Goin' Down - Acoustic with Dave Coldren of Junkyard Academy (Original) ©...

Junkyard Academy has added two new members to the band.

Dave Coldren met Lewis Nowosad as the result of a posting on Craigslist. Lewis was hoping to hook up with musicians to play Barenaked Ladies tunes together in the capacity of a tribute band. Later, they attended two BNL hosted cruises and got to know each other more. Eventually, Lewis and Dave wound up in Dave’s living room playing the originals Lewis had been working on and Dave agreed to join the band.

"I'm tickled pink to share a stage with this guy", Says Lewis Nowosad, JYA's lead singer and guitarist, "He takes music seriously. I mean, if you cut him in half, a million little musicians would come flying out - he's good for the band".

Dave has been playing since he was 16. He currently plays at 3 different churches and teaches piano both at home and at Guitar Showcase in San Jose, California. While at UC Berkeley, he played with Dead-influenced Lektric Submarine Dance Band (later Goliards and Vicious Hippies), and Blue Cartoon. Dave's musical influences are many - (Roy Bitten and Danny Federici (Springsteen), Jackson Browne, Elton John, Beatles, Nicky Hopkins, Jerry Garcia, Stephen Sondheim, Barenaked Ladies, Guster and lots more.

Junkyard Academy is also looking forward to the delivery of their Bassist Paul Imel. Yes, "delivery". He attended High School with Lewis in Morgan Hill California back in the mid Eighties. Twenty-five years later they reconnected via Facebook, only to discover that each had always thought the other was the "cool" kid.

When Lewis asked Paul about his playing bass guitar, despite the fact that Paul hadn't played a bass in about twenty years, he suggested Paul move from Indiana back to California to play bass for Junkyard Academy. Paul decided to give it a shot, borrowed a broken bass, (no sound came out of the amp), to get his chops back, and eventually purchased very nice Schecter neck-in bass, (this one works), to play in the band.

Paul has a music degree from Greenville College in Illinois, and his influences range from the Beatles to seventies rock to modern alternative folk. He is currently packing to move his family to Benicia, CA. Said Paul, "(I'm) excited to be playing with guys as dedicated and talented as Lewis and Dave."

Junkyard Academy looks forward to his mad skillz, his vocal talent and his laid back and positive attitude come mid November. In the mean time, here are Lewis and Dave at a recent practice session at Dave's place. The song is "Goin' Down" and Lewis wrote it to showcase Dave's ability on Keyboard;