Nat & Alex Wolff: Difference between revisions
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YOU HAVE TO BE AN IDIOT TO LIKE THESE FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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'''The Naked Brothers Band''' is a [[pop rock]] band formed over five years ago. The band was created by two real life brothers [[Nat Wolff|Nat]] and [[Alex Wolff]]. It was originally a self-titled [[mockumentary]] film that the brothers' mom put together that eventually developed into a self-titled series on [[Nickelodeon]], which was created by their mother. |
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==History== |
==History== |
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===The inspiration=== |
===The inspiration=== |
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Revision as of 20:13, 27 February 2009
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Nat & Alex Wolff |
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YOU HAVE TO BE AN IDIOT TO LIKE THESE FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
History
The inspiration
When Nat, who lives in Lower Manhattan of New York City, was 4-years-old, his father, jazz pianist-composer Michael Wolff (who was the bandleader and musical director of The Arsenio Hall Show) use to play Nat different music (mostly jazz) and when Nat heard some of The Beatles music, he became inspired by them and watched all The Beatles' movies including Help!. Alex learned how to play the saxophone at the age of 2-and-a-half.
The formation of the band
When Nat and Alex were toddlers, they jumped out of the bathtub shouting, "We're the naked brothers band!". While Nat was in pre-school he formed a band called The Silver Boulders with his best friends David Levi, Thomas Batuello, Joshua "Josh" Kaye, Ann Curry's son Walker, Julianne Moore's son Caleb "Cal" Freundlich, and many more. The band's name was took from The Beatles' original band The "Silver" Beatles. Nat was so inspired by The Beatles that at the age of 5 he wrote his first song, which was called "Mama Don't Let Me Cry." At the time, Alex wasn't allowed to be in the band, because Nat thought it would be corny to have a brother in his band.
After 9/11 terrorist attacks
After 9/11 terrorist attacks when Nat was 6-years-old and Alex was 3-years-old, Nat wrote a song called "Firefighters" for a benefit concert he performed with his band at the back of his apartment. Alex wanted to perform too, so Nat made Alex a fake plastic saxophone for him to perform. According to an interview by Jacques Steinberg at New York Times Center Stage in January 2008, the boys mother actress-writer Polly Draper (who starred as Ellyn Warren on ABC's Thirtysomething) recalled, "...And anyway when it was Alex's solo he would hold up the fake plastic saxophone Nat made for him and say, 'Mommy, I have the hiccups and I have to go potty' [laughs]." The benefit concert ended up raising over $45,000 and donated it all to the children of the firefighters who died during 9/11. After the band's charity concert, the band ended up performing all over different christmas parties and wedding ceremonies.
Eventually, Alex got inspired by Ringo Starr from The Beatles and decided to take up the drums instead. When Alex got so good at the drums (by watching tapes in his house of Ringo playing the drums), Nat changed his mind and let him be in his band. At the age of 6, Nat composed a melody that didn't have any lyrics to it, but when he wanted to write a song that sounded like one by The Beach Boys, and since The Beach Boys wrote a lot of songs about cars; Nat wrote a song called "Crazy Car," which was considered to be catchy tongue-twisting song that'll get stuck in your head for days.
After a while, The Silver Boulders broke up; it led to Nat, Alex, Thomas, David, and Josh to change the band's name back to the original name The Naked Brothers Band.
From off-Broadway to begging to be a child star
In 2003, Nat had a minor appearance in his mother's (Polly Draper) playwright Getting Into Heaven, in 2003 at the Flea Theater. Nat also performed off-Broadway in The Heart of Baghdad. After a while, Nat begged his mom to be a child actor by putting signs on his door that said: "I Want to Be A Child Star, Mom!" At first, she refused to explaining that it would be to difficult, so she made a compromise with Nat; in 2003, she let him film his own sitcom titled "Don't Eat Off My Plate."
