Little Pieces Bio

Little Pieces

Biography

Rachel Pardieck vocals & guitar
Bobby Kinne bass | Mike Watson drums

Little Pieces is a tight, 3 piece rock outfit, fronted by the lovely Rachel Pardieck on guitar and vocals, and backed by swinging Bobby Kinne on bass and metronome-precise drummer Mike Watson. They create music that is full of energy and beauty, meaning and fun. Sensual love ballads such as Speak the Beauty ["You can feel me in the warmth all around you/You can taste me as salt upon your lips"] provide the soft, feminine side expected in a "chick" band, while darker elements drive the intensity of deeply emotional songs, calling to mind the lush sounds of rock sensation Evanescence. There is Forsaken, a song about losing a dream, dressed as a dark love epic written to that absent lover. ["You were my everything/You were all the best of me/You brought out the best then left the rest of me/You've let me down so hard I can't breathe"] And there's Psychopath, a half spoken, half sung, quirky story a la Ani Difranco, about a seemingly harmless relationship begun on the bar scene that quickly turned messy ["I should have known better/Than to have grown attached/To a psychopath/ Psychopath/ Psychopath"]. Little Pieces' music is in fact full of dark emotions and powerful, universal themes experienced by anyone who's ever been in love, ever been dumped, or ever felt disappointed by where life has led them. Since those characterize just about everybody at one point or another, the little pieces of Little Pieces are easy to relate to.

So now you're saying, golly, that sounds good, but it's kind of a downer. What about the fun of rock and roll? Well hold on my friend, because Little Pieces has its share of silliness too. You see, Little Pieces has its roots first and foremost in the punk scene of the mid to late '90s. In fact, all 3 members' first Charleston bands were punk bands, all 3 of which coincidentally ended up on the same compilation disc, circa 1998, Holy City Punks. That is where Rachel developed her second-to-none lungs (declared "easily Charleston's best voice" 1999, Charleston Free Times), Bobby got his drive with effortless feel, and Mike got his chops for speed. When Little Pieces formed about 2 years ago, it took some effort and experimentation to combine Rachel's blossoming acoustic songwriting-- influenced by such quintessential writers as Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne-- into the rock format for which they all yearned. In doing so, Little Pieces created complex, lyrical stories, infused them with an edge, and wove them into a framework of playfulness and simplicity. In the great words of both Rachel and Mike's favorite songstress Juliana Hatfield, simplicity is beautiful.

Little Pieces has now been playing on the scene in Charleston, SC for a couple of years with occasional jaunts outside the area to as far away as Boston, MA. They've refined their live performance, put together their repertoire, and built a small but very loyal following. They are currently recording their first full length CD, tentatively titled "All the Things We Never Said" for release in 2004. They have over 2 hours of original music, fortified with an hour's worth of cover songs, with such notables as Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and Nirvana's "Breed". Little Pieces is available for bookings.