The Scenic Route performed last month
at the Deer Park in Newark for a
Wave of Relief benefit concert.
Photo by Tim Hawk

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When members of the Scenic Route sit down for an interview, a natural chemistry materializes. It finds them finishing each other’s sentences and laughing at inside jokes. But it’s also oddly revelatory; ideas are built in fragments, with each member contributing a thoughtful sliver until an answer feels complete. Now, that bond, the result of years of friendship, is helping birth an exciting and potentially breakthrough music career.

“The spontaneity of everyone is the driving force,” drummer Mike Ciccaglione explains. “We’re not going for anything in particular. We’re just trying to see what sounds good instinctively.”

The Newark-based rock quartet, which includes Jeremy Beck, on lead vocals, keyboard and guitar; Jason Brezski, on vocals and guitar; and Mike’s brother Jay Ciccaglione, on bass, formed in January of last year. Former bands and side projects date back to Beck’s and the Ciccagliones’ years at Newark High School.

“After playing with Jeremy [in high school], I wanted to do something where all of us were playing together,” Mike says. “But it took years for that to cycle around, where all of us had time to break away from our projects and get together.”

Those projects included school, work (all of the members have day jobs), and family. Once together in the same rehearsal space, the band knew it had something worth exploring. Imagine Tool with a little more grace and a lot less anatomical imagery, or the Mars Volta without the intellectual roadblocks, and you’ve got a pretty firm grasp of the Scenic Route’s complex, often haunting sound.

Lots of Guitar

“I knew it was going to have a lot of guitar in it,” Mike laughs. “Brezski’s a really strong player and likes to write a lot of melodies on guitar.” As drummer, Mike favors clean percussion and vocals, while Beck, who’s working toward his masters in composition at the University of Delaware, aims for density. “I like a lot of things going on, a lot of different fabrics in the music,” he says. “I never try to lock into one thing.”

The band adopted the name the Scenic Route because of the phrase’s parallel meaning. “When we started making music, we’d take these CDs—these bunk recordings of our stuff—and we’d drive around and kind of muse off of them,” Beck explains. “Things are born from that. What they are when we first write them isn’t what they are in the end. It’s an extension from that. It’s the scenic route in what we’re listening to.”

“We actually write a lot of our music with the perspective of what someone in the crowd might think, kind of an emotional ride,” adds Jay. “We want them to be interested the whole time.”

After writing a few songs, the band was approached earlier this year by a friend in Bryn Mawr, Pa. whose recording studio lease was about to expire. He offered them a discounted price on studio time if they came in and recorded a few songs. The result is the Scenic Route’s self-titled EP, an excellent collection of shimmering, intelligent rock.

Hometown Boys

With the CD and the help of their manager, Jacque Varsalona (who plays with Jeremy’s brother Adam in the Elk-Tones), the group began securing shows this past summer in and out of Delaware, playing with Vista and the Metrosexuals and getting familiar with Philadelphia venues like Pontiac Grille and Grape Street. They only recently played their hometown of Newark.

“To me, Newark has always shined as an artistic town more than a musical town,” Mike says. “It’s got its musical qualities, but more than anything, there are a lot of people here willing to create and bring out things, to make something out of nothing.”

It’s an approach realized in the Scenic Route’s new material, which the band says is much more experimental and vastly different even from their latest EP. “There’s another half to our music that no one’s heard yet,” Mike says. “It’s very quiet and melodic, very toned down.”

A handful of shows and one release and already a My Morning Jacket-veined departure seems imminent. “We have this music that we find presentable, but we also have this other stuff that’s left field, that’s very secretive,” explains Beck.

“We have a great deal of finished material that we don’t even play. We have albums’ worth that we just listen to and don’t really share with anyone.”

Hopefully, not for long.

—The Scenic Route’s debut EP is now available in the iTunes Music Store. For more on the band, visit www.thescenicroutemusic.com.