012: Jake Murray of Diner Pets

Written and Edited by Eve Mikkelson, host of Brooklyn Buzz on WPIR      
Interview on 2/22/2026
[Names linked within text will be colored]

 

Brooklyn’s DIY scene thrives on community, and Jake Murray of Diner Pets has built a project rooted in collaboration, friendship, and a love for music. In this interview, we talk about the origins of Diner Pets, their emotionally charged new single, and the evolution of the Pet Sounds Music Banquet, a chaotically creative festival that’s quickly becoming a staple of the local scene. Jake also shares what it takes to organize a large-scale DIY event and why spaces like these matter more than ever right now. The upcoming Pet Sounds Music Banquet will be taking place on April 11th at Rubulad!

Welcome! Would you like to introduce yourself a little bit?

My name is Jake. I am the drummer, vocalist, and I guess principal songwriter of Diner Pets, which is a local Brooklyn band. We have been playing for the last couple years, and the band is sort of an amalgamation of my favorite musicians that I’ve met being a musician around the city for the last 5 years or so.

For those who might not have heard you before, how would you describe your music?

People have told me there is this cross between this retro/70s/rock/folkrock vibe, almost bordering on indie. I’ve gotten twee as a label before too. I think Jude, our keyboard player, coined the idea that we are like Bruce Springsteen but if he grew up in 2008. If you want to figure out if that’s fair or not, come see a show. *laughs*

I’ve seen you sing behind the drum kit before and it’s so sick. You have a huge group on stage too! I was interested in knowing how you met everyone.

I’ll start with Beau (of Beau Dega), our bass player. He was one of the first acts that asked me to drum with him. That was a new thing for me; Every band in New York needs a drummer. That was a really cool experience getting to fill in for a lot of different acts. I think I counted 15 over the last 5 years. Beau was the second one ever. He very quickly became not only one of my best friends but one of my closest music collaborators. Many nights of just hanging out and showing new songs we were writing. I knew when I wanted to start my own live band, he was a central guyI needed, both for his talent and for his support.

There’s also Jude Coffey, both a terrific musician and terrific partner of mine. We met originally in college, way back in 2018. We were both a part of WHRW, the college radio station at our university, but we were in different circles. We reconnected only like a year before the band started, around the end of 2023. That was the original Diner Pets. Knowing that Jude played keys, I reached out to Jude and our relationship really grew. This is how we got together in many ways, through the band. It’s a real privilege to be able to have this experience with the person that you’re seeing.

Donnie, on guitar, has his own project called The Meeks, which I still drum for. I filled in for Donnie’s original drummer at the time and I immediately felt like “This is the band I want to be in.” Donnie was one of those guys in the music scene that made me want to capture what he does in my own way. When Diner Pets’s original drummer, Rob, left the band to pursue their degree, we were thinking “how are we going to rearrange this?” It was one day in the practice studio with only Jude and I, running through all the songs with only keyboard and drums, and that is how we discovered “Well, what if I drummed AND sang?” All we needed at that point was a guitar player and I knew I had to ask Donnie, who has now been with us since.

Playing in The Meeks with Donnie was also where I met Ryan, our original sax player. Ryan is incredibly talented and a super nice guy. He’s Canadian, after all. It came to our EP release show we did at Sleepwalk and we found out that Ryan couldn’t make it! We knew we needed sax though, and Beau recommended Luke. I love Luke, he is the kind of guy that can swoon a wall. He is such a kind, charismatic, very talented guy to be around. Even when Ryan came back we thought “what if we just have two saxophones?” The newest iteration of Diner Pets integrates Luke as an acoustic guitar player, so probably by the next show you will get to see that.

Every time a band has a saxophone that is going to be on stage live, I’m ten times more likely to go see them.

It really is like a secret weapon.

I also wanted to say the name Diner Pets is so awesome. Does everyone know what a diner pet is? You’re referencing the homunculus jelly creature, right?

Yeah! The story of how the band started is: We were going to play a show at Hart Bar in 2023. I was going to put out this EP of music, it was going to be under my name, and I had corralled a band together. Two days before the show I got COVID so we had to drop out. Come the EP release time, I just wasn’t feeling as confident as I was previously, so I took that time I was sick to reinvent. Those songs will probably never see the light of day now, but making changes to the band started a new era for what this could become.

I grew up in Queens and Long Island, so a lot of hangout culture and my early references to music were within diners. There is something comforting about that word to me. The more I kept saying “diner pets” to myself, I felt like there was something very band-like to it. It definitely came from a jelly packet that you put sugar on, and then you like… pet with your finger. It’s from people wanting some sort of textural experience while they wait for their milkshake at a diner. *laughs*

That’s so awesome. I didn’t know if diner pets were a super niche reference or not.

To give people credit, I learned about that term in college.

