Bios
The Band
Four musicians. Two lead vocalists. Thirty years of musical shorthand.
Brian Bertrand and Corey Marr have been singing together since the beginning, and that history has become one of the defining sounds of DJR. Both are gifted lead vocalists, but put them on a song with dual leads and something else happens. After three decades, they know how their voices fit together in a way that is difficult to explain and impossible to fake.
Underneath them, Corey and Barry lock down the rhythm while Brian gives the songs their structure and Neener finds all the interesting places to go.
Nobody is trying to sound exactly like the record.
They're trying to sound exactly like The DayJob Refugees.
Brian Bertrand
Guitar and Lead Vocals
At heart, Brian is a singer songwriter.
That means he listens to songs a little differently. He pays attention to the words. He hears the chord changes. And, perhaps most importantly to DJR, he hears the vocal parts.
Give Brian a song he has never played and there's a pretty good chance he'll have the chords figured out within a few minutes. Give him one he knows and there's a pretty good chance he knows the lyrics, too. Nobody is quite sure how many songs are stored in his head, but “hundreds” is a safe place to start.
A natural rhythm guitarist with a tremendous ear, Brian leaves most of the fireworks to Neener and concentrates on the song itself. His distinctive Emerald carbon fiber acoustic guitars have become part of his sound, while Neener handles things when the music calls for considerably more dirt.
Brian shares lead vocal duties with Corey and brings a versatile voice with remarkable stamina to the band. But his real fingerprint may be in DJR's harmonies. When the parts don't simply fall into place naturally, Brian is usually the one who can hear where everybody belongs and help build the vocal arrangement.
His singer songwriter instincts occasionally create another problem: Brian knows an awful lot of great songs. Some of them are even songs other people have heard of.
This is one reason Barry makes the set lists.
Brian also handles most of the band's bookings, keeping DJR playing the music they love for so many people, for so many years.
After all these years, though, Brian remains something more fundamental to DJR.
He's the musical glue.
Dave "Neener" Welker
Lead Guitar & Backing Vocals
Dave knows all the chords.
He'd just rather Neener around.
The nickname isn't complicated. Give Dave a guitar and, sooner or later, he'll start working his way around the fretboard, finding a line, chasing a sound, and seeing where it takes him. Thus, Neener.
Don't mistake the noodling for a lack of discipline. Dave is a well-schooled, accomplished guitarist who takes his craft seriously. And few things matter to him more than tone.
The right guitar. The right amp. The right pedal. Then another pedal. And possibly one more pedal because apparently there was still some unused space on the pedalboard.
When everything is working, the result can be spectacular.
When it isn't, Brian usually comes over to help figure out why.
But there are nights when Neener finds another gear altogether. Corey and Barry will catch each other looking across the stage because they both know what's happening. Dave is in the zone.
He isn't trying to recreate somebody else's solo note for note. He knows the song, knows where it needs to go, and then plays what he hears. A Neener lead may not be the one on the record, but somehow it belongs there.
That's been part of the DJR sound from the beginning. Brian holds down the rhythm and the structure of the song, leaving Neener room to find the edges and occasionally disappear into them.
Thirty years later, he's still chasing the perfect tone.
We're pretty sure he's almost got it.
Corey Marr
Drums & Lead Vocals
If you have a question about The Beatles, ask Corey.
Actually, don't. You may not have that kind of time.
Corey is one of those people who doesn't simply love The Beatles. He knows The Beatles. The recordings. The history. The solo careers. The details behind the details. His musical interests extend to The Monkees, The Beach Boys, and plenty of other places, but sooner or later, everything seems to find its way back to Liverpool.
Fortunately for DJR, Corey is every bit as serious about being a drummer.
Bass players have a particular appreciation for drummers with great meter, and Barry's job is considerably easier because Corey simply doesn't move. The tempo is where it is supposed to be, the groove is where it is supposed to be, and everything else in the band gets to sit comfortably on top of it.
Until Corey decides Barry is getting a little too comfortable.
Just when a groove has settled in, Corey has a habit of tossing in an unexpected fill, a few taps on the hi hat, or some other small musical curveball, seemingly for no other reason than to find out whether the bass player is still paying attention.
He is.
Usually.
Corey is also a gifted lead vocalist, somehow managing a full night of singing while holding everything together behind the drums. His voice can take DJR places Brian's can't, giving the band two very different lead singers and a much wider musical range because of it. Whether the song calls for subtlety or something with considerably more fire, Corey finds a way to make it his own.
And then there are the songs they sing together.
After 30 years of singing with each other, Brian and Corey have developed the kind of vocal chemistry that can't be rehearsed into existence. On songs built around dual leads, they don't so much find each other's voices as already know where the other one is going.
Behind all of that is a consummate percussionist and the resident jokester who has been keeping both the beat and the mood steady since he was barely out of high school.
The relationship between bass and drums is fundamental to any good band, and after 15 years, Corey and Barry don't have to work very hard to find each other. They're already there.
If Brian is the musical glue of DJR, Corey is the foundation.
And this foundation doesn't move.
Barry Stephens
Bass & Backing Vocals
Barry started playing bass in seventh grade and never really stopped.
After college, he moved across the state to join a touring band, made an album, and even got a glowing prediction from Billboard about where it was headed on the charts.
Billboard was spectacularly wrong.
Barry kept playing anyway.
Years later, he found his way to The DayJob Refugees through Neener and showed up for his first gig without an audition or even a rehearsal. Just some notes taped to the wall to keep him out of trouble. Fifteen years later, he's still the “new guy.”
Over the years, his approach to bass has become increasingly simple: less is more. His job isn't to fill every available space. It's to make sure there is space. Space for Neener to roam, Brian to work inside the song, Corey to move around the groove, and the vocals to breathe.
With Corey locked into the drums, Barry doesn't have to chase the beat. He can sit inside it.
His role vocally has grown considerably, too. In the full band, Barry takes his natural place in DJR's harmony stack. When Corey isn't part of a DJR Lite show, Barry moves into Corey's vocal role alongside Brian, then finds his way back home when all four are together.
And then there are the set lists.
Barry builds them. Choosing the songs is the easy part. Figuring out how they belong together over the course of a night is where the real work happens. If a show doesn't flow, that's on him.
When it does, that's on him too.
After all these years, Barry is still trying to do essentially the same thing he was doing that first night.
Listen carefully. Find his place.
And leave enough room for everybody else to find theirs.