Jack Brag is on its way

For me, it all started with a message on MySpace. Tony wanted to start a new band - something that had a different sound, something a bit off the beaten track yet familiar, something that felt fresh. Tony had been playing bass guitar with various bands, his last being successful in the tri-state area and he had done some pretty impressive gigs. He thought that a cello added to fairly standard band instrument, but with players with non-traditional backgrounds, would give a different and unique sound.

I met Tony after some e-mail exchanges and we started talking about his thoughts to form a band. I have a classical background with cello and piano so this was really out of the box for me. I'd played backup for an R&B singer a few months before, but have never even really thought about playing rock cello - was there really such a thing? After our discussion, I felt it would be interesting, so he went back and started to pull together some of his songs and write many new ones. He laid down some tracks, playing the structure on guitar, bass (his main instrument) and a drumtrack on his mixer. He played them for me and I really liked what I heard.

Tony had been in contact with Jim, a singer/pianist who's background includes tons of musical theater and band experience. Tony was definitely going for a different vibe and feel than a traditional band. He wanted people that could infuse different ideas than had been done before.

We started to work on our parts, Jim working on the music and lyrics that Tony wrote and I started working on my part to contribute to the songs. All of us wanted a unique sound that would be fun. We began recording our separate parts adding to the texture of the recordings. The album was formally starting and we had the skeleton in place.

Now that things were going we needed to round out the band with live players on guitar and drums. Rich came next. I knew he played guitar but didn't push him to join the band. Tony caught wind of Rich's playing. Nothing can stop Tony when he's got his mind set on something and he convinced Rich to play, much to the delight of us all, as he added a bent of rock ranging from the neo-psychedelic pop to the crazy electronica bands of Europe. Last came Bill on drums, with his background in playing in a punk band. We had been trying for an eclectic mix of people and now we got to see how it all meshed together.

Jack Brag works. I'm not always sure how we pull it together from all of our varied backgrounds but we're created a sound that is all our own. We're still working on the album with a release in just a few months. I decided that I really should document the process of us becoming a band.

So, I'll probably being going backwards a bit to start from the beginning.... or maybe not. We'll just have to see how the blog pans out of our experiences...