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Nancy Levinson – Back up Vocal, Production Assistant
Well, what can I say? Hello Brooklyn was a joy to work on and so much fun! It’s an ode to Michael’s growing up years in the greatest borough (aside from Queens LOL!) in the world. So funny that he let me call out at the end ‘He’s from Queens’ a reference to Donald Trump….
We had a great time singing backup- Joe and I would crack up at Michael raising and lowering his arm to cue us! The rhythm of it and the lyrics really capture the great borough. I did suggest we send it to the Brooklyn congressperson, etc., to be used as a theme song! Getting the names at the end right was also a memorable and fun experience in the studio….How Michael writes these songs I will never know but he sure knows how to do it right! Catchy, upbeat, great lyrics and a real crowd pleaser. I would say one of the most fun songs he’s written with of course deep meaning behind it…his childhood.
Joe Pisano – Rhythm Guitar, Assistant Junior Producer, Back up Vocal
So much to say about the title track to the album. It is a raucous, Ramones style rock song on which I played rhythm guitar. We have Dave “Big Bottom” Brenner on bass, Nathan Comens on drums and Marcelo Bancalari playing “hot” lead guitar. Then there is Pooch, Nancy and I doing rowdy background vocals of “Hello Brooklyn” as a call-and-answer to Pooch’s “Hello” and “What Do I Say” in response to “Colonel” Ed Costello’s amazing rap soliloquy. A word about Ed’s rap interlude; he wrote the lyrics and performs them with ‘vim and vigor’! After the rap interlude the songs ramps back up to its raucous
tempo and ends with Pooch’s call out to famous Brooklynites past and present.
We also took this song on the road and performed it live! Marcelo, Nathan and I played as a backing band to Pooch and we performed this song as part of our set in a combo gig with The Provacateurs at BC’s Pub in Bellmore and then at Front Street Pub in Massapequa in the Fall of 2019.
Michael J. Puccio – Composer, Vocalist, Producer, Guitar
This was always going to be the title of the album – long before it was even written. A friend at work asked if there was a title track and when I said yes he asked me to sing it for him. I sheepishly said it was not written yet. Life is so full of surprises!
I knew what I wanted though: a raunchy, kick ass, Ramones influenced love song about the borough of kings and the borough of my birth. As soon as I got the basic chords down the song wrote itself, the words just came out. And the song sounds like I envisioned which does not always happen, Nathan, Marcelo, Joe and Dave all took to it NO problem and it was one of the easiest to record. I especially like all the shout outs at the end – we had a blast doing those.
One cool memory is we did this song live and about three people came up to me and said they loved it. It was so cool to hear. Although not the most profound song I ever wrote it certainly is fun and touched the heart of anyone connected to Brooklyn.
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