Postmodern Jukebox performs at Kingsbury Hall on Friday, Dec. 19. The show starts at 8 p.m.
Director Scott Bradlee is the man behind the movement of marrying modern music with old genres and he can hardly believe he’s still having this much fun with it. From uploading music videos to YouTube in 2011 to coordinating a cast of up to 50 touring musicians worldwide, Bradlee is living a dream he first thought might last a year at most.
He called me from New York City a few weeks ago and we talked about one of our favorite subjects: music.
What kind of preparation goes into a Postmodern Jukebox performance?
The goal with the shows we’re doing is we’re trying to take people back in time to the age of the Rat Pack and Motown, with the twist of doing songs that people are going to recognize from more modern times. This past year, we’ve brought our Magic and Moonlight tour around the world. We made tweaks for the holidays, but you’re still going back in time. You’re watching performers bring old school entertainment back to life. Our sprinkling of Christmas songs is just enough to get people in the holiday spirit.
You were a pianist before this started. What did that beginning look like?
I moved to New York City right after I got out of college. I was trying to make it as a jazz pianist, which is pretty difficult in a city like New York, where there’s so many amazing jazz pianists everywhere. I was looking for a way to stand out.
I was having trouble paying my bills when YouTube came along, and I started seeing a lot of silly videos. Most involved cats. Every so often, I’d see something really creative, an interesting idea, and I wanted to take part. I wanted to put something different out.
Something I used to do in high school was like a party trick. I loved all this old music like ragtime and stride piano, guys like Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller. My friends didn’t listen to that kind of music. I grew up in New Jersey in the late 90s, and to relate to them, I took songs they knew from bands like Sublime or Red Hot Chili Peppers or The Notorious B.I.G., and I’d play them in different styles. I’d see a lightbulb moment where they recognized what song was being played. I figured it might be cool to try. I didn’t have an outlet for that sort of thing and I didn’t have any gigs where I was doing that, so I decided to put those on YouTube.
In 2009, I put a mashup of me doing different 80s hits — “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” — as ragtime songs. It went viral. Going viral then wasn’t like going viral today. It wasn’t millions of views. But 60,000 people saw it in a week, more people than had seen me play in my entire life. There was something to this concept. People loved hearing songs they were familiar with, then spun around and turned on their heads a bit. It took a few years to put PMJ together; it was trial and error, born out of a lot of experimentation. I was fortunate to know talented musicians, and I still am fortunate to work with many. When you have talented people doing something that feels authentic, they can’t help but feel inspired.
Do you have a band or do the musicians rotate?
We have a rotating cast of 50 performers actively touring with us. Many I’ve worked with for so many years, they quickly get what it is I’m going for. We have amazing soul singers, amazing jazz singers. We have performers like Gunhild Carling, who plays three trumpets at the same time, who can play trombone while doing the splits. We have Demi Remick, one of the best tap dancers in the world. When you get these people together, the sum is greater than the parts. The cast is inspired to work together. You can feel the love they have for this craft.
It’s almost less of a concert and more of a variety show, no?
Exactly. An emcee introduces each act. You’re transported to the 1940s, at a New Year’s Eve party with the Rat Pack there. It’s almost like being at a supper club.
How has your life changed since you took on this project?
When I started, I was really just trying to get a gig. I was trying to get hired to play the piano. It’s been amazing to watch this thing grow. It’s inspiring, too, because the fans have made this possible. I never did a record deal. I didn’t take on investors. It has remained grassroots.
We have fans that have seen us 10 or 20 times, who see us every year and bring their family and friends, and that’s a special thing. I’m enormously grateful it worked out. I was thinking we’d do this a year, then move on to the next project. But it’s kept me engaged. There’s always new talent to work with, and new audiences to discover us. We’ll have a song go viral on TikTok, and people will learn about us for the first time. It remains rewarding.
The show in Salt Lake City is not fully Christmas, but holiday-inspired?
I would say it’s 75% PMJ hits and 25% Christmas. We’re always trying to dial in the ratio, because what we do, by taking stuff back in time, it already feels a bit like Christmas anyway. It still has something for everybody, but it’s perfect for anybody looking for a unique way to celebrate the holidays. It is not just another Christmas concert.
With your success, have you attracted copycats?
Well, now AI is copycatting. They’re the big ones. This concept has been done before. Richard Cheese was doing cross-genre covers in the 90s. Lately, though, there’s a lot of AI covers taking songs back in time. And that’s not my thing. Some people enjoy that, and there’s a novelty aspect to it. For me, I like my art made by humans.
