Take 2

Sunderland, VT - From the outside they may look like normal 18-year-olds. But give them a microphone and a guitar, and these identical twins transform into the pop duo, Take 2. Shelby Cashman has been following them around as they tour in Vermont.

"Life without you is ordinary, like 20 shades of brown," their song goes.

Especially ordinary without your identical twin and bandmate.

"You have a built in best friend," said Adrian "The styles really complement each other; I think that you can only get with a brotherly dynamic."

It's a dynamic Adrian and Julian Woodrow, two 18-year-olds form Sunderland, have used to create the pop duo, Take 2. You may recognize them from the first U.S. season of "The X Factor" and season two of "The Voice."

"Music has pretty much always been a big part of our lives," said Adrian. "We were like 13, 14 at the time, we were like, 'Yeah, we could totally do that,'" said Adrian.

"We want to tour in every major city in the U.S., so winning 'The X Factor' would probably help," said Adrian and Julian.

Then known as Blackberry Jam, the twins made it all the way to the boot camp round of "The X Factor" after auditioning in front of music giants like Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul.

Adrian: And the crowd just went nuts, they were like "Ahhhh!"

Julian: Tweebers, oh my god.

Adrian: It was truly like a wall of sound, it was "redonkulus."
... - WCAX Network News

Take 2 appears at 2:00. - X-Factor

BENNINGTON >> A pair of local students who have competed on reality shows such as The Voice and The X Factor performed a concert on Thursday for students at Monument Elementary on Monday.

Adrian and Julian Woodrow, musically talented identical twins collectively known as Take 2, are residents of Sunderland, and are currently seniors at Burr and Burton Academy. They both sing and play the guitar and ukulele, and recently released their first album, "End of the Night." This month, they are touring through 10 local schools, in order to share their experiences in the music industry, and to spark interest in children... - Bennington Banner - Front Page Feature

Vergennes — There’s something about identical twins which seems to appeal to both entertainment promoters and young fans.

Country music fans may recall the late Hager Twins—Jim and John Hager—on the 1960s Hee Haw television show. More recently, Larry and Laurent Bourgeois, the identical fraternal French duo known as “Les Twins” are a self-taught dance duo sensation appearing in both Europe and the USA.

As a teen, I remember the venerable Doublemint Chewing Gum television commercials showcasing the beautiful “Doublemint Twins”, Jennie and Terrie Frankel... - Addison Eagle

See Take 2 perform their original song "The Man" live on network news. - WXCAX Network News

Landing their first commercial, Take 2 sings at 1:25. - Hello Flo

Adrian and Julian Woodrow are identical twins and singer/songwriters who perform as Take 2. They will be at the Manchester Eagles Club, 2282 Route 11, Manchester, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 7. The doors will open at 7. The 18-year-old singing duo has competed on The Voice and X-Factor; they won Granville’s Battle of the Bands last month, competing against eight other bands and garnering over a third of the audience votes... - Vermont News Guide

"Music is a huge part of the human experience," says Adrian Woodrow simply. "It has given us purpose."

Adrian, along with twin brother, Julian, is one-half of Take 2... - Albany Times Union

Identical twins Adrian and Julian Woodrow are the talented individuals behind Take 2, previously known as Blackberry Jam.

Their official website leaves no doubt, the boys love their music, "To stay entertained they sing, any time, any place, even when they are not supposed to, like in class at high school."

Living in Southern Vermont, they have performed on the X Factor Season 1 and appeared on series two of The Voice. Combined they have an impressive two million hits on YouTube, which is growing daily.
- See more at: http://mediapick.co.uk/2015/jan/06/take2-musicinterview.php#sthash.HLP0AuIL.dpuf
Speaking exclusive to Media Pick, Heather from the Management of Take 2 told us they have an active life, "Adrian snowboards and Julian plays hockey. They both enjoy rock climbing, doing tricks on their trampoline and are part of their school chorus."

The eighteen year olds not only sing harmonies but also play ukulele, guitar and the piano. The band's name came from it being their second name, like they say in the movies - Take 2. Whilst they are also made up of two and they say that you'll need to take two if you want to listen to their music, because you can't ever take one.

