Every band and artist on the new roster of Heavy Rotation Records sat down with BerkleeGroove.com to talk about their lives, music and dreams of success. Click on their name and picture to read their full interviews.

By Ann Driscoll
Associate Editor

The breadth of Michael Gottlieb’s musical interests and influences is vast. A singer-songwriter who crafts dark, orchestral piano pop, Gottlieb, ’09, is also an accomplished vocalist, composer, and arranger.

Years of study and dedication to his craft have engendered the 27-year old musician heard today. Prior to coming to Berklee in the fall of 2007, Gottlieb studied music at Tel Aviv’s Hed College of Music, where the star student was asked to join the faculty. Soon thereafter, he received a scholarship to study at Berklee.

Drawing upon his experience scoring films that were distributed throughout Europe, Gottlieb initially majored in film scoring, but instead made the switch to professional music. The college recognized his talent: they selected his original, “You’re in the Sun,” as a winner of the 2008 Songwriting Competition, and the vocal department picked him to sing background vocals for Singer’s Night in fall 2007.

Gottlieb’s vocals can be heard on the recording projects of his sister, the New York-based jazz singer, Ayelet Rose Gottlieb. Her album, Mayim Rabim/Great Waters featuring Gottlieb’s lead vocals, was released on Tzadik, a label started and operated by experimental saxophonist and frequent Lou Reed collaborator, John Zorn.

With his wide array of talents, Gottlieb could seemingly pursue a career in a variety of directions—as a vocalist, a film composer, an arranger—but his primary pursuit is writing, performing, and recording original pop songs.

“I learned [at Berklee] that a musician really needs to focus on what he or she wants to do. Berklee offers a lot of information, but it took me a while to really figure out what’s the most important thing for me, and right now it’s songwriting.”

Having just completed his debut album at Somerville’s Q Division studios, Gottlieb will graduate in December and move back to Israel. “I will put a lot of energy in marketing [the record] once I go back.”

A diehard fan and student of mainstream and avant garde pop alike, Gottlieb’s compositions, which have Hebrew lyrics, are influenced by everyone from Michael Jackson (“I still know every bass line or “c’mon” in every Micheal Jackson song, since I was 12”) to Laurie Anderson. The bouncy, whimsical number, “Karati la maya” (I Named Her Maya) has the melodic hooks of Madonna’s best work with the irony, wit, and energy of early Elvis Costello and the Attractions. The autobiographical song is about how the openly gay Gottlieb had to conceal his sexuality while doing compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces by pretending to have a girlfriend named Maya—a turbulent emotional experience transmuted into deceptively catchy, wryly funny pop.

Gottlieb’s strengths at arranging bring a vital dimension to the material, which frequently features violin, cello, viola, and tenor sax. “I try to think of the song or piece and it’s character and I decide what instruments I want to use. Once I’ve decided that, the lines will come eventually when I sit at the piano and play the song a bunch of times.” In their rich, fully realized trappings, his songs, both live and recorded, resemble the work of other orchestral, theatrical pop titans, Rufus Wainwright and Antony and the Johnsons, with subtle whiffs of Middle Eastern harmony and melodic motifs.

In Boston, Gottlieb found that his unique marriage of language and genre has made it difficult to book gigs. According to Gottlieb, there is an audience in the United States for performers of Jewish folk music, but not pop/rock in Hebrew. In other words, you can get gigs playing folk songs in Hebrew for old Jewish people in Brookline, but it’s harder to book Hebrew pop/rock at clubs like TT the Bear’s.

Gottlieb says it’s the opposite in Israel, where having English lyrics is a disadvantage. “[Having Hebrew lyrics] definitely helps…Even though there’s a lot of English-based music in Israel, most of it is still very unknown to the general public. Even though some of it is really good, the major labels tend to ignore it.”

