All posts by Lucky

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Vocal Tracking In Ohio

The time has come for history to be made. We decided to record the vocals for the new record back home in Ohio, where the original 3 members of JEWAM grew up. By tracking with my brother, Matt (AKA Dr. Computer / Terry Weinstein) we knew that we’d be in the right place. Matt also had a band mate, Randy, who essentially became the other half of Andy’s bass harmony arrangements.

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With a bottle of Jameson and plenty of Schweppes Ginger Ale, we set out to record 11 songs in 11 days. This is a dumb idea. It’s just stupid, but we thought we’d give it a shot. What came of our efforts is pure magic. I’m so proud of my friends and family who helped put together some great vocal tracks. Below are a few home movies of our time in the studio. Stay tuned for samples!

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Three Become Four

Major Announcement: We have acquired a fourth member of JEWAM. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome JP Dollarsign! I met John waiting tables and immediately knew he was the right man for the job, plus we had an opening for a ‘J’ and an ‘M’ in the group…

I decided to video record the first time we ever sang together. Take a listen to JP and Lucky singing ‘That’s What She Said’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz-0BHxLLPs

We are looking forward to rehearsing, tracking, and performing with our newest member! Keep an eye on the website for more updates.

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The Writing Retreat

In the winter of 2013, the boys and I got together to take the funny song ideas we had written over the years and write a full length album… in 8 days. This may seem ridiculous, but for us, it comes naturally (TWSS). We met in Effingham, Illinois, where E’s in-laws have a house. We made a make-shift studio in their loft.

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We genuinely couldn’t have done it without E and A’s wives letting us play boy band for a week. JEWAM has kind of become a family operation. This is what it takes to be an indie boy band.

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Here’s a snippet of what happens when the three of us get into a room together to dream about JEWAM.

By way of luck, the highways got so terribly snowy that they were all shutdown, leaving us nothing to do but write. Take a look at E (and his awesome white sedan) trying to shovel off the car so we could make a Mickey D’s run.

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When all was said and done, we had a full record written. Now, onto the next part of the process – Recording an album! Stay tuned!

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The JEWEDDING

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That’s right, ladies. The ‘A’ in JEWAM is taken. Sure, marriage is an important decision in anyone’s life, but this was a special day for the guys in JEWAM too. This was the first time anyone had ever seen us perform as JEWAM.

Dressed in all white and performing the tunes we had written when we were 15, the three men of JEWAM gave a crowd rousing performance.

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“They seem like they can actually sing!”
– Andy’s elderly relatives

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The Beginning of the Band

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This is where our story begins. Awful haircuts, pimples, and ridiculously good looks. Andy (A), Evan (E), and I were best friends in middle school. We went everywhere together. We sang together. We grew up together. All three of us were surrounded by music. My brother was in the old 80s hair band, Warrant,  Andy was a concert violinist, and Evan was a full-time consumer of vocal music.

Andy and I met in the 4th grade, where our teacher let us share a comic we had been writing called ‘The Nerd Prize’ for show-and-tell. It was really just a vehicle for us to tell fart jokes…

Evan sat next to me in Ms. Krivak’s 6th grade class. Eventually, the three of us found ourselves in Evan’s basement making parody skit tapes recorded on E’s karaoke machine. Over the years, we three fell in love with boy bands of the 90s and had a unique flair for three part harmony. By the seventh grade, we performed BoyzIIMen’s rendition of ‘In the Still of the Night’ for our middle school talent show, wearing matching white dress shirts, adding our friend Jason as the 4th member. In the 8th grade, we performed ‘My Girl’ with our friend, Matt, as our 4th.

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Then, freshman year hit. E’s family moved him to Florence, KY, and A’s family moved him to Dallas, leaving me to love Justin Timberlake on my own. As we would have our periodic talks on the phone, we would joke about continuing the singing group. By the end of the year, E said that he had made friends with two fellas in Kentucky, named Joe and Mike. Together, we could put together a true 5 piece! Using our first initials, we spelled out J.E.W.A.M. We thought it sounded hilarious and left it alone. Through the years of high school and college, we joked about making a real JEWAM record, but eventually, we all went our separate ways, and Joe and Mike never really had a chance to join the group.

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On June 7, 2008, Evan got hitched to his college sweetheart. As a joke, I decided to to get together with my rockstar brother and produce a song we had started writing when we were 15-years-old, called ‘JEWAM Your Face In’. It was our take on ‘Backstreet’s Back’ or ‘Spice Up Your Life’. I thought I could get the three of us to perform it as a way to embarrass E at his wedding. But, with duffel bags full of white clothes sitting under the table of honor, Evan called an audible, and nixed the performance. There was a silver lining, though. At the wedding, Andy met the childhood best friend of Evan’s wife and they fell in love! How crazy is that?!

A year later, Andy and Amy announced that they were planning on getting married. Andy promised that we would absolutely be performing, so we’d better get our act together. Over the summer of 2009, Evan came to Ohio and Andy and I virtually connected to rehearse and track the songs for us to perform at the wedding.

When the time came for the wedding, we were just excited to be performing. It was like being 14 all over again with my best friends. The four songs we had put together kept getting passed around by our friends and family, eventually becoming our EP, titled ‘Hit Machine’.

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In 2013, while hanging out with my brother, Matt, we sparked a conversation about making a full JEWAM record. Somehow, the timing felt right. The guys and I had been writing and sending funny ideas to each other for almost 15 years by this point. Why not? So, that’s where I leave you. Evan has a baby, two out of three are married, and we all gained weight. We have gone from boy band to man band. Are you ready to join us on our JEJourney?