Heather mentioned that they perform live often, "They do around 25-30 shows each year. At events including Garlic Festival, 911 Memorial Concert, Maple Leaf Marathon and numerous schools in the area."

Though there is no doubt who they would one day love to team up with, "Maroon 5 because Adam Levine is the boys idol. They work on their high notes so they can sing like Adam. Also One Direction because the fame would be unreal."

Take 2 are already setting their eyes on a busy year, "They have spent many hours going into a studio at Hoosick Falls, New York. In their gap year they are planning to be the entertainment for cruise ships or Disney World." With the teens still young, they wish to make us of their youth – "They are going to apply to colleges and want to attend Berklee School of Music." - See more at: http://mediapick.co.uk/2015/jan/06/take2-musicinterview.php#sthash.HLP0AuIL.dpuf
Ultimately they are hoping for success in the future, "Going on a worldwide tour to every major city in the world, they would be their life goal complete. They really want to write for Justin Bieber or Bruno Mars, as a minor addition."

So expect to see this young pair aiming to take the world by storm. "We released our album, End of the Night in September, which we had been recording over the past year. It is something that the boys are extremely proud of." You can purchase the album via iTunes now!

You can keep up with Take 2 by visiting the bands official website or their YouTube channel. - See more at: http://mediapick.co.uk/2015/jan/06/take2-musicinterview.php#sthash.HLP0AuIL.dpuf - Media Pick - Talent Watch

In December, we competed with about 8 other acts to win the $500 grand prize at the Granville Battle of the Bands. It was such a cool night. We were actually prepping for a couple weeks prior to the event. We basically clear all the furniture out of the living room, get out the wireless mics and just play. Adrian found Meghan Trainor's new song "Lips are Movin'" and we instantly wanted to prep it for "lives". We must have played it 20 times in a row, during a random trip down to NYC! TOTALLY LOUD, in the closed car, over-and-over-and-over.

To learn new tracks, we usually record them as covers for YouTube first. It forces us to learn all the words, one line at a time, during the recording process. Then afterwards. it's much easier to rehearse them for acoustic live performances. When you see a random cover song come up on our YouTube channel, it often means we're prepping that track for lives. If you could be a fly on the wall in our living room, you'd know it takes us about a week to prep just one song for live shows, rehearsing every night about an hour a day.

We really weren't sure we had a chance at Granville, because we weren't the "Home Team" band. There were some really topnotch bands there. Kudos to the organizers for finding such great talent for the show. The crowd was really rowdy with a constant shower of glowsticks raining down on us. Thanks to everyone who got behind us and voted us to win! Very cool. - Blog

ABOUT
One half of the duo Take 2 (formerly known as Blackberry Jam) who performs alongside his twin brother Adrian Chirtea. He and Adrian competed on The X Factor in 2011.
BEFORE FAME
He and his brother got their start in the 3rd grade lunchroom singing for "Lunchbox" specials, at yard sales, and in the grocery store.
TRIVIA
He won a scholarship to the 2013 Prodigy Camp Project.
FAMILY LIFE
His parents, Gordon Woodrow and Heather Chirtea, chose to give their sons different last names.
ASSOCIATED WITH
He and Adrian Chirtea formed Blackberry Jam for The X Factor. - FamousBirthdays.com

After earning over 2.4 million hits on YouTube, the singer songwriter duo Adrian and Julian are on the eve of the release of their first album “End of the Night”. With the master in final preparation for duplication, the new album will be shipping shortly. The 17-year-old identical twins have been working on their collection of upbeat originals and crooning love ballads for over 2 years.

Blackberry Jam Changes Band Name to Take2

After nearly a year of seemingly endless deliberation, Adrian and Julian finally decided to change their band name from Blackberry Jam to Take 2.

According to Adrian,

“We’re turning 18 soon, which means we’ll be adults and we want to have an older feel to our band name.”

In addition, they wanted a band name that would better emphasize the heart of their existence, being identical twins. Since childhood, the two brothers have been completely inseparable. They like the same music, have the same friends, earn the same grades, and barely ever disagree.

