Acorn

Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Arts and Leisure

Media Credit: Paul Aufiero Members of Phoenix, bassist John Coviello (left) and guitarist Ben Klayman (CLA '07), rock out at The Stone Pony in Asbury, N.J.

New Jersey is legendary. To those within music circles, it is downright mythical. Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Frank Sinatra, The Misfits-all have given New Jersey an international reputation that stands as tall and bright as a Ferris wheel illuminated on a wooden pier in the summer. Jersey is synonymous with rock and roll, and for the inhabitants of the state, it lives not as a genre of music, but as a noun-living and breathing in the midnight clubs and bars that line the dark stretches of sandy beach.

Perhaps the most intrinsic detail of Jersey's rock scene is its endurance. Jersey clubs are filled not with the acts of past summer nights, but with the youthful faces of up-and-coming bands that continue to build the legacy of New Jersey's rich musical heritage. Here enters Phoenix. Based out of Freehold, Phoenix is a band that likes to have fun while delivering the raw power of rock and roll as it has existed for decades and continues to simply be. As the band writes on its Facebook page, "Phoenix brings rock and roll back to basics without going back in time."

A band that can list Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry in the same list of influences as Motorhead and Hanoi Rocks certainly has its finger on the pulse of rock and roll's essence and attitude. I met with Phoenix guitarist Ben Klayman (CLA '07) and vocalist John Dodson (CLA '07) in a darkened Space in the University Center to talk with them about their music.

Acorn: What was it that brought the band together?

Ben: I had been playing with [drummer Matt Magnifico] since 1997. We played parties and things like that. We started playing with a new guitarist in October 2007 [Chris (last name?)] and it worked really well.

John: After graduating, I worked at a software company in Summit. I went and sang with Ben and the band at a birthday party one night and it sounded good.

Ben: It was serendipity, you know? We were all at the exact right places in our lives.

Acorn: Both of you are Drew graduates and from the same class. Did being classmates have any effect on the formation of Phoenix?

Continued...

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