Jimmy had a phone interview a short time ago with Brian Lush of RockWired Magazine. The complete article is online now - check it out!
Interview, RockWired Magazine
Interview | Rockwired Magazine
MR. BRiGHTSiDE
JiMMY BLECHER OF PROJECT DNA
TALKS TO ROCKWiRED
ABOUT HiS PROJECT'S SELF-TiTLED DEBUT
HAViNG AN OUTLET FOR HiS POP SENSiBiLiTY
AND HiS DAYS ON AMERiCAN iDOL
iNTERViEWED BY BRiAN LUSH
When a cute looking pop singer desires to be taken seriously, they either forge a rockier sound or pick up a decidedly more hip-hop styled swagger. It is a tried and true method that has made the like PINK and JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE industry giants as opposed to yesterday’s pop. Guitarist JIMMY BLECKER has been a member of the Kansas City-based alternative rock band AMADIUS for years and has decided to flex his pop muscle with his latest gig PROJECT DNA – a celebration of time honored pop hooks that eschews the grit and seriousness of his other band. The road to pop superstardom is paved with the catchiest pop-rock hooks imaginable. Despite the “don’t bore us/get to the chorus” approach, PROJECT DNA and its self-titled debut boasts stellar backing from the likes of BEAVER HOWARD (bassist for SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE), FUNKASAURUS REX on drums and BLAZE BARRET on lead guitar.
ROCKWIRED spoke with JIMMY BLECKER of PROJECT DNA over the phone. Here is how it went.
How do you feel about your debut CD?
I tell you what man, the music and the artwork on this CD were equally as important to me. I just received my final finished copy yesterday. The finished work is as visually and musically stimulating as I had imagined that it would be. To see a concept go from its birthing stage to now is truly exciting. It’s an award beyond belief.
Talk about he visuals a little more. Who worked with you on them?
It was my little cousin BLAZE. He’s a little child prodigy. He’s one of those guys who love doing anything and everything to expand his mind in art if you know what I mean. I love him and he’s just very gifted. He took a little DNA sketch that and turned it into this dancing DNA cartoon. The artwork on the CD has thirteen different frames of visuals on it.
Talk about how music got started for you as an individual.
My mother was a musical prodigy. She had perfect pitch when she was four years old and could pretty much play anything on any instrument. I used to sit on the bench with her when she would play and I would just cry when she would sing minor chords. Minor chords just move my heart. I think I have just a little bit of her talent. I started playing and writing when I was fourteen. I was self taught and had a natural ear thank God! I was able to learn by my ear. The real training didn’t come until the last couple of years. I wanted to take my music to a whole new level and really be professional about it. During that time I played many shows throughout Kansas City in a hard rock band called AMADIUS. I’m still recording with that group but PROJECT DNA is a way to put out songs that were a little too happy and poppy for AMADIUS. When we would play at weddings, people would request PROJECT DNA songs even though it was AMADIUS that was playing.
AMADIUS can’t be too happy with that.
They weren’t back in the day, but now that AMADIUS has gone in a different direction. We’ve got a female singer in the band now. I think everyone has a happy and a dark side to them. A yin and a yang. For an AMADIUS show, I was always too poppy and happy for a majority of our songs. I’d be making jokes everywhere. So PROJECT DNA lends itself better to the lovey – dovey, happy love songs whereas the music of AMADIUS deals with life issues and addictions. PROJECT DNA does to but we just go about it in a different way. I’m a guy that deals with issues of addiction. I’m an addictive personality. Three of the songs on the album are by a guy named ED GANEY who actually had a terrible life form addiction and lost everything but had a heart of gold. He kind of looks like a member of ZZ TOP with his big, old long beard. He wrote three songs on this album that take it to this whole other spiritual level. You’ve got thee light, poppy, happy love songs that I’ve got and then we start digging deep into some more spiritual songs by ED GEANEY like EMPTY PROMISES.
