Here, There, and Everywhere.

Recently, I have been MIA on the blog. Things have been pretty hectic over here, but in a good way. I finally snagged a part-time job, which means I will have income rolling in. Its not what I thought I would be doing, but its close to home and its money. One school starts up I have to find a month-long student teaching placement. The hours will collide, so I don't know how that will pan out. I'm really not concerned at the moment, because I need to figure out what the academic deal is on the first day of class. Speaking of class, I started summer classes: part deux. Same professor, less classes, but much longer hours. I love the professor and the course, and my classmates are great - definitely makes a five-hour classes bearable. Next week is the final week, but due to the holiday vacation, I will be in class 25 hours next week. Not to mention I still have to go to work, put in some hours at my internship, plus do required schoolwork. I can't wait until the weekend is here, and this weekend isn't even over already!


Lets see, what else is new in my neck of the woods. Oh, I colored my hair again. I decided that before I head back to the classroom, my mane needed some fun colors. My friend Christina redid my highlights, then added some pink, purple, and teal. The teal (which was a mixture of a green and blue hair dye) wound up spreading all over my head, so its a unique shade at the moment, but it looks pretty cool. She plans on adding more pink into it, so she can enter a color contest this summer. 

Lazing around on July 4.

I keep forgetting to post about this, but I met Tony Lucca! He played a free show at Tanger Outlets in Deer Park at the end of June (told you I was behind on posts). I wound up running the merch table and met some really nice local fans of his, which I will see at the NYC show in November - the show is during the week of my 30th birthday, so if you dig his music you should definitely join me! Like I mentioned in a previous post, Lucca sounds phenomenal during live performances, and now I got to experience it in the flesh. It was pretty hot out, but that didn't affect him or his bandmates. Vocals were on pitch, guitars were in tune, and the audience loved it. Seeing as the venue did little to no promotion for the event, there was a decent turnout. Had they actually promoted it, even if it were just a week prior to the show, the turnout would have been at least double. I took my photographer, Avalon, with me. This was her first show, and she was a bit nervous. I told her to just go for it, and I think she did pretty well, seeing as this was new territory for her. Sometimes you need to be thrown into the water in order to learn how to swim. While slinging merch, a lot of folks came up to me and said they had never heard of Tony Lucca before, but they really enjoyed his music. Every single person who said that to me bought at least one CD, which was awesome. 

Soundcheck.

 I didn't speak to Lucca until after the show, but he's a really nice guy. His bandmates, Steve and Mic, are pretty awesome as well. Definitely folks you could sit down and bullshit with over a cold beer or three. Too bad there wasn't time to catch another interview over a game of darts. Maybe next time. 

Me and Tony after the Tanger show.

One of my best friends since childhood came for a quick visit on Friday. Sean came to New York on business, but caught a flight to Long Island so we could hang for the earlier part of the day. We feasted on bagel egg sandwiches at Corey Beach, lunched with my friends The Rachel's (they are both named Rachel and they are best friends, its awesome) at C'est Cheese, and Sean had his first taste of Ralph's Famous Italian Ices. It was a fun-filled afternoon, and I was sad to see him go. Hopefully I will be able to see him after he gets back from London - he will be at the Olympics this year!

C'est Cheese in Port Jefferson = insanely delicious!

I wish I could write more, but I have an overabundance of schoolwork to complete before class tomorrow. I had planned on getting some done during the week, but I decided that enjoying myself was a bit more important. Sometimes you just need to live a little. When it comes to academics, I perform best under pressure anyway, so getting everything done in one day is a challenge I enjoy. I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and have a great week! 

Talking with Tony Lucca.

At the end of May I was given the opportunity to get on the phone with Tony Lucca, the contestant who placed third on season two of NBC's The Voice. We discussed when he was bit by the music bug, what it was like participating on the show, and I even put him on the spot regarding his top Beatles tunes. We chatted for a few minutes prior to the interview, then got down to business.

Lucca in the studio. Photo credit: Tony Lucca, Facebook.

How old were you when you realized you wanted to be a musician?

Ah man, like right away. I actually have a picture of me standing outside, when I was three and a half, just strumming a guitar. It was about 7 or 8 when I got really bit by the bug. I picked up a guitar, learned to play songs, and fantasized about the life as a rock star.