By happenstance, Gottlieb recorded his debut album with an Israeli-American engineer, Rafi Sofer at Q Division, who speaks Hebrew and was able to understand the lyrics, and therefore, the music. His experience with Sofer and at the studio in general was positive. “It’s a great studio. It was also pretty cool to find out that in that very same studio the Pixies recorded Surfer Rosa and Aimee Mann recorded the songs for one of my favorite films, Magnolia.”

The album consists of songs Gottlieb wrote during the past two years at Berklee. “I feel like it’s the first time I’m 100 percent satisfied with something I’ve created. The band sounds great, and I really think I got the most out of these songs. I feel like the album is very organic, very focused.”

When Gottlieb charts his one-way plane ride for Israel, he will leave behind, and perhaps later reunite with a tight-knit community of Israeli Berklee students. “Most Israelis I know here are very connected. Personally, most of my best friends here are Israelis. Musically, most of them are Jazz Performance majors, though I knew a few who do more pop/rock stuff. Socially, we can be pretty loud but I think we’re nice and friendly people usually.”

Gottlieb will live in Jerusalem with his boyfriend until he finishes medical school, and then relocate to the more cosmopolitan Tel Aviv, because “that’s where it all happens!”

Dominique Toliver

By Robert Gillies
Contributing Writer

Money is not the only thing being let go of in these harsh economic times. Many are the students at Berklee who have had to see their friends return home simply because they cannot afford the costs of tuition. Though sadly these situations have become common, there is one such story that is fast becoming one of hope and strength.

Dominique Toliver, a Los Angeles native, arrived at Berklee in the summer of 2008. “Music is my life. Jazz is my personality,” says Dominique, whose love of jazz came from a childhood enriched by the sounds of his uncle’s radio that was perpetually tuned into LA’s KJAZZ 88.1. After his third semester, Dominique found out that his financial backing had faded, and faced the prospect of heading back to L.A.

This setback was not to stop Dominique. After having spent several months at home, he decided that enough was enough and set about raising the money needed to finish his education at Berklee. Dom, known to his friends as a vibrant, multi-talented individual, created a fundraising website (www.yesdomcan.com) to start a ground roots movement to help him raise his grand goal of $140,000. It may sound insurmountable, but as Dominique puts it, “Just $1 from 140,000 people – or $20 from 7,000 people – can help me reach this goal”.

Within a day of Dominique posting his website on Facebook and Twitter, he found that his idea had blossomed into something much larger than he had envisioned. Inspired by his efforts, several of Dom’s friends jumped on board; within a day, had a small team of people working with a dedicated Twitter account (@YesDomCan), a buzzing Facebook fan page (currently gathering an average of 30 fans a day), and an excess of calls and e-mails going out to friends, colleagues and even celebrities.

It would seem that this effort has gone way beyond raising money to help someone achieve his or her dreams. What Dominique and his friends are doing is reversing the tide of an all too familiar situation, inspiring hope to those who face similar problems, and proving that by working together we can truly create the change we want to see in the world. And people are noticing. Several students in the same position have already contacted Dom and his team, asking for help and advice, and thanking him for that glimmer of a silver lining.

Find out more about Dom’s fundraising at YesDomCan.com.

By Zac Taylor
Managing Editor

Photos by Tom Moore

At 20 years old, Seth Glier has already made quite a name for himself as touring singer-songwriter. After leaving Berklee in 2008, Glier has been all over the country playing everywhere from coffee houses to theatres. After being recently picked up by MPRess Records, his label debut The Trouble with People has just been beautifully remixed by Grammy-winner Kevin Killen, and he is excited to release it to his Boston fans at Club Passim on November 25.

The traveling minstrel took some time in between stops on his tour to have a telephone interview with BerkleeGroove.com to talk about the ins and outs of his current lifestyle, alma mater, and big bro.

Read the full story

By Owen Ross
Contributing Writer

Let me start out by saying that we have put together an awesome event for this Friday, October 30. Read the full story

By Zac Taylor
Managing Editor

Alessandro Lombardo has been a busy man this summer. After his first semester this past spring, Lombardo traveled back to his homeland of Milan to play drums with this band fusion band Re-Generation, as well as with a pop act called Quintocerchio, who was promoting their CD. “I started played drums when I was six or seven,” the Italian percussionist said. “I started with pop drumming. In Italy, we don’t have a lot of jazz.”