After that, Nat begged his dad to record a tape in the studio with Alex and him, so Mr. Wolff arranged a recording session for the three of them in the studio. While Ms. Draper saw them recording in the studio, she came up with the idea to make a "mock documentary" about the band as if they were huge like The Beatles. During the summer of 2004, the film took production at the family's real-life apartment and all around New York City, which at the time Nat was 9 and Alex was 6-and-a-half. Ms. Draper wrote and directed The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie, which was an independent family project that was a budget under $1,000,000 at the time. The film consisted of celebrities who were friends with Draper and Wolff, those were Cyndi Lauper, Julianne Moore, Ann Curry, Uma Thurman, Tony Shalhoub, Ricki Lake, Arsenio Hall, and the complete cast of Thirtysomething. The film also included Ms. Draper's niece Jesse Draper, her brother Tim Draper, and her nephews William "Billy" T. Draper, Adam Draper, and Coulter Mulligan. Michael Wolff produced the music with his longtime friend music composer Michael A. Levine; Polly Draper, Michael Wolff, and Tim Draper all served as executive producer for the film; and Nat Wolff wrote and performed all the songs, except for "That's How It is," which was written and performed by Alex Wolff.
From a film festival to the brothers' dream come true
In 2005, Ms. Draper entered the film at the October 23, 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival where it won the audience award for family feature film. Meanwhile Nickelodeon executive and the founder of Spike TV, Albie Hecht was in the audience that day. He ended up bringing the film to Nickelodeon—begging them to do a television series based on it. Tom Asheim, the vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon said, "At first, we were intrigued by the idea, but we weren't sure kids would get the vague-tongue-and-check-of-it. Then a bunch of us took it home to our own children and they loved it."
Eventually, Nickelodeon persuaded Ms. Draper to put together a television series. Draper asked, "How about a cartoon, so the kids could stay normal?" Nickelodeon said, "No, we love your kids." In the summer through the early fall of 2006, the first season of the self-titled series took production. In January 27, 2007, The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie aired on Nickelodeon and the self-titled series aired February 3. Polly Draper is the creator, head writer, executive producer, and frequent director of the series, while Albie Hecht is the executive producer and his production company Worldwide Biggies distributes the series. Kidz House Entertainment is the division of Broadway Stages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn where the show is filmed. The series that is now in its third season brought Nickelodeon's highest-rated premiere in seven years.
Nat and Alex never really realized how big they were until October 8, 2007. The entire band: Nat, Alex, Thomas, David, Allie DiMeco (who stars as "Rosalina" and Nat's crush on the film and TV series), Qaasim Middleton (who replaces former band-member Josh on the series) had an autograph signing at Time Square Virgin Megastore for the band's release of their first self-titled debut album The Naked Brothers Band. There were 1,500 fans that waited outside of Virgin Megastore for hours, some camped out over night. In addition, they also had a live performance on ABC's Good Morning America with the band's song "I'm Out."
Tours and concerts
Nat and Alex Wolff started their first national tour called Nat and Alex Wolff: Fully Clothed and On Tour, which started on November 1, 2008 and ended on December 14, 2008. Nat and Alex, along with a lineup of professionally trained musicians that includes Jacob Hertzog (Music Director/Guitar/Backup Vocals), Misty Boyce (Keyboards/Backup Vocals), Chris Muir (Bass/Backup Vocals), and Boris Pelekh (Guitar/Drums/Backup Vocals), performed songs from their CDs and upcoming NBB episodes.
Nat and Alex Wolff: Fully Clothed and On Tour performed at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey on November 1st; the Capital One Theater in Westbury, New York on November 2; and the Blender Theater at Grammercy in New York, New York on November 8th. Due to tickets selling out so quickly, they rescheduled another concert there, the next day. On November 15th, they performed at Ram's Head Live! in Baltimore, Maryland; the Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 16th; the House of Blues in Chicago, Illinois on November 22nd; Myth in St. Paul, Minnesota on November 23rd; the House of Blues in Orlando, Florida on November 28th; the House of Blues in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 30th; the Sixth & I Memorial Synagogue in Washington, D.C. on December 6th; the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, Massachusetts on December 7th; the House of Blues in Anaheim, California on December 13th; and The Roxy in Los Angeles, California on December 14th.