Have you done everything you want to do in this format, or is there more in store?
That’s a good question. I can always find something new to do in this format. I don’t like to repeat myself, though. I’ve done maybe 300 of these videos. It’s crazy. Because we’ve done so many songs, I’m more picky now. When we started out, we’d cover whatever big song was on the charts. There was a common culture, and everybody knew the top 10 Billboard hits. Songs by Lady Gaga or Rihanna were ubiquitous. Now the media landscape seems fragmented. It’s tougher to find songs that connect everybody, like Pharrell Williams’ Happy or Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.
It’s changed the way we do covers. We won’t do as many brand new songs. Instead, we’ve been exploring music from the 70s and 80s.
I heard the group’s take on Stevie Wonder’s Part-Time Lover recently. Fantastic.
Yes, and that one’s from 1985. Before that, we did Ain’t Talkin Bout Love (Van Halen). There’s so much classic stuff out there. And the goal is not to replace the original, but to connect some dots and imagine what the song would sound like in another time.
Who have you liked working with the most?
We have a singer who sings with us, Effie Passero, and she’s somebody to watch. Just the most astounding voice. She has an emotional impact that she has on people when she sings. We do a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” with her live, and everybody in the crowd has tears in their eyes. She puts so much power into her voice, she’s almost a soul singer.
If people want to perform with you, do they seek you out?
In general, I find that talented people know a lot of other talented people, and they always recommend new singers. New people want to be a part of it, and performers are generous that way. Most of the time, we’re touring with somebody, and they say, ‘You have to hear my friend sing!’ But it’s worked all ways. People have sent us an email or tagged us in a video and joined our roster that way.
Are you on the road most of the year?
Personally, I’m not, because I direct and produce, but I make appearances. We have people in our group doing multiple tours each year, sometimes over 100 dates. Some are made for it. Fortunately, we have performers who really love it. They love to meet fans. They love dealing with the crazy travel, the early mornings and late nights.
Has the internet helped you grow and/or find your fans over time?
I’ll put it like this: we have something like 6 million subscribers on YouTube. We’ve done shows in places none of us have ever been previously. We did a jazz festival in Indonesia, and 5000+ people were very familiar with our work. The internet has made the world smaller, but it’s made the world bigger in terms of the variety of music out there.
I was reading a piece on the shoegaze genre, how it was not a big thing when it existed the first time around, but now, solely because of TikTok, it’s become a dominating force of people creating the music again.
That’s wild. Well, it definitely inspired a lot of genres, right, that scene, the Brit pop stuff, Blur and Pulp. There was a rapper on a De La Soul album that I had in high school. Her soul work got noticed on TikTok and blew up. What a feeling to be somebody that, 30+ years after you created your music, all of a sudden, a generation is obsessed with what you did.
It happened with Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. A song of his blew up on TikTok. You’ve got a guy in his 90s still touring, with a whole new fan base.
I think it says something about how Gen Z really prizes authenticity in a way that maybe other generations haven’t. They’re not listening to this stuff ironically. They’re seeing the value of these older art forms and recognizing the creativity involved. You hear that with a lot of the music coming out now. It’s harmonically complex, very sophisticated music.
I like that your group hearkens back to a time gone by without being a nostalgia train to the past. You’re modernizing it. Christmas is the perfect time to see a show like yours.
I appreciate that. Listen, it’s a fun era of music. I’m painting with a broad brush. We cover everything from the 1920s on. So many genres of music are still vital today that continue to inform pop records. How many records do you hear now that have a Motown groove to them, or are jazz-inspired or have the blues? These are classic genres, so it never gets old. It’s timeless. We’re not trying to make a period piece. We’re not trying to do what they did in the 1930s. We’re weaving a tapestry out of different genres and including modern influences. And it’s the most fun we’re able to have.
What’s the most modern song the band has tackled recently?
We did Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan. There was Die For You by The Weeknd. That one was fun because we did it as a James Bond theme. It works unbelievably well that way. The lyrics and shape of the melody, the minor key feel, everything.
And you wrote a book about your story as well, right?
Yeah, in 2018. A memoir of the initial rise, of basically being a broke musician that got to play at Radio City Music Hall. Around that time, there was a lot of interest in people who had crossed over from YouTube to real life, for lack of a better term.
Sounds like a Broadway musical waiting to happen, or the beginnings of a screenplay.
Yeah, right.
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