Lombardo is a professional music major, with a focus on composition and arranging. Aside from Re-Generation and Quintocerchio, he also plays drums for Jazztronic, which boasts a diverse lineup both stylistically and culturally with Liutauras Janusaitis on tenor sax, Pierluigi Salami on keyboards/effects, and Keisukee Higashino on bass. “The sound has some hip-hop, jazz, and is influenced by everyone from Lady Gaga to Soweto Kinch,” Lombardo said.

Last spring, Lombardo played with his trio in Boston’s Washington Square, which is currently being broadcasted on BATV. Add that to performances at the illustrious Blue Note Jazz Club in Milan, and this second-semester student is compiling quite a resume.

Check out Lombardo’s Caf Show this Thursday night with Jazztronic, and feel free to dance, analyze, or simply enjoy.

By Ann Driscoll
Associate Editor

MySpace.com/MeaganHickman.

Meagan Hickman ’10 approaches her musical career with the business savvy you’d expect from the president of the music business club. This past summer, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Chicago recorded an EP, designed and launched her website, registered her songs with the U.S. copyright office, signed up with ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), and launched her own company: M.A.H. Music Group, LLC. Booking her own shows and handling all of her promotion and marketing, Hickman proves that if you’re smart and hardworking, you don’t need a manager –at least not in the early stages of your career. Read the full story

By Lisa Marie Garver
Contributing Writer

While Berklee is full of talented entertainers, it’s also important to appreciate our classmates that are reaching out to spread a little joy and knowledge to those who wish to learn. Jenna Bollard, a 5th-semester vocalist from Bridgewater, CT, is following her dream to make an impact using her devotion to Music Therapy. After saving her summer earnings for two years, she left the modern world of the US to work at Arla Daycare in Palampur, India.

Music Therapy Student Jenna Bollard at Arla Daycare in Palampur, India.

“I already had an interest in helping those less fortunate,” Jenna explained. “And I always had an interest in going to India, so I thought that going to Palampur to teach English would be useful. What better of a way to do that than with music?” With a lot of help from an organization called Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS), and a little bit of help from her classes at Berklee, Jenna was able to plan and book a one-month excursion to this totally foreign land.

While spending much time organizing an education plan and learning Hindi, Jenna discovered that she had a challenge from day one at Arla Daycare. First, she had planned to work with three to six-year-olds, but sometimes found herself working with students of all ages and varied levels of education based on the caste system; she taught a poor 13 year old who had less knowledge of English than a 7 year old that had attended private school. Secondly, she had no teaching experience, which was compounded by the lack of structure at the daycare. But, in true Berklee fashion, she improvised. “It was hard with no teaching experience, but I found that the kids were so attentive and ready and willing to learn.” The next day she came back with blocks of lessons that would help her to reach her goals and allow the students to move through them at their own pace.

With her determination and positive spirit, Jenna was able to teach the children songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and “The Hokey Pokey,” which allowed them to recognize the basic body parts, and also focus on the letters of the alphabet. But she also believes that the exposure to someone from another culture was positive for the students who were from a very rural community.

Jenna will take this experience with her in pursuit of her professional career as a music therapist. “Definitely, for Music Therapy, I will be able to use the international experience and some of the things I learned through trial and error,” Jenna said. “For instance, completely being thrown into things blindly. I’ll be able to use a lot of the skills that I picked up on this trip in my practicum classes. As far as my career at Berklee, coming home and reinforcing how lucky I am to be at Berklee is going to make me work so hard.” She says that not matter what turns her life may take, her career will always coincide with the need to use her privileges to assist those who are less fortunate. In the mean time, she will pass on her experience to other students who may benefit from it as well.

Check out Jenna’s website, and if you are interested in following in her footsteps, visit crossculturalsolutions.org or Teach For India teachforindia.org.