My name is Joe Bergevin, of Bergevin Brothers Music. I was born in Bellevue, WA in 1965 and have lived in Kirkland, WA my entire life. A lot has changed in my 42 years in the Northwest, mostly for the better, some old-school stuff I surely miss though. I come from a large family, 6 boys and one half sister. My father is a local veterinarian and world champion rodeo cowboy, and my mother stayed at home to raise the kids. We spent our summers on the rodeo circuit, and all learned how to ride and rope at a very young age, a hobby that still sticks with me. We had a small farm complete with horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, rabbits, and many other pets (not the vision of Kirkland, WA one might imagine, ever). My mom would organize Christmas pageants where we sang for friends and family. I think she may have had secret dreams of us turning out to be similar to the Osmond's. Music was a favorite pastime for my brothers and I. We would turn up Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, or The Sons of the Pioneers, and gallop around the living room on our stick horses for hours. We knew many albums by heart, and had fun mimicking the voices we heard on the old LP’s and soundtracks like the gravelly voice of Lee Marvin in Paint Your Wagon. I grew up at a time when the America faced a war abroad, a perpetual lingering cold war that prompted bomb drills in our classrooms, energy crunches, Presidential impeachment, huge musical changes, large recession, and a fair amount of turmoil in the world, but none of it seemed to affect me, our parents didn’t share many of the world’s problems with us. My parents didn’t talk about politics with us much either. It wasn’t until I was about 30 that I finally could decipher if my parents were republican or democrat, and I’m still not sure that they are sure if they are either. The dinner table conversation was rarely about the news of the day for some reason. I was raised without TV, and spent most of my time working for our Dad as veterinary technicians, at the single-digit ages. It was a good Catholic family dynamic, complete with some fear-based parenting and plenty of guilt, which ultimately led me to be a fairly good student in the public and Catholic schools I attended, and ultimately prepared me to be the valedictorian of Lake Washington High School. But even with this dreamy childhood, the parents still had a tough go. They tried hard to hold the family together, but eventually divorced and went their separate ways, and both remarried. After high school, I ended up moving on to the University of Washington on a full-ride scholarship, but dropped out after a year, telling my parents I was no longer excited about school, for reasons I’ll explain more about later. In hind-sight, it probably wasn’t a wise move and I wouldn’t recommend it to my two girls now, but I probably also wouldn’t change much about my upbringing either, I feel privileged.
This is how Bergevin Brothers Music has unfolded. Sometime during junior high, I started watching my brother Jon play the piano. He had taken lessons since he was six years old, and was becoming an important part of the high school jazz band by this time. He eventually moved on to Shoreline Community College in the music program, and was at one point featured in a “Jon Bergevin Show” which highlighted his piano and drum playing, tap dancing, and trick roping in one long solo performance. He was also in the choir and learned about recording and production in this program. It was at this time that he became a fairly engaged member of the Seattle music scene, and started hanging out with players like Matt Cameron, who eventually became a drummer for both Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam, more about him later.
Meanwhile, I struggled to learn how to play piano, and still have very limited ability with reading music. However, as I started getting more confident with music, I joined the choir in junior high and high school. We went on choir trips around the Northwest, and the camaraderie was kind of addicting. My other brother Jake was in the choir too, 2 years behind me, but more musically talented by a long ways. He had his own great story unfolding at this time. He and 3 friends were beginning to get a National name for their quartet, ultimately recognized by Downbeat Magazine, and invited on stage to sing with the Manhattan Transfer during their tour of Seattle. Jake had also studied the trumpet tirelessly as a kid, and ultimately went on to get his Masters in Performance and CWU. He is now a high school band teacher at Edmonds Woodway, and has a group he calls Jake Bergevin and The Javatown Swing Orchestra that plays most weekends at events all across the Northwest. The high-school band has been invited repeatedly to the Wynton Marsalis invitational, Essentially Ellington Jazz Competition at Lincoln Center in New York, and have traveled internationally.
