Another SNL, another adventure...

This past week was my birthday and it happened on Friday this year (Nov 21st). I got called in at 9:45pm that night to work on the opening monologue with host "Tim McGraw". We were to learn his tracks, "Real Good Man" and "I Like it, I Love it". So, before my birthday dinner, which my family came into town for, I sat at home, learned all the "hot licks" and structures of the tunes, etc..

Of course, after learning all of "I like it, I love it", I got an email from Katrese and Shawn (Katrese writes the music for the sketches and is the liason/writer for when the band has to play for a sketch, and Shawn Pelton (drummer) does the scheduling and contracting for the band.. he gets in touch with us for these moments). So, yeah, got an email from Shawn saying "not doing "I like it, I love it". Ok, one down then.

I get to SNL that Friday birthday evening, and they are on schedule so far with rehearsals. and as usual, it runs WAY long for the current sketch, thus making it "not on time." We start working on the tune at around 11pm. Tim comes out, black cowboy hat, casual clothes (dark hooded sweatshirt opened with a t-shirt, etc). He is really nice, and talkative to the band that is there that evening. Low, strong and southern voice. real "cowboy"-ish to me. Prob not cowboy at all, but I am slightly sheltered, growing up 30 mins from Manhattan. He wished me a happy birthday and he made some jokes about getting older. Something about "wait till you get past 40!!, while laughing exuberantly. He had this hearty laugh and that certainly made me laugh! He was really nice and friendly.

So, we start rehearsing and he is singing w/no mic on the stage. He is right by me and I hear him saaaang. sounds great. It is always interesting to hear a singer that you have heard on records and who has a famous voice, to hear them in person, especially, as you play the song! My first taste of that was with Justin Timberlake, rehearsing for the CBS "Fashion Rocks" show. ca--razzzyy.

Rehearsed the tune a few times. They got him an acoustic to play, but he didn't pick it up. Just did the monologue, got the mic toss from some guy waiting in the wings and sang the tune as we rocked it. They practiced that mic toss prob 8 times in a row sat day at rehearsal b/c he dropped it once! In the end, they opted for a hand-off. good idea i thought. much smarter.

Sat rolled around, one day older. Did the monologue with our song for rehearsals, dress rehearsal taping, and of course- live air. He was like an old friend on set, asking me how it felt to be a day older, making the birthday joke thing again. a real normal dude it seemed. He was practicing that monolgue speech so much and was really trying to nail it. he really had a strong work ethic and you can tell he like to nail things pretty good (insert faith hill joke here?)

Oh, and the previous week when Beyonce was the musical guest- I walked into the set to see her perform and who did I end up standing next to? Jay-Z!! man, was crazy. He kept looking back at the monitor to see how the performance was looking on screen. Or maybe he couldn't see that clear. Who knows. He wasn't as tall as I thought he would be. haha.

anyways- that's it for the "tales from a guitarist's perspective". I'll prob keep changing that name.

Jared

Wow.....

so, sometimes working at SNL provides moments I may have never had in my life otherwise. For those of you that might not know yet, I have been playing guitar in the House band for two seasons with Saturday Night Live

So, last night, Coldplay was the guest band and they were great! I watched their soundcheck, complete with Gwenyth, her mom and their kids. I noticed how little Chirs Martin was singing and "saving" his voice, which I thought was interesting. sometimes people go ALL OUT in soundcheck, and some chill (Bon Jovi also barely sang at his soundcheck). But when he sang, there was that recognizable voice.

So, after the dress rehearsal, I went over to the dressing room b/c I was walking that way. I saw him talking to someone outside the dressing room so I walked up to him. I said "you guys sound great!", in which he replied "your band sounds great" (meaning SNL house band). We talked some more, and he said he was nervous. I was like, "you guys play arenas, how would u be nervous for this?" He replied, "b/c here you can hear all the cracks and stuff". Seemed like he was worried about his voice (he might have been getting over a cold possibly I think). We talked some more and I told him how sometimes they throw me in front of the stage to do a solo on a song and it's always a little odd for me for that crowd to be doing that. Then he told me something I will always remember- "What I do is I think about the people and what they want, not what I think or How I feel, but what they want. And what they want is confidence." etc etc. but it was pretty great talking to him about that.

