blog.jamlegend.com

With the magic of Internet, it's easier than ever for band members to find their musical soulmates.  Young & Divine, an Albany, New York pop punk trio, is proof that the missing piece that could perfect your lineup is just a click away.  It wasn't too difficult for JP Clark and Joe Bortscheller to meet and form a musical alliance; JP and Joe were in the same psychology class, and Joe with his 5-inch, bleached blond mohawk was not that hard to miss.  Soon, with JP on bass and Joe on drums, they began to play the songs written by JP and gathered two other members to form a full band.  But alas, it was not meant to be and the search for the missing piece was on.

Who would have thought a random MySpace friend request would lead to the rise of Young & Divine as a trio?  Who would have thought JP and Joe, in the northeast corner of the United States, would find their third in the heart of Texas, nearly 1500 miles away?  It sounds too crazy and too perfect, but guitarist Jake Mai followed the digital bread crumbs after getting a request to add Young & Divine, and loved what the band was doing.  One thing led to another and Jake quit his job, flew to Albany, and joined the band.  Young & Divine, with their inspiration in the 1990s wave of punk like Green Day and Blink182, was now complete with three members--drums, bass, guitar, and a lot of harmonies.

Young & Divine recorded their self-titled debut in Atlanta, Georgia's TreeSound Studios with Kenneth Mount and Zack Odom--13 songs of infectious melodies, sing-along choruses, and enough energy to power small cities.  Their songs hover between cheeky humor and earnest, youthful exuberance.  One moment, they're gloating that "Nicole Deserved It" because she wasn't a nice person, but in another moment, the band oozes positive vibes. PJ says, "That's all I want to be around now. I was tired of the old ways and hanging around negative people,"  JamLegend has a taste of Young & Divine's catchy music that will make you bop your head and maybe do the air guitar (if you're not playing along on the game, that is...).  We just posted "Weakdays" and hope that you will enjoy playing the song!

You can find out more about Young & Divine on their official site and MySpace (of course!), or follow them on Twitter to get their latest updates.

 

It's common to say some things never mix like oil and water, but in music, that is probably the least true saying you can subscribe to.  There are many bands who mix cultures and genres, but the band who has come to JamLegend's attention recently is Seven7 from the United Kingdom.  They are relatively new to our game, but they certainly got our attention with their own take on melodic, progressive metal.  We asked Arran McSporran, the bassist, to tell us more about Seven7.

The catalyst for the band's unique sound seems to be Nick Meier, their guitar player from Switzerland.  Nick, who came to London to study music, is a jazz guitar genius who won the prestigious Berklee Music award for "Best Jazz Guitarist" and is known in the jazz world for his ensemble The Meier Group.  Nick is responsible for writing the guitar solos for Seven7's songs--and by "write" we actually mean "improvise."  Not long ago, one of the JamLegend trackers contacted Arran to ask for a guitar tab for a song so the complex guitar solo can be tracked correctly.  Arran says, "The only problem is that we have no tabs because our guitarist is a jazz virtuoso so he improvises a different solo every time! So I had to try to look through some old videos to find a video of him playing the song live to give the tracker an idea of what's going on."  Nick's reputation as an amazing guitar player precedes him: in a review of Joe Satriani--that is, the Joe Satriani of guitar virtuoso fame--Jazzwise magazine said the album at times "sounded Nick Meier."  While jazz and metal could potentially end up in a disastrous culture clash, Arran characterizes the two sides of their master guitar player thus: "Rehearsals are interesting as he often brings two guitars: one down-tuned seven-string to play with us and an acoustic (he is sponsored by Godin Guitars) with which he is going to play quiet late-night jazz until the early morning after he's finished rehearsing loud and fast and with us!"

Arran also adds that Nick's wife, who is from Turkey, has opened up a whole new world of Turkish music.  In visiting her native country, Nick has picked up various Turkish instruments like Oud, Saz and Baglama, as well as the fundamentals of Turkish music such as quarter-tone systems and instrument-specific phrasing.  All of these influences and instruments land in Seven7's music, making it more rich and complex than the average metal.  Of course, you can't have a solid band with just a guitar player:  Seven7's lineup boasts Dave Brown's brawny vocals, Arran's soulful turn on the fretless bass, and drummer Dave Moulding laying an unshakable foundation.

Seven7 has found that putting their music on JamLegend has reaped its reward in "great comments from JamLegend users about how much they enjoy our songs (and our logo!?)" as Arran tells us.  They discovered JamLegend when they saw another band's song widget on MySpace and thought "with the tricky solos, I knew that the JamLegend users would really enjoy the challenge of playing along to our songs."  With a whopping 12 songs available on the game, you can get a good taste of Seven7's unique style and play beside a celebrated guitarist and test your chops.

To find out more about Seven7, please visit their official site or their MySpace page.  You can buy their album Try Something Different via iTunes and Amazon.  We hope you'll enjoy playing along to the title track "Try Something Different" posted below!