Take2NamechangevideoBoys explain name change

Julian said,

“Sometimes we’ll be on opposite sides of campus and we’ll meet up and we’ll both be singing the exact same song, on the exact same beat. It’s weird. As identical twins, we have the exact same genetic make-up and we’re best friends. The name Take 2 just fits us better.”

Album Production

Take2 End of Night cover


Throughout the summer, Adrian and Julian have been making trips to the eclectic recording studio, located in the top turret of a historical armory building. In the old wooden-trimmed studio, they would lay down album tracks with two accomplished session musicians and audio engineers, JJ Beck and Sam Clement. The twins would write a song, play it for JJ and Sam, then together they would figure out the arrangements. After many months and endless trips to the studio, 7 of the 10 album tracks were mastered. Julian said, “It was really awesome to work on the album with more accomplished musicians, to develop the tracks. They contributed great ideas and licks to the mix.”

Take 2’s entire album was paid for by revenue the twins earned from playing live gigs at local schools here in Vermont. According to Adrian, “I’m really proud that we were able to earn enough to pay for the album ourselves. We’re going to have a huge sense of accomplishment when we finally see those CDs for the first time! Very few people we meet have a real understanding of what it takes to complete an album. It’s taken us 2 years of persistent work to get End of the Night launched – a lot of work, but a lot of fun.”

Mark your calendar and tune in every Friday to kick off your weekend with a funny and musical video from Take 2 at their New YouTube Channel.

The twins will be continuing to post videos on their Original Blackberry Jam Channel where they will post live footage from gigs, extra footage of VLOGs, “Making Of…” videos, and fun stuff.

Adrian and Julian have stepped up their YouTube video release schedule with more VLOGS, covers, and music videos. They’ve been consistently launching a new video every Friday night – doubling their previous schedule of bi-weekly postings. The more aggressive weekly release schedule is planned to continue throughout the coming year and they’ve even put some more theatrical videos into the mix.

Take2 Friends Video Here’s Take 2’s first new video release “Friends”
http://youtu.be/V0Jxy4XLZZ4

Fly Away Theatrical Video – Launches October 10
http://youtu.be/_KpA0Xm3ip4

FlyAway Poster Take2
The first song they wrote was a harmonic ballad called “Fly Away”. Check out their first original live video, recorded underneath the birch tree when they were just 14 years old.

Now at 17, they finally decided to formally record “Fly Away” and release it on their debut album, “End of the Night”. And since this was the first song they ever wrote, the twins wanted to make a really unique video to celebrate the launch. With a visit to their Grandfather who lives near a tiny grass airplane landing strip — they decided to use their Grandfather’s airplanes and shoot a “period piece” set in the 1940s. The twins play pilots who meet two lovely girls, court them, fall in love, and then unexpectedly get called off to war. The film-style music video will be released in black-and-white, and includes reenactments of 1940s scenes. Watch for that video to launch on October 10th on their YouTube Channel.

Global Collaboration Projects

Adrian and Julian have always appreciated their large international fan following. It is their preeminent goal to tour overseas throughout Europe, and they want to connect more with their fans. So over the next 12 months, they will launch a number of global collaboration video projects and invite fans to participate from both sides of the ocean. The first collaboration project just launched, and it’s a lyric video for twins from around the globe. Twins are invited to shoot a video clip holding up a lyric line from Take 2’s new song “Keep me Dancin”.

Please encourage any twins you know to join the fun! Just forward these video links.

Get the Album

Don’t forget to pick up their new album “End of the Night”, which launches shortly at their website: Take2 Official.com

For more about Take2

New Domain Website
New Take 2 YouTube (music)
Blackberry Jam Music YouTube (VLOGS and Comedy)
Twitter
Twitter Fan Club
Facebook
Instagram - Rivenmaster.com

Our last update for Adrian Chirtea and Julian Woodrow or better known as “Blackberry Jam” found them enjoying songwriting and recording sessions with teen vocal artist Thilo Berndt from Germany, after attending last year’s Prodigy Camp in Washington State. The two boys, who are identical twins, have now expanded their careers venturing into acting as well as continuing their song writing and vocal recordings.