He was incredibly nice, humble, charming and funny. He clearly gets it, and is a very warm person. That was a huge highlight for me and a moment in my life I will never forget.

Thank you Chris Martin for giving me incredible advice and being a great dude.

Jared

well, I'll tell ya.. A lot of diff things going on in my life musically, so here's the rundown lately.

Spent the Summer in LA working with a co-writer for TOP40 style songs. Yes, the goal is write hits and get them on the radio! We worked all summer and I am ecstatic with the results. We did a lot of Rock/pop stuff which we produce ourselves and some Urban/RnB stuff which we send out to some other producers, as well as, sometimes do ourselves. It's a lottt of fucking work but I am really proud of these songs. Hoping to start getting them placed, cut and then maybe even the radio! My writing partner out in LA is Ross Golan and has a great band called "Glacier Hiking"- check them out. We also started writing/producing and developing a solo artist named Eric Dill (you might recognize the name- the original Click 5 singer). stuff is ROCKIN! excited to finish it.

Oh, I also learned to SURF!! and I fucking love it. Thanks Barry and the Something For Rockets crew.

Came back to NYC and dove right into work. I played in the house band for the CBS "Fashion Rocks Show". It was NUTS! 3 full days or recording and rehearsing @ Avatar Studios with world-famous session cats, including members of the SNL Horn section. We also rehearsed with Justin Timberlake. He was extremely nice, funny and quite charismatic. I can certainly see why he is such a star. Very talented and GREAT voice.

We played Radio City Music Hall (a first for me) and it was NUTZ. Played with Justin, Beyonce, Kid Rock, Mary J Blige, Mariah Carey, Natasha Beddingfield, Rhianna, Fergie, Debbiw Harry, etc etc. i was like- holy shit. not to mention, they all looked SLAMMIN! :)

then SNL started rehearsals the fllowing 2 days. I was so exhausted from the week of Fashion Rocks and SNL. but excited to get back into playing music

So, here I am now a month or so later. Have done 4 SNL shows, still producing and writing the Top 40 stuff and most of all working on the new Jared Scharff and the Royals stuff (JSR). We are gonna come out a 9 song EP and I am reallly excited about it. Not to mention, gonna release our music video soon too! so stick around and stay tuned.

thanks for listening. See you on the TV screen on Saturday nights :)

Jared

Wanted to say thanks to all who came out on tuesday to our mercury Lounge show!! It was packed thanks to you!!!

We were so excited to finally play NYC again, and even more excited to play those 3 new songs for ya. Stay tuned to our myspace as we will be putting them up on our page. In fact, "diamond in the rough" is up there right now!

Highlight of the night- there are 2 actually...

1) phil rocking so hard he lost his glasses! haha

2) you all demanding an encore, and a song we haven't even played in 8 months no less! man oh man, that was tough, but fun.

so, that's about it. We are even more excited to do our first ever ACOUSTIC show at rockwood june 4th. that's gonna be something really different for us. You'll get a chance to hear how Jared's songs typically originate in sound and style before the band "rockafies" them. should be pretttty rad.

ok, see ya then. thanks so much for coming out. Remember, we got a facebook page, keep telling your friends, sign up on our mailing list or just email ur address for that, etc etc.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jared-Scharff-and-the-Royals/5732503655


you are fabulous,

JSR

Ladies and Gents of the JSR World-

We realize we have been MIA for the past few months but with good reason! We wanted to update you on what's been going on with JSR.

1st- Big Congratulations to Jared on landing one of the world's BEST TV/Musician gigs- new guitar player for Saturday Night Live! He is the new guitarist w/the House band and you can watch him every Saturday night 11:30pm on NBC's classic "Saturday Night Live!"

Also- 1st- JSR IN SPIN MAGAZINE!! Go to "PHOTOS: MY PHOTOS" to see picture- we are at the bottom of the page ;)

2nd- We SHOT A VIDEO! We will soon have a video for "Bedroom Eyes" and it will be nothing short of fantabulous! Interesting costumes, odd story, us being fun, silly, serious. all of the good stuff. Hopefully, this will be ready to view by 2008!

