Rob Lundberg Presents “Uncontaminated Sound – The Interviews” EP #5 with Jukebox The Ghost’s Tommy Siegel

A man of many talents, Robert Lundberg is a distinguished photographer and filmmaker known for his artful documentaries covering the worlds of music, comedy, art, and film. Lundberg grew up in Massachusetts before moving to New York City to fully invest himself in his art and film career. A man who loves to take on new challenges, Lundberg has immersed himself in perhaps his most challenging project yet, a documentary series titled Uncontaminated Sound – The Interviews.

Debuting in February, the series follows comedians, musicians, fine artists, and actors in an effort to gain an inside look at their creative process which can only be fully captured going behind the scenes. The purpose of the series is to offer a look at all of the rarely seen “little things” that transpire during interviews and other similar encounters with artists and performers. Oftentimes, most other features are heavily edited, capturing certain moments often heavily vetted by those in charge of the content’s creation or final product. But that’s not how Lundberg works. He makes sure to bring you all of the raw, authentic moments that you would never otherwise get a chance to experience and enjoy.

With the positive vibes surrounding Rob Lundberg Presents: Uncontaminated Sound – The Interviews, Lundberg is back with the fifth episode where Lundberg is joined by Jukebox The Ghost guitarist Tommy Siegel. The origins of Jukebox The Ghost extend back now seventeen years to when Siegel, singer and pianist Ben Thornewill, and drummer Jesse Kristin met while all three were studying at George Washington University. At that time they were known as The Sunday Mail, a name which lasted a few years until they decided on Jukebox The Ghost and released their debut record Let Live & Let Ghosts in 2008.

Growing from the rather small, but influential Washington, DC indie scene, the band has gone on to release five studio albums and four EPs, the most recent full-length being 2018’s Off To The Races. In their dozen or so years as Jukebox The Ghost, they have also racked up a touring history of over one thousand shows including many headlining tours and opening slots for Ben Folds, Guster, Motion City Soundtrack, and Jack’s Mannequin. Throw in there festival appearances at Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, and Bottlerock and you have quite an impressive resume of a highly successful and largely DIY band.

Outside of music, Siegel has also developed a career as a cartoonist who challenged himself to draw one cartoon per day for 500 days as a challenge to himself. He’s been only further motivated by the reaction to his artwork which puts a clever twist on the goings-on of modern society which has even resulted in the release of a published book of his works.

Commenting on his interest in Siegel and his meeting with him, Lundberg said, “In these challenging times the world needs a laugh or two, as a cartoonist Tommy Siegel’s simple lined characters bring a note of hilarity to these strange days. Yes, that Tommy Siegel guitarist and vocalist of the popular indie pop group Jukebox the Ghost, is also a successful cartoonist! As my last on location interview (days prior to the foreboding global emergency), I met Tommy in the band’s Brooklyn studio to discuss not only the beginnings of Jukebox The Ghost, but also how he managed to build his name as a notable cartoonist while still touring with the band.”

Lundberg has plans to meet up with many more artists to be participants in Uncontaminated Sound – The Interviews over the coming weeks and months. Lundberg has already been bringing you his ongoing series Uncontaminated Sound which goes behind the scenes to get a look at performers before they take the stage. The series has featured Macklemore’s Gemini Tour featuring Eric Nally (formerly of Foxy Shazam) and Xperience, Louie Anderson, Sinbad, Ron English, We Are Scientists, Rufus Wainwright and more. Lundberg’s photography has been highlighted in publications such as Huffington Post, Paste Magazine and more.

Tommy Siegel by Rob Lundberg