The Project Also Has A Youtube Channel To Reach Audiences All Over The World
By Dolores Quintana
Jam In The Van (JITV) is a project that grew out of Jake Cotler and David Bell’s love of music and with the help of investor Louis Peek. Their website describes the project and says, “The solar-powered mobile recording studio and YouTube Channel that’s changing the way the world discovers new music. Launched in 2011 as a backyard project inspired by a love for music festivals, JITV has since turned into a full-blown business venture for Jake Cotler, Dave Bell and Louis Peek. The company has filmed over 1,000 bands in remote locations across the United States. With new sessions, every day of the week Monday through Friday, Jam in the Van is the leading tastemaker when it comes to music discovery.”
The Van is indeed solar-powered and while the project started long before the pandemic, the founders discovered that their friends who were comedians needed a place to do stand-up routines since everything was closed during the Covid lockdowns as reported by The Los Angeles Times. They got involved because of a Youtube personality Andrew Callaghan who was trying to crowdsource help and advice from his fans to convert an RV into a music studio in 2020. Cotler ad Bell thought, hey we did that ourselves when Cotler used his backyard in Venice, CA to park their first Jam In The Van vehicle aka their first recording studio in 2011.
Cotler said to Callaghan, as quoted by The Los Angeles Times, ‘Yo, why are you disrespecting us? We’re the guys!” When Callaghan accepted their invitation and brought a stand-up comedian friend Ali Macofsky, the idea was born. They could use their JITV space to hold stand up comedy shows. It was mutually beneficial to the comedians and Cotler and Bell and the comedy shows took off. Now, especially since pandemic restrictions have eased up, the JITV crew has traveled all over the United States and is continuing to do music and comedy shows.
If you would like to see a show, you can check out their calendar here.
Cotler and Bell are still collaborative and on their website, they also give the information to anyone who wants to be a part of JINTV. The website says, “Want to get involved!? Shoot us an email at Info@JamintheVan.com. Want to Jam in the Van!? Shoot us an email at mailto:BandSubmissions@JamintheVan.com”
