Hi, I'm Dave Putson Bassist with Joocypeach.
Joocypeach grew out of my desire to write some original Soul Jazz songs with fellow musicians based in and around South East London. It's great to know that this desire has been appreciated by fellow travellers.
We had so much fun writing and recording our first CD "Midnight Over Erith" we have now here on offer our second CD "Essential Endeavours".
But of course, those already familiar with our style and groove have probably listened to our sound clips on the Joocypeach feature on CDBaby.com and are probably already subscribers to the FREE E zine Joocy News that we send out each month to keep every body up to speed with our recording and gigging activities.
For those surfers previously unaware Joocypeach is a Soul Jazz groove band with the main protaganists being myself as Bassist. I hail from Liverpool and was fortunate enough to grow up in that great city during the rise and rise of The Beatles and the Mersey beat sound explosion. Having been given such a direct connection to great music from the beginning its hardly shocking to realise that I sought out other awesome music. How many musicians have been influenced by the musical culture of their youth, all of them and I am no different, and for mine to have also included the Motown talents of the period and the Beach Boys !! Even more unbelievably growing up absorbing the blues of Cream, Free and Led Zeppelin how could you not be inspired !! I am quite prepared to say that I even gorged on everything that Yes could offer before then being blown away by strange exciting new sounds from America and what exactly did Steely Dan mean anyway, but how infectious.
The virus had done its work and still does.
The organic nature of Joocypeach was unwittingly derived from the Steely Dan approach of having two main players and a larger circle of musicians to call upon when their time and our need coincided. The Guitarist, Meinrad Litterst and myself met at the Musician's Institute of Los Angeles whilst studying. We met over a beer in a bar off Hollywood Boulevard and have remained great friends ever since. I love his orginal mellifluous and melodic guitar sounds and he keeps on coming back to embellish my songs and grooves and it works so well I wouldn't have it any other way.
Meinrad, as the name tells you is a German groovemeister from Karlsruhr just over the border from Saltzburg. He lives for his music and his style and panache feature strongly on Joocypeach's first and second albums and are to be found currently making a major contribution to the forthcoming Joocypeach offering. Meinrad followed an offer from myself to come to the UK and we set up our musical vision together. We began up in the Welsh Hills and with the help of the local grants were able to follow this goal as far as we could using local recording and rehearsal facilities to pursue "the dream".
Eventually, London came a calling and we both now live in close proximity to one another in South East London. We both like the idea of playing Joocypeach sounds and gigging out. We also both need the sustenance of other inspirations and we teach and cross pollinate our musical ideas with our locally derived students hungry for Bass and Guitar tuition. Being blessed with a desire and an interest in our locale is were we came into contact with fellow musicians and other creative people. Just witness the "Midnight Over Erith" CD sleeve ably put together by local highly successful photographer Brian Bell.
We are fortunate to be able to record in my studio with other talented musicians. Just listen to the vocals on our first album and how Victoria Adams grabs a song and makes it her own, such a talented and modest lady a real joy to work with. She is one of many great artists we are truly blessed with nearby. And we have the ability to now write, record and release our material on the Joocypeach Music label and we highlight this for you in Joocy News which helps to motivate us onwards and upwards for our and your listening pleasure. Our second CD also features some staggeringly poetic renditions of our music with some superb lyrics for two songs written by my brother Terry and superbly interpreted by Joocypeach's very own answer to Jill Scott or if you will Alicia Keys the very able and talented and truly modest Mirand Briggs.
We even have songs where Meinrad chooses not play a major part and even then we can call on the superb talent of Rock guitarist Phil Tyler. Yet another tutor and a bit special in his chosen genre of Rocking hard guitar.
So we continue to have fun, improve and embellish our sound and look forward to the further Joocypeach releases in the not too distant future and we look forward to you joining us on the way. It may even be your next observation to us that inspires our next composition, after all it is experience that often times evokes the inspiration for the creative juices to flow......
Send us an article for featuring in Joocy News or just drop us your views as Stephen and Terry did we enjoy the feedback.
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