Were you formally trained on guitar or piano, or did you start playing by ear?

Pretty much by ear, a few lessons here or there to acquire theory, but I was never able to lock into it. My mom was the tenth of twelve kids that all sing or played something, so really by osmosis. I learned quite a bit from uncles, aunts, and cousins. Its been a really blessed, blessed life, for sure.

No, that’s definitely awesome. I wrote something when I had heard the clip of you and Adam [Levine, Maroon 5 singer and Lucca’s coach on The Voice] performing [The Beatles] "Yesterday," and it was the second time I had seen you on the show. The first time was a fluke. I had the television on, and heard your name, and told my boyfriend that had watched you on the Mickey Mouse Club. I was floored, because I had heard bits and pieces of your work over the years, but it was always in passing. This time, I actually sat there and listened, and I was like “hooooollllllyyy shit.” 

[Laughs] 

I heard that, I said, “This is gonna be it,” and told Erich that you were going to be one of the top picks. I’m honestly so stoked that you were given the opportunity to show the world what you could do.

Yeah, well I appreciate that. Definitely, that was the goal, to get as best an opportunity as possible and I felt like we capitalized on it in the best way, in ways that I didn’t even see coming. I thought it was really a good run.

I was wondering, because I remember when I was younger and was in marching band, I had a few things I always did before a show. Do you have any pre-performance rituals?

No, I really don’t - at least none that I do consciously. I know that I do slip into sort of a zone; people close to me have pointed it out, and they’ll recognize it before I do. There is a bit of a mental space that I get into and there are idiosyncratic vocal things I do, vocal warm-ups that make sure I’m good to go, or at least I know where I stand with my voice. Some days its totally there, and some days it is not there. But no, no rituals. I’m not superstitious. If there is anything I’ve learned over the years, its that you never know where and when you’re gonna need to just get out there and do it. It’s always been my thing to just always be prepared for whatever, and trust yourself.

Yeah. Now, you said before that you are really close with your family. When you were filming, how was it being away from your wife and kids? Did they stay home, or were they nearby?

 For the most part, they were here in Michigan while I was out in LA. We were apart for quite awhile, sometimes as much as four or five weeks. As the finale got closer, they were coming out once a week. Between the second to last episode and the last episode, they stayed in LA. We spent as much time together as we could while I was slaving away [laughs]. It was tough, it was really hard, but the further along I got in the competition, the more the sacrifice felt… worthwhile, you know? The sacrificing wasn’t made in vain. Its important that you have the support, that you're able to trust in the love that you have, and the dedication you have as a family to the common goal of succeeding. Obviously my wife is made of some serious stock [laughs], and my kids, they're wonderful as well. They loved the whole experience, it was really cool for them as well.

They could turn on the TV and see dad.

Yeah, and its weird that it sort of becomes the norm for kids, but everything is relative. Its like the kids of sports stars - daddy’s on the TV every Sunday, or every few days. Its life as we know it.

How was it working with Adam Levine?

It was amazing. It was everything I hoped it would be. People always ask “why him,” and truthfully, personally, I feel like he is the least affected of the four of them. Now I don’t mean that in a judgemental way, or being critical, but what you see is really what you get with him. Hes very straight to the point, and for someone like me, that’s what I want. I'm going to set my ego aside and open myself to criticism, and I want it straight. I figured if I could get on his team, that we would develop a pretty cool shorthand and really connect and forge a productive bond. To say the least, that’s pretty much what happened.

When you had decided to go with Adam, I told my boyfriend that was the perfect choice. I could see you two sitting down, fooling around on the guitar, bouncing ideas off each other – even writing a song together.

That really almost happened, to be honest. That’s how we came about doing “Yesterday.” We were going to do “Blackbird” originally. We went in to rehearse it on stage, and we were playing it, waiting for cameras or some technical thing. I was sitting there, with my guitar, and we started strumming through the better part of the Beatles catalogue. The two of us sat in The Voice arena, with the crew and the band sitting around in the stands, really just listening to us like brothers at sound check. It was really amazing and cool, and I started strumming “Yesterday." He started singing it, we started harmonizing it, and it was like, “Ohhhh shit – that’s the one.” So we switched the song last minute. It was very cool and I'm glad it worked out.