“Blackberry Jam” is more than just two creative young men with an incredible ability to entertain and make you laugh. These guys have continued to hone their skills leaving me without doubt that their first album, which is currently getting ready to be released, will be more than a huge success!

How it Began
The boys who have been singing since they were in the third grade kicked off their professional career at 14 years of age after begging their Mom to take them to audition on the X-Factor. That successful audition led them all the way to the boot-camp portion of the show before being eliminated.

“It was a fantastic experience where they met scores of budding artists which really cemented their resolve to become musicians;” their mother Heather exclaimed.

Over the following two years the boys published YouTube videos every two weeks, earning them over 2.3 million hits and 14,000 subscribers. This motivated them to develop their instrumental skills in ukulele and guitar. Last year both boys were awarded scholarships to attend Prodigy Camp under the direction of Rick Stevenson which set them on course to become amazing young songwriters. In fact, this month they will return to Prodigy Camp with yet another scholarship and an album full of original songs.

Songwriting
While the boys made many new friends at Prodigy Camp 2013, they really connected with Thilo Berndt, a younger but more accomplished songwriter, and asked Thilo to come stay in Vermont for two weeks later that summer. The three of them spent long days at hip hop camp, visiting lakes, fishing…and long nights recording songs in Julian’s bedroom. The Flow was their first collaboration and video together.

When school started last fall, Adrian signed up for a Creative Writing course. The class had a strong emphasis on poetry and Adrian instead adapted that emphasis to lyrical songwriting. In addition to toiling over pencil and paper, Adrian brought his ukulele to class each day and would often disappear into the neighboring classroom to compose music to the lyrics he was writing. This dedicated songwriting time allowed Adrian to develop a collection of 20 love songs, many of which will appear on Blackberry Jam’s first album, “End of the Night.”

Touring Schools
Blackberry Jam WallAs the 2013-14 school year wore on, they were asked to play live shows at local schools. Together they spent hours honing and developing a 55 minute live show including popular cover songs, originals, guitar and ukulele, and stories about what it was like to go through “bootcamp” on the X-Factor and The Voice. As they entered more and more schools, they were shocked to realize that music program in schools were so severely under-funded. Students would come up after the shows to tell them that Blackberry Jam was motivating them to sing and play music again. So Adrian and Julian enhanced their live show with a series of stories about how they got started singing and songwriting. What began as a straight live concert, quickly morphed into a variety show of motivational speaking where they would talk about how cool it is to sing, overcoming stage fright, and how they generated over 2 million hits on YouTube! They also added a lot more opportunities for audience participation and by the end of each concert the whole crowd would be singing right along with them. By the end of the school year, they were doing motivational speaking and singing concerts at elementary and middle schools all across Vermont.

School ToursThe boys talk about and show clips from some of their School Visits

Next Year
With the incredible reception of their school visits, they are planning to set up a more formal school tour in the Fall and expand their concert tour visits beyond their local state of Vermont. The tour planning will happen over the summer, so if you want to see Blackberry Jam come to your local area please feel free to email blackberryjamtwins@gmail.com. They’ve had a lot of success in performing at evening fundraiser concerts and splitting the door proceeds with the local schools. They raised nearly $1,000 in one night to benefit a school last year. They are working towards booking some anchor school performances and then expanding outward to the local regions throughout the East Coast. A lot of fans in Illinois and Texas are urging them to come already.

Commercials
In addition to live music, the twins got picked up by DDO Agency, a group of really good TV and theatre agents. If you follow Adrian and Julian’s Twitter and Facebook feeds, you’ll know that Blackberry Jam posts a constant stream of photos of New York City. This is because DDO Agency keeps sending them on weekly auditions for TV commercials, Broadway shows, and television opportunities. The auditions crop up suddenly and if you were their classmate, you’d notice it was a common occurrence for the twins to be pulled out of class at a moment’s notice and disappear for a day or two. They typically don’t talk about where they’ve been or what they’ve auditioned for, because it’s often confidential.

