Maybe you've noticed Pezzettino has been silent lately. And maybe you've seen ZETI all over Twitter. It's not coincidence. Erstwhile Milwaukeean and current Brooklynite Margaret Dearden has laid Pezzettino to rest and is preparing to release her first ZETI digital EP next month.
She says the songs on the EP are ones that didn't make the cut for the first full-length ZETI record.
"The album is called 'Misses,' like missing the bullseye, repeatedly, but celebrating the act of repeated throwing, exerting, whole-hearted effort and the plural of an' unmarried' title: an ode to individuality, and the married 'Mrs.,' married to the journey, to the task."
Some of the songs date to the long lost halcyon days of Pezzettino, says Margaret, while others are much more recent.
When the EP is ready, ZETI will launch it with an intimate gig at Storefront Gallery in Brooklyn and she'll hit the Midwest in autumn.
So, what happened to Pezzettino, that guileless, charming accordion-wielding Riverwest songstress headed east to make a mark on the world at large?
"Pezzettino had to die, it was the only way I could establish control on the beast – the beast being my brain, and collective memory, says Dearden.
"Pezzettino's sound bounced all over the court in process of experimentation, collaborating, at times solo, a band, a hip-hop duo ... it's a process I believe is necessary and beautiful in it's openness to new ideas and playing with the outside world, but now I am feeling more self-confident than before as a musician, it is time to focus and start building from a firm foundation.
"It's like I was flittering around excitedly, in hyper-mania and looking to other people and musicians for direction. The shift from being in grad school studying acupuncture to suddenly writing music, touring, financially shouldering releases, the debt that comes with going all in, it was a pretty stark and sudden contrast, and I was desperate to learn everything, knowing I simply didn't have the knowledge that comes with being in the music industry/ scene for years... and towards the end especially, there was this frantic energy that wasn't conducive to emotionally vulnerable, honest writing.
All those changes, says Dearden, meant Pezzettino was moving farther and farther away from the spirit that got her started.
"With bigger shows, bigger sound, the music was straying from the core, from the essence that Pezzettino started from: intimacy and strength of the independent spirit."
But, she notes, there's a little bit of Pezzettino in ZETI. Quite literally.
"The name 'ZETI' derives from 'Pezzettino,' and like the new mindset, is grasping the core, removing excess."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
