Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeff Petescia. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jeff, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I’ve been lucky to work on a number of projects in my career, and the most meaningful has been my band, Cold Weather Company. We are an independent alternative folk trio of singer-songwriters who connected and officially formed in college. I met my bandmate, Brian Curry, serendipitously on a park bench, and my other bandmate, Steve Shimchick, through the open mic scene. As I write this, we are in the process of finalizing our fifth album in our eleventh year together.

Cold Weather Company is a creative outlet for me unlike any other. It surfaces a unique approach to my usual songwriting style, and time seems to disappear as we improvise in new territories and take a sonic canvas from blank to full. Creating music in this band is meditative, and it feels wonderful to be part of something greater— something that always outweighs the occasional band disagreement, and it is a privilege to hold one-third of the responsibility representing our collective brand. Cold Weather Company has been a vehicle of life lessons and connections, and a launching pad for personal and professional growth. We crossed the bridge from kid to adult in this band, and through it we continue to grow into better musicians and people.

This journey has also been an academic course on how the world works, particularly on the business side. We’ve had to learn how accounting works, how taxes work, how to manage inventory, how shipping works, how to take an idea to reality through project management with multiple stakeholders, which marketing tactics work (and which don’t), how contracts work, the importance of proactivity and accountability, the importance of deadlines, how to negotiate, how to represent yourself in multiple contexts, how to work with others, the list goes on.

In the beginning, a band holds the same excitement that the start of any new relationship has. As time goes on and the band gains mileage, literally, you find yourself cramped in close quartered car rides and hotel rooms. You begin to discuss finances, task-ownership, and difficult conversations arise during pivotal times as life circumstances change. “What are we doing? What are we? What are our goals—are our goals the same?” A band is a mesh of individual, fluctuating psyches and strong opinions learning compromise, and through it you learn what maturity truly means. Maturity allows you to grow closer as the “almosts” pile up over the years and potential avenues for opportunity prove to be dead ends. The resilient prevail in this saturated industry.

Cold Weather Company has given me confidence while teaching me these life and business skills. It has taught me to always count the wins along the way. It has chiseled in the importance of taking this career, or any career, seriously, but never too seriously, and being cautiously optimistic while perseverant. At the end of the day, the “why” behind it all is true passion.

Jeff, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Jeff Petescia and I am a guitarist and singer-songwriter. My journey began at age 14 when I sat down to teach myself guitar, holding it backwards (more on this below). I had decided that my time invested into Guitar Hero 3 was better spent on the real thing, and I had longed to play for way too long, having woken up from numerous dreams disappointed that my dream-guitar-playing wasn’t real. While always fascinated by music and the art of songwriting, extracurriculars up to this point were limited to soccer. Out of my four siblings, I was the only one to have never learned an instrument in school. So, one rainy day after attending a life-changing concert and then watching a YouTuber younger than me cover songs I wished I could play, I said, “Okay, that’s it,” and picked up my sister’s acoustic. What I thought was maybe a short phase or one-day adventure of teaching my self the guitar, became a passion, a career, and something I’ve shaped my life around. Making music is what gets me up in the morning, and I am so grateful to continue to follow what I love.

Revisiting what I alluded to above, I play guitar upside down and backwards, or a recent word for it is idiodextrous. This means I learned with the strings reversed because I hold a right-handed guitar as if it were left-handed. I’m actually right-handed (and footed) with everything I do except for guitar, hockey, and golf. Being right-handed, it made sense (to me at least) to use my right hand on the guitar neck, where the more intricate aspects of playing take place. They do make left-handed guitars, but as mentioned above, I really didn’t know if this new endeavor was something I would stick with, and guitars can be expensive. I also enjoyed being able to play guitars at friends’ houses, which were always right-handed.

