While Peter Stevens, known professionally as Pete Hayes, grew up in Chicago, he claims Washington, D.C. as his own, and he hopes that the city claims him back. D.C. is his music scene; it is where he started his career, and it is where he plans on staying for the foreseeable future. 

On Friday, July 31, Pete Hayes & The Contradictions sold out Songbyrd Music House for their biggest show to date. The show was energetic, friendly, and fresh.

You may recognize him from his first project, the Crystal Casino Band, who, in their decade-long existence, have headlined the 9:30 Club and opened shows at The Anthem. While the band is still releasing music, some of the members have moved to different parts of the country, leaving it hard to play live together. Hayes saw this as an opportunity to keep performing as a solo act.

“I really wanted to channel my energy into this project,” Hayes said in an interview. “It’s been a really good outlet to be able to still play live shows in D.C. – which I was missing so much – to release some music that I’ve been sitting on for a while, and to be able to try new things with that. It’s just been an overall really fun experience so far, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for it.”

Hayes has been playing instruments since he was four years old, with a ukulele in his hands. When he reached elementary school, he saw someone playing the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars on the piano and decided he wanted to take piano lessons. Next, he started to teach himself the guitar around 12 years old. In high school, he had a short stint as a guitarist in a band.

At freshman orientation at George Washington University, he met Joey Mamlin, the drummer for the Crystal Casino Band, and they decided to start a band before school even began. From there, pieces fell into place, and he was able to start his first successful band.

Later, at the end of 2025, Hayes released his first solo song, “Contradict.” This was the inspiration for his new backing band, The Contradictions, consisting of Jarrod Hendricks on guitar (also a member of the Crystal Casino Band), Will Salzmann on bass, and Ben Caprio on drums. 

“At the time I started this, I was really into Elvis Costello, and Elvis Costello has a backing band called The Attractions,” Hayes said. “During band practice, while we were rehearsing for my show at Pie Shop back in March, we were trying to come up with a name for everybody else because it’s kind of cool when a solo artist has an ‘And the Blank.’”

Hayes himself somewhat resembles a young Elvis Costello. Clad in a white button-down, tie, and thick-rimmed glasses, he rocked a more “serious” look at his show to present different sides of himself as a performer – and acknowledging that he still has a “normal, corporate 9-5 job,” as he said. 

Inspired by bands like The Killers, The 1975, The Walkmen, and other quintessential “2015 Tumblr music,” Hayes describes his style as true indie rock. That’s the era in which he started his music career, as a student at GWU. He likes to blend influences into something that feels unique and personal to him.

The opening bands at Friday’s show, Jem Wilde and Color Palette, are also local indie bands, but each of them have their own style, too. One of the members of Color Palette produces Hayes’ music.

“It was cool to show a wide variety of music that night that’s also somewhat related, but are different enough that it makes each individual set interesting,” Hayes said.

Hayes finds inspiration from living in D.C. and has often incorporated it into his music. He has written songs for the Crystal Casino Band called “Potomac” and “Curfew,” which is inspired by the events of January 6, 2021. The band even has an album titled Maryland House.

“We do live in a really unique area, and it is cool to be able to incorporate anything from those experiences of living here in our music, and have other people get to experience what D.C. is like through that way, too,” Hayes said.

While D.C. is his home, he still plans to travel the world to play music. He’s been able to play in a few cities already.

“The only other city outside of D.C. that we’ve ever sold out is Chicago,” Hayes said. “I love that city as well, so it’s always really cool to play there. But New York is always really fun to play, and whenever we make it out to the West Coast, L.A. is really cool, too.”

Hayes sees the Crystal Casino Band and Pete Hayes & The Contradictions as two distinct projects, and he likes to experiment with new ideas between the two bands. 

“I had a piano at my show on Friday, I’ve never done that before,” Hayes said. “I feel like I was getting really into the performance, just trying to put on the best show and be a really good frontman.”

The Songbyrd show at the end of July was a smashing success. It introduced people to his music, and it allowed people to introduce themselves to one another and make new friends.

The number one way to boost your coolness factor as a band is to have walk-up music. As Pete Hayes & The Contradictions walked on stage, the intro to “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin played through the speakers, leading straight into the first song. His brand new single “Sick Of It,” released the same day as his Songbyrd show, fits remarkably well with the intro to Led Zeppelin’s track.

The band played a few of their classics, the newly released songs, and some unreleased music. Fans were enthralled, and it was clear that everyone onstage loved what they were doing.

For the encore, Hayes came back out dressed in a rain jacket and bucket hat, a nod to Liam Gallagher of Oasis as they covered their song “Supersonic.”

The most unique thing Hayes did at his Songbyrd sellout was pass out four disposable cameras to the audience. He let the crowd take as many photos as they wanted, and he plans to share those photos on social media once they are developed.

“I want to remember this moment forever,” Hayes said as he passed out the cameras.

It created a memorable moment for the audience in return. People felt more connected to the band. While Hayes had some of his friends – and his mom – in the audience, he instantly created a connection to everyone else, including those who may be brand new to his music.

“I want to be able to have the crowd experience and have something to take away from it,” Hayes said. “It’s gonna be cool for people to look through it and try to find themselves.”

Hayes has been utilizing social media to boost his music career and sees it as a useful tool.

“There’s no other way to get your name out there these days,” Hayes said.

Social media is, after all, how I found out about Hayes and this concert, so his work paid off.

For now, his new music will be released under “Pete Hayes” on streaming platforms, but he hopes to one day release music as “Pete Hayes & The Contradictions” as well. While the next Pete Hayes & The Contradictions show is not yet on the calendar, we are excited to hear what happens next in this journey.