Pomplamoose is an American musical duo composed of husband-and-wife multi-instrumentalists Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. The duo formed in the summer of 2008 and sold approximately 100,000 songs online in 2009. They are known for their viral YouTube videos and covers of popular songs.
Etymology
The name of the band derives from the French word :fr:Pamplemousse et pomélo|pamplemousse, meaning grapefruit.
Recordings and performances
Pomplamoose's presence is primarily videos on YouTube and MySpace, with few live performances. They have gathered over 1,110,000 subscribers and 239 million viewers on their YouTube channel as of August 1, 2020. The group first gained widespread recognition when their video performance of "Hail Mary" was featured on the front page of YouTube. The duo produced the third studio album of Julia Nunes in 2010. Their videos mostly take the form of "VideoSongs", a medium Jack Conte