Nat & Alex Wolff

For other uses, see The Naked Brothers Band (disambiguation).

Nat & Alex Wolff

Nat & Alex Wolff (formerly known as The Naked Brothers Band or The Silver Boulders) are a pop/rock musical duo, and previously known for their work on the Nickelodeon television series, The Naked Brothers Band. The band was created by two real life brothers Nat and Alex Wolff. It was initially a self-titled mockumentary film that the siblings' mom actress Polly Draper put together that eventually developed into a television series on Nickelodeon. The Naked Brothers Band have officially ended as of June 2009, the band has no name but is currently referred to as Nat & Alex Wolff. As of February 2009, the brothers have became recording artists. They embarked on the Summer Road Trip Tour across the United States in June 2009. As of November 2009, the brothers are currently focusing on completing their New Studio Album, which will not be released until early 2010.

History

2001-2004: Early years

Nat was in preschool, he formed a band called The Silver Boulders with his best friends, including David, Thomas, Josh, Ann Curry's son Walker, and Julianne Moore's son Caleb "Cal" Freundlich. The band's name was taken from The Beatles' original name, The "Silver" Beatles and The Rolling Stones, as "boulder" is almost synonymous with "stones." Nat wrote his first song, titled "Mama Don't Let Me Cry", at the age of five. At the time, Alex was not allowed to be in the band, because Nat thought it would be unfashionable to have a brother in the same ensemble. When Nat, who lives in Lower Manhattan of New York City, was 4 years old, his father, jazz pianist-composer Michael Wolff (who was the bandleader and musical director of The Arsenio Hall Show) used to play Nat different music (mostly jazz) and when Nat heard some of The Beatles' music, he became inspired by them and watched all The Beatles' movies including Help!. Alex learned how to play the saxophone at the age of two and a half.

When Nat and Alex were toddlers, they jumped out of the bathtub shouting, "We're the naked brothers band!" While Nat was in pre-school he formed a band called The Silver Boulders with his best friends David Levi, Thomas Batuello, Joshua "Josh" Kaye, Ann Curry's son Walker, Julianne Moore's son Caleb "Cal" Freundlich, and many more. The band's name was taken from The Beatles' original band The "Silver" Beatles and The Rolling Stones, since a "boulder" is a synonym of the word "stones". Nat was so inspired by The Beatles that at the age of five he wrote his first song, which was called "Mama Don't Let Me Cry." At the time, Alex wasn't allowed to be in the band, because Nat thought it would be corny to have a brother in his band.

After 9/11 terrorist attacks when Nat was six years old and Alex was three, Nat wrote a song called "Firefighters" for a benefit concert he performed with his band at the back of his apartment. Alex wanted to perform too, so Nat made Alex a fake plastic saxophone for him to perform. According to an interview by Jacques Steinberg at New York Times Center Stage in January 2008, the boys' mother actress-writer Polly Draper (who starred as Ellyn Warren on ABC's thirtysomething) recalled, "...And anyway when it was Alex' solo he would hold up the fake plastic saxophone Nat made for him and say, 'Mommy, I have the hiccups and I have to go potty' [laughs]." The benefit concert ended up raising over $45,000 and donated it all to the children of the firefighters who died during 9/11. After the band's charity concert, the band ended up performing all over different Christmas parties and wedding ceremonies.

Eventually, Alex got inspired by Ringo Starr from The Beatles and decided to take up the drums instead. When Alex got so good at the drums (by watching tapes in his house of Ringo playing the drums), Nat changed his mind and let him be in his band. At the age of 6, Nat composed a melody that didn't have any lyrics to it, but when he wanted to write a song that sounded like one by The Beach Boys, and since The Beach Boys wrote a lot of songs about cars; Nat wrote a song called "Crazy Car". After a while, The Silver Boulders broke up; it led to Nat, Alex, Thomas, David, and Josh to change the band's name back to its original name, the Naked Brothers Band.

