No Small Children are not your average rock band.  Teachers by day and rockers by night.  In between, DIY musicians who have done all the work involved in being in a band such as merchandise, recording, booking shows, and getting the buzz out about them.  There is one thing you can be sure is they will create a great buzz for you when you see them with their music, edgy performance and energetic shows.  No Small Children have followed their own lesson plans and while they educate their students by day are providing solid rock and roll and a completely different life style after school as the Los Angeles based band have been performing since 2012.  Guitarist and singer Lisa Pimentel and drummer Nicola Berlinsky decided to start the band while covering recess duty one day. They soon had a new EP, Dear Youth, a plethora of shows and a tour of the East Coast booked.  Joanie Pimentel joined the group as bass player after moving to Los Angles and the music and fun have not stopped.  The band has released three albums, toured relentlessly and have made several outstanding videos and also have gained plenty of attention with their music.  NSC has made a name for themselves in the music scene with their single “Ghostbusters” featured in the recent remake of the Ghostbusters movie and is released on RCA.  One of their other singles,  “Big Steps” has been featured on the Netflix original series ‘Santa Clarita Diet’ starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant, and they have toured across the U.S. most recently performing at the Unity Ball at the end of the Women’s March in DC, earlier this year.

 

In 2014, NSC released their LP, “Trophy Wife”, toured both east and west coasts and played three shows at SXSW.  No Small Children’s new singles were produced by the legendary, Bob Marlette (Rob Zombie, Black Sabbath, Filter, etc…). The band released their third album, “Hold Tight, I’m Flying”, in July 2015. The later was produced by Lisa Pimentel and mixed by Bob Marlette.

 

“No Small Children invites everyone along for the ride, said Nicola. If you’re at our show, we want you to be part of the party. If you find yourself singing along, sing loud. We love hearing from people we’ve met on tour as well as people who listen to us from across the world. We take making music very seriously, but laugh at ourselves all the time. And yes, it is true. We are all elementary school teachers.”  We are all elementary school teachers at the same school in North Hollywood, California. Lisa and Joanie teach music, and Nicola teaches fourth grade. Lunch breaks frequently become band meetings, and bi-weekly band practices become opportunities to help each other develop new ways of reaching our students. We are equally passionate about both teaching and music, and we consider ourselves having parallel careers. To juggle both, we have to remain extremely organized and drink lots of coffee. Although we kept our band quiet at first, our students now know most of our music and wear our t-shirts to school.”

 

Who influenced us the most? I think we’d each say our parents. But musically, we all have different favorites. You can hear the influence of the Beatles and years teaching and playing in big bands in Lisa’s song writing, as well as her years of drumming in hardcore bands in her front women stage presence. Joanie’s love for Aretha Franklin and years fronting an R&B band come through loud and clear vocally and in her bass playing. On the drums, Nicola brings a passion for ‘70’s and early 80’s rock, from Led Zeppelin to Devo.”

 

There is a lot to love about their music, as it won’t take long to hook you. 

“Heavy guitars, big drums beats, melodic, harmonic, fun, fast and slow, reckless and methodical, catchy, irreverent, says Lisa.  I find it difficult to describe our music to people without playing a few songs for them. When we say “pop/punk”, people think of like Sum41 or something (and we don’t sound anything like that). We don’t like to say we are “punk” because, even though we have some punky songs, we are not “really” punk and it makes us feel "uneasy" to say that we are. We are not pop….’cause…yeah.... I guess “Alternative Rock” is the best way to describe No Small Children. It’s a nice big umbrella.

The way we talk about our music to our students is the same way we talk about it with everyone. We are way into it and they love that. Many of our students have started their own bands and have even played gigs. It’s awesome.”

 

NSC hit the airwaves and made some solid waves with their version of the Ghostbusters theme song that coincided with the release of the new updated film.  “Our Ghostbusters placement came through a very very VERY lucky sequence of events, said Lisa. It was one of those, “you never know” situations. We played a Halloween show and dressed up as “Ghostbusters”. We thought it would be fun to play the song because, “who you gonna call?” is irresistible to any audience. Just try saying it around someone!! Lol. The place went nuts when we played the song so we decided to record it. Shortly after, we found out about the movie coming out so we started trying to find people we knew who were working on the film. One huge advantage to living in LA is that you rub shoulders with film and TV people everywhere! We managed to get the song to the director through a person we know. SIX MONTHS after we sent it off, we got a call on a Friday before they were locking the film. We had forgotten about it. ...it had been so long! We had two hours to get our lawyer to look at it and send it back all signed. It was a great day!”

 

“Radio” is our newest song and was produced by the legendary producer, Bob Marlette, said Lisa. He also produced Red Sun Rising. RSR got us connected with Annabelle’s in Akron last summer, which ended up being one of our favorite shows of the tour. They all came to the show too…Mike, Ryan, Pat and Ricky.  We wanted to write a song that made us feel like kids in summer again… that had a smell and color…and this came out. (Joanie is going to call me a hippie for saying this)

 

 

“People can expect tons of energy coming from the stage, said Nicola. Our live sound is more thrashy, raw, and reckless than our recordings. Expect people to start singing along, even if they didn’t plan on it. We are school teachers after all. Expect us to want to meet you after the show. We love getting to know who is in the room.”

 

With all of the music, show and videos, one might not realize that everything for the most part has been DIY and that has involved a lot of hard work and effort by the band.   Lisa said, “I wonder if people know how much work having a DIY band is? We text each other all day and every day to stay on top of everything. To write songs, rehearse, record, make artwork, print and promote music takes a lot of time. So does booking shows and following through with everything that comes down the pipeline ‘cause “you never know”. Social media, photo shoots, engineering and editing, interviews, evolving our gear situation constantly, keeping track and following through with every time we say “yes”, designing and agreeing on merchandise, schlepping gear, dress shopping, fighting and making up, playing shows and practicing our instruments (yes we still practice) all while having band practice twice a week, holding down a full time job and being a loving, devoted wife in half of a marriage. There is no other way. This (and much more) is what every DIY band has to do. We can’t afford (yet) to have a band if we don’t work, and we can’t work if we don’t have a band…cause we are rock chicks (for life).”

 

As for success, it has come naturally for the band but going from opening act at a major festival to headlining the main night the following year is hard to follow up. “It is hard to say. We have had a lot of amazing moments and they are all relative to where we were when they happened, said Lisa. Our perspective changes with each growth spurt lol. Like when we played as an opening act at The Tweed Festival. We couldn’t believe they asked our little rock trio to play at this big festival. It was the best thing EVER. Then a year later we played as a headliner on Saturday night and we couldn’t believe that either. We keep pushing ourselves and setting our sights higher. We like to think that the next thing will be the biggest accomplishment…because the growing and evolving is what keeps us going.

 

 

As for there mission and message to the world Lisa said, “I don’t think NSC ever talked about this before but I do think of it more like many little messages that all point in one direction, a direction where everyone is invited to the party. I guess that’s why you have a band…so you can write songs and you don’t have to talk about your message to the world.  In our classrooms, we have a lot to say to our kids about being kind and compassionate and grateful. If you start with that and then do your work, great things can happen...and your art is better too. In the band, we try to walk the walk and hope it makes a difference. Sometimes we have to rise up and make a stand, but mostly our music speaks for us.”

 Nicola added, “Do YOU loud and proud. We don’t fit into a standard music industry box and we’re cool with that. Nobody owes us anything and nothing beats hard work. Say “Yes” to amazing life experiences and just keep going.”

 

No Small Children serve up an A+ in music and entertainment and deliver with solid quality energized with a lesson that is sure to keep you coming back for more.