User Stories

Pop Fiction (www.PopFictionLive.com) is a popular 8-piece cover band that plays in nightclubs and at corporate events. Band members live scattered throughout northern California separated by nearly 200 miles. Because traveling this distance to rehearse is time consuming and expensive the idea of rehearsing and collaborating remotely via jamLink piqued their interest. They instantly realized they could both save time and money, and avoid the hassle of hauling, setting up, and breaking down their equipment. Motivated by their challenging logistics Pop Fiction was instrumental in the early testing and development of the jamLink.

“Our band covers music spanning nearly four decades, with a song list of hundreds of songs. We are constantly updating our song list due to both song requests from clients, as well as an ongoing need to cover the most current radio hits as they come on to the charts” says Dan Meblin, Pop Fiction guitarist and band leader. “Learning new material and polishing old material is a crucial part of our success in the highly-competitive field of corporate entertainment.”

A typical rehearsal collectively costs Pop Fiction about $300 to $400, taking into account renting a rehearsal studio for a day, drive time, and mileage for the 8 band members. This doesn't even factor in the environmental impact of 8 people driving hundreds of miles. According to Dan Meblin, “The jamLink is the perfect solution for a working band like ours. The band has never been tighter and it literally pays for itself.”

When Jimmy O’Shea joined PopFiction as their new bass player, he had to come up to speed on all the songs fast. “I live in the Sacramento area, which is more than 100 miles from Dan’s home in Novato. That’s 3 hours round trip,” said Jimmy. Driving to Dan’s house to rehearse a couple times a week was simply not a viable option. “The jamLink is great because I feel like Dan and I are together in the same room. I must have spent 40 hours online with Dan learning all the songs and never had to leave my house.”

Pop Fiction’s new lead vocalist Luis Morales also found the JamLink to be equally beneficial. “I needed to learn the Pop Fiction song list and find the right keys that fit my voice. Finding keys and tuning four-part vocal harmonies are things I've always had to do in person, but with the jamLink, we can do it online and really maximize our time.”

During the recording and production of Pop Fiction’s new demo CD, it occurred to the band that they could also use their jamLinks to record. Driving through the San Francisco Bay Area can easily take hours during rush hour traffic and each of Pop Fiction’s three vocalists live quite far from Dan’s home studio. To save travel time vocalist Aimee Lallana, sang her entire lead vocal for the song “Livin’ on a Prayer” remotely using her jamLink. Dan explains, “I just patched the output of my mixer into the audio input of my jamLink. Both my computer audio and my talk-back mic were sent right to Aimee’s headphones.” Aimee had her microphone patched into her JamLink’s input. She sang along to the track while Dan recorded 75 miles away.
(Listen to Pop Fiction's "Livin' on a Prayer" demo)

With less time wasted on travel and lugging equipment, Pop Fiction can focus their time on what's really important... their music.