WITF Music: Drew & the Blue

Garage rock and the aesthetics of smoking.

• Joe Ulrich
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Joe has been interested in audio and music since he was a kid. What started as a fascination with his parents’ vinyl records and cassette tapes turned into a love of both performing and recording. He grew up in Elizabethtown, Pa. and moved to Pittsburgh in 1999 where he majored in Photography at the University of Pittsburgh.
  
  In 2004, he attended the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences in Tempe, AZ. He returned to Pittsburgh to work at a recording studio.
  
  In 2008, Joe arrived at WITF, where his skills have found a good home as an on-air host, audio engineer and producer of WITF Music. In 2016, Joe earned a National Edward R. Murrow award for Best Use of Sound.

Drew West (drummer/singer), Mandy Veloz (bassist) and Taylor Lawrence (guitar) perform as Drew and the Blue perform on July 11, 2024. (Jeremy Long - WITF)

Reading, PA band Drew and the Blue is a trio that pulls influences from the 60s era garage rock sound. The band’s lead singer, Drew West, is a bit unusual in that he’s also the band’s drummer, and on top of that, he stands while he plays. He and bassist Mandy Veloz and guitarist Taylor Lawrence played a couple of songs and chatted about their music.

Joe Ulrich: When did this band get started?

Drew West: Officially, 2018. Taylor and I grew up at the same school and we had our first band together in 6th grade.

Joe Ulrich: Tell me about that band.

Drew West: A lot of ACDC, Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, like bad renditions of those bands. I would be singing back then too, but we tried to have other singers.

Joe Ulrich: So is that how the drumming and singing came about?

Drew West: Yeah, in one of our earlier bands, we didn’t have a singer and then I don’t know if I had the best voice or I just was the least nervous about it. I’m not sure why it came to be me. I don’t remember volunteering for it.

Taylor Lawrence: I say both.

Drew West: That’s charitable. I guess I’d always hoped we’d have a singer, but then slowly it just … I’m here, I guess I’ll do it.

Joe Ulrich: I’m curious about the standing and playing. How did that evolve?

Drew West: I never liked being seated and then singing. But then when it came time for Drew & the Blue, it always felt weak, or how can I be the front man if I’m seated this whole time? And you could point to so many examples, but most of those examples you’re talking about Ray Charles, Jerry Lewis, you’re talking about piano players, Billy Joel, Elton John.

As far as standing drummers, I think the earliest guy I saw was probably Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats. And then I think a handful of garage rock era, like 60s, like Link Wray had a standing drummer for a little bit. There’s probably so many standing drummers I’m unaware of.

Joe Ulrich: Tell me about the song “Cigarette”. Because you’re jokingly promoting smoking, but not actually.

Drew West: This was a discussion within the band.

Taylor Lawrence: It’s just that tongue in cheek take on the whole thing. I’m still constantly watching shows and movies and that’s so present aesthetically.

And it’s just a funny take on that. We know it’s not good and all that, but at the same time, it’s so heavily marketed that way even now. It’s a funny thing.

Mandy Veloz: Cigarettes are almost more honest in that you taste it and it tastes like poison.

Joe Ulrich: A good, honest cigarette.

Mandy Veloz: With vapes, it tastes like candy. So kids are drawn to it. And then Drew started joking, “Back in my day, we had good old cigarettes.” And that’s what people smoked.

Joe Ulrich: Is there anything we didn’t touch on that is important?

Drew West: Give us a listen. Give us a follow. Just coming out to a show is my favorite thing. I like when people listen to us whether it’s on Spotify or CD or vinyl, but just hanging out and going to see people in a setting like that is fun.

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

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