‘I’m Ready’ band proves ready for the spotlight
Remember the pop remix song that had Spongebob Squarepants saying, “I’m ready!” over and over again? Trendy, fun and an entertaining listen — in a hipster kind of way. The band behind this song: AJR. Through their self-produced hit song, the band skyrocketed into America’s Top 40 playlist. And now they are touring with Andy Grammer for the summer. They wrapped up the Los Angeles portion of their tour with a performance at the El Rey Theatre on June 3.
AJR stands for the first names of the members of the band: brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Met. The three have been singing and creating music together from a young age. As New York natives, they used the streets as their first stage.
Ryan, the middle brother, elaborated on how AJR started as a musical group.
“About 10 years ago, we started off street performing in different parks in New York City. So we went out to Washington Square Park and started doing covers.” Ryan Met said. “And, we ended up raising enough money to buy a ukulele, our first investment that we needed. We bought enough equipment to start recording and producing.”
From their living room, the trio produced an international anthem in 2013. Their breakthrough song, “I’m Ready” has more than 12 million views on YouTube, is certified multi-platinum in Australia and is certified gold in the U.S. The band implemented its own grassroots effort to publicize its sound, including tweeting at multiple celebrities. “I’m Ready” gained the attention of Sia, the female artist behind “Chandelier,” who tweeted it to her fans. Subsequently, AJR’s catchy song garnered massive plays from around the world.
“Social media, like Twitter and YouTube, has been priceless for us. We tweeted our ‘I’m Ready’ video to as many celebrities as we could think of. It changed our entire lives.” Ryan Met said.
“I’m Ready” boasts summer vibes with dance beats. This song is a unique combination of Spongebob and contagious, energetic rhythm and melody.
“It was actually Jack’s idea — he came up with the idea to sample Spongebob Squarepants. He originally thought that an EDM artist should sample Spongebob right before the big dubstep drop. And then we sat with it a couple times, and then we were like we need to do this. This is for us.” Ryan Met said. “We wanted to make a song that just sounded so bizarre and weird that people would know that it couldn’t have been made in a real studio but had to have been made in some guy’s living room.”
AJR is unique in the fact that the band’s EPs, “I’m Ready” and “Infinity,” and their newest album, Living Room, are all self-produced. And their music is definitely not mainstream. An eclectic mashup of folk, hip-hop, EDM and dance, AJR has a distinctive sound among indie pop bands. The Met brothers pride themselves in their niche aesthetic, and their music has developed further as the brothers grow.
“We’ve been doing our own music for a while now. It’s been about eight years of us doing originals, and most of them have not seen the light of day. If you looked at our old stuff, you would see a kind of evolution. We started off doing a lot more folk-y type music, and then we kind of developed into a little bit more hip-hop inspired. And with ‘I’m Ready,’ we had a nice balance of weird pop that we like to listen to.”
Their newest album, Living Room, released in late February, has 13 songs in its set list. It is definitive proof that AJR has matured as a band.
“We wanted Living Room to show growth from [our latest] EPs. We took selected songs that we liked from those EPs, and we wanted our new stuff to really show where AJR was headed and where our sound was headed. We’re already working on stuff for the next record, and I think that it’s very next level.” Ryan Met said. “I think it’s very surprising. I think a lot about what people liked about ‘I’m Ready’ and a lot of our other stuff, is the surprises. As soon as you think the song is going a certain way, the tempo suddenly changes, and it suddenly goes into a different kind of music within the same song.”
On stage at the El Rey Theatre, AJR was energetic and interactive. A fun band to watch, they bounced around the stage and around their instruments. Their stage presence is one of a kind. The audience at the El Rey responded positively with deafening cheers. Following AJR, Andy Grammer took the stage. After playing some of his most popular songs, Grammer was awarded his platinum record for “Honey, I’m Good” on stage.
AJR was especially excited to open for Grammer, because the brothers have worked with the singer before.
“Andy Grammer is incredible,” Ryan Met said. “We co-wrote his first single ‘Back Home’ with him. And he is just an incredible writer and singer. We were able to watch him perform for the first time in the city. He puts on such a great show.”
The Met brothers have taken the pop music world by storm. Social media helped their successful rise to the Billboard 100, and they hope to continue creating music that listeners will enjoy. Though the brothers also juggle being students, they say music will be taking a priority in the future. The trio is focused on improving, growing as a band and staying unique.
“Advice I would give, in terms of music: Figure out what is unique about you, as an artist. And just embellish that,” Ryan Met said. “That’s what people are looking for, something unique, something that hasn’t been heard before.”