From time to time most of us have day-dreamed of performing on stage with our favorite band — of being a rock ‘n roll hero, if only for a day. But in the dollars and cents world of the music industry these types of daydreams rarely come true. That’s why it’s all the more amazing when you hear about just such a “Cinderella story.”
Enter the new lead singer of the power pop-rock band Boston. Tommy DeCarlo is a 43-year-old suburban father of two from Charlotte, North Carolina, who until recently was employed as a credit manager at a local Home Depot. Amazingly, DeCarlo came to the attention of Boston founder Tom Schultz after his son posted a karaoke recording of his dad singing a song by Boston on his MySpace page.
DeCarlo has a voice that sounds eerily similar to former Boston singer Brad Delp, who passed away last year. The band had been searching for some time to find a replacement who could sing the incredibly powerful high notes which had become the trademark of Delp’s vocals. To their surprise, they found exactly the voice they were looking for on MySpace.
Boston guitarist Tom Schultz says the similarities between DeCarlo’s Voice and former singer Delp are amazing: “I forget it’s not Brad… it can get downright eerie.” As for DeCarlo, he seems to be living out a childhood rock ‘n roll fantasy in real life, saying “I could never have dreamed of this.”
In fact, DeCarlo has never even sang with a band before. Imagine that: Boston being your first band! The first gig DeCarlo ever played in his life was a 20,000 seat arena, fronting Boston at a benefit concert in honor of their deceased original singer.
But Boston isn’t the only classic rock band to find a new singer online. Journey discovered their new vocalist via a YouTube video. Singer Arnel Pineda was discovered by Journey Lead Guitarist Neal Schon while browsing music videos on YouTube. Pineda had uploaded several videos of his band “Zoo” performing classic journey hits. Schon says he was “blown away” by the power and style of the 40 year old Philippino singer, and immediately e-mailed him to set up an audition. The rest, as they say, is history.
Journey’s new album, Revelation, features Pineda on lead vocals, and the group has embarked upon a world tour to promote the new disk. For Pineda, DeCarlo, and other “bedroom superstars,” success can be as easy as demonstrating your unique talent on YouTube. I guess rock and roll dreams do come true after all.
So MySpace can be used to “nail” a new job.
That means MySpace has one -worthwhile- purpose ; )
Comment by Claude Gelinas — July 4, 2008 @ 12:11 am