Dirty Hands Video
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......... When Ernie DeLuise, a.k.a. Big Baby Ernie, was a young boy growing up on the Jersey Shore, he began playing music with a keyboard he stole...from his little sister. As Ernie recalls, she went to two lessons and quit after she got the keyboard and six free lessons for Christmas. I snuck it into my bedroom and played around with it. From that point forward, music would become the blueprint of twenty seven year-old Ernie's life path, ultimately inspiring him to persevere and not take no for an answer from both critics and audiences alike.
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To understand Ernie's devotion to music, one need only look to his father and grandfather. "I was born into it. My father and grandfather were both musicians", Ernie explains. The latter was a professional pianist at the age of twelve. Ernie's grandfather played in movie houses in lower Manhattan to support his mother and siblings. As a teenager, Ernie's father would tag along when he was learning to play bass, eventually becoming a working musician himself. Consequently, vinyl was omnipresent in the household when Ernie was growing up. "I would flip through my fathers records and ask him to play the ones with the cool covers, which were usually The Beatles and Stevie Wonder". Ernies initial inclination was to express the visual imagery of the music. I was always inspired to draw the lyrics of the songs, "Art was my introduction to music and I still think of it in those terms.".....................................................
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Despite Ernie's growing talent in the visual arts, music gradually edged its way to the forefront, even as an exceptional art student participating in competitive programs at Parsons School of Design in New York City. He spent the majority of his time with the music students and, using the skills his father had taught him on bass guitar, soon began performing in high school with such improvisations of So What and Chameleon. "That was my first taste of performing other than singing squeaky-voiced at my dads lounge gigs whenever he could convince me", says Ernie.
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Ernie began drawing from his life experience as his singing and songwriting flourished throughout his teens and early twenties, eventually focusing on the piano. Everything from the prerequisite phase of teenage boredom to the heartache of a strained parental relationship was tapped for musical inspiration. Hailing from a broken family and experiencing the sudden loss of a step-parent have all played a part in the soul-driven music that serves as the conduit of Ernie's expression. He says, "playing music is my way of addressing issues that everyone can relate to."........................................................
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When Ernie was twenty, a childhood friend of his, Vince Bergamo (organ/keyboard) was playing with a trio. Each member already a well-established local musician, Scott Bennert (bass) and Bryan Brosen [FUZZ THE WORLD] (drums); they were all looking for the same thing, their front man. It took only one invitation from Vince and a key to the "jam shed" and Big Baby Ernie was born. Ensuing years saw the addition of Conor McCarthy, a guitarist with a gift for improv, and Christian Parkess, a saxophonist from New York who attended The New School with Ernie.
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All have come together to form this New Jersey band with an electrifying live show. Ernie's perseverance and vision have brought them local success. Big Baby Ernie has gigged steadily in the Jersey Shore area, gradually moving up in venues. Notably, they have opened shows for blues legend Johnny Winter as well as roots reggae great Eek a Mouse and Bob Marley's legendary Wailers. With one album under their belt, Big Baby Ernie is currently writing and recording their next studio effort, narrowing the repertoire down from twenty five songs.......................................................
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At days end, Big Baby Ernie's goal is to bring various audiences together with their music. One small coup that Ernie recalls lucidly was a woman at a recent show who was visibly impatient for the main act to hit the stage. Noticing her distaste while trying to play his show, Ernie focused on why he had become a musician and his simple necessity to express himself. "I glanced back at her after I tried to ignore her and she was bobbing her head... surrendering to the groove that I had worked so hard to perfect. It was one of the most terrifying yet satisfying experiences of my musical career. The way I see it is, Ive got soul enough to sing in front of anyone and Ill get my face kicked in sometimes, but no one has a soul like mine."
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This profile was edited with myspacecodesrock.com Editor
