New Jersey rock act Jet Jaguar is hitting the scene hard with their first single Anvil. Jet Jaguar’s music is very reminiscent of blink-182 and Sum 41 to me — some of my favorite music I listened to growing up.
The band is fronted by vocalist Pete Zengerle, previously of Standby Records‘ Hang Tight. Their style stems from the classic heavier rock like Guns N’ Roses and Motörhead, mixed with a bit of pop-punk.
Drummer Pete Benigno of the band was kind enough to share an exclusive play-through of the single Anvil, and give us a brief biography of how he got started, his gear, and his influences.
Have a watch below.
“Hey guys, my name is Pete Benigno, 22 years old from Marlboro, NJ, and currently the drummer for Jet Jaguar!
I first got into music by getting super into Guitar Hero in middle school. I sucked at the guitar in the game, but for some reason, the drums came more naturally to me. After maybe a year of jamming with friends as a Guitar Hero band, I decided I wanted to play real drums.
When I was 14, I started taking drum lessons from a man named Joe Febb. As most beginners do, I loved classic rock music, drumming to songs by Bon Jovi, The Beatles, Deep Purple, and Van Halen.
Shortly after that, I discovered drummers like Tre Cool from Green Day and Dominic Howard from Muse, which introduced a whole new style of music to me.
The faster paced and more precise style of drumming helped me build up some speed and stamina in my playing.
It wasn’t shortly after that that I discovered the band blink-182. After hearing the song “All The Small Things,” I was instantly obsessed with the band and wanted to learn as many songs as I could.
Travis Barker inspired me, and I wanted to be exactly like him. Not only did I want to play like him, but I set up my drum set to be like his. I wanted the same cymbals, snare drum, and even his signature drum sticks.
Travis Barker and Tre Cool are two of the greatest drummers who rose to fame in the 1990s.
To this day, he’s one of my biggest influences and, drumming for almost ten years now, I have dived into many different genres of music such as alternative rock, funk, metalcore, hardcore, pop-punk, and pop-rock.
I currently use a vintage Yamaha Beech Custom maple wood drum kit with all DW hardware. I have DW 3000 double kick pedals and hi-hat stand, an 8×10 Orange County Drum and Percussion maple 14″ vented snare drum, all Zildjian A Custom cymbals, Remo drum heads, and Vic Firth extreme 5B drumsticks.
Some drummers I currently look up to are Chris Turner from Oceans Ate Alaska, Josh Manuel from Issues, and Matt Greiner from August Burns Red.
I’m stoked to be able to implement my musical background and influences into Jet Jaguar’s music, and I’m grateful for the amount of support we have gotten after only being a band for a few months. I hope you enjoyed the playthrough and thanks for reading!”
Follow Pete Benigno and Jet Jaguar
