Her Campus Adelphi had the pleasuring of interviewing Diana Preisler (Female Lead), Marty Gasper (Beat-bass), Jonathan Minkoff (Instrument-imitation), and Jeff Washburn (Tenor) of Blue Jupiter Blue Jupiter has rocked audiences and performed throughout the United States and Asia. The group’s music has been well received everywhere they have gone with their remixes of all different popular songs from Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” to Carlos Santana’s “Smooth”. Blue Jupiter has even garnered acclaim for their original material. The jingle that has been the staple of Oreos Wonderfilled campaign commercials and advertising was their creation after winning a contest hosted by Randy Jackson from American Idol. They have since headlined the VH1 Save the Music Event in Oswego, NY. Furthermore, they have had a huge presence at the Harmony Sweepstakes in New York City, Chicago and Washington DC winning “best arrangement” and “audience favorite” for two years straight. The members of Blue Jupiter were so fun and passionate about exaplining their craft to me.
Her Campus Adelphi: What inspired you guys to start your group and how’d you go about it?
Blue Jupiter: (Marty) Blue Jupiter started in Berkley College in 2001. I wanted to start it because I love what you can do with the human voice. I love the voice. I love vocal harmony especially three-part harmony like the Beach Boys and Wilson Phillips style. What made me take the jump was money. I was a broke college student so I pulled some friends together and said, “let’s do some office parties—some carols—make a couple hundred dollars.” The group started that way. We didn’t have a single gig. But after college we decided we had a good time and we made some really good music so we figured we’d try it professionally. So we moved out to Minneapolis and then Nashville and got started. Diana then chimed in: Enter SingStrong! Johnathan and I at SingStrong asked Blue Jupiter to perform. We had a mutual adoration—we liked working with them they liked working with us. And they said, “if you managed the band,” which I do now, “we’ll move from Nashville to New York City. Marty: At the time it was just me and three other guys. We didn’t know what we were doing. We were just gigging around in the college circuit. We’d be working in Minneapolis and then get a gig in California for $1,000 and we’d just go for it. But then Diana brought all of this light to our world. She said we were focused on one thing and should be focused on another and we said, “What can we have you to work with us?” And she said, “Well I’m not leaving New York.” So we moved to New York.
HCA: It must’ve been scary to make a big move like that!
BJ: (Marty) Well once again we were young and we were stupid. We were lucky actually Johnathan and Diana had an apartment and offered to let us live with them so we did. We literally crashed on their couch for a year. Diana: I also have a lot of experience with Broadway so I was able to bring that aspect to them and work on their staging which improved their performance tenfold. It made Blue Jupiter stand out from the rest immediately.
HCA: How’d you guys come up with the name?
BJ: Diana: So Blue is the fifth color and Jupiter is the 5th planet. Now not only does Marty beat-box but he sings and plays the bass. So there’s five parts. Marty: There’s the bass and beat-boxing which is me—then the lead vocals and the two back-up parts so we wanted to be clever and incorporate the number five. (Johnahton): But Jackson 5 was taken. I was ready to change my name to Jackson!
HCA: What are some of your favorite gigs that you’ve performed so far?
BJ: (Diana) I’m gonna say China. We’d made six tours in China and we went to Japan. We performed in Japan on July 4th to 10,000 soldiers. So that was really awesome. For one of our trips to China we performed at the Sans Casino for three months so that was a really cool experience. (Jonathon): I love that we travel all over the place and get to see such cool venues and be jetsetters. (Marty): One of my favorite experiences was a private event when they called us on Sunday—it was my husband’s birthday on Thursday—in South Carolina. Sometimes someone will call us only a few days in advance wanting an a cappella group, and we’ll hope on a plane, do it, and come right back. (Diana): We’ve been to very lavish parties in Beverley Hills and South Carolina—stuff you’ll only see on the Real Housewives. I actually wanna change my answer—Oreo gig! There was 10,000 people that entered this contest—the Oreo jingle contest. We won! And Randy Jackson whisked us off in a limo to a studio and recorded the gig. (Marty): We actually recorded that in the same studio as We Are the World.
HCA: What made you want to come here and perform at Adelphi?
BJ: (Jonathan) For one, we have a connection with Blythe. For two, both of my parents are alums. Diana’s from Long Island as well. (Diana): We’re also hoping this will be a possible site for SingStrong 2016.
HCA: What is your favorite thing about being in an a cappella group?
BJ: (Diana): We get to sing all the time with our best friends and travel around the world. (Marty) There’s no day of work really. We all love what we do.
HCA: What are some of the challenges that your group faces?
BJ: (Marty): This isn’t the way to be rich. If you’re looking for fortune, a cappella isn’t the way to go. (Diana): Een though it’s an a cappella group, we run our business like it’s a candy store. We have to manage agents, manage clients. Forget about set-lists—we manage that on the way there. We’ve literally done gigs where we open up the iPad master list of songs and we’ll just call ‘em out as we go. (Marty) Sometimes we don’t have that luxury and we have to learn things on the go—on the fly.
HCA: How does your group go about learning a piece?
BJ: (Diana) One of us arranges it. Then we make learning tracks. Each of our parts are panned to one ear. (Marty) I sit in front of a computer and do a lot of the arranging. I’ll sit in front of the screen in the recording studio with a microphone and I’ll create the four parts that we’ll do and we’ll sing ‘em down and change them an basically record these four parts so that Jeff’s track will be on one part, mine on one, Diana’s on one, Jonathan’s—Jackson’s on one. Then we make an MP3 with that person’s part on one side and the other three on the other. We distribute those, put them together, and then rip it apart as a group. (Diana): It really helps that we have a recording studio. We’re able to do a lot.
HCA: What’s your favorite style of music to cover?
BJ: (Diana): We like to do things that are unique and turn ‘em up on its head. So we like to take Broadway songs and give them a dance beat. (Jonathan): If you like Broadway and wish it was a little cooler than it is like they’d play it in the club, then that is what it sounds like.
HCA: Do you have any projects that you’re working on for the future?
BJ: (Diana): We’re working on two pieces in the studio. And we’d like to put out more albums. (Marty): We’d like to be more involved in TV. Keep our fingers in a few other things that we’re working on.
HCA: How do you get ready for a show? Do you have any fun preshow rituals?
BJ: Stuff our faces with pasta and chicken. We always pick a word right before we go on and repeat it a bunch of times before we go on and make it as silly as possible
HCA: What does your group do that makes it stand out from the others? What makes you different from other bands?
BJ: (Jonathan) For one, we do more with less. That is a freedom that we experience that other groups are shackled by. The more people you have in a group, it seems i would be more powerful, but the truth is, every part in the group has to be right on point and there’s no room for improv or being free and in the moment. We can do that because it’s one to a part every single time. We have the bass and drummer in one person. Usually groups have to stay really on top of each other to make sure both parts are aligned. Our rhythm section is perfection itself so it leaves us free.
HCA: What advice would you give young artists who want to pursue their dreams?
BJ: Say yes to anything. Don’t suck at what you do. You need to hustle and work at what you do—hone your craft. Don’t take advantage that you’re the best of your peers at what you do. You’re constantly learning and if you feel like you’ve learned everything you could possibly learn, it’s time to throw in the towel.
We are so glad to have had the opportunity to interview Blue Jupiter Be sure to check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!