Please Be Careful is a North Jersey–based instrumental experimental indie rock band founded by longtime Fairmont collaborators Neil Sabatino (also founder of Mint 400 Records) and Christian Kisala, who began the project during the pandemic as a fresh creative outlet before expanding to a quartet with drummer Anthony Freda and multi-instrumentalist James DeRose. Blending punk and alternative roots with jazz flourishes, groove-driven experimentation, and modern pop sensibilities, the band transforms simple ideas into intricate, evolving arrangements that balance energy, melody, and adventurous musicianship. Influences range from Tortoise and Hella to Portishead, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Ramsey Lewis, the Ventures, and even subtle nods to hip-hop and modern jazz stylists like Domi & JD Beck, resulting in a sound that thrives on reinterpretation and reinvention in the studio and onstage. With their debut album out today and live shows on the horizon, Please Be Careful are carving out a distinct place in the North Jersey scene—and offering a compelling new voice not easily categorized.
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
Anthony - I had played a gig with Christian years early and had met him through another musician friend we know, and when Neil and Chåristian were forming this band, Christian had mentioned my name to Neil, and Neil reached out to me to meet up. We met once, I was diggin' the songs, and was like "Let's do this, I'm down"
Christian- Christian and Neil performed as members of the band Fairmont for over 10 years, but when COVID stopped the world, Fairmont stopped performing. Looking for a new creative outlet, and armed with a myriad of influences, the two set forth to create a band that better reflected a collaboration. Originally conceived as an improvising instrumental trio, the format expanded to a quartet.
The phase "Please Be Careful" is something that you might say to a loved one when they're attempting something dangerous... or something mundane. It's good life advice, and good musical advice. (Christian - "I, myself, am full of care.")
Neil- With the aforementioned band Fairmont that was my band that I insisted on it being a dictatorship for the most part and by the time we started talking about this project I really felt like I had said everything I wanted to lyrically so I wanted to do an instrumental project with Christian. I had wanted to mostly write at practice with everyone present but as time was limited it did serve us better to come in with at least some ideas to throw around. Originally, personally I wanted to be a little improvisational and I feel like we are to a small degree but when the songs started coming together there seemed like not as much room or simplicity to allow noodling like in a jazz song and personally I didn’t want to do that anyway. I kind of felt newer jazz like Domi & JD Beck was structured but complex and that was sort of where I wanted to go with this project. Maybe we did that, kind of? I think this was the first new band Christian and I have started in quite some time and we decided to take our time and just let it become what it is and then added willing participants. As far as the name, I let Christian suggest the names and “Please Be Careful” hadn’t been taken by anyone yet and I had no objections.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
Anthony - Previous musical projects: Float The Witch, Scarecrow Collection, Cornelius, Ellie Shine. I first got into music 25 years ago, and as soon as I bought my first drum kit, I was hooked, and have not stopped since. I went on to study music in college and really leveled up my skills as a musician, which has led to many of the performance opportunities I have had over the years.
Christian- Neil has a history within the NJ pop-punk scene, which mostly includes his band Fairmont, and their predecessor Pency Prep. In addition to performing, he runs (and serves as de facto artistic director) for Mint 400 Records. Christian has a more varied history, playing with jazz and experimental groups as well as his fair share of rock/pop bands, including the aforementioned Fairmont.
James- My story is similar to Christian's. I'm all over the place with guitar, bass and now keyboard over the past 40 years. Although maybe don't mention 40 years because it confirms we are old.
Neil- I wanted to play my high school's talent show and put together a band and started learning bass. I had previously just toiled in my room for years on a casio keyboard. The talent show was cancelled that year from lack of participants and I just continued with the band I had formed. I have been in Little Green Men, Stick Figure Suicide, Pencey Prep, Fairmont, and a bunch of side projects and now this.
First concerts that you ever went to?
Anthony - I went to Warped Tour 2002 and saw Bad Religion, Flogging Molly, Reel Big Fish, Lagwagon, Thursday, and a bunch of other bands.
Christian - The first concert I remember intentionally going to was the double bill of Iron Maiden and Anthrax. My second concert was Lollapalooza (1992).