3rd- We have brand new T-SHIRTS!! We couldn't be more excited to tell you that after months and months of fiddling/tweaking w/our logo (which essentially was done almost a year ago) it is now perfect and we have made the sickest t-shirts!! To check 'em out go to our "PHOTOS: Fans and Friends w/JSR" section where you can see Jared's dad rockin' one.

4th- PHOTO SHOOT!!! We did an amazing photo shoot with the uber talented Marisa of DOT photography and the pictures are siiiiiiick. Please check out our "PHOTOS: Dot Photography photo shoot" to see them!

5th- FACEBOOK- Please join our facebook if you haven't already. It's fun. We want you to be our friend ;) Link is on our myspace page on the left side.

That about sums it up. Please write to us and let us know what's happenin. We miss you all.

JSR

OK-

so everyone and their mother puts up video updates now on myspace and youtube. Why shouldn't we be any different right?

We got together and thought about all the people that write to us all over the world-- (seriously, as far as, Qatar, Sweden, UK, Russia, Germany, France, Egypt, etc) and how we most of you guys have never gotten a chance to see us live, meet us or see who we are. So, we did a little video titled "JSR- an introduction/overview". it is on our page below the bio section!

"JSR- an introduction/overview" will let u see behind the scenes, us "trying" to explain ourselves, and some live clips. All u need to get the vibe of JSR!

Enjoy, please continue to spread the word and get our music out there! thanks so much for your continued support. It means everything.

JSR
iTunes
myspace
purevolume
napster

check out JSR's Cover of "Just Like a Woman" exclusively at


purevolume.com/jaredscharff



Send us comments and let us now what ya think.

JSR

If you haven't been to our pics page in the last few weeks you might notice some "HOT" pictures of Jared jamming onstage w/Maroon 5! These pics were taken in Maxwells (Hoboken) and the Downtown (Long Island).

At Maxwells, Jared joined childhood friends Adam and Jesse (M5) and the rest of those crazy M5 boys for a jam at soundcheck. He went to summer camp with Adam and Jesse, where they played in bands together all summer. So, to get back to the "good-old days" they re-connected to play at these venues. After a good hour-long jam during their soundcheck, Jared took the stage once again during their set. During their final song "The Sweetest Goodbye" James took off Jared's strat (which he used for the show), handed it to him and let Mr. Scharff unleash some fury on M5! The crowd loved it and Adam and Jared traded off some licks and they called it a night.

The next time they did the same thing was for an encore at the Downtown in Long Island. Jared and Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet singer) joined M5 for a cover of ACDC's "Highway to Hell". Another successful Rock off.

Check out the pics in our pic section. For now- we will leave you with a picture of young Jared and Adam Levine in summer camp. Top pic- Jared w/Guitar (blonde hair) and Adam on drums (blue hat). Bottom pic- Adam singing, Jared on drums.

Check out the M5 and Jared pics in the pic section of the myspace. ENJOY!

..">

We wanted to let you New Yorkers know thatTICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW for our very special NYC appearance w/Bandcamp

Thursday, April 5th @ the Annex - 7:30pm - 16 +

We're psyched because that week is Easter break for all you students and you'll have Friday off...and it's just another excuse for an early start to the weekend for those in the working week ;)

TICKETS are on sale right here (@ Theater Mania) - Just click that link. Make sure ya pick 'em up in advance - soon - asap! Space is limited and we'll be joined by our good friends in Bandcamp (Bandcamp Myspace). Hope to see our long island/jersey friends there too!!! The Annex is located @ 152 Orchard St. Btwn Rivington & Stanton.


See ya then,

Jared Scharff and the Royals

Wanted to say thanks for everyone who came out to the CD RELEASE show last month at sine! It was a tough night due to the pouring rain SO we are going to do kind of CD RE-RELEASE in Nov at Sine (hopefully, this time it won't pour).

SO-

NOV 8th, come to sine. CD "re"-RELEASE Party. and hang out after!!

We will play at 7:30, and our good friends from Boston "Lansdowne" are playing at 7and Crash Moderns after us!!!

It's an early show, but it would mean a lot to us if you came out to support Lansdowne and our early set time. This show is kind of a "big deal" for us so tell ALL THOSE friends and lets make a night of it!

Can't wait to see you there. Nov 8th, Sine, 7:30pm!!

Jared Scharff and the Royals