| Arts & Leisure | |||||||
| 21 Pennies: Hard Work and Spare Change |
Related Links:
Other Stories in Arts & Leisure: |
||||||
| By
Danielle M. Dombkowski Staff Writer |
|||||||
I first found out about the NJ based band through my friend Jackie Keegan, a friend of the members. The other two members of 21 Pennies are Dennis Subrizi, who is the other vocalist and the bassist, and Kyle Cassel, the drummer. Jackie would not stop raving about them, so when their new songs came out on MP3.com, I downloaded them. Jackie believes, “They express a lot of talent and potential to go places.” Everything Jackie said about them was right. They were amazing. Before I checked out the two new songs, I had actually “seen” the band. Jackie had been a film major at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ. For one of her video projects she got the “boys,” as she commonly refers to them, together and they made a music video for one of their older songs, “Marie is Hot.” Watching the video can tell you a lot about Mike, Kyle, and Dennis.
Not only can the video describe them, but the outtakes from the video can tell you even more about them. For example, in one outtake Mike calls the Home Shopping Network, pretending to be an angry customer. From just this one video clip, where all three of them are laughing and joking around, you can really get a feel for what these guys are actually like. As Jackie puts it, “[Mike] has a good sense of humor, but knows when to be serious when he needs to be (like in band business).” On the band itself, she says, “It’s a lot of fun watching them play. Especially seeing them perform now compared to last year, you can see just how much they've grown. It’s cool to see them up on stage knowing that those are my friends.” In the music video, everything melds together perfectly, and you can tell the band members were having fun, while taking the project seriously enough for it to come out as though it were professionally done. In a part of the video they are representing “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” where one band member has his hands over his eyes, another has his hands over his ears, and the last, has his hands over his mouth. They’re being serious while doing it, but it’s still pretty funny, especially when (through a camera cut) they have changed positions. This humor has played a large part in keeping the guys of 21 Pennies well grounded. As Jackie assures, “Mike, Dennis and Kyle don’t let [their growing fame] get to their heads. They are still the same old kids from New Milford that like to hang out at Dunkin’ Donuts and wreck havoc.” While interviewing Mike, I told him that Jackie said the band members used to get kicked out of Dunkin’ Donuts a lot. Mike replied, “Not so much anymore, but if you asked us to, we could have the cops called in a second.” You also see Mike’s humorous side when talking about the drawbacks of being in the band. He said, “It is a major commitment. It’s like those kids that are on the swim team and get up at 5 a.m. [pause] Well, actually its nothing like that, but you get the idea.”
In order to understand Mike, Kyle and Dennis, what you must realize about them is that this band, 21 Pennies, is their life. Mike said, “I don’t really like to actually think about my priorities. It’s too much of a hassle. You have a girlfriend telling you the band comes before her, you have your parents telling you the band comes before everything. I'm just doing my thing.” Mike and Dennis first formed 21 Pennies about three years ago (they are not real specific on dates). On the experience of forming the band, Mike said, “The original members were me and Dennis. We decided it would be fun to play music together. Then we acquired the help of a friend, Mike Lama. He played drums. He liked guitar and being the front man of his own band better so he left and we got Kyle Cassel, who is actually a drummer at heart.” On this Dennis said, “Mike was like ‘let’s get together and play.’ That doesn’t mean he started the band, though. Don’t let him tell you that wise tale.” “Mike had been screwing around with the guitar and wanted to start a band … so one day he IM’d me out of the blue and we got to talking. The next day I think we had practice. Kyle came into the picture a little later but when he came on we knew he was amazing. We knew we had something special,” said Dennis.
The amazing thing about the band members is that they are so young, and yet so dedicated. At 19, Mike and Dennis are both college sophomores. Mike goes to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and Dennis, St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, NY. While most college sophomores go out and party on the weekends, they go home to practice, learn new songs, and record. They go home to fulfill their dreams—to live, eat, sleep and breathe their music. Kyle himself is pretty remarkable. Aside from being an amazing drummer, he is only a junior in high school and already has a demo compact disc out, with another CD on the way. When I asked Dennis if it was hard going home every weekend, he said, “No, not really cause all week at school I’m looking forward to playing.” Even when they are not together, Mike, Dennis, and Kyle still play all the time. In the guest book on their website a fan named Pablo said, “Yo, I just met Mike, he lives at Rutgers, and I ran into him playing the guitar. He burnt a CD for me, of course I listened to it, and it ROCKED!!! Hope you guys do well, you should send a demo to the Birch Hill and the Bowery Ballroom, they would probably let you play there.” If you think the male fans think highly of him, you should see what the girls say. In one of my online interviews with Mike he sent me this, “Just during this [interview] session I have gotten 3 IM's from totally random people that I have never talked to before. I just got this one, ‘omg, i luv yur band, u guyz are all really cute.’”
And even more fans sign the guest book that appears on the band’s Web site. It is now up to 40 pages long, filled with entry after entry of people professing their love for Mike, Dennis, and Kyle. Don’t think they
don’t appreciate it either. Kyle even said, “Playing
shows week after week, with tons of fans there, [is] one of the
best feelings in the world. It's awesome being on stage and playing
for fans.” While the band’s demo CD came out about two years ago, they are currently in the process of producing another CD, tentatively titled Don’t Forget to Write. Mike’s comments on the title where, “Since most of the songs are to girls we don’t talk to anymore, it’s for them. They are our inspiration. If it hadn't been for bad breakups I don't think me or Dennis would have anything to write about. Me and Dennis both have ex's that we don’t speak to, or if so, very rarely. Don't Forget to Write is sarcasm. ” When I asked Dennis why the CD was taking so long to produce he said, “Well things got hung up at the studio with mixing. We are shooting for October or November. We got all the artwork from the designer. It’s so rad. We are in love with it. We just all want to get it out to the fans.” He told me there would be 11 songs on the CD and that one was an instrumental. He said, “It’s dope. We are so stoked.”
When I asked Dennis what his favorite 21 Pennies song was he said, “I love all of our songs equally. That’s like singling out a child. I just can’t do it.” Kyle however does have two favorite songs, which are on the new CD. He said, “626 and Do you Feel What I Feel [are my favorite songs]. [I like] 626 because I really like the drum part I play on the chorus because it's not the straight 2 and 4 hits on the snare the entire time, and I like Do You Feel What I Feel because the beginning is really quiet and the it suddenly comes in with heavy drums, guitar, and bass.” The most amazing thing about Don’t Forget to Write is that 21 Pennies does not yet have a record label and they are putting the whole CD out on their own. This is difficult because it costs so much money to put out a CD, and the band is pretty much on its own. Despite being worried about putting out the CD alone, 21 Pennies are still determined to do it. Their new goal is to have it out by October or November. They have enough willpower and determination to get the CD out, but the lack of record label and the money issue is a big concern. Mike even said, “We really need a [record] label… We are hoping the CD will make some noise and get us noticed.”
Dennis agreed. He said, “[We are hoping to] go far enough [with the band] that we don’t have to get REAL jobs. We want to tour [and] we want to be on a respected record label one day.” If there was one last
thing Mike could tell you about 21 Pennies, it would be this, “How
about we have an album coming out in June. We have shows, a website,
and I love it when new people get in touch with me about the band,
or just to say hi.” |
|||||||
Danielle
M. Dombkowski is a sophomore at Boston University in the College of Communication. She is a journalism
major and native of New Jersey. |
|||||||