During and after high school, my friends and I also started to spend a great deal of time learning how to break dance and bop during these years. Right after graduating high school I started dancing more at a local club called Skootchies, and found that I enjoyed this, and admittedly, maybe the girls that came with it a bit too. I found that I loved the complexity of pop music, although some would say this is an oxymoron. But when albums like Purple Rain came out, I was nearly in heaven. I have a vivid memory of taking my senior trip with my best friend Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who later went on to become a Hollywood actor) to Oahu, and when we walked into our first nightclub and heard “When Doves Cry”, we both looked at each other and slapped very hard high-fives, ordered our first Kamikaze, and commenced dancing like there was no tomorrow, which may actually be possible if you stay up all night like we did. It was during this trip that I learned a valuable lesson; music has a way of attracting the opposite sex. It wasn’t until a few decades later that I realized music has the power to attract people together, all people, all sexes. But Jeff and I spent the following year in this same pattern. Needless to say, this didn’t mix real well with college life, and 1984-85 was a tough year to stay focused. So, after dropping out of the UW, I started spending more time at dance clubs and at the piano late at night after working two jobs in retail and restaurant. During this same time, Jon, more of a musical virtuoso, was writing orchestrations for the UW Jazz Ensemble under the directioin of Roy Cummings and started doing jingles and scores for advertisements and films. We ended up living together for a few years during this time, and our musical interest started converging and becoming more magical. I would show Jon cool new songs I was coming up with, and he would play amazing piano music for me. We were really starting to feed off one another. Meanwhile, brother Jake was pursuing his Masters, his sheepskin. Soon, Jon and I both without college degrees, realized we needed to focus on surviving, and the life of music became more difficult to sustain.
It was about at this time that Jon learned he had a daughter on the way, and I began a career as a restaurant manager; I was slowly becoming a leadership junkie. Jon learned of an opening a friend of his had at his startup sign-making company, and dove into a self-taught crash course to learn computer programming. While I was focused on learning the skills needed to lead and motivate people to excel in hospitality, Jon became a virtuoso at his new job. We both followed a typical American path of excessive work, very little free time, and getting caught up in the rush and pursuit of achievement and advancement professionally and personally. Still, there wasn’t much civic involvement or engagement outside myself during these years for many reasons, mostly, because it wasn’t ingrained in me as a child probably. I met the love of my life, the daughter of a restaurant reviewer for the Seattle Times, and began the process of settling down, buying a home, and trying to have children, which on a side note, lasted seven years, until we finally had the help of a doctor make it happen. My wife’s family was starkly different than mine. They talked about politics at all gatherings, and were engaged in life outside themselves It was quite an eye-opener for me for the first few years, but started to grow on me and seep into my character. Meanwhile, after nearly fifteen years in hospitality, I switched careers and started a business as a home builder, putting most of my songs and lyrics away in the piano bench for many years. Jon had another daughter, and a great career as a software engineer, and continued practicing piano and drums. He sought out the best instructors in town, and became one of a handful of great jazz pianists in the area. Although both Jon and Jake perform professionally and are great musicians, as brothers, we mostly would get together and jam at family functions, but not much more often than that. Jake, on the other hand, has become an amazing and recognized Northwest musician during these years. But in October of 2007, Jon and I were talking after dinner one night, and we asked ourselves why we couldn’t just make a good run at the music soon. We decided that we had gone many years with no goal and as a result had no results of consequence that we could feel great about. But with music in our blood, we ached to find a way to set the goal, to try to create and do something substantial, to do something concrete in the coming couple years. We vowed on that October night, that we would do just that.
In 2004 Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic convention. I watched on TV, and after watching and listening to his demeanor and tone, and fancying myself somewhat of a student of the principles of leadership, turned to my wife and told my wife that I thought he could be a President of the United States, if not within 4 years, then within 8. We started to following his story at that moment. And when we heard in February 2007 his announcement as a candidate, we were very excited and decided that we needed to engage this year, somehow. We really believed we needed him to be our president. Later in the fall, we went to a rally in the U District, and signed up to help in our precinct. Katy starting spending hours on the phone and Obama’s website making cold calls on his behalf, and eventually at times became one of the Nation’s top callers for his campaign. She started getting notifications of where he was going to be next, or speak next, and we kept our eye on “everything Obama”. In December, we gave a donation that qualified us to go see Barack in person for the first time at The Bell Harbor Conference Center. At one point, my daughter Chloe broke through the rope line and stood in front of the Senator. He commented on her, saying, "Come on up honey, it's OK, you can come up here." While she (being 1 year old) declined, I shook hands with Barack after the event, and commented to him, "I think you're going to get the job done." Barack replied to me, "With your help I will, with your help." At that moment, I felt he had been charged with a challenge, and started to think of how I could apply my skills to the task of helping get Barack Obama elected. Within a few weeks, I was watching the video feed online of Barack Obama and Oprah together on stage and musical inspiration set in. That day, Obama told a story about one person, Edith Childs, who energized others with a "fired up, ready to go," chant at one of his campaign stops. Inspired by Obama's "One voice can change the world" speech, I wrote some lyrics and rough chords that same day, then called brother Jon to help me finish and arrange the song. The song is named after Edith's chant. After many phone calls, emails, and sleepless nights, we had assembled the team. Ten days later an epic recording was born with the intention of spreading Obama's hopeful message. Contributors include lead singer and ABC Person of the Year Reverend Pat Wright and her renowned Total Experience Gospel Choir, drummer Matt Cameron from Pearl Jam, lead singer Jake Bergevin, other top studio musicians, sound engineers, video teams, photographers, caterers, local news teams and a renovated theater with recording studio. From the first word written to the last note performed, this entirely donated and collective effort demonstrated Senator Obama's unifying message and Americans' desire to act on it. We were in awe of how freely people said, "Yes!" to this project. His words "For that is our unyielding faith-that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country, can change it" demonstrate that great leaders motivate others. Barack is a great leader. And the music was back in our lives.