Talk a little more about ED GANEY.
click here to read the rest of the article on the RockWired site
MR. BRiGHTSiDE
JiMMY BLECHER OF PROJECT DNA
TALKS TO ROCKWiRED
ABOUT HiS PROJECT'S SELF-TiTLED DEBUT
HAViNG AN OUTLET FOR HiS POP SENSiBiLiTY
AND HiS DAYS ON AMERiCAN iDOL
iNTERViEWED BY BRiAN LUSH
When a cute looking pop singer desires to be taken seriously, they either forge a rockier sound or pick up a decidedly more hip-hop styled swagger. It is a tried and true method that has made the like PINK and JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE industry giants as opposed to yesterday’s pop. Guitarist JIMMY BLECKER has been a member of the Kansas City-based alternative rock band AMADIUS for years and has decided to flex his pop muscle with his latest gig PROJECT DNA – a celebration of time honored pop hooks that eschews the grit and seriousness of his other band. The road to pop superstardom is paved with the catchiest pop-rock hooks imaginable. Despite the “don’t bore us/get to the chorus” approach, PROJECT DNA and its self-titled debut boasts stellar backing from the likes of BEAVER HOWARD (bassist for SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE), FUNKASAURUS REX on drums and BLAZE BARRET on lead guitar.
ROCKWIRED spoke with JIMMY BLECKER of PROJECT DNA over the phone. Here is how it went.
How do you feel about your debut CD?
I tell you what man, the music and the artwork on this CD were equally as important to me. I just received my final finished copy yesterday. The finished work is as visually and musically stimulating as I had imagined that it would be. To see a concept go from its birthing stage to now is truly exciting. It’s an award beyond belief.
Talk about he visuals a little more. Who worked with you on them?
It was my little cousin BLAZE. He’s a little child prodigy. He’s one of those guys who love doing anything and everything to expand his mind in art if you know what I mean. I love him and he’s just very gifted. He took a little DNA sketch that and turned it into this dancing DNA cartoon. The artwork on the CD has thirteen different frames of visuals on it.
Talk about how music got started for you as an individual.
My mother was a musical prodigy. She had perfect pitch when she was four years old and could pretty much play anything on any instrument. I used to sit on the bench with her when she would play and I would just cry when she would sing minor chords. Minor chords just move my heart. I think I have just a little bit of her talent. I started playing and writing when I was fourteen. I was self taught and had a natural ear thank God! I was able to learn by my ear. The real training didn’t come until the last couple of years. I wanted to take my music to a whole new level and really be professional about it. During that time I played many shows throughout Kansas City in a hard rock band called AMADIUS. I’m still recording with that group but PROJECT DNA is a way to put out songs that were a little too happy and poppy for AMADIUS. When we would play at weddings, people would request PROJECT DNA songs even though it was AMADIUS that was playing.
AMADIUS can’t be too happy with that.
They weren’t back in the day, but now that AMADIUS has gone in a different direction. We’ve got a female singer in the band now. I think everyone has a happy and a dark side to them. A yin and a yang. For an AMADIUS show, I was always too poppy and happy for a majority of our songs. I’d be making jokes everywhere. So PROJECT DNA lends itself better to the lovey – dovey, happy love songs whereas the music of AMADIUS deals with life issues and addictions. PROJECT DNA does to but we just go about it in a different way. I’m a guy that deals with issues of addiction. I’m an addictive personality. Three of the songs on the album are by a guy named ED GANEY who actually had a terrible life form addiction and lost everything but had a heart of gold. He kind of looks like a member of ZZ TOP with his big, old long beard. He wrote three songs on this album that take it to this whole other spiritual level. You’ve got thee light, poppy, happy love songs that I’ve got and then we start digging deep into some more spiritual songs by ED GEANEY like EMPTY PROMISES.
Talk a little more about ED GANEY.
click here to read the rest of the article on the RockWired site
Written on Thursday, 07 January 2010 02:33 by rickDNA