Youngstown is comprised of three talented young musicians: James "Dallas" Dallas, 24; David "DC" Yeager, 23; and Sam "Sammy" Lopez , 21. The group came together several years ago when Part Four, a group which Dallas and DC were members of, parted ways. After the split, Dallas and DC teamed up with Sammy in Atlanta and Youngstown was born. The trio's first album, Let's Roll, has recently been released after years of hard work and collaboration. Songwriting is the group's forte, and the trio tries to reflect what they love through their music. Tracks on the album range from "Jamie Lee," a tribute to Dallas' mom, to "Pedal to the Steel," a funky tune about a wild night out on the town. Even Disney has caught on to Youngstown's rising talent; "I'll Be Your Everything," one of the tracks from the album, is featured on the Inspector Gadget soundtrack
Interview
BB: Your band is named after Youngstown, OH. Why? What's so great about it there?
DC: We're actually all from different parts of the country. But that's where we met, and we put the group together in Youngstown…. We didn't actually call it Youngstown from the beginning, but a friend of ours in California had the idea and thought it would be good….
Dallas: As soon as I heard it, it reminded me of the old 80's bands, like Boston, Kansas, and Chicago. Immediately, I was like "yeah, that's it--that's our name!"
BB: Tell me about your current album, Let's Roll. It's your first album-what's the sound of it? How was your recording experience?
Dallas: High energy, dance. It'll make you bob your head one second, it'll make you cry the next. It's Youngstown, that's what it is. Basically we named it Let's Roll because it's our first opportunity to get out there. It's our first chance, and we're not going to stress and worry about it. We're just going to….
Sammy: Roll with it!
BB: What are each of your favorite tracks off the album?
All three in unison: Pedal to the Steel!! (laughing)
DC: Pedal is my favorite song to perform live. It's high energy and it's probably one of the doper tracks on the album.
BB: You collaborated with Kel Mitchell (of the Nickelodeon show Kenan and Kel) for that song. How did that come about?
DC: Kenan was just hilarious! The producer that actually produced the song is friends with him. He just came in to hang out and see the session and our producer asked him, "Hey, you wanna rap on it?" And he said, "Yeah, I'll rap on it." So we all sat right there and put it together.
BB: And you guys wrote most of the songs on the album?
Dallas: We wrote five songs and produced three.
BB: Who do you hope to collaborate with in the future?
Dallas: There's a lot of people: David Foster, Diane Warren, Babyface, Michael, Teddy Riley, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Brian McKnight, a whole bunch of people!
BB: You've said that you admire artists with longevity. What does it take to achieve longevity in today's fickle industry?
Sammy: Unity.
DC: Respect.
Dallas: You gotta love each other.
DC: Oh yeah, definitely.
Dallas: See, that's just it. We're all here to build something together. And if at times, someone starts to feel down, then it's up to the other two to pick him back up and get him back in it. It's what we gotta do…you gotta love what you do. Even if we didn't have a record deal, even if it wasn't such and such, I still believe we'd be back in Youngstown, OH, writing songs in the basement of our house.
BB: Are you excited to have your single, "I'll Be Your Everything," featured on the Inspector Gadget soundtrack?
Dallas: It's been a total blessing. It just made everything that we were trying to do with our lives move that much faster.
BB: When you were little, did you watch the Inspector Gadget cartoons?
All three: Oh yeah!
DC: I've seen the movie twice.
Dallas: Missed it by that much! (imitates Inspector Gadget)
BB: What are some of your other favorite movies and TV shows?
DC: My three favorite all-time movies are Austin Powers, Happy Gilmore, and Ace Ventura.
Dallas: See, I can go category by category. Comedy: My favorite is Dumb and Dumber. Serious, like action packed movies? It'd be a cross between Bad Boys and the Matrix. And also, the new movie The Sixth Sense.
Sammy: I love The Goonies! That was an adventure growing up…kept me creative.
BB: So the whole "boy band thing," the current phenomenon of boy bands taking off…do you think that has helped you or hurt you?
Dallas: It's helped us. I think, like I said before and I'll say it again, there's room at the top for anybody who wants to work hard enough to get there. All it takes is work, unity and you gotta love what you do. That's why Backstreet's there, and that's why N'Sync is there, and that's why 98 Degrees is there. There's a million and one other pop groups coming out, but they just can't grab onto that thing, and I think it's because they just don't have the unity that it takes. That's not guaranteeing that we'll get there, but we do have that dedication and we do have that unity.
BB: Do you have any videos coming up?
Dallas: We did the Disney version of the Inspector Gadget video. On the 2nd, we have a shoot for the MTV version of the song.
BB: If your life or your experience was a Jenny Jones episode, what would the title be?
Dallas: I know what mine would be: "People who regret teasing you as a child," because I got teased so much.
DC: Mine would be "Men who are addicted to video games and the women who love them."
