Yves Jean

Music:

Member Since: 11/18/2005
Band Website: yvesjeanmusic.com
Band Members: Hired musicians AKA mercenaries because Yves Jean is a control Freak..

Growing up and going to school in rough New York City neighborhoods like the Bronx, Harlem, and Yonkers, one would hardly imagine that a teenager would be concerned with rock music. Indeed, surviving a world populated by drugs, crime, and poverty becomes a number one priority. It was in this same environment that Yves Jean (pronounced Eve John) spent most of his childhood. A son of immigrants from the impoverished Caribbean island of Haiti, Yves Jean spent most of his younger years trying to avoid the temptations of the inner city life. Attempting to escape this atmosphere, Jean began to see basketball as a way out. It wasn’t until age 17 that Jean picked up a bass in order to release some of his frustrations with the violent atmosphere of his neighborhoods. Little did he know that it would be music, not sports, that would consume more of his adult ambitions.After graduating with a History Degree from the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown on a basketball scholarship, Yves decided to spend almost all of his personal savings and graduation money on a five song demo. Although the money for the demo was originally earmarked for a new car, the recording sessions proved a better investment. The few hours spent in a recording studio in Cleveland, Ohio became a lifestyle that has lasted for nine years and counting. After recording the demo and for the better part of those years, Yves endured numerous line-upchanges whileplaying in many Pittsburgh area venues. In 1999, Yves decided to enter the GraffitiRock Challenge as the Yves Jean Band, a competition sponsored by local Pittsburgh radio stations and newspapers. The contest featured over 250 bands, with the audience deciding the winner. Yves eventually won the contest,creating controversy over whether he was really a "rock" banddue to his unique sound and Haitian influenced style of writing music. Regardless, Yves pushed ahead and entered the studio torecord what would become his debut album Been Many Days Empty.Recorded in Pittsburgh and released in 2000, the album showcased the same mix of styles that won him the Rock Challenge the previous winter. After the album’s release, the Yves Jean band quickly sold 4,000 plus copies, due in large part to the band’s willingness to tour the Eastern U.S. to promote their sound and build a fan base. He and his band played for the next five years wherever they were asked, be it college campuses, clubs, bars, festivals, an opening slot for a national act, or private functions. For Yves and his band, near constant touring often led to lineup rotations on an all to regular basis, due to the rigors of road life. Yves decided in late 2003 that it was time to record the follow-up release to his 2000 debut record. In 2004, Yves produced and released Rise Above Your Surroundings. This album showcased the Yves Jean Band’s evolution from the first recordings in Cleveland, to a more direct and concise sound, featuring straightforward rock without forgetting his foundations in other Genres, such as world beat, hip-hop, and soul. Rise Above Your Surroundings, combined with Yves’s commitment to mixing musical genres, ensured that his loyal audience would continue to grow. While supporting the new release for almost two years, Yves and his band toured further and more consistently in the national market of the U.S. and, more impressively, in the European market. Breaking into the European market proved that Yves’s music could cross cultures and reach no limits selling in excess of 5,000 plus records independently. In 2006, Yves took a hiatus from his music to concentrate on family and finding the inspiration that was lacking during the second release. Tragedy struck later that year when Yves’s mother passed away from cancer, leaving a void in his life. He decided to use the tragedy as a form of inspiration to record a new album. Yves decided to drop the band all together and opted to use his name, Yves Jean, for the new project. The name change defined that that he was going solo and that his music was taking a new direction. Yves enlisted the help of Grammy Award winner and major abel producer and mixing engineer Ken Lewis, and also recruited musicians that he admired. For first time in his music career, Yves felt he could write and produce an album from his heart, documenting his trials and tribulations. Once again in 2008, Yves had to make a few more sacrifices and changes in his music career. Yves released For Love and Desperation, an album that maintains to his ability cross genres of music while still staying grounded in his Haitian musical roots,making it commercially viable in today’s competitive music market. The new release, For Love and Desperation, has already garnered the attention of the music industry on both the national and international level, gaining radio airplay an impressive feat for such a unique artist.
Influences: Funk,Worldbeat ,Electronic ,Blues, Rock and every event that has happened to me negitive or postive in life. ..

Sounds Like: A 6-5 Haitian American playing a whole lot of shit !
Lenny Kravits ,Red hot Chili Peppers,Youssou n'dour ,Radiohead, Santana Bob Marley,TV on the Radio,Ben Harper,Faithless,Massive Attack Bob Dylan,Bloc party,Oliver Mtukudzi ,Paul Simon,John Butler trio Mos def br
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