You would have never known that it was a last minute switch, either!

I know, it was really wild.

You’ve been a musician for most of your life – is there anything that you taught Adam?

I don’t know, maybe? There might have been things that I brought to his attention that he didn’t see happening, but I don’t know. That’s a good question.

Well, I guess we’ll find out when we hear the next [Maroon 5] album.

Yeah, exactly.

Regarding the other contestants. You're essentially stuck with the same people for weeks on end, and I guess in a way its almost like summer camp. Who did you connect with, and feel like you gelled with the best?

I knew Justin Hopkins before the show, we shared the stage before, and it was cool to see him again. It was sad to see him go, but he lost to my new friend, Tony Vincent. We were roommates through the blind audition phase. We got close and made lifelong friends, so that’s very cool. Jordis [Unga] was one of my closer friends on the show. I mean, gosh, after awhile, you really get your time with everybody. You really take to some people and people endear themselves to you. Jamar [Rogers] was another one that towards the end I became closer to, and developed a mutual admiration society with [laughs]. It was really a great crop of people.

Now, I know you had to work on material for the show while you were in LA, but did you get to work on any new songs while you were filming?

Here and there; I was rehearsing with my guitar a bit more. I would sit in my hotel room, strumming while watching television. Largely, surviving something like that requires a pretty intense head space that leaves very little room for free association and creative thought. Unfortunately, I didn’t get as much writing done as I had hoped I might. With that being said, I got a ton of inspiration. Just absorbing my surroundings and my personal trajectory on the show alone is quite a story that I look forward to getting at creatively and writing about, with some hindsight perspective to go with it as well.

Were there any songs that you wanted to perform on the show that were shot down?

No, anything he “shot down” was usually with good reason and his whole objective was to make sure whatever we did was bulletproof. Especially after we became aware of our critics [laughs].

Especially when you get that close to the top. I don’t want to say you have to pick something that’s safe, but you don’t want to go out on a limb where it could screw you.

Yeah, that was the thing. Do we lay it down the fairway, or do we go for something more cutting edge and really ruffle feathers? The difficulty [The Voice] runs into is that by bringing in pre-established artists, people that have history, is they open themselves up to the possibility of artistic vision, strong opinions, and strong personalities. They have a bunch of artists trying to do what artists do, like obscure songs, taking popular songs and making them their own, and really changing things up. That’s cool, but only so far; only to a degree, and then it doesn’t work well for TV, ratings and all that shit. You learn that people are as apt to vote for a song as they are the singer, which became apparent to me when I did the Britney [Spears’ "Baby One More Time"] thing. Again, the timing of it was spot-on, the context was there, it was great for my story; nonetheless, what made that so strong was that there are so few people, especially of the target demographic of the show, that don’t have some type of personal connection to that song. People voted for that; people purchased that. Obscure songs are like a one-way ticket home, and you have to try to steer clear of that if you can.

We briefly discussed tour dates, which are listed here. Tony will also be touring with The Voice contestants in early 2013, so keep your eyes peeled for those dates.

Now, I have a few questions that are a bit unrelated to the show. What would be your dream collaboration?

I would love to do a record with Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang, and Paul Simon would be cool. I would love to tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I want to write and produce a hit for Seal and Sade to sing together – I think that would be pretty cool.

That would be pretty badass.

That would be amazing. There's lots music I would love to make happen with [various] artists. Just having come from a pretty wide range of music appreciation.

What have you been listening to?

I’ve been driving around with the kids since I’ve been home, so we put a playlist together for them, and what they’re currently into. My little girl is a big Jessie J fan, so we’ve been listening to “Domino” and “Price Tag” a lot. My son is a big Maroon 5 fan now, so I’m getting my fair dose of “Payphone” and “Moves Like Jagger.”

So you leave Adam and you still can’t get rid of him now!

I know, exactly. Personally, I’ve been rocking out to [The Black Keys] El Camino record, and trying to get caught up on their stuff, because I’ve become a late-bloomer fan of theirs.

Any television shows you got hooked on while you were in LA?

I became a huge fan of Awake, and I'm a big fan of Parenthood (Tony made a cameo on the show in 2011).

