams—of loss and growth and nostalgia,” McDermott says. “All that shit that I spend a lot of time thinking about but wasn’t really comfortable putting into words until now.”
On Ladybird’s debut release, titled Introducing..., McDermott maintains his typical storytelling style of singing throughout the four tracks, but this time around the tales are the type that you might expect to be told from a friend while drinking a beer at the end of a hard day. There are lessons learned and hindsight thoughts, but overall, a message of perseverance.
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Which makes a lot of sense considering the events that led up to the birth of Ladybird—McDermott left his longtime job as a school social worker, pouring money that he had saved up into a dream of playing rock and roll music with his friends (i.e. taking a chance on what really makes him happy.) It’s that sort of Millennial version of the American dream—quit your job and do what makes you happy.
And for those who find a dirty taste left in their mouth from the word “country,” Ladybird is just as much a rock-and-roll band as it is a country band—like Donny and Marie Osmond have been known to sing. Opening track “Zoomer” kicks off the EP and sets the pace at an exciting trot, as McDermott laments “I’ve got a beer buzz and a broken dream/So I crack my fifth can and I scream.” And that pace hardly lets up throughout the duration of the EP. Overdriven guitars and melancholic leads are the stars of this show—something that wouldn’t be found in much of Pete Freeman’s discography.
“There’s so much more energy than the whole singer-songwriter folk musician thing,” McDermott says.
So, with an album that opens up with a line about broken dreams, and with dreams and aspirations playing a large role in the DNA of Ladybird’s sound, it begs the question of what McDermott’s new goal might be now that his life has drastically changed. “Well, I’d love to be Bruce Springsteen,” McDermott says with a grin. “I just want to tour and play live music for people.”
To hear Ladybird’s music, visit bandcamp at: ladybirdmke.bandcamp.com/album/introducing
