By: Peanuts

More often than not, a youngster cannot escape the family business. For North Royalton vocalist Jackie LaPonza, that would be the music business. LaPonza’s grandfather Fred was the co-owner of the popular yet now defunct Olmsted Township rock club The Corral and her dad Sam played drums in noted band One Yere Too Sune during the 197’s. Now in her mid 20’s and fronting her self-named Jackie band, LaPonza has a second disc out, titled ALMOST BROKEN, and it seemed like a good time to play catch up with her career.

 

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Peanuts:  You must have really had the music bug bite you.

 

Jackie LaPonza:  I was always interested in music. I started out dancing in different classes such as ballet, tap, jazz and hip hop. Through dance, I enjoyed stepping to the beat.  My dad helped intrigue my senses to music. He always had some kind of live music streaming from our basement. I remember laying and falling asleep to all of it. To me, the loud brilliance of the sounds they created were a soothing memory of my childhood.

 

P: Is this the first try at a band?

 

JL:  My two brothers, Matt and Mike LaPonza, who are in the current band, were in a pretty popular festive rock band called Mojo. We were together for seven years and put out three releases. Bassist Mike Donovan came from a band called How About No and guitarist Patrick Ols was in Gatlin and APG.

 

P:  Who has musically influenced the band the most?

 

JL:  We have been influenced by numerous artists like Queen; Aerosmith; Pat Benatar; Pink; No Doubt; the Beatles and the list goes on and on.

 

P:   So describe your music?

 

JL:  Our music is all original rock with a heavy pop edge. It’s been described as appealing to audiences of Green Day, Paramore, Flyleaf, Pat Benatar, No Doubt and Pink.

 

P:  What band would you like to split a bill with?

 

JL:  My dream of being on stage with Steven Tyler from Aerosmith will forever linger, but I would say we would match up best with No Doubt and Paramore.

 

P:  Where was the disc cut?

 

JL:  We did a bunch of preproduction work for ALMOST BROKEN at Filthy Hands Studios in North Royalton with Steve “Skinny” Felton.  From there, we recorded the final cuts at Lava Room Recording in Cleveland with Mike Brown.

 

P:  Favorite venue to play?

JL:  I think we would all agree that Peabody’s Downunder in Cleveland has been kind of like a second home to each of us.

 

P:  How is the disc doing on airplay?

 

JL:  WMMS-FM is on it and also stations in Geneva-On-The-Lake, West Virginia and Atlanta.  We hear about new ones playing it every day.

 

P:  Any tours lined up?

 

JL:  We are waiting to hear from the government on a time line of when we will ship out to do a USO tour for the troops.  We are also talking to different labels.  I don't like to mention everything in the works, so I don't jinx the outcome.

 

P:  Fair enough.  Where can you be found online?

 

JL:  Our main page is www.worldofjackie.com, but we're also on myspace.com/worldofjackie and youtube.com/worldjackie for some videos of the band.

 

P:  Final thoughts?

 

JL:  This band has been together for five years, but each one of us has been in bands and music in general for more than fifteen years.  Each of us started very, very young and decided never to look back.

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Peanuts is a longtime Cleveland music critic/reviewer.  He can be reached at

hostofthenorthcoast@yahoo.com