This is an ever-changing list for anyone, including myself, but I had to ask: top five Beatles songs? I know its hard to answer off the top of your head.

“I’ll Follow the Sun” [long pause, its as if I could hear the gears turning in his head],“Here Comes the Sun.” Yeesh, anything off of Rubber Soul, and [more thinking and murmuring] I’m a big fan of Abbey Road as well. “Blackbird,” obviously… that’s too hard [laughs].

I know, I was contemplating emailing the question to your management, but I wanted to see how you’d answer under pressure.

[Laughs] My gosh, I could talk Beatles all day.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to have an in-depth discussion on the Beatles, because he had another interview lined up. It was wonderful chatting with Tony. He's a down-to-earth guy who worked hard for the success that he has attained. I wish him the best.

If you want to hear some of the songs Tony would have liked to perform on The Voice, check out his Spotify playlist, Celebrity Sway (songs I would have LOVED to sing on The Voice).

Lucca at Spotify headquarters. Photo credit: Tony Lucca, Facebook.

For those of you who are on Long Island, Tony will be performing at the Tanger Outlets Sound of Summer Series this Saturday, June 23, at the Arches in Deer Park. Admission is free, so be sure to get there early. I will be there, along with my awesome photographer, Avalon. If you see us, come over and say hello!

Ladies and Gentleman, Tony Lucca Is Back!

When we have our television on, its usually for background noise. The only time I really pay attention is when I want to watch the news or The Big Bang Theory is on. One night, as I was surfing the 'net, I heard the name Tony Lucca mentioned on television. Growing up a fan of the Mickey Mouse Club, I knew that name and immediately looked up. I said to Erich, "Tony Lucca is on TV!" He had no clue who I was talking about, so he didn't really care. As I listened to him briefly speak about his life since MMC, I was very excited to hear him sing. He chose Ray LaMontagne's "Trouble." As soon as he opened his mouth, I had chills, followed by tears in my eyes. Watching the reaction of Lucca's wife and son, as all of the judges "said yes" melted my heart.

Since that evening, I haven't watched The Voice. I started training for the 5K, I had school, and other things going on. I basically forgot about my rediscovery of Tony Lucca. Then, tonight, I saw a video of Adam Levine joining Tony on stage, singing the Beatles' "Yesterday."

Chills, again. Now, I should be writing a research paper that is due tomorrow that is barely started, but I started watching videos on the NBC site, listening to Tony's voice and studying his performance. This, my friends, is a true artist. On the urging of Levine, his Voice coach, Lucca took on former mouseketeer Britney Spears' 1999 hit "Baby One More Time" and made it his own. 

Now, the links I've included are to the iTunes singles of the songs, but in all honestly, the studio does Lucca's voice no justice. He truly shines on stage, during live performances. Need more proof? Check out Tony's performance of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me," back in 2009, from the comfort of a friends living room.

When you head over to iTunes, make sure to check out Lucca's music library - the singer/songwriter has released a number of albums with his original work. I played a a couple tracks off each album while doing some academic research, but I will need to give each album a good listen from start to finish over the weekend. I don't want to pass judgement, good or bad, on something that did not have my full attention - it would not be a fair assessment.

Over the last fifteen years, I have seen more musicians perform live than I can count. But musicians that can put on a great live show with vocals on point, plus engage the crowd? Well, I can name a few off the top of my head: Jason Mraz, Lauryn Hill, Blink 182, Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Maroon 5 and Phantom Planet, and No Doubt. I'm sure there are more, but as I said, this is off the top of my head at 1:45am, and I still have to write this damned paper. From what I've seen, Lucca would definitely make the cut.

I would love to see Lucca perform live. Not with the touring Voice circus act (no offense to any other artists from the show, but those tours are always the worst), but something along the lines of an intimate gig at a smaller venue. Hell, he would even fare well as an opening act for Mraz, LaMontagne or Maroon 5 (make it happen, Adam!). I would love to say he could do his own major headlining tour, but I think he needs another year or so to put another album out and show the rest of the world what they are missing.

As Lucca said in an interview, this is now the second chapter in his life. I'm happy that he has had the opportunity to show the world what he can do, and I am definitely glad that I was given the opportunity to rediscover him.

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