Julian said, “The funniest thing is when we get a late day audition in New York. A lot of times we’ll get picked up at lunchtime, drive 4 hours to New York and get back home well after midnight. We’ll literally be back in class the next morning and nobody even realizes we were gone!”

Nobody, except their teachers who record a huge number of classroom absences. But so far Adrian and Julian have been able to keep up their nearly straight “A” grade point average, so their teachers have been really supportive in allowing them to make up missed work after school. They recently secured their first commercial, a hilarious online video for “Hello Flo” that went viral and generated 21 million hits in the first week.

Hello Flo Commercial-Watch the Boys in their Viral Commercial Video http://youtu.be/NEcZmT0fiNM

New Album
In February, Blackberry Jam connected with a local recording studio and started laying down their first album. All the money they make from live concerts goes straight into paying for studio time. They have most of the album written, about half the tracks recorded, and only 2 more tracks to compose.

With the summer in full swing, the twins are travelling up and down the East Coast shooting videos and recording music into the late night hours. They are trying to build up a backlog of videos before school starts again. Then by September 2014, fans will be able to buy the very first Blackberry Jam album.

For more about Blackberry Jam Visit:
Blackberry Jam Official Website:
Blackberry Jam on YouTube
Blackberry Jam Facebook FanPage
Blackberry Jam on Twitter
Blackberry Jam on Instagram - Rivenmaster's Place

Fifteen year old identical twins Adrian Chirtea and Julian Woodrow, better known as (Blackberry Jam), were introduced here last April. Since then the boys have been exceedingly busy and it was only last week that I finally caught up with them.

The boys spend all their time making music honing their harmonies for their music videos along with taking part in competitions and showcasing their talents at various venues.

They live in Vermont, in an area where there are more cows than people. Rather than getting bored, they pick up a few instruments and start making music.

Their very first audition was X-Factor; Season One, and at age 14 without any experience (outside of singing in school plays) they made it all the way to Hollywood boot camp!

According to Julian, “Getting eliminated made us realize that we really needed to work at singing.” They returned to Vermont started practicing and working on music videos in September of 2011. Within a month their first video attempt, “Best Love Song” was climbing in views. Within 30 days it earned 10,000 views on YouTube, and now just one year later Blackberry Jam’s channel has over 1.3 million views.

Instruments:
Most days both of the twins play ukulele but you can tell them apart because Julian plays an electric uke and Adrian strums on an acoustic. But don’t be fooled, they trade instruments all the time, especially on stage. In front of a crowd, it’s rare to see them both play their instruments at the same time.

Adrian Uke-in’ out
Adrian has been spending time on the piano lately, and it won’t be long before they unveil some piano covers. Blackberry Jam is also putting energy into writing new original songs. They’ve written 2 originals so far, “Fly Away” and “Tomorrow” – and an upbeat style is emerging across their compositions. In the coming months Blackberry Jam will enter a more professional recording studio to lay down demo tracks.

Die in your Arms – Cover Justin Bieber
All the music videos the boys produce demonstrate their amazing, harmonic vocal prowess, while at the same time are exceedingly entertaining and amusing.. I think what makes Blackberry Jam so different is their comedic side that always shines through in their videos. If room permitted, I would feature all their new ones here. That not being possible, I chose one of my favorites. “Die in your Arms” shows a few of their funny out-takes which they occasional include at the end of their music videos.

On Stage
Adrian & JulianOver the past few months, they’ve played a series of live concerts in New York City, Burlington, Rutland and Killington Vermont. They started working with a choreographer 1-2 times a week, and they now have 50 minutes of live material to perform on stage. About half of their prepared material is choreographed dance tracks, and the other half is spread between acappella harmonies and ukulele songs.

Blackberry Jam sang live at a rave over Halloween to a deafening chorus of fans. According to Adrian, “We just got hit with this wall of sound on stage. Hundreds of fans were screaming so loud we couldn’t hear ourselves singing at times. It was awesome!”

Blackberry Jam2Julian replied, “It was really weird to go back to high school after that, because nobody really knows what we do when we leave.” It’s actually rare to hear either twin volunteer information about their music.