Neil- I think I saw Billy Joel in 8th grade, at which point I only really played a little bit of piano. By the time I was inspired to pick up an instrument and grunge was in full swing I was starting to go to concerts weekly, mostly punk rock and indie rock stuff, Radiohead in 1994 was probably the most meaningful show I had gone to in my early days, that then led to me regularly going to smaller shows at CBGB’s and Wetlands on a regular basis as I was starting college at SVA and was no longer afraid to venture into the city multiple times a week.
What's your writing process like?
Anthony - Neil usually comes up with an idea, Christian, James, and I contribute what we feel can take the song into a certain direction, and then all of us adjust to each other's part to form the cohesion that a song needs.
Christian- Someone brings in an idea, and then we work through variations. Time signatures change, keys change, tempi change - what we end up with is usually very different from what we started with. What's interesting is that we all have different ways of bringing ideas. Neil usually has a full form in his mind, while Christian may show up with just some chords or a rhythm.
Neil- I originally was writing fully fleshed out songs with sometimes up to 4 or 5 parts, maybe an intro and an outro and it felt a little too planned out. Later on some of the last songs we wrote for the record started as a riff or just 2 chords and a rhythm and we started it there. I feel like I was thinking instrumental music had to be very structurally complex to be good but after working with the band I realized simplifying things a bit structurally gave everyone more room to write more complex parts that would build throughout something that is more repetitious. Most important to me has become does the song “feel” good, would someone want to listen to 5 minutes of this groove?
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
Anthony - Young Anthony was really into Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Zeppelin, Blink 182, Incubus, Chilli Peppers, Rage, etc. Older Anthony got into some of the experimental Jazz groups like Now vs Now, Jojo Mayer & Nerve, Kneebody, Donny McCaslin, Robert Glasper Experiment. I really love groove-oriented music, even electronic and hip hop based music. I work to re-create some of the sounds and groove feel from electronic music and hip hop.
Christian - I have no idea what's on our playlist. I assume that it's all modern female led groups, because that's basically all I listen to. Chappell Roan, Arianna Grande, Selena Gomez. I hope that Charly Bliss and Descartes Y Kant made it on there.
James - My influences are probably Del Paxton, The Chantrelenes, John Scofield, Adrian Legg, Paul Gilbert....list goes on.
Neil – I feel like the Spotify playlist I put together of instrumental stuff is the initial songs that inspired me to start an instrumental project with Christian. However I feel like we grab bits and pieces of everything from 60’s garage rock to 90’s rap and throw it in a blender for almost every song. I know most bands say they feel like they are hard to categorize or pigeon hole, but I think we do that.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
Anthony - I think that band must determine whether to replicate the record or develop the chemistry that allows for re-interpreting the record in the moment. I tend to bring an elevated energy to the live performance and I love to ignite some momental enthusiasm with the band on stage because it invites them to respond or match that energy, and the audience will sometimes get a better experience from the music that's happening LIVE in front of them.
Christian - Have you ever heard a band cover a popular song, but their cover is so abstract that you're not sure if they wrote a new song that sounds like the song you know, or if they're playing a cover? That's what I'd like our live set to be - far removed from the recording, but close enough that it's still recognizable to the discerning ear.
Neil – So Christian tries to pull everything to the brink of being unrecognizable as something a general audience would like as he plays with time signature and structure and predictability within the context of modern music. Then I throw a tantrum and try to pull it all back towards something under the indie rock umbrella with melody and pop sensibility. Eventually it gets dragged somewhere in the middle. Our first record isn’t as cohesive as I would have liked, it’s quite eclectic but I feel like we needed to just get to that place to go forward. I feel like I would love to be more improvisational and have the songs be different at every concert but I think we’re not quite at the point of being able to manipulate the songs live until we play some more shows. But overall I think the band is fine with live versions being very different from the studio versions. Like if Anthony decided anytime to speed them up or slow them down or change the groove I think we’d all be able to follow and would be ok with it.
What's up next for the band?
Anthony - We are definitely excited to release music, the people in our life have been wanting to hear what we've been working on. And from there, we will lean more into creativity and write new material.
Christian - we have some shows coming up, and the album is going to be released. We have a secret plan for album number two!
Neil – I already have sat down to plan out a little bit of where I’d like to go for the next few songs we’re writing. As far as shows we’ll start taking whatever is offered after our first couple shows (Fall 2025). Hopefully once the record is out we’ll get some opportunities to play with bands we like.