In 2003, Nat had a minor appearance in his mother's (Polly Draper) playwright Getting Into Heaven at the Flea Theater. Nat also performed off-Broadway in The Heart of Baghdad. After a while, Nat begged his mom to be a child actor by putting signs on his door that said: "I Want to Be A Child Star, Mom!" At first, she refused to explaining that it would be too difficult, so she made a compromise with Nat; in 2003, she let him film his own sitcom titled "Don't Eat Off My Plate."

2004–2007: The Naked Brothers Band TV series premiere and debut album

After that, Nat begged his dad to record a tape in the studio with Alex and him, so Mr. Wolff arranged a recording session for the three of them in the studio. While Ms. Draper saw them recording in the studio, she came up with the idea to make a "mock documentary" about the band as if they were huge like The Beatles. During the summer of 2004, the film took production at the family's real-life apartment and all around New York City, which at the time Nat was 9 and Alex was 6-and-a-half. Ms. Draper wrote and directed The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie, which was designed as an independent family project with a low-budget under $1,000,000. The film consisted of celebrities who were friends with Draper and Wolff, those were Cyndi Lauper, Julianne Moore, Ann Curry, Uma Thurman, Tony Shalhoub, Ricki Lake, Arsenio Hall, and the complete cast of Thirtysomething. The film also included Ms. Draper's niece Jesse Draper, her brother Tim Draper, and her nephews William "Billy" T. Draper, Adam Draper, and Coulter Mulligan. Michael Wolff produced the music with his longtime friend music composer Michael A. Levine; Polly Draper, Michael Wolff, and Tim Draper all served as executive producer for the film; and Nat Wolff wrote and performed all the songs, except for "That's How It is," which was written and performed by Alex Wolff.

In 2005, Ms. Draper entered the film at the October 23, 2005, Hamptons International Film Festival where it won the audience award for family feature film. Meanwhile Nickelodeon executive and the founder of Spike TV, Albie Hecht was in the audience that day. He ended up bringing the film to Nickelodeon—begging them to do a television series based on it. Tom Asheim, the vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon said, "At first, we were intrigued by the idea, but we weren't sure kids would get the vague-tongue-and-check-of-it. Then a bunch of us took it home to our own children and they loved it."

Eventually, Nickelodeon persuaded Ms. Draper to put together a television series. Draper recalled, "...When Nickelodeon first asked us about doing a series, we said, 'How about a cartoon, so the kids could stay normal?' They said, 'No, we love your kids.'" In the summer through the early fall of 2006, the first season of the self-titled series took production. In January 27, 2007, The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie aired on Nickelodeon and the self-titled series aired February 3. Polly Draper is the creator, head writer, executive producer, and frequent director of the series, while Albie Hecht is the executive producer and his production company Worldwide Biggies distributes the series. Kidz House Entertainment also distributes the series. It's located at Stage 1, which is a division of Broadway Stages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn where the show is filmed. The series that is now in its third season brought Nickelodeon's highest-rated premiere in seven years.

Nat and Alex never really realized how big they were until October 8, 2007. Band members—Nat, Alex, Thomas, David, Allie DiMeco (who stars as "Rosalina" and Nat's crush on the film and TV series), Qaasim Middleton (who replaces former band-member Josh on the series) had an autograph signing at Times Square Virgin Megastore for the band's release of their self-titled debut album The Naked Brothers Band. There were 1,500 fans that waited outside of Virgin Megastore for hours, some camped out over night. In addition, they also had a live performance on ABC's Good Morning America with the band's song "I'm Out."

The First Season of the Show concluded in October 2007, by then production had almost been complete for the Next Season.

2007–2008: I Don't Want to Go to School

In Summer 2007, the band began work on their Second Studio Album, which would also be the soundtrack for the upcoming second season of their show. By October 2007, filming had been completed and Season Two was set for release in 2008.

In 2008, the Second Season of the band's Television Series aired, premiering on January 26 in Sidekicks, it then ended after a 15 episode run in Polar Bears, which aired on June 6.

On April 15, 2008, the band finally released their Second Album I Don't Want to Go to School. Two versions were released, one included 12 tracks, the other included 12 with 2 bonus tracks, a pull out poster, and a DVD with Behind the Scenes Features.

