Jeff Pehrson (Vocals, acoustic guitar) and Jim Brunberg (Vocals, Guitars, Pedal Steel, etc) are the guitar player singer songwriters of Box Set. As a duo they have been together for nine years performing their super tight harmonies and melodic songs. Jim has been playing music since he picked up his father's banjo when he was eight years old. It wasn't until his post-college/slacker funk days that he started writing songs. Shortly after moving to San Francisco in 1989, Jim was playing the local coffeehouses and was spotted by Jeff Pehrson. They started playing together as a duo, and formed the full band two years later in 1993.

Jeff is a Bay Area native, born in the Haight\Ashbury District and raised, across the Bay Bridge, in San Leandro. He wrote his first song at 8, a rip-off of C.W. McCall's "Convoy", and found himself jonesing for a life of truck stop food, broken promises and the occasional musical performance. After a long stint at San Francisco State University, several garage bands and one pre-written improvisation troupe, Jeff met Jim at Simple Pleasures Coffee shop and Box Set was born. The full band, which brings a louder rock show has been playing together for seven years. Everyone in the band lives in the Bay Area but Jim who lives in Portland. Having toured with Willie Nelson, Rob and Bob, and Ratdog, Box Set is no stranger to large crowds and adulating fans.

With their eager stage personalities Box Set brings to mind many of the acts that were floating around the Bay Area during the early sixties. They're strumming and picking is reminiscent of the early New Riders. Throw in a little Byrds, Gram Parsons and David Nelson and you have an idea of the flavor of Box Set.

I hooked up with Jeff backstage at a Hot Tuna show where, as Jeff and Jim yakked with Jorma and Jack, I kept walking by the dressing room trying to overhear tidbits of stories. I covered some of this in last month's column. And by the way, the Promoter of the show is a great guy and should be commended for bringing talent to NorCal [editor's note: I suspect there's a bit of self-aggrandizement there in case you missed it]. That all said, it's time to get into the Box, ready, get Set, go!

DNA- Your management handles the Flying Other Brothers who does primarily old Airplane and Acid Rock tunes.

JEFF- Jim and I met Jorma, Jack, Pete Sear and GE Smith doing a workshop with them. The band is a bunch of rich guys who wanted to learn how to play the cover songs. So we all got together and jammed.

DNA- I grew up seeing great cover bands that would bide the time between real shows. Now it just seems so morbid.

JEFF- I saw about 50 or 60 Dead shows, but I was a music freak ever since I was a little kid picking up my tennis racket and pretending to be Ace Frehly of KISS. I was more into the heavier stuff as a kid, I loved Van Halen and AC/DC. It is weird how I ended up playing the kind of music that I do, but now it is what I enjoy and I can't listen to the stuff I used to. Our full band is rocking and loud though.

DNA- Have you ever signed to a label?

JEFF- We had a major deal with Polygram going and then they got sold.

DNA- To Seagrams….

JEFF- Right, and they were drunk obviously so they downsized and dropped 120 bands (laughs). Polygram had under its umbrella, A&M Records, Island Records and Capricorn Records. Now Capricorn folded….ever since losing us they just couldn't maintain(laughs). We had a contract for six records so they had to pay us to get out of the contract. We put out one album with them called Thread and we bought it back from them. We had a good lawyer going into it. Now we're on an Indy Label called Pop Mafia, we're the first band they've signed. The record just came out and it's called Lemonade and its doing well on College radio. The chorus is "100 in the shade, but she tastes like Lemonade." All our albums are available on-line at www.nowherexnowhere.com

DNA-How is it being with an Indy Label after being with a major?

JEFF- Good. They've hit it hard on college radio, where it took it off. Commercial radio starts this month. Christmas is hard for Indy's to release, because the majors are pushing Bare Naked Ladies and U2 and it's hard to compete.

DNA- Do you still shop around for a major?

JEFF- Yes, but we're wary now. We had 5 CD's on our own, so for us, it's back to our roots.. So if a major comes along we'll have some serious things to consider. Fact is things go fine without them. It's getting harder and harder to have success with the big labels. It's like the NFL now. They bring the coach in, just as they bring a band in, and if you don't have success in your first season, its, "fuck you." You're out. In the 60's and 70's they would bring an act in and allow them to mature and give them some space to figure out who the hell they are. So if the first or second record didn't sell, that's OK, because you're all working towards something and by the fourth or fifth record, bamm, they explode. Now it's like if you're not an overnight sensation, it's good bye. This is not conducive to art.

DNA- With labels merging left and right, the bottom line is that there is a return on the companies' investment. The side effect of all this is that there is a glut of great bands right now that cannot get signed. Jambands is testimony to that.

JEFF- Jambands is a great example. For instance, we toured with Leftover Salmon and they're amazing. Drew Emmet is one of the best players on the planet. I watched Sam Bush drop to his knees and pray to Drew one night. And those guys got a big record deal with Hollywood Records and nothing happened. What do you do with Leftover Salmon, they don't have a hot single. So what if they're the best players in the world, if you can't guarantee to make millions of dollars, nobody wants you. It's all about the cash, and it really always has been. When Jorma and Jack got signed to a label they were allowed a lot of time to learn as they went. Jorma was just talking about how on their first record for RCA, Surrealistic Pillow, and how they had no idea how to even play as a band. So they brought Jerry Garcia in to come in and arrange the whole album. Now, on your first album they want you to hurry up in the fucking studio and get it done. Rush, rush, rush.

DNA- And they're charging you $10,000 an hour to record.

JEFF- And it's all recoupable baby. So write your own songs everybody.

DNA- Wouldn't you say that the low-end of home recording has the ability to sound as good as many of the CD's from the Majors?

JEFF- If the song is good who gives a shit what the sound quality is, in my opinion.

DNA- What's the future for Box Set?

JEFF- Well the way this election turned out, I think it points to the Chaos that is coming.

DNA- Within the chaos is change.

JEFF- I hope you're right. Right around election time we did two National Anthems. We did an Oakland Raider Game and a Giants game, and at both of them I wore a big ass Nader pin. I tried my best to get Raider fans to vote for Nader. When Polygram dumped us I wrote to Michael Moore, author of Downsize This, and he wrote back a really cool letter.

DNA- He would make a great president. Moore in '04. It's a figurehead position anyway, and at least he would be entertaining during the State of the Union Address.

JEFF- I tend to watch the BBC news, it's more honest. During the election, they had on Michael Moore and he said that, "if George Bush wins, everyone in America will have one thing in common. They'll be able to say 'I'm smarter than the president.'"