BEEJAE

At just 23 years old, Beejae has had much success with many accomplishments as in Independent Rock Artist… without the help of a booking, tour, or general manager. These include, but are not limited to, college radio success, commercial radio airplay, awards for his songwriting, sold out shows in several cities, and a new album that is sure to take everyone by storm.

Nearly 500 shows, 5 studio releases, and a decade of performing live later, Beejae has grown into a unique, memorable musician with songs that leave you feeling like you already know them the first time you hear them. From the first note on the album, the first live introduction, or the first time you meet him and he looks at you… you know what he wants to do is important. And you know he is determined enough to not stop until it happens.

Before his first solo outing at 18 years old, where the press called him “Raw and emotional” (Pulp), “Can stand-alone with his unique style” (City Paper), and “bound to turn the heads of more than a few skeptics” (PPG), Beejae had already tasted success. At ten years old, Beejae formed his first band, Alternada, that played covers at parties and rented centers. At 13, when he wrote his first original composition “Coming Back”, Beejae won the Pennsylvania Young Literary Award for the lyrics. Playing at a public convention, Beejae played ‘Labeled’ to protest racism and bigotry of all kinds, and at 14 won an award for that song from Youth Against Hate.

While Beejae was off to a good start, his first two bands folded, and at 16 he started a hard rock band, DEADLock. The first single “Already Dead” made it on to commercial radio in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and New York, and the young band finding the little theatres and bars that were booking them packed, to a point where police would show up and turn people away at the Beehive Theatre or at Cool Pepper’s. It became a tradition in a DEADLock show for fans to take a poll as to when the club would start turning people away. It was usually before the band took the stage. But as with most high school bands, other members had other priorities, and Beejae pursued a solo career for the first time.

Receiving great reviews and a reputation wasn’t enough for Beejae… he was craving to be back in a band, and was going through much turmoil in his personal life. This is when The Peace was formed… a band that would be described as a cross between Zeppelin and Nirvana in the press for the next 2 years.

However, with the added oddity of their first show being sold out to 1250 people, and local radio asking for a single from ‘the singer of DEADLock’s new band’, Beejae wanted some time to himself in order to ensure success. Everyone decided that the band was rehearsed enough so far for their first sixty-minute headlining set, and could resume rehearsals a couple of weeks before the September event.

So late in the summer of 2002, Beejae packed his car full, “with as much as it could fit,” Beejae recalls, and drove ‘north’. No one knows exactly where he spent the next six weeks, but he will admit to living out of his car and came home after running out of money. On his current 2007, Beejae sings about this for the first time in the country-inspired “Eye for an Eye”.

In one month’s time after his return, The Peace took the stage at ‘M’ in Pittsburgth in front of a reported 1261 people, but not before Beejae went ‘missing’ before the show. Colin Wirick, the bands former equipment manager, recalls: “No one could find Beejae the entire evening of the gig after soundcheck. “Five minutes before the set was to begin, they found him… and he only said ‘I’m ready… I just finished.’ I asked him what he finished, and he said he wanted to personally thank every person for coming…so he had gone through and literally thanked everyone one by one so they knew he meant it. He also watched the opening acts from the audience while everyone else played rockstar and hid backstage.”

Though The Peace ended in 2005, they released 2 CDs, each selling thousands of copies locally, with Beejae the primary songwriter on each album. According to Beejae, the band split because the other members became too involved in their drugs and booze to put the music first. Still, he picked up two more songwriting awards during his time fronting the band. One in 2003 for “Tell Me Again” from Yesterday’s Been Buried, and one in 2004 for “Kennedy”, on Silver, both from Pittsburgh Underground Online.

Beejae has also done a lot for the Pittsburgh scene, including starting Rock United in 2001, an annual festival that features all Pittsburgh bands based on their songwriting and performance, rather than their draw. The credibility of the bands’ musical abilities is what sells the festivals, and so the artists are able to network their fanbases together. Rock Untied 5, 2006’s festival, was even radio-station sponsored by 105.9 The X.

Before The Peace had taken their last breath, Beejae alr