PostModern Jukebox Creator Describes Unique Cover Band

Steve Adubato sits down with Scott Bradlee, Creator of PostModern Jukebox, who gives insight into this unique band and how they became a YouTube sensation with their covers of modern day classics.

4/10/17 #2024

Excerpt:

"Because you know I'm all about that bass, 'Bout that bass, no treble. I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that base... We gonna let it burn, burn, burn. We gonna let it burn, burn... But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo... I mean that is just some... just some of the terrific musicians from Postmodern Jukebox, and the creator is Scott Bradlee. How you doing? Hey, really good Steve. Good to be here. Tell us... tell folks what we're looking at. This is Postmodern Jukebox. This is...? You said 50 different performers, musicians, artists? Yeah. So it's kind of like a community of artists. The whole idea is I wanted to kinda create this universe, this alternate universe, where today's pop music, the biggest hits of today, existed many years ago. Back in the days of vinyl record. Back in the days of the Rat Pack, and the swing era, New Orleans, and Motown, and all those great, you know, classic genres of music. So I have this incredible community of artists that I've kind of assembled to bring all these songs to life. And these arrangements to life. And... When did it happen? This... it started in my basement. So I was living in a basement apartment, I moved to New York City when I was about 25 years old. You're a Jersey guy? I grew up in Jersey. I grew up in Clinton. So you admit that? Yeah right! [laughter] Yeah! Route 78? [laughter] Yeah, I got the spray tan and the travel tattoo, so a little bit. Hey hey! Don't be doing stereotypical Jersey stuff! [laughter] Alright, so you moved to New York, you got the thing going, you're in your basement? Yeah. And what? Where does YouTube come into this? So, I couldn't get any work. I was a jazz pianist. A good one. And the city was saturated with Jazz pianists so I decided to try to do something different. I went on YouTube and I started just coming up with these crazy ideas taking pop songs and making them how they would sound vintage. So people would hear a Justin Bieber song and then just imagine... "Well, what would that song sound like in the '20's?" And I would invite my friends over. You know, I had other musician friends and we'd come and I'd just set up. You know, using like duct tape and everything. It was really lo-fi. I just had a camera on a tripod and we would just record something and put it online and the thing that happened was, well, one, they started going viral. Why? I guess it was something that was engaging. It was interesting to people just on the fact that when you think of a..."