The guys who make up the group Juice found each other as first-year students at Boston College in 2013, through a mix of ways any freshman naturally makes friends; through various Facebook pages, classes, and same-dorm run-ins. “It was just a series of us looking for each other,” said the group’s violinist Christian Rose.
“Battle of the Bands was our first real gig,” Rose explained in a recent phone interview. Juice ended up winning the 2014 Boston College Battle, an accomplishment that slowly began to shift each member’s vision of their own future after college.
Over the next few years, Juice honed their live performance through constant gigging, finding that the natural raw energy and confident stage presence they had helped them begin to expand their fan base. Soon, Juice went from being a regularly praised act at Boston’s famed Middle East club- their first gig at the club bringing more fans to the show than the headliner- to selling out one of the city’s hotspot venues, Brighton Music Hall, before they had even graduated from college.
Juice released their debut EP in 2016, including the viral hit “Gold,” which popped up on numerous “Discover Weekly” Spotify playlists and “cracked over 386,000 Spotify streams without any traditional promotion,” according to the band’s website.
After crafting their sound over the next few years, Juice was invited to compete in Summerfest Milwaukee’s “Land the Big Gig” competition, and they won the grand prize. Graduating from college a year later, the musicians returned to the annual festival and opened for pop juggernaut DNCE.
This was a road trip of big accomplishments for Juice, one being that it was the biggest show they had ever played, and the other, perhaps an even bigger one: meeting GRAMMY® Award-nominated producer Johnny K and recording their second EP, Workin on Lovin. Bass player Rami El-Abidin said that they only had two days in the studio to record, but took total advantage of that short amount of time. “Some of the band stayed up until 6 a.m. to finish recording, and then we did the DNCE show that same day.”
The EP solidified the band’s soulful sound, with the melodic first track, “Workin’ On Lovin’.” Juice also proves with the EP’s most popular track “Sugar,” that they have the ability to write a hit song that doesn’t shy away from any aspect of their one-of-a-kind sound.
This unique septet distills rock, r&b and hip hop into their own full sound with outstanding contributors from electric violin to rich three-part harmonies, setting them apart from any other boy band of this century.
Juice, made up of Ben Stevens, 23, [lead vocals], Michael Ricciardulli, 24, [guitar], Rami El-Abidin, 26, [bass], Christian Rose, 24, [violin, vocals], Kamau Burton, 24, [acoustic guitar, vocals], Daniel Moss, 24, [guitar], and Miles Clyatt, 23, [drums], although a mouthful to introduce, stitches together seven distinct personalities and talents that will be hard to forget.
2017 was a big deal, not only for Juice as a band, but for the septet as individuals- this was the year they graduated college and decided to not get real jobs. “That was a big moment,” said El-Abidin.
“I don’t think any of us went to college knowing what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives, but we all left college knowing what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives,” said Rose. “Parents want their kids to leave college with a stable job or a clear path, but I think our parents through our college career saw us fall in love with the path we’ve chosen.”
The intense brain power that makes up this band is particularly special, collectively graduating with degrees ranging from psychology to classic literature, to biology, to business. Daniel Moss, one of the group’s guitarists, shared that even though they chose to go down a different path from what they had studied, they will always value those academics. “They connected us to the world in a different way than other musicians who are just surrounded with other musicians all the time. It showed us what people outside of the music community were thinking and feeling.”
Moss said that no one in the group was planning on leaving school to become a musician, but that was what made it so special when it happened. “It was just something that we really loved and wanted to continue. But that made it authentic. We weren’t trying to craft any sort of story at the time. But it thrived off of one friendship and kind of playing around.”
“You give up a little bit of your independence being in such a big group,” started Michael Ricciardulli, another one of the band’s guitarists, “but in doing so you have the power to reach many more individuals with your music. The platform that we have is pretty magical, so it all ends up being worth it.”
“The challenges are mostly logistical,” added El-Abidin. “Sometimes we just move slower because there are more points to check off, but in the end, we end up putting out greater quality music.”
The band looks past their challenges and works together toward a common goal: playing music forever. Juice is working on a new EP to be released this summer, and will use that to judge where to go next. The band isn’t thinking of their timeline in terms of numbers and dates of albums and EPs, but instead has goals to reach as many people as possible with their music, writing more songs and playing more big shows and festivals.
“We’re always writing music,” said El-Abidin. “The music is always there, in our brains.” Ricciardulli takes the phone: “We just want to write some seriously great music that NEEDS to be heard. I guess a long-term goal is to be an intergenerational band that speaks to their audience.” Picciardulli says that a lot of what they’re putting out now will make it onto an album eventually, but can’t say for sure when that will be; they want that debut album to be present and to reach as many people as possible.
In the meantime, Juice plans to try to keep putting on incredible live shows to connect with their fans and to welcome potential new fans into the Juice fan-family. “The live experience will always be something really special and expressive and just, a whole kind of spectrum of feelings and emotions,” continued Ricciardulli. “This early in our career, people need the live experience, and to see us all individually up there as a collective group before they can really walk away and say ‘I get it.’”
The band played a packed show at Brighton Music Hall for their big Boston return on April 12th. Front-row-fan Reilly Jameson said, “What I love about Juice is that they make catchy music but still keep a unique sound and use real instruments.” Jameson said the energy at the show felt raw and genuine.
This early in their career, Juice said their recorded music is always getting better, but they’re still working on getting in the studio as much as possible to perfect their sound, and “bridge the gap between what people hear in their ears and what they hear and see when they come to the show,”
“Our career has just been a series of small victories,” explained Rose. “There’s not just one moment where everything seemed to work out, but we love making music and we’ve had a lot of positive signs telling us to keep doing it.”
“Every time we do something new,” adds El-Abidin, “it just reinforces more and more that we’re doing the right thing and that this is legitimate.”