Blackberry Jam hasn’t been able to talk about their television experiences because of confidentiality agreements, but their closest friends know why they periodically disappear from school.

After X-Factor, they auditioned for The Voice and made it right up to the blind auditions before getting knocked out. They also made it through a few rounds of America’s Got Talent. Blackberry Jam continues to audition for every possible television and music opportunity.

On New Year’s Eve, they’ve been invited as headliners to perform at another rave, at the Chill Out Center in Burlington, Vermont. More information will be posting on their Blackberry Jam Facebook page and Twitter site.

They hope to see you there!
For more on Blackberry Jam visit:
Blackberry Jam Official Website:
Blackberry Jam on YouTube
Blackberry Jam Facebook FanPage
Blackberry Jam on Twitter
Blackberry Jam on Instagram - Rivenmaster's Place

School could not end fast enough for Adrian and Julian, 16 year old identical twin singing duo who prefer to spend their time making music.

After Rivenmaster announced a chance to win a scholarship to the 2013 Prodigy Camp Project, a summer program that brings together 20 of the most promising teenage songwriters and filmmakers to hone their craft, they actually got a call from the camp encouraging us to apply. Julian said,

“The chance to collaborate with other artists from around the world was really exciting to us.”

Blackberry Jam has come a long way since third grade where they got their start entertaining their classmates with comedic singing routines at “Lunchbox Special”. This past year, as high school sophomores they took a songwriting class and spent 90 minutes each day writing music and lyrics. For 6 weeks the twins work through the creative process, trying out different lyrics and riffs on their new song Seven Seas. Adrian said,

“Songwriting is hard! The music part is easy, but the lyrics just don’t sound right.”

A breakthrough came when their teacher suggested they collaborate with Desiree Hazleton, a classmate who was particularly skilled at writing lyrics.

“In the first session we had an entire verse and chorus written. Desiree would just crank out the lyric and it was so easy to put the music and vocals behind her words.”

Within a few sessions they had an entire song, and ideas for 4 more projects. Collaboration was the key to success. By the end of the semester, their latest song, “End of the Night”, was finished.

End of the Night“End of the Night” Original By Blackberry Jam

As soon as school ended, Blackberry Jam went right to work laying down a recording of “End of the Night”. They’d stay up until all hours of the morning constructing back tracks, working out the harmonies together and recording vocals. With a few new completed tracks in hand, they hopped a plane to the PRODIGY PROJECT where they met up with 20 highly talented new friends. The Camp’s agenda had an amazing line-up of seminars on story building and character development alongside regular campfires where each attendee could share their own personal story. Rick Stevenson, the camp’s director and veteran Hollywood filmmaker explained that songwriting is storytelling in another form, and so 6 of the 20 teenagers selected were actually singer/songwriters. Halfway through the week, the highly accomplished songwriting mentors Noah Gundersen and Kris Orlowski arrived to work one-on-one with each of the musicians. Adrian explained,

“Kris and Noah’s voices were each AMAZING in a different way. They could go from singing in a whisper, to the loudest riff and absolutely fill the room with sound. Whenever they sang, we were all melting.”

At camp, the songwriters had a rotating schedule of sessions and during their off-time the songwriters would help the filmmaker students as the film crew for various projects. Within the first day, Adrian and Julian just hung around outside the door of Kris and Noah’s room. When another songwriter would finish their scheduled session, the twins would rush back in so they could take advantage of spending every available moment working on music together with Kris and Noah. At one point, the twins managed to sneak in a 2-hour jam session together with their new mentors. Adrian said,

“We learned so much about vocal dynamics and how to change our voices to reflect the lyrics. We wanted to spend every possible moment with Kris and Noah.”

Each night a Prodigy Camp, a talent show would fill the Seattle lodge with music and laughter. Julian wrote a new song called “The Mountain” which was a lilting ballad, and their mentors Kris and Noah liked it so much, they decided to learn it and sing it for the evening’s talent show. This was one of the highlights of the week for Julian and a huge honor. He exclaimed,

“You should have heard what Kris and Noah did with my song! It was so awesome to hear how they interpreted it.”

