Local fans love Pedacter

By FAITH MOLDAN

Bigfork Eagle

There are no roadies to haul Pedacter's gear and set it up for the band. Not exactly the rock and roll lifestyle some people might expect.

The members of the Bigfork-based band — Ryan Witt, Chris Arndt, Isaac Lee and light technician Eric Broesel —do it all themselves. And though the original lineup has changed since the band formed in late 1999 with a handful of different drummers, Pedacter still draws large crowds and has faithful fans.

Pedacter began when Witt, who plays guitar and sings, was told about a bass player, Arndt, that he should hear. The two eventually hooked up with drummer Tyler Bygren and Pedacter Project was born. The unique band name came from Bygren. Bygren's high school friend Matt Hein had the nickname of Pedacter and after Hein passed away Bygren thought it would make a good band name.

The trio of musicians played first at Chumley's Double Eagle for free drinks soon after forming. The young group — Arndt was just 17 at the time — started with covers of some of their favorite songs. Much of the music they played was a combination of the styles of music they liked.

"People wanted to hear songs they knew," Witt said. As their popularity and experience grew, the members of Pedacter started writing and performing their own music, which many of their fans know just as well as the covers the band still performs.

"We've got diehard fans," Witt said. "And fans of all ages. We think of them when we pick the venues we play."

"They get a good following," Brock Dahlman, a bartender at the Garden Bar in downtown Bigfork said. "They always draw a good crowd."

Arndt, who began playing the bass guitar in fifth grade at Somers Middle School, and Witt write Pedacter's original songs. Arndt wrote the first one called Evening News. Witt said that many times the band will write songs as they're playing them during practice.

"Something cool will happen and we see if we can do it again. A lot of the best stuff we play is when no one can hear us," he said. Witt, originally from San Diego, Calif., added that sometimes the songs just happen, and that the music is the easy part of writing but the lyrics are hard. Pedacter has even written a song about the band's number one fan Mikey Howell.

Witt also started playing music at a young age.

"My dad was in a band," he said. "I remember playing the cowbell."

Witt and the other members of Pedacter, which formerly included drummer Mike Klein and keyboard player Matt Jones, have moved on and up from playing in the school band and the cowbell. Pedacter has never performed out of the state of Montana, but have played all over the state and valley. The band has played in Polson, Missoula, Whitefish and a number of other places. Both Witt and Arndt said one of their favorite gigs was playing in Bab, Mont.

"We were in the middle of nowhere on a Wednesday night and everyone in the crowd was dancing and excited," they said.

Playing at Flanagan's Central Station in Whitefish was one of Arndt's favorite memories.

"I had never heard my bass sound like that," he said of the benefits of the bar's new sound system.

The largest crowd the band has played for was at the Testicle Festival in 2004.

"All we could see was people," Witt said.

Broesel joined the Pedacter family five years ago after getting hooked at a show one night.

"The lights create a different affect to the music," he said. Broesel sometimes practices his light show with the band.

Witt said the lighting adds to their performance with just the right timing for the spot to go on or change color.

"He's paid the least," Witt said of Broesel. "But he's always here.

There's the occasional forgotten lyric and technical problems like when Arndt had to play with just three strings or the lighting system goes out on Broesel, and hardly ever a set list but the band members agreed that they're set on playing music in the Flathead Valley as long as they're here.

Pedacter has music, photos and show dates on their MySpace profile — www.myspace.com/pedacter1.