Pittsburgh Calling: Jack To My Friends
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Jack to My Friends comprises former members of the bands Deadly by Desire and The Sponges.
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A capsule look at Pittsburgh bands making news.
JACK TO MY FRIENDS
Band: Mark Fern (vocals, guitar); Dan Osbourne (guitars); Kurt Lorence (bass); Ben Cortese (drums).
Sound: Melodic pop-rock in the witty vein of Squeeze or Barenaked Ladies.
Formed: In 2004 as a merger of '80s bands Deadly by Desire (Fern and Cortese) and The Sponges (Lorence and Osborne). Fern later went on to front Like Whoa.
What should we remember about Deadly By Desire? "It was the band with 'that British guy,' " Fern says, referring to himself. "It wasn't Gang of Four or the Fall, but within the pop dance genre, I think we were doing things which no one else was doing, which lent us critical acclaim if not bodies through the door."
Reason for Jack: "Everybody but me was playing in a cover band or wedding band," Fern says, "and they wanted to quit doing that and get back to the roots of writing good original pop tunes."
What's with the name?: Originally, they called it Hum, until they realized it was taken. They got together over beers and decided to give the band a name like Bob or John. When they talked about John, they realized close friends often call them Jack. Voila. "Writing the songs, that's easy," Fern says. "Coming up with a name, that's tough."
Arriving at a sound: Fern says he tells people it's "contemporary British pop -- 'cause there isn't any such thing." Really, he says, they're all over the map and have a hard time with the "pigeonhole thing." "There was absolutely none of 'We need to sound like x.' It just happens. We all come from different backgrounds, and that comes out in the music. Although all the tunes sound like us, I think you'll hear a lot of different influences in there. You don't listen to one tune and know what the whole album sounds like."
To wit: Fern has a fun sense of wordplay in his lyrics, which he can easily explain: "It's obvious that's the British in me coming out."
Where they won't go: "The only time we put the brakes on," Fern says, "is if it starts to take on a mantle that we don't think we can carry off. Anything too crunchy, anything too heavy, is not what we're about. I'm a huge fan, from back in the day, of Ministry or Nine Inch Nails, but that doesn't jive with the happy pop-rock stuff. We have to put some parameters around it."
Playing out: Fern says Jack has been a fairly idle band and that won't change drastically. "We have no intentions of going on tour or playing out five nights a week. I think wives would have something to say about that."
Release show: 10 p.m. Friday at the Firehouse, 24th and Penn Ave., Strip. No cover. www.jacktomyfriends.com.
First Published November 2, 2006 12:00 am