Thilo and Blackberry Jam
On the last night of camp, Adrian and Julian stayed up all night to put their newly learned skills to the test. Together with Thilo Berndt, last years scholarship awardee and rising YouTube star from Germany, the boys collaborated to write their most complex composition yet. The three of them finished an entire song in one night and forged a friendship that will probably last their whole career. In addition to that evening of writing, Thilo spent nearly the entire month of August in Vermont with the twins, writing music, recording songs and shooting videos.

The friendships that have been forged through this site for some of the young artists that are featured here brings a lot of joy to everyone involved who helps make these connections possible.

Prodigy camp provided Blackberry Jam with one of the most valuable experiences of their lives. Julian said,

“I am so thankful to Rivenmaster and Rick Stevenson for selecting us. Words just don’t explain how incredible it was.”

Since first introducing the twins here last April, the boys have continued to grow their fan base and improve their musical skills. Rivenmaster’s Place is proud to have Adrian and Julian “Blackberry Jam” as part of our regular yearly line up and even prouder to have played a small part in their summer experience at Prodigy Camp!

Your going to want to keep your eye on Blackberry Jam’s YouTube channel. You’ll hear the echoes of Prodigy camp in their upcoming singles. With 8 songs already written, Blackberry Jam is busy producing a string of new originals that have higher highs, lower lows, and deeper story lines. Watch for Blackberry Jam’s first album by the end of the year. You can be sure it will be part of Rivenmaster’s collection of young artists music and I can promise that this site will continue to follow these two remarkable young men all the way to the top of the charts!

CONGRATULATIONS AND KEEP THE MUSIC COMING GUYS!
For more on Blackberry Jam visit:
Blackberry Jam Official Website:
Blackberry Jam on YouTube
Blackberry Jam Facebook FanPage
Blackberry Jam on Twitter
Blackberry Jam on Instagram
You might also like: - Rivenmaster's Place

Many of the featured artists who appear on this site are brought to my attention by either my readers or supporters. Today’s talented duo is no exception, as it was my good friend in radio, Bruce Owens from Good Morning Hudson Valley who recommended today’s artists.

After Bruce contacted me I realized that I was already subscribed to the boys YouTube Channel. It only took a short time to get in touch with their Mother, who shared the following information about her amazing twin sons and their uniqueness not only in birth, but in talent and personality.

Adrian Chirtea and Julian Woodrow are identical twins…mirror twins to be exact. While they are both legally “Woodrows”, Adrian has always used his Mother’s last name. Julian is the oldest by 10 minutes, and he’s always been a fraction of an inch taller, and a pound heavier. Julian is left-handed, and Adrian is right-handed. But other than that, Adrian and Julian really enjoy being identical.

As babies, their first teeth came in just a day apart. They also share the same moles in exactly the same spots, on opposite sides. Unlike most siblings they rarely fight and (almost) always share. As best friends, they have more fun doing everything together than trying to kill each other!

Most people can’t tell them apart, and that’s just fine with them.
The Singing Started at Lunch Box Special

Their elementary school held a show-and-tell at lunchtime, each day. The twins signed up to sing “In the Jungle” in 4th grade. Julian sang the wee-ba-wops, and Adrian sang the verses. Their friends and teachers loved it so much, that it became a weekly challenge to try and “out-do” the previous week’s performance. Each night at the dinner table, we’d think up a new hilarious song to learn and the twins would practice for the next week’s Lunchbox Special. They performed “Little Surfer Girl”, “Eddie-Coochie-Catchie-Gammie”, “Minerva”, and thanks to a few well-timed video rentals, the twins also started adding “Mr. Bean” comedy routines into the mix. The goal became to make everyone laugh. Soon every song was littered with comedic dance moves and acting routines.

The dinner table became hilarious, as every other supper was followed by a mealtime performance. Their principal mentioned, “I just can’t imagine what goes on in that house at night!”

Hear the boys sing acappella their cover of Jessie J’s Price Tag which really demonstrates their great vocal abilities. While the boys felt it was not that great at first they realized even themselves after listening back that it was good harmony and done nearly pitch perfect!

