This is a collection of tracks that feature Pita Owlin. Copyrights Reserved.

Pita Owlin (a.k.a. Peter Jacob Allen)

Born into a musical household, Peter picked up rhythm at an early age. At just 7 years old, he began recording himself singing and playing guitar and drums on an old cassette recorder in his bedroom.  His father was a Marching Drummer and his mother played the French Horn. His siblings, too, were quite musical.  Being the youngest of 5, he had a few siblings to look up to. His eldest brother played congas and djembe, his sister played clarinet and his other two brothers played the drum kit, and all played hand drums and percussion. 

Peter fell in love with the drum and played his brothers hand-me-down djembe until he was 17 and decided to get a drum of his own. He then met a man named Greg from Medicine Spirit Drums. With Greg's guidance, Peter built himself a custom ashiko. A drum that was as unique as himself.  This drum fertilized 

Peters love for drumming and prompted him to explore deeper into the world of percussion.  At 22, Peter picked up a pair of congas and bongos. Along the way, he has gained a collection of shakers, bells and blocks, and other percussion "toys" to improvise with others in the drum circle. He began experimenting with electronic drums and pads, synthesizers and keyboards and set up a small studio in his house. The rest is history. 

Peter is influenced by Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead, Planet Drum), Andy Farag (Umphrey's Mcgee) , Michael Travis (String Cheese Incident) and Jeffree Lerner (STS9).

In 2007 at 26, he joined the group Basin and Range (founded by his brother Phil Allen) as their first and only percussionist. Though, in 2008 the band lost 2 members and had begun reforming their goals and Peter took the opportunity to find his own direction and left the band as well.

During the next few years, Peter produced two albums in a solo project called Space Kadaver. It featured what Peter calls "A highly electric fusion of  rhythm  translated through cyborgs." 

But Pita also played percussion at Mt. Tabor's Family Funktion, a collection of Portland's elite Funk musicians and had become a permanent member of Eugene's All-Star Funk Musicians. In 2011, he met Brandelyn Rose at one of his performances and shortly thereafter rounded out the line-up for Blue Lotus just before the release of their first self-titled album.  After 4 years of touring the NW and headlining many large events,  though, Pita and the band parted ways to pursue different creative paths.

Now in 2015, Pita's focus is back in his studio, creating art and building a business while "wood shedding" his musical projects. He plans for a NEW ALBUM release in about a year.  The new album he says "will be entirely different from anything else I've recorded." Stay tuned and follow Pita on Twitter, Facebook, and of course,  SoundCloud.    

Original Oregon Rock 'n Roll.  Thanks for listening!

Playing and teaching music in the Pacific Northwest. Based in Eastern Oregon.

I make music because it helps me deal with my life.  Thats pretty much it.  Never really been doing this to be famous or get on SNL, although it would be nice.  Really I'm searching for ways to get out whats inside my mind 247365.

Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/JohnHartmann/

Contact: csc@johnhartmann.net

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." - Scott Adams

"What occurs in the world is that everyone who is born, is born, in some manner of speaking, a poet, the creator of something that did not exist in the world before, till they were born. It is entirely individual.
Man is not born to work, Man is born to create, to be that poet at random. And give to the world his own particular message, to realize the work that can be done and because he is unique, his work will be the only one of the kind in the world." - Agostinho da Silva


Header image: The Bachelor Party by Louis William.

In 2010 Franny and Bobby Govea moved to Portland, Oregon and formed The Best Dancers. After a few years of performing together, Mark Macomber joined the TBD lineup. In their collaborations the trio combines elements of “traditional” dance music with notable influences of hip-hop, electro, funk, rock, and improvisation. With over 3 decades of combined experience in music production and performance, The Best Dancers hope to spread their love of music, dancing, and life through their original productions and remixes.

Eleven Eyes is one of Eugene’s most colorful musical institutions.  With an eye to the future and a nod to the past, Eleven Eyes creates an original brand of dance music.  The electronica-accented combination of a world-class horn section, powerful vocals, rip-roaring guitar, and a butt-bumpin' rhythm section fuses the gap between sounds that bring to mind 70's Fela, swampy New Orleans funk, Bassnecter, James Brown, and Augustus Pablo.  

Rocking Oregon and the western United States since 2002, Eleven Eyes shows no sign of slowing down, continually composing new music and reaching out to new audiences. Eleven Eyes brings the spirit of improvisation to every show, treating each tune as a point of departure for new explorations, which makes each show unique. Steeped in the jazz tradition, the Eyes are unafraid of taking risks and constantly flirt with uncertainty.  This brings an electric energy to every performance for the band and fans alike. 

Eugene’s healthy and vibrant music community has given the Eyes freedom to explore a myriad of genres.  Over the years the Eyes have refined their impulsiveness and focused on a fluid interaction between the groove and audience.  Eleven Eyes keeps the people on their feet, joining in the revelry with call n response shouts, conscious lyrical content, and mesmerizing improvisations, ethereal textures and subwoofer-destroying break beats, and next-level funk.


Pita Owlin is following