Meet Speechwriters LLC

They hail from the West Coast, they jam on the guitar, they love women. At first glance, the Speechwriters LLC fit right in with other post-college bands hotly pursuing stardom in the music industry. But these California homeboys surprise their fans with a versatile folk/rock sound and poetic lyrics.

They are a self-described "fairly functional" family of four quirky guys and a dog. Whether performing in a bar or posting messages on Internet blogs, they connect with their fans as real people. And today, Forbes College is sponsoring the Speechwriters LLC with support of Princeton's Alcohol Initiative program.

Each year, this program generously funds fall and spring events for each of the five residential colleges. Forbes college councilor John Snyder '08, a dedicated fan for the past two years, suggested bringing the band to Forbes' back patio for a "Lawn Party-esque concert."

The band was conceived in 2001, when Pomona student Misha Chellam and recent Pomona graduate Dave Lowensohn met and recognized their shared affinities for jamming on the guitar and wooing women.

Chellam described their meeting as "love at first sight/listen/play. It was four days between the first time we met and the first time we played a show," he said.

For Lowensohn, who was working a windowless desk job with an environmental consulting firm, the discovery of his music career "was a lot like 'Fight Club,' " he said in an email interview. "It gave me a reason to wake up in the morning and an excuse to stay home on Friday nights. It arguably saved my life."

Since then, the Speechwriters LLC have officially released two CDs, including "Dave Lowensohn Dates your Daughter" and "The Bull Moose After Party."

The band officially added Nitzan Lumer on drums and Jack Mahaffy on base guitar to the family in March. The group's final member is a soft-coated wheaton terrier named Solon (after the Athenian lawgiver), who was given to the band by "a slightly crazed fan from Alabama," Chellam said.

The have performed in many different venues, ranging from small bars, to churches, to universities, to concert halls. Their largest show was this past December when they played with Jason Mraz in L.A.

Out of all their travels, Lowensohn said he has a soft spot for playing in Louisiana, "on account of the drive-through liquor stores and all-night crawfish feeds."

Sound and lyrics

With the release of two CDs, the Speechwriters LLC continue to prove that their music cannot be typecast. Their guitar-dominated sound blends beats and scales from folk, rock, jazz and funk music.

"We definitely got lucky, what with this weird little semi-acoustic subgenre of ours currently finding a mainstream audience," Lowensohn said. "We... are way too uncool to ever amass any kind of credibility with the underground."

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The band also sings in French and is currently writing a song in Pig Latin. Chellam reflected on this new lyrical endeavor, saying, "the rhyme scheme comes quite easily, but it's hard to convey a sense of gravity."

As the band's main songwriter, Lowensohn claims to be inspired by boredom, insecurity and frustration. "It's sad but true: I don't think either of us even knows how to write songs when we're happy," he said.

He also finds inspiration from his own life debacles. "I'm a pretty mediocre writer, and I think it's hard for mediocre writers to come up with anything other than autobiographies, no matter how hard they try," he said.

Actually, love and ladies seem to dominate this band's lyrics. Put simply, songs about girls sell. However, the band's love-song lyrics are much too intriguing to be just a sales ploy.

"Doomed relationships are the only real tragedies that come into our lives with any sort of regularity," Lowensohn said.

Chellam originally learned to play the guitar because his seventh grade crush loved musicians. He said that girls "seem to break our hearts on a regular basis. We actually applaud breakups in one another's life, because it means that we'll end up with more good songs."

Personal connection with fans

Despite increasing fame, the Speechwriters LLC remains close to their fans. While onstage, the band fills interludes between songs by asking fans trivia questions.

The band usually asks political questions, especially presidential trivia. Chellam recounted one time when multiple fans answered a question at the same time and had to be brought up on stage to duel it out through rock paper scissors.

"We're gonna step up our game for Princeton," Chellam said. He alluded to questions about Greek history and Classics.

Another way that Chellam and Lowensohn stay connected to their fan-base is through blogs. For more than a year, they have consistently posted blogs on their website expressing profound thoughts on life, recounting drunken escapades and describing day-today life.

On March 10, Chellam wrote: "It's 2 a.m. and i'm tired, but i realize that i have been out of touch for a while and wanted to welcome you all back to my life. hello. how have you been?" Misha used this entry to reconnect with his fans, after not writing since February 21.

Chellam's blog also keeps his family up-to-date on his life. "I'm bad about emailing [my Mom], so I kind of think of my blog as a mom-friendly update," he said. "But yeah, it's also nice (and sometimes creepy) to have fans come up and philosophize with me about something that I wrote on the blog three months ago when I was drunk."

When asked if they have any expectations about playing at Princeton, they responded: Chellam: "I think you will all use big words that will make us feel uncomfortable. And then I think we will all misuse big words back, which will make you feel uncomfortable."

Lowensohn: "Though it should be said that Misha and I both graduated from Pomona. We're coming to realize that, statistically, we're probably going to be smarter and better looking than anyone we encounter on tour."

They'll have the chance to prove themselves on Forbes College's back patio. The Alternate Routes, a New York City-based band, will open at 10 p.m. tonight, and then the California boys will serenade the crowd until 2 a.m.