My songwriting journey began around that same time when I was teaching myself guitar, and I eventually developed the confidence to sing and record my songs at the age of 18. My music can be described as mostly mellow, introspective, and rhythmic indie-acoustic/singer-songwriter with orchestral textures, jam-band elements, and electric guitar tones. In another life I am an early-2000’s pop-punk front man, so that influence may occasionally slip into some of my songs as well (I am working on a release that a few people have described as “acoustic Green Day”). I release my solo music under my name (Jeff Petescia) in addition to my band, Cold Weather Company. I also have a side-project called pet droid, a collaboration with my electronic friend, Android Dreaming. Vocally I’ve been compared to Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens, and Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie. My guitar playing is influenced by Dave Matthews, Bob Weir of Grateful Dead, Chadwick Stokes of Dispatch, Sam Beam of Iron & Wine and many more.

Creating songs for me is therapeutic. It’s a way to channel my own version of the inner-weirdness we all have, packaging it up into something others can hopefully enjoy. Songs are a time capsule for me, and I try to capture life phases, thoughts, worries, love, while telling real or fictional stories. There are few things I love more than performing live and continuing to add to my library of releases for all my musical projects, which can be found on all streaming platforms, or through my website www.jeffpetescia.com.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is capturing the human experience in a unique collection of stories that others can relate to, find comfort in, and take elements from to incorporate into their own journeys. In other words, art is an endless flow of inspiration, and it just feels nice to be a particle of it.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building an audience on social media takes time, but persistence is key, and passion for content creation definitely helps. But don’t be discouraged if the idea of posting or live-streaming seems daunting. My passion for it has been something that developed over time while thinking of ways to break through the mysterious algorithm to grow my band, @coldweathercompany, and my personal music pages, @jeffpetescia. For the band, it is a team effort, and we love meeting up to brainstorm content. Most of it always points back to our music, but much of it is just for fun and a way to create awareness of our channels. Content on my personal pages is a similar formula.

Though the band and my personal channels still have a long way to go, I’m very proud of the communities we’ve built and grateful for the connections we’ve made over the years. Here’s a few takeaways I’ve learned through our/my social media journey:

Rather than seeing social media marketing as a mountain to climb with little to no equipment, think of it as a blank page—an endless opportunity to showcase your creativity. It’s essentially show-and-tell, with no barrier to entry since Tiktok and Instagram Reels’s editors make it so easy to put content together and edit videos.

Remember that you’re already sitting on a collection of content that exists in your phone. Scroll through it sometime and brainstorm. Remember, you can even put your music in the background of a video and write your funny, relatable thoughts over it in big text (I’ve seen this type of content do well for many, and it’s worked for me too).

Keep your brainstorming mode switched on as much as you can. Jot down ideas or interesting thoughts in your phone throughout the day. Remember, good ideas often come from bad ones.

Sometimes the most unexpected, throwaway posts gain the most traction. One of my band’s most viewed videos is me asking my bandmate at an airport to make up a word, and he replies with “Shparmtarmlaflarm”. One of my most viewed videos on my personal page is an inchworm that crawled on my computer screen, and I thought to build the little guy a football field on an Excel spreadsheet.

Remember that comparison is the thief of joy. The algorithm is never going to be ‘fair,’ but do your best to count your wins along the way.

Be yourself and enjoy it, especially when live-streaming. While social media (and the world) can be an ugly place at times, there are also so many wonderful and supportive people in it who genuinely want to hang out and appreciate your art.

Try not to let your mental health ride the up and down waves of social media traction. Take breaks and distance yourself when needed.

Some of your followers will be artists in the same boat as you—connect with them. Friendships and opportunities will arise from these connections.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jeffpetescia.com
• Instagram: @jeffpetescia
• Facebook: @jeffpetesciamusic
• Linkedin: @jeffpetescia
• Twitter: @coldweatherco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JeffPetescia
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeffpetesciamusic
• Other: www.coldweathercompany.com

Image Credits
Christina Casillo, Music Hall of Williamsburg Kris Khunachak Harlen Cruz Carlos Bustillo