They say that you are only as young as you feel. Each member of the talented triplet (not like the same mom triplet, but tight friends triplet) Youngstown are in their early twenties and just this past year during a tumultuous time for veteran recording artists who are trying to embrace new musical trends with their old hands, these three young men have made pop music sound young and fresh again. Youngstown's debut, Let's Roll, moves from track to track with blissful innocence. It would seem that these young men knew how to write a catchy song without even bothering to refer to the tried and true formula of recent pop hits. The finest pop music is supposed to touch that childlike innocence and passion within all listeners. Let's Roll succeeds in this task and in addition, it offers songs that are different enough from each other to keep the pace as vibrant and alive as the mood that the trio had successfully brought to the surface.
All of the fellows were based in Youngstown, Ohio (wonder where they get their from), but it was in Atlanta, where prospects for starting a musical career were more abundant. The beginnings of Youngstown parallel the beginnings of many bands, which often form the pairing of mutual friends or the breakup of older groups with strange, unheard names. James Dallas, 24 (chiseled face), had met Davis Yeager or as you will come to know him DC (deep dimples) through some mutual friends and had asked him to sing with his band at the time, called Part 4. It was after DC joined the group that the new home base became Atlanta, but Dallas and DC soon found that Part 4 dispersed before their eyes as the members turned to other career opportunities. When an old Ohio friend, Sam Lopez (dark eyes), the band's youngest member, was visiting his mother in Atlanta at the time, heard that Dallas and DC needed a new member. "I was like 'Yo, I want to do music, so let's do this,' recalls Sammy. "It wasn't like we were put together," We did it ourselves, he continues. Forget the other guys, it's now a trio and they're going to work even harder to make it happen for them, right? Of course, right away these young talents started writing for their debut album (without a demo or record deal promise) they worked for a year on Let's Roll.
Perhaps the reason that Let's Roll is able to bring out this youthful feeling so well is that the songs are written from real experiences and real passions that the young singers have faced over the course of their lives. In many ways, they have lived the lifestyles of teenagers with dedication to their craft and their hard work, which sets them apart from others.
Have you heard the album yet? Songs like "I'll be Your everything," which is on the Inspector Gadget soundtrack are very much like the guys, vibrant. Some of the other tracks, however, resonate more on a personal level, like "Jamie Lee', Dallas wrote for his mother (the name is what she called him growing up) and is intended as a tribute to her for all the hard work and her unwavering dedication to him. And "Remember," a gentle ballad that's the first song the group wrote together. "Every time that song comes on, it brings back memories from when we first started out, remembers Sammy.
The musical elements of hip-hop, R&B and rock and roll are all incorporated nicely on Youngstown's debut record. At the very least this young group have managed to record and release an album of their own without being boxed in and shelved by executives into a particular category. What's more this band has been a reminder of not only what it is like to be young, but also to feel young.
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