Move over Jonas Brothers, there is a new group from the north east hitting the scenes who are taking New York in storm by the masses. With great pop/rock music this group based in New York is going to be the next Beetles. Well, maybe not quite like that, but the name Push Play will soon be a household name. They are headlining shows all over the Tri-State area including the Nokia Theatre on Time Square. The lead singer CJ Baran tells about life as they get ready to perform at the Nokia Theatre.
What are your musical influences?
Anything as far back as Duran Duran straight through Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco
Did you guys write your songs on your c.d.?
Mhmm.
Who wrote them?
The whole band wrote them. Some of the songs are written by me when I was a little younger, a couple years ago. Like Dreamers. And then the band threw their whole touch on top of it.
What was your inspiration for the songs?
Inspiration for a song comes from everything. Any where we are anyone we meet.
Have you guys taken lessons on anything, like voice, guitar, and drums?
Oh yea. Derek’s been taken drum lessons since 3rd grade and he’s a freshman in collage now. He’s still taking lessons. Steve’s taken lessons for about eight years now. Nick took them for a while but he stopped. And I am still in vocal lessons.
Now you guys have this huge show coming up at the Nokia Theatre, and I saw the commercials for them, did you guys enjoy doing the commercials?
Oh yea, we loved it. We had a great time.
I enjoyed watching the one where you guys jumped out of the van, and the dinner one. Me and my friend were watching a fan video from somebody who was at the van one and how you guys had to go back into the van like 20 times and that sort of thing. Was it as fun as it looked just being able to mess around?
Yea we had a fun time. Especially watching Steve get spit on like 30 times.
If you weren’t doing music what would you be doing?
If I wasn’t doing music… I would have to say I’d be focusing a lot more on school, and trying to get into a way harder school. It was my dream before Push Play to go to a Wharton School of Business, to study business in Pennsylvania, which is like the official business school in the world. And then Push Play happens, to pass we still try really hard to keep above a 3.5 GPA and we all got into Fordham. Steve is going to Fordham, I should be going to Fordham, and Nick is going to Farmingdale. So we decided that next year we’re just going to take a year off and just tour, because we really haven’t gotten the chance to do a full US tour. So we are going to do the summer straight through next year. And we are going to take online courses while we are on tour, and when we get back we are going to get back with school.
Have you and Steve already graduated?
No, me, Steve and Nick are all seniors. Yeah, we just found out that we got into Fordham which is really cool.
Are you guys having any new music at your up coming shows?
Yes, we have Away, Away we’ve played for the past two shows. It’s our brand new single and it gets released on our Myspace on April 12th. Yeah so we are really excited about that. We’re actually just tweaking it up right now, making sure it’s all good to go. It gets mixed on Wednesday and Thursday and it gets mastered next Saturday.
So that is like a day late birthday present for Derek kind of?
It is, it is, and we just decided that we going to attach our Nokia Theatre show to Derek’s Birthday Bash Show.
How was your birthday bash show?
It was awesome. It was really cool and completely sold out so, I love packed shows. I wore a purple suit which was SWEET and the fans were awesome. I mean I’d never seen them so crazy before. Really energetic, they loved it.
What did Mandy get you?
She got me a necklace that is a heart broken in half and she has one half and I have the other half. And she also got me this, you see those things where it’s like a glass crystal and you put it on top of a light and you can see a design. She had the Push Play album made for that so it was really cool.
Are you guys like best friends?
The band? Oh yeah, I mean we really don’t have to much time to have outside friends. I know Nick is really close with his outside friends. We’re like brothers but, I have absolutely zero time to like hang out with any friends outside of Push Play. I mean the other guys in the band we are practicing in the studios, and one of the studios is at my house so any bit of spare time I am down in the studio working. So I am the kid that doesn’t have a big social life, I have my studio.
Are you going to prom?
I am going to prom, yes. Yea the only other outside Push Play stuff I do is I am president of the school so I spend most of my time staying after school running the student government.
So are you like “Mr. Popular”?
Ha, no.
What is one thing you guys do to connect with your audience?
We do meet and greets after every show and for the most part we try and meet and greet everybody. I mean, I know one time, we usually only meet and greet up to 500 people and it takes a long time, but one show we wanted to really get everyone involved, so we did a meet and greet for three and a half hours. Yeah, it was crazy, I had like no voice at the end of this, but it was worth it. It was a really fun show.
Do you guys actually run your own Myspace or do you have other people?
We run our Myspace. We didn’t do graphics or anything; we have other people who do that for us. But we sit there at least one hour a night and we will answer comments and go on the chat we have.
Are your guys families involved a lot?
My family is very involved. My mom is the manager. She doesn’t do the full management job right now. It’s the same with the Jonas Brothers, their dad is the manager but they have Johnny Wright on the side, same kind of deal. And we just had a meeting with Johnny Wright’s company last night to see if it was possible for them to co-manage the deal. So we’ll see what happens with that too. Everything is just coming together really fast. That’s why the Nokia show is a big, big show for us.
Who would you guys like to tour with?
I am sure the Jonas tour would be fun but they have their full act so that won’t happen. Other bands, I’d have to say a Good Charlotte tour would be really sweet. Even like with a female artist like Aly & AJ or Ashlee Simpson, I know she’s touring this summer. We’ll see what happens.
I am pretty sure, correct me if I am wrong but I believe you guys did a cover of the song Umbrella.
Yes we do.
Is there any other cover songs that you would like to do?
Yeah, actually, we can’t tell you the name of it. But we are doing a really cool disco 70s song for our Nokia Theatre show. A remix of it, we are really excited to show you guys that.
So you go to a regular school and everything?
Yeah, I go to a private Catholic school.
Have you guys done any nationally broadcasted interviews? Like on T.V.
No, not yet.
Who would you like to do for?
I think Jimmy Kimmel would be sweet. We just got contacted the Rachel Ray TV show so we’ll see what happens with that.
What is the weirdest thing a fan has had you sign?
I’ve signed some foreheads which was pretty funny. I’ve signed a sock. I signed underwear once. That was a little awkward.
Please tell me they weren’t wearing them.
No, no. They weren’t wearing it. They were brand new; they still had the tag on it so we’re good.
Do you guys have any special routines you do before a show?
Yea, we do the Mighty Duck’s theme song. We do the “quack, quack, quack” and get louder and louder and then we scream “GO DUCKS”
Which movie is your favorite?
I have no favorite. You can’t pick a favorite with the Might Ducks. I love them all.