Sitting in a half-circle around their parents’ sunny living room in Chelsea, the three brothers that comprise AJR clap their hands in sync for the a capella segment of their hit YouTube song, “I’m Ready,” wholesome grins plastered on their faces as they croon, doo-wop style.
Laying beside them on the couch is a copy of Donald S. Passman’s book, “All You Need to Know About the Music Business.” Underneath that, a copy of Billboard with Kings of Leon on the cover, and a write-up on the three brothers inside.
“When we’re playing music, you can hear it in the entire hallway, in the apartments actually,” says Jack, the youngest of the brothers. “It’s actually really amazing we haven’t gotten complaints.”
Tuesday could be the biggest day of the boys’ career. After taking the Internet by storm with their Spongebob Squarepants-sampling pop track, they’ve released their first official music video, which Vevo will premiere on its home page. To date, their bare-bones lyric video has more than 100,000 views, and though the track is only moving 1,500 copies or so a week on iTunes, they’re seeing a 20 percent week-to-week increase, which shows interest is sustainable — and growing.
The “culturally Jewish” Met brothers, born Metzger, are not the typical label-manufactured boy band of yesteryear. There’s Ryan, the bespectacled 19-year-old who writes and produces the majority of the music and who’s taking a year off from Columbia, where he’s undecided on his major (he’s considering film). Then there’s Adam, the 23-year-old Columbia graduate who studied business and philosophy and plays the bass. Jack, the 16-year-old baby of the family, takes lead vocals when he’s not in classes at the Professional Children’s School on the Upper East Side.
The music is about as eclectic as it gets. The boys mix sticky-sweet radio pop melodies with vintage barber shop vocals, edgier electronic samples and something they call “spokestep” — a dubstep breakdown derived from vocals. Their look is decidedly fun.-inspired (shirts buttoned all the way to the top, ironic reindeer sweaters), but their sound is an alterna-blend that appeals to both fainting tweens and thoughtful music consumers alike.
“What we like to say is, we combine older music, from the ’50s and ’60s, with more modern music,” explains Ryan, who describes the three pillars of their sound as “electric, folksy and small.”
The brother trio got their start eight years ago — when Jack was but 8 — busking in Central Park until they were kicked out too many times, then in Washington Square with a proper permit. In the beginning, it was mostly covers — the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” was their opener — but eventually the boys found more interest in creating their own original music.
They used their $150-an-hour earnings from busking to supplement their equipment — a ukulele here, a microphone there. It didn’t hurt, of course, to have successful parents who supported them and offered their living room as a recording studio. (They share a room with three bunk beds, though Adam now has his own place uptown.)
“If we didn’t do it for them, we probably would have just spent it on something else that would have disappeared anyway,” explains Gary Metzger, AJR’s 61-year-old architect father. “There was never once something that they needed to make this happen that we ever said, ‘How are we going to do that?’ or ‘Do we want to spend the money?’ It was always, ‘Okay, there’s purpose to this.’ ”
Last year, the boys got their big break while Adam and Ryan were sitting in a psychology class together. Adam — who the others dub “the intellectual one” — was taking notes, while Ryan tweeted a link of an earlier version of their video for “I’m Ready” to 80 or so celebrities.
By some great chance of luck, wildly successful singer-songwriter Sia clicked the link. She fell in love (AJR’s cover of her song with David Guetta, “Titanium,” didn’t hurt), met them for breakfast at her Soho hotel and ended up getting them meetings with some of the music industry’s biggest players.
But AJR wanted to do things its own way — the “cool, independent, DIY way,” as they put it — so they walked away from interest from both Sony and Universal. Instead, they hooked up with Steve Greenberg, former president of Columbia records and current head of indie label S-Curve Records. Greenberg, who previously made magic with brother bands Hanson and the Jonas Brothers, is AJR’s co-manager, but they are not signing to his label. Instead, they’ll release their album, which they created, produced and mixed right there in the living room, on their own and when the moment is right. That record, which they’re considering titling “Living Room,” is likely to come out in early 2014.
“If you can come in and say, ‘Here’s my record, it’s finished,’ I think that it’s an interesting way to go,” explains Greenberg. “To say, ‘Let’s have the band retain ownership of everything and see how far that will take us.’ I look at it as a really interesting challenge to do it that way.”
“Steve just had the exact vision we were looking for,” adds Adam. “Really keeping things our own and not being changed a lot by labels, not going in and having a song written for us. It’s a very self-contained project.”
The brothers themselves, though, collaborate on everything.
“The fact that we’re brothers helps that process,” says Ryan. “Because we’re so close to each other, it’s not really an ego battle anymore. It’s just, let’s find the best possible answer and create the best possible product.”
That process is working. AJR’s Twitter followers and Facebook likes are increasing by the day, thanks to exposure opening for the likes of Demi Lovato, Hoodie Allen and, soon, Fifth Harmony. It’s already leading to some crazed fans. All three brothers are, after all, single.
“Jack has responded to four or five engagements already,” says Adam, laughing.
So are they ready to be heartthrobs? Teenage sex symbols?
“It’s what I’ve always wanted!” says Jack, laughing.