"I would have never imagined participating in an event like this, suddenly having a bunch of people come together on behalf of a political candidate; contributing immediately, so fully and unconditionally," said Stephan Schier, one of the project contributors.
Edith Childs said in the Greenwood Index Journal "I just had no idea that something done spontaneously would go this far -- in a good way," Childs said. "But as far as the song, I think it's cool. And I'm going to go online and see the (music) video when it comes out. But look, I did (the chant) in June, and I had no idea this is where we'd be on January 25."
Now, the song, as sung by by Jake Bergevin and Pat Wright and her choir, is one of two songs included on Barack Obama’s Favorites on YouTube, and on the new album inspired by Obama's candidacy that we have written and produced called 'Seven Songs for America And One for the World’. (This historic and one-of-a-kind album can be purchased by going to
http://www.bergevinbrothersmusic.com , all proceeds benefit Katrina victims.) We have even issued a press release about this effort...
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Seattle, WA - “Seven Songs For America and One For The World” is an uplifting album produced by Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam and The Bergevin Brothers which features ABC’s 2007 Person of The Year, Pastor Patrinell (Pat) Wright, and her Total Experience Gospel Choir and seeks to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims on this 3rd anniversary, and just in time for the opening of the Democratic Convention in Denver. The energetic CD that includes the internet hit, ‘Fired Up, Ready to Go’, displayed as one of two songs on Barack Obama’s YouTube favorites, captures and amplifies the positive spirit of the campaign’s message for Americans and the world at this historic time. Joe Bergevin observes, “This project has been a chance for many of us to discover how amazingly true Barack Obama’s concept of how ‘We are the people we need’ is at this fiercely urgent moment, at our generation’s ‘now’. As our country and world has endured huge struggles and missteps in our recent history, this dedicated group of supporters has climbed onto the platform Obama has constructed to unify us all, and are taking the message to heart by teaming up and using our strengths to leap toward solutions that make a difference to citizens now.” “We want our music to help amplify the struggles faced by Katrina victims from one of our country’s largest disasters, raise money for their efforts to rebuild, and help show the power of Obama’s message when enthusiastically and diligently executed,” adds Jon Bergevin. “Seven Songs for America and One For The World” also has historic relevance. It seems that not since 1788 when America’s first composer of secular music, Francis Hopkinson, wrote “Seven Songs for the Harpsichord”, and dedicated it to the nation’s first president, George Washington, has there been a complete album written for and dedicated to a president, or candidate for that matter (the search engine didn’t turn up anything else). Joe Bergevin shook hands with Obama in Seattle in December and commented, “I think you’re going to get the job done”. Obama replied, “With your help I will, with your help.” The charge has inspired an 8 month all-out effort by the brothers and many others, and has culminated in another orchestration and chapter for America’s deep history. Additionally, Edith Childs of Greenwood South Carolina, the originator of Obama’s ‘Fired Up’ chant, has expressed her excitement about the album to the Bergevin Brothers, and has plans to meet with them personally at the Convention in Denver to get her copy. Representatives from the group will be attending. The album can be purchased at their web site
www.BergevinBrothersMusic.com (all profits to benefit Katrina victims), and for Victims, some songs are available for download on their MySpace page. It will also be available on ITunes, AmazonMp3, and they hope to make the CD available in retail stores in the coming months. If you have not viewed the groups work, you can visit YouTube online to view their popular music video “Fired Up, Ready To Go” at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyJ72iZ3tW4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, we haven’t strayed far from Kirkland, but our music is now circling the globe. The comments on our YouTube video are coming in daily from countries and continents that you would never guess would care whether Barack Obama becomes president, but we can tell you from first-hand experience now, the world does care, and is watching our election closely. It is amazing to see the outpouring we have experienced since we released the video. And it doesn’t matter if you are great at music like my brothers and all the performers of this album, or just a guy who like to write words to rough chords and can hardly read music, music makes a difference, and is worth pursuing. And we could all gain a little by injecting ourselves into our community better too. This, I do believe more than ever. And as long as we live, we should go after our dreams. There is one specific song on the album that sums this sentiment up nicely - “One Time” (goto
http://www.myspace.com/bergevinbrothersmusic , or call me for CD, I’ll bring it over) . Pease take a moment to listen if you get some time (and if not, maybe just try to make some time), and take it to heart.
Joe Bergevin
Bergevin Brothers Music.