In 1997, when the popular underground all-girl band L7 came to El Paso for the first time, all four members of the band The Pantease were in the crowd. Ruby and Gloria even found themselves next to each other near the front of the stage, jamming to the music. Ironically, they didn’t know each other. It would be another year before they would meet and decide to form The Pantease. "In 1998, my cousin Jeannette introduced me to Gloria," says Ruby, singer/songwriter. "Gloria and I had both wanted to form a band before we met but it took another three to four months before it happened." When they finally got together, they experimented with different musical instruments before deciding on what instrument each would play. "When I was in fifth grade I played the viola," says Gloria. "I picked the guitar because it’s kind of the same concept." Ruby, who started out playing rhythm guitar, tells how she taught herself to play: "When I was in high school, I bought an acoustic guitar at a pawn shop and taught myself to play. At first I tried to play without books but when I finally got a guitar book, I realized I was holding the guitar all wrong." Gloria’s friend Eldika (not present for this interview) was asked to join the band soon after. She chose bass guitar. After the search for a drummer turned up nothing, Aaron, Ruby’s boyfriend at the time, offered to fill in temporarily. The last hurdle for The Pantease was to find a lead singer. "Nobody wanted to sing," says Ruby, speaking about her bandmates. "I finally asked my friend Vicki if she wanted the job and she said yes. She was the only one brave enough to sing." The Pantease practiced continuously for the next three months and wrote five songs. The first, an instrumental, was their opening song called "Polo." "It was named after a friend of ours who loved it. Everytime we played it, he would dance to it in front of the stage," says Gloria. A few years later, this same friend would be the reason for Gloria’s felony charge.

The First Gig

Ruby says she will never forget the first time they played for an audience but Gloria can’t remember the specifics. She was busy dealing with tremendous stage fright. "We played in someone’s backyard," says Ruby. "The backyard was dusty, full of dirt. Everyone was kicking it around everywhere. Just a lot of dirt flying everywhere." The Pantease were third in line to play that night. When their time came, they formed a circle, held hands and kept repeating, "Oh my god, we’re next, we’re next." El Paso hadn’t had an all-girl band in a few years before The Pantease came along. The punk band was afraid they would not be well-received. "Not only that," adds Ruby, "but I had a stomach virus that night and I was terrified that I was going to have to run out during our performance." Their first song, "Polo," brought the crowd in. Their second song, "Boy Toy" got them rocking. Erik, drummer, was in the audience that night as a spectator and was very impressed with this new almost all-girl band. His first thought was, "They can really rock! Even the guys in the crowd were nodding in approval." After that first gig, The Pantease became instantly popular. Says Ruby, "All of a sudden people were asking us to play here and there because our music was very different."

Changes

Just when The Pantease thought they were off to a great start, things started to fall apart, beginning with the loss of their lead singer, Vicki. "Vicki was a real shy and soft-spoken singer," says Erik. "It was really hard to hear her when she was up on stage." After the band’s fourth gig, Vicki decided to quit. Then Ruby and Aaron broke up, months later, and playing in the same band became awkward. The Pantease went on hiatus. "We didn’t play for a really long time," says Ruby. The band remained silent for 2 years. It was during this hiatus that Ruby and Erik, started hanging out together. They had known each other since high school and had even attended the same elementary school together but had never played together. "Ruby and I talked about starting another band but we ended up jamming with these two guys for a month instead. It didn’t work out," says Erik. During this time, Ruby noticed that Erik could keep a beat on the drums. She bought a drumset and stored it at Erik’s house. "I just started messing with them [the drums]," says Erik, but admits that he had always wanted to be the lead guitarist in a band. Ruby then passed along a cassette of The Pantease songs and told Erik to learn them. Within two weeks, Erik had them down. It was time to introduce him to Gloria and Eldika. "I was nervous," says Erik of that first meeting. "I wasn’t sure if they’d like me or not." But he had nothing to worry about. After that first jam session, it was clear that energetic and upbeat Erik was their new drummer. Erik has been the drummer for The Pantease for a year now. The rest of the band members recently celebrated four years together. They remain the only almost-all-chick punk band in El Paso, playing music scenes at places like The Peanut Gallery and Cantina LaTuya. When asked how it feels to be the only male member of an almost-all-chick band, Erik cheerfully responds with, "Everybody always asks me that! It’s so much easier to work with girls than with guys. To them [chick bands], it’s all about the music and having fun." Then he quietly adds, "I never thought I’d be in this band."

The Band Members

On stage, the members of The Pantease have strong personalities but in very different ways. Ruby and Gloria share center stage and enjoy getting the crowd moving. Ruby is generally easy-going and a bit shy but exudes confidence when playing lead guitar. She keeps the band on track. Gloria’s outspoken personality comes through during her rendition of "Naked." She’s not shy about singing this one to the crowd. Eldika plays bass quietly off to the side, away from the lights but her presence is particularly strong when she sings lead vocals for "Murder." Erik, the band’s fact keeper, throws his body, heart and soul into his on-stage drumming. His energetic personality comes through loudly with each drumbeat. While their music is about breaking all boundaries and challenging all the rules, the members of The Pantease lead surprisingly very normal lives. All are college students holding down steady jobs. Ruby works for a large catalog phone center in town while Gloria is a supervisor at a plastics factory. Eldika is a secretary for a motorcycle shop and Erik works at a local theater. Ruby, Gloria and Erik are majoring in Mass Communication at local colleges while Eldika is pursuing a medical degree. Gloria is the only one who has been in trouble with the law, albeit inadvertently. "I was at a memorial party for a friend of mine," says Gloria, "when the cops came in and started trying to break up the party." The party was for her longtime friend Leopoldo Flores, the one they named the song "Polo" after. "He died in suddenly at an early age. Anyway, we were celebrating what would have been his birthday when the cops came in and started breaking up the party. I got pushed across the room and landed on a cop. I was charged with assaulting an officer for that." Gloria received a deferred sentence and is currently on probation.

The Future

"We want to tour," say Erik, Gloria and Ruby at the same time. "We are looking to tour Texas, New Mexico and, hopefully, Arizona." They are making plans to begin their tour as early as this July. New songs are also in the works. "We have a new song called ‘Jane Doe,’" says Ruby. "It’s about a drug-addicted girl." This song is only one of six new ones they are currently working on. The Pantease are also getting serious about their music and have started looking for a full-time manager. They recently put together a demo CD that Ruby took to record companies in Hollywood. Stickers and t-shirts are in the works. And what about the distant future? Ruby says, "We hope to be an accomplished band." Check out The Pantease on April 27 for the Amp Show at Cantina LaTuya.