PAPER BRIDEGROOM
Jeff Witzeman - vocals, guitar
Doug Morgan - bass Joe Trebes - guitar
Chris Sobchak - drums
Summer, 1994 Jeff Witzeman asked Doug Morgan to join him for an informal coffee house gig at Highland Grounds in Hollywood, and Paper Bridegroom was born. Doug played congas at the gig, but asked Jeff if he could audition as the bass player for his band. After practicing together for a while they realized they had ft birth of something strong.
Jeff had been a working actor in Los Angeles for 8 years, seen on such shows as Frasier, and Miller Genuine Draft commercials, but was growing tired of the business. He had also been doing the solo, singer-songwriter gig at coffee houses. Doug had been a player in numerous bands including Betsy's Big Day and Glass House, selling songs to ABC for movies of the week, but all as a drummer. Now Doug would form the partnership that would include his songwriting talents as well as bass.
Session guitarist (we'll just say L.C. to protect his anonymity) joined and left the band early, due to a lack of equipment. Seems his wife went on a rampage one day and destroyed three guitars and an amp, then went after him with the neck of one of the guitars. . . He stayed with her... Needless to say the band went looking for another lead guitarist.
Enter Joe Trebes. Spring of 1995 Joe joined the band. Joe has the unique distinction of possessing incredible talent.... and ... working for corporate America. His day job is working for Nissan. He also brought his songwriting abilities to the band. Paper Bridegroom did a series of acoustic gigs that summer to refine our tunes and then went into pre-production for their CD project. Cash was raised and a label was born, SINKER SWIM RECORDS. Award winning producer, Dino Maddalone co-produced the CD with Paper Bridegroom. The self titled CD was released June, 1996.
In August of 1996, Chris Sobchak joined the band as the drummer. Chris has a powerful style that really complements the band's music. His day job is working for a cartage company setting up drums for the "bigs" when they come to town. Bands like REM, Smashing Pumpkins, has energy for days (there's got to be an Energizer in their somewhere).
The most often question the band gets asked is what the name means. It actually came from a movie with Robert Downey Jr. called Restoration. Apparently in medieval times, the king would appoint someone to marry his mistress so that she would look upstanding and reputable. He would set this poor sod up in a beautiful castle with this beautiful girl, but under one condition. He could have no relations with her. Thus a paper bridegroom.
Paper Bridegroom is currently seeking label representation. Contact: (818)249-8853.