And, your new single just came out! That’s very exciting. Can you give us the story behind it? What is it about?

I think I had just turned 27, and I think that is a time you start asking yourself “What do I want? What do I want from my relationships, my friendships, my job, my life in general?” You start taking stock in who you wanna be and what you wanna keep. You realize that in order to grow you gotta let some things go. That is where the song came from. I have gone through friendships where we had a lot of good memories but I didn’t know if continuing in that way was something that was good for me or how I wanted to feel going forward. It is about acknowledging those things and knowing in your heart that it is the best thing to do, but knowing there is a cost to it. I think out of the songs we are gearing up to put out on an album, this is the most emotional one. Sonically, it fits that similar 70s/oldschool sound. There is this song, “Glad and Sorry” by Faces, which is Rod Stewart’s first band before he became “the sexy guy” I think. This song definitely plays a lot of cues to that.

That’s something everyone can understand the feelings of, definitely very emotional and vulnerable. To switch gears a little, I so badly wanna talk about Pet Sounds. I have so many questions! For readers, you’ve begun this DIY music festival that you’re calling a banquet. The second one is coming up on April 11th! Can you explain that event a little for us?

The Pet Sounds Music Banquet evolved from the first summer we were really trying to play. I had seen all these bands playing outside and I thought “Damn, I want to play outside!” I didn't have a clear path to doing so, so I thought we would figure out our own way somehow. It turned from a pursuit to play outdoors to a really big thing. Naturally, Rubulad made sense. It ended up being a humongous success. We had so many DJs in this tent, and so many great, diverse bands playing. At the end of the day, the idea of the festival is that these are all bands we want to showcase. Finding opportunities to bring a lot of people together is very quickly dissipating. That is why I applaud a lot of the things that Cropsey Records is doing, and the Torture Tuesday residency of shows, because I think people really treasure those sorts of things these days. The more social media and the current administration isolate us, being able to have a night where you meet a ton of people and enjoy a ton of hotdogs is really special. After that festival became such a success, Rubulad said we should do it again! That is how this next one is happening. It is a lot of organization but it really was one of my favorite nights of last year.

As an attendee, it was super fun. I was going to ask “Why do you think events like this are important for the local music scene right now?” but you already answered that!

It’s so important. I don’t want to sound like the old guy like “they got to bring bands back!” but there is something about seeing a group of friends play. Bands are special, so in this day and age where there is more of a focus on the individual when it comes to music and promotion and with how much venue costs are going up, the art of the band is not happening in the way it used to. If this is a way to enjoy what is maybe becoming a lost art in some way, I think it’s great.

I totally agree. I’m 22 years old and I’m saying “bring the bands back!” *laughs* So you mentioned Rubulad before. The last Pet Sounds was my first time there. It’s very chaotic and beautifully creative, and it is a studio space for all kinds of artists too which I didn’t realize at the time. I was wondering, did the vibe of that venue shaped the identity of the event at all?

100%! Rubulad is filled with art installations and projects that people have done. Things that have lasted for years. It is one of those few free, creative spaces where people are just able to do whatever they want. The people who work there have been working there for a long time and I’ve gotten to know them pretty well, especially because I used to have a practice space in one of the storage units. They’re really great and willing to work with you, especially if you have a lot of respect and admiration for the space. Having [the Pet Sounds Music Banquet] in that setting I think really added to the ambiance of it all. I don’t think we could do this event just anywhere. Where else are you going to have a tent with DJs, a whole indoor venue with bands, vendors who are selling their own artwork, and enough space for people to hang out, sit down, walk around, buy and make hotdogs, with room to spare? AND also it looks really cool. A lot of the posters are designed to mimic the look of Rubulad to kind of give people an idea of Rubulad and what they’re walking into. I think some people were at some points a little shocked.

It has a pretty secret entrance too so literally walking into it was like walking into a new world. I was obsessed immediately. Everybody involved was so excited and it was just a massively great time overall.

— we had a break here to listen to “Pay for The Ones That Go” by Diner Pets as an intermission —

Welcome back!

Get some big name commercial sponsor, you could put it right there. One of the cool things about the new festival is that we finally have our first sponsor. In the spirit of the first festival, we will be sponsored by Sabrett Hotdogs.

That’s AWESOME. Well, we were in the thick of talking about the second Pet Sounds coming up. As I understand, you organize a huge portion of it, so I was wondering: What was the most stressful or difficult thing to organize?