Soon They Were Singing Everywhere
After a few months, people started asking the twins to sing. They would be at the grocery and they would give a performance in the frozen food aisle. At a yard sale, they would sing a few tunes for the shoppers. Everywhere they went; people would ask the twins to sing. They set up a hat at the gates of the local craft fair and made $167 in an hour, before getting kicked out for “panhandling”! That experience gave them a taste for making money from singing, and after that, they only wanted to do one thing in life…become pop stars!

Gigs and Auditions
Only recently, Adrian and Julian started playing gigs. With borrowed speakers and microphones from the neighbors, they sang at the starting line of a local marathon, for the September 11th memorial, at homecoming, and at the school assembly. As longstanding “American Idol” watchers, when Simon Cowell left the judges panel to start X-Factor, it was Adrian who really wanted to audition. Having never auditioned for anything before they packed up the car and traveled to New Jersey to take a shot at fame! “Adrian and Julian” became “Blackberry Jam”, a name based on their mother’s former singing duo “Raspberry Jam”. Coming from Vermont, Newark, New Jersey was definitely the big city! Starry-eyed, they stood in line with 22,000 other acts and made it through the auditions process to perform in front of 4,000 people at the Prudential Center on the blinding X-Factor stage! After signing a rousing rendition of “Sunday Morning” the X-Factor judges gave them 4 “yeses” and sent them off to boot camp in California.

Boot Camp
They told me that it would be difficult to describe the incredible experience that X-Factor boot camp provided for them. Some of the top youth singers from across the country came together at once, to rehearse and audition. Everywhere the twins went, there were acts performing and harmonizing together. They’d be sitting in the lobby and random acts would bust out in 8-part harmony to Bruno Mars! It was the first time that the twins had ever been exposed to such fiercely talented youth. Blackberry Jam was eventually eliminated from boot camp, but the experience gave them a taste for the big stage.

Back Home
JulianThey began rehearsing regularly, recording songs, and making music videos. Blackberry Jam’s first video took 6 weeks to record, because they were just learning the recording software, and they kept accidentally deleting the file. But in September of 2011, “Best Love Song” was finally completed and posted on Blackberry Jam’s new YouTube channel. Their first video went viral almost immediately they earned their 10,000th hit just a few weeks after being posted. This sparked even more recording, and the evening dinnertime performances were replaced by recording sessions, and video shoots. Adrian and Julian now regularly cruise YouTube looking for upcoming YouTube singers in order to study their vocal patterns and dance moves. Just before Christmas, they were asked to be part of the “Pray” collaboration video featuring Justin Bieber’s background singers, as well as a host of other rising YouTube stars.

It was an awesome experience that connected them with a whole new YouTube music community.

Pray videoBoys perform in big YouTube Colab of Justin Bieber’s “Pray”

What’s Happening Now
As 9th graders, Blackberry Jam keeps a low profile at their high school. Julian just finished the hockey season as the back-up goalie, and Adrian completed another successful season on the snowboard slopes. Shortly after the start of 2012, Blackberry Jam earned their 500,000th hit on their YouTube channel. They are working on a production of the musical Chicago right now, which has been keeping them busy until dark, most nights! Behind the scenes, their music is really taking off. They’ve begun working with a local choreographer who is helping them to add dance routines to their songs. A few original songs will be cropping up on their YouTube channel by the summertime, and the new season of TV show auditions has just begun. Now that they’ve been through the TV audition process a few times, with growing confidence and refined dance routines Blackberry Jam will be trying out for TV shows like the Voice and X-Factor again this summer. Keep an eye out!

Twins
Blackberry Jam is more than just a couple of brother having fun and singing. These guys are pure talent and future stars in the making! There is no question that these exceptional twins are sure to capture the attention of a Hollywood music producer very soon!

To learn more about Blackberry Jam visit:

Blackberry Jam on Twitter
Blackberry Jam Official Website:
Blackberry Jam on YouTube
Blackberry Jam Facebook FanPage - Rivenmaster's Place