In May 2008, the band returned to the Studio to begin recording music for the Third Season of their Television Series. Filming began on July 27, the series aired shortly after, beginning on October 18 in Mystery Girl, which Guest Starred Miranda Cosgrove.

The band then started their first national-tour around the country called Nat & Alex Wolff: Fully Clothed & On Tour, which started on November 1, 2008. Nat and Alex, along with professionally trained musicians that includes Jacob Hertzog (Music Director/Guitar/Backup Vocals), Misty Boyce (Keyboards/Backup Vocals), Chris Muir (Bass/Backup Vocals), and Boris Pelekh (Guitar/Drums/Backup Vocals) performed songs from and even some from the upcoming episodes. Some concerts they performed at include the Capital One Bank Theater in New York, the Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, the Berkeley Performance Center in Boston, The Roxy in Los Angeles, and the House of Blues in Chicago, New Orleans, Florida and California. The Tour ended shortly after on December 14, 2008.

2009–present: Post The Naked Brothers Band

The third season of the brothers' show began on October 18, 2008 in the television movie, Mystery Girl. The third and final season of The Naked Brothers Band television show aired four TV movies and three holiday specials. The series ended on June 13, 2009 with No School's Fools Day. Many fans have wondered the reason of why the show came to an end. There were many reasons, but in the end it was confirmed that the ending of the series was due to the brothers choosing to embark on a tour, instead of filming a fourth season, but in September 2009, Polly Draper revealed that the show was too expensive for what Nickelodeon were paying, and the show was getting lower views than previous seasons.

Also due to the show's ending, the band came to an end as well. Their third album was never released and titled as an unfinished project. With the group coming to an end, the brothers continued to make music with their bandmates who played with them at previous live performances. The group is now called Nat & Alex Wolff with the other band mates providing back up instrumentation. The band then left on their first summer tour with their current band members Jake Hertzog, Chris Muir, Boris Pelekh, and Misty Boyce, all of whom also appeared on the band's tour. The tour began in June and wrapped up in August, while on the tour the band played all of their most memorable songs and new ones as well.

Next studio album and touring

During the 2009 Summer Tour, the brothers revealed that they were working on a new Studio Album, new material written and recorded in the Summer of 2009 while the brothers were on their Summer Road Trip Tour. Two tracks were released on the band's Official Website (A cover of the Bruce Springsteen song "Dancing in the Dark", and of The Beatles song "A Hard Day's Night." Nat Wolff announced in August 2009 that the band were finishing up their new album, and it will be released in September 2009 or later. When it Came to September 2009, the album was never released. Another date was then revealed in a post on Twitter, where Nat Wolff revealed the album would be released in Spring 2010. On December 17, 2009, Nat Wolff celebrated his 15th birthday, an image of his birthday cake was posted on Twitter, the cake reveals some of the new songs from the bands upcoming album, here are all the possible tracks:

Confirmed tracks

• "Illuminated"
• "Greatest Prize"
• "Monday Afternoons"
• "Dancing In the Dark"
• "A Hard Day's Night"
• "When I'm 18, I'll Be Free"
• "Stay for Awhile"
• "Call You"
• "Maybe"

After asking on the Nat & Alex website forum, the brothers received word that most fans would like the album to be called Illuminated. So this will be the album title, the album will be released in March.

Discography

Main article: List of The Naked Brothers Band songs

Singles

• "Crazy Car" (2005)
• "If That's Not Love" (2007)
• "I Dont Want to Go to School" (2008)
• "Face in the Hall" (2008)

Soundtracks

• Music from the Movie (2007)

Studio albums

• The Naked Brothers Band (2007)
• I Don't Want to Go to School (2008)
• Untitled (2010)

Nat & Alex Wolff tours

• Fully Clothed Tour (November 1 - December 14, 2008)
• Summer Road Trip Tour (June 28 - August 20, 2009)

External links

• The Naked Brothers Band being interviewed at the New York Times Center Stage
• A TV Family Bound by Blood and a Band