*laughs* There was so much. It was the first time I had ever done anything on this scale before. When I started this band, I had never organized or booked shows before. I never learned about the art of curation, or how any of that shit works… Well, I’ll save it for the memoir. The most difficult part was that there were so many moving parts. I don’t want to take all the credit, though. My friend, Jacob, who is one of the DJ’s at Pet Sounds (he goes by DJ Janky), really helped out a lot. He made the DJ lineup last year and helped with a lot of logistics that I needed help with. I don’t think coordinating this big of an event is something that one person should do, especially for the first time. It’s a lot of planning, it’s a lot of anxiety. *laughs* I think my nerves around not knowing if it was going to be successful was really hard too. We learned a lot from the first go around though, so we have made some changes to the new one coming up, and I think we all feel infinitely more confident about how it’s gonna go this year. The first one was great but I think in many ways this one is going to be bigger and better.

I’m so excited, I can’t wait for this next one. On a higher note to contrast the last question, was there one thing that was the most rewarding? What really blew you away on the day?

There were a lot of things that really surprised me. The hot dogs really surprised me. We sold out! It was a huge hit and it surprised me how much that became part of the brand in a way. People had such an association with hot dogs and the festival, which is why we thought we could get a hot dog sponsorship! I loved every band that we booked too. The reactions that they got from the audience were such a surprise. Like, I knew Fawn Ridge a little beforehand because I had seen them play once, but they were able to play full-band (which is difficult because they have six people) so to see them in full capacity was great. This HOLY! Rodeo I had actually never seen before but I had listened to their music a lot. I got some really wild reactions from people, they definitely stood out.

Yes! They blew me away. At one point the whole audience was bowing down to them.

It was so cool. They’re wacky and I love it. And the thing to cap it all off, there were a couple people who came to me and said it felt like the cap of the summer. It was this kind of last blowout before we entered fall and sipped tea and wore sweaters. That really made it something special to me. That was very personal to me and Jacob as the organizers.

I definitely felt that way too. I had just gotten back to school the week before or something, so it was a total transition period. It made me excited to finally be back in NYC.

That’s great!

As you were saying, there were so many unique bands and vendors at the last one. Can you tell us who we can expect to see there this time?

I’ll give you the Brooklyn Buzz exclusive. *laughs* The biggest change we are making is that we won’t have a DJ lineup this time per se. We are really happy that we had the DJs that we had, but we thought to coincide more with this community aspect of the event, we are going to introduce the first Pet Sounds open decks. Jacob and his B2B partner, Pei, are going to be headlining similar to last year. For the duration of the festival prior to that, they will be running open decks. There will be a version of a ticket for the night where if you want to take part, you will be entered into a lottery to DJ at the festival for the day.

Woah, that’s a cool opportunity.

Yeah, it’s going to be a really cool, interactive opportunity to play at a festival of 200-250 people. One of the nice things about the festival, which is part of why I did it, was that I wanted it to be a showcase. If you’re somebody who has either been around a while or is new to the city and you want to get some exposure, this would be a phenomenal opportunity to meet other people, other DJs, and play for a little bit! I think it will help the tent be a vibrant space outside of just the bands. That’s a bigger change.

We are going to have vendors too. We are going to have our tattoo artist from last time, Sophia Magdelena, and we will have plenty of hot dogs. One of the cool editions is that in between some of the bands we are going to have matches from South Brooklyn Championship Wrestling outdoors. We weren’t sure how it was going to work for a while, because we didn’t want people competing with each other in a big way, but this time we will have wrestling featuring the SBCW roster. I don’t know exactly who is going to be wrestling, but we may have some appearances from members of Diner Pets potentially. It will be really fun and goofy.

Of course we also have our lineup, which will feature yours truly. We will also have The Alabasters, who are a really funky, almost pavement band. We have played with them a few times and they are stellar. We are also gonna have Chammeili on the lineup. She makes incredibly feel-good indie music. Big chords, big melodies. She is great and her band is incredibly talented. We will also have Whirlybird on the lineup. Kind of similar, twee, singer-songwriter music. We also will have Surgeon General which is one of my favorites. I initially caught them at a set at Rubulad and they’re great. They’re very classic post-punk, high energy, and really fun. They don’t play in NY all the time so we are really excited to have them. We will also have Evil Twin, who we played with at Pianos a couple months ago, and they're great. They’re kind of a 90s/2000s classic rock band. They’re so fun and really nice guys, we are excited to have them. And finally we have Weathergirl, who we have known for years. Classic shoegaze, great vocalists, very tight band. I think they were the last one we were able to get for the lineup, and when I was looking at it as a whole, it all really clicked together. Those are all the bands for the upcoming festival. It’s going to be great, I’m really really looking forward to this one.

I know I’ve said it a billion times but I’m so excited. Thank you so much for giving us this insider scoop!

Of course. You and this show have been super helpful for us. Having local figures promote and curate and get people onto new music is really important and is unfortunately becoming a dying breed, so I really appreciate you and everything you’ve done with the show.

It makes me SO happy to do it! Thank you so much for meeting with me. I’m trying not to fanboy a little bit.

Wow, that’s very sweet.

I will be there in April! See you then.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.