“Joocypeach grew out of my desire to write some original Soul Jazz songs with fellow musicians. It's great to know that this desire has been appreciated by fellow travellers. We had so much fun writing and recording our first CD "Midnight Over Erith" we have now got two more releases with the third album of songs being showcased here. Some of the songs change and grow so organically its a great to watch and listen and with each new instrument or musician they way this happens is a source of great fun and a pleasure to be part of. But of course, those already familiar with our style and groove have probably listened to our sound clips on the Joocypeach feature on CDBaby.com. For those surfers previously unaware Joocypeach is a Soul Jazz groove band with the main protaganists being myself as Bassist. I hail from Liverpool and was fortunate enough to grow up in that great city during the rise and rise of The Beatles and the Mersey beat sound explosion. Having been given such a direct connection to great music from the beginning its hardly shocking to realise that I sought out other awesome music. How many musicians have been influenced by the musical culture of their youth, all of them and I am no different, and for mine to have also included the Motown talents of the period and the Beach Boys !! Even more unbelievably growing up absorbing the blues of Cream, Free and Led Zeppelin how could you not be inspired !! I am quite prepared to say that I even gorged on everything that Yes could offer before then being blown away by strange exciting new sounds from America and what exactly did Steely Dan mean anyway, but how infectious.”
“The virus had done its work and still does.”
“The organic nature of Joocypeach was unwittingly derived from the Steely Dan approach of having two main players and a larger circle of musicians to call upon when their time and our need coincided.”
“ The Guitarist, Meinrad Litterst and myself met at the Musician's Institute of Los Angeles whilst studying. We met over a beer in Gorky's bar (sadly no longer there !) off Hollywood Boulevard and have remained great friends ever since. I love his orginal mellifluous and melodic guitar sounds and he keeps on coming back to embellish my songs and grooves and it works so well I wouldn't have it any other way. Meinrad, as the name tells you is a German groovemeister from Karlsruhr just over the border from Saltzburg. He lives for his music and his style and panache feature strongly on Joocypeach's first album and are to be found currently making major contributions to forthcoming Joocypeach offerings.”
“Meinrad followed an offer from myself to come to the UK and we set up our musical vision together. We began up in the Welsh Hills and with the help of the local grants were able to follow this goal as far as we could using local recording and rehearsal facilities to pursue the dream. Eventually, London came a calling and we both now live in close proximity to one another in South East London. We both like the idea of playing Joocypeach sounds and gigging out. We also both need the sustenance of other inspirations and we teach and cross pollinate our musical ideas with our locally derived students hungry for Bass and Guitar tuition. We continue to write, record and release our material on the Joocypeach Music label.”
“Much of our current news is highlighted for you in Joocy News and this helps to motivate us onwards and upwards for our and your listening pleasure. So we continue to improve and embellish our sound and look forward each Joocypeach release and we look forward to you listening and joining us on the journey. It may even be your next observation to us that inspires our next composition, after all it is experience that often times evokes the inspiration for the creative juices to flow......”
“Dave Putson - Bassist”
“I took up playing instruments in a very bad fashion in the mid 1970's. It was politely put, poor stuff, I made my guitar sound like a bovine methane explosion. And yet i kept trying until.... Some time in the 80's I stumbled across an electric bass. My friend who had borrowed it let me have a go and it was only then that i realised that was MY instrument. I eventually signed up for lessons to speed my progress at Musician's Academy in Wapping in London with Tony Muschamp as head bass honcho..... ”
“I completed several courses there and then made the best decision of my short life. I sent an audition tape to the Musician's Institute in Los Angeles. I was accepted and left for LA in February 1991.”
“To that point it proved to be the best year of my life. I met and played with some awesome musicians. Had awesome tutors in the name of Gary Willis (yes, that one !!), Dave Keif, Richard Maloof, Paul Farnen and Carl Schroeder and many many more. I made some great friends and i now have the joy of writing and playing in "Joocypeach" with Meinrad Litterst who I met whilst there and found out that he was on the same musical journey, just using the guitar rather than Bass. ”