Rockstar (literally) Brad Pugh sings and slams a mean guitar for the band Practically Einstein. They provide the theme song for rockstar character Johnny Blizzard (Roberto Carmona) with their single “Soldier Girl”. I chatted with Brad about his musical experiences, and I look forward to seeing him at the Young Adult screening on April 28th!
1. How did you get involved in music?
Well I’ve had music nearby since I was a little tyke. My father played, and still plays guitar and sings, so I had that influence from early on. I took quickly to listening to a lot of pop and rock music from an early age as well. I was going to concerts by age 11 or 12 (I won’t tell you which ones since that will date me). I started taking clarinet lessons around that time when I found an unused clarinet at my grandparents’ house. But after I realized I wasn’t rocking out enough on that thing, I officially started taking lessons on the guitar after I convinced my mom to take me to Sears, of all places, to get me a beginner’s guitar. And then down the road I realized that getting a job in some office wasn’t for me, so I decided to pursue music more seriously. And bought some better guitars.
Brad Pugh of Practically Einstein
2. What’s the latest on Practically Einstein?
Well I have just come back from a short solo tour of Denmark. That was an exciting, but hectic trip. We are getting ready to properly release the new single (“Soldier Girl”) along with a B-side, “Fool Her”. We are off to the Jersey Shore this weekend…and also getting ready for some cool local shows coming up, at the Rookery, IOTA and at some Nats games.
3. What was the creative process behind recording “Soldier Girl”?
We wanted a bigger rock sound for this song than some of our previous recordings. There are a lot of guitars in there. We also wanted a bit of ‘80’s influence, but to of course avoid having it sound too dated. We used some keyboards inspired by Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark”! It’s very tricky to get cool key sounds without having it be extremely cheesy…hopefully it worked…
There are also some sound effects, which is a new thing for us. The idea was to add some atmosphere and a sort of cinematic setting to be visualized.
War (J. W. Crump) and Johnny (Roberto Carmona)
4. What are some of your favorite television shows?
Since my schedule is a bit erratic, I don’t get to be a regular viewer of too many shows in the traditional time slots. But I do really like “The Office”. Usually I watch late-night shows on the Science or History or Discovery Channel. I like “Survivorman”, “How Things Work” and “FBI Files”. Also reruns of “Family Guy” and “Futurama.”
5. How old is a ‘young adult’ and why?
I think a young adult is anyone that is seeking out their place in the world. So really this depends on the person, I would think the age can vary. It takes some people a long time to get settled, and for good reason this day and age…but hopefully they are not living with mom and dad too much past the age of 30!
Brad Pugh (guitar and vocals), Rob Kuczynski (guitars), Dave Moran (drums), Phil Saraceno (bass)
Here we go again! I just spent several hours reading this and many other blogs. My wife says I have no life! I tell her I’m educating myself for when I get old. She said it’s to late for that! Anyways, I wanted to thank you for the great write up here. It was very insightful. I hope to read more of your blog posts in the upcoming months.
Way to go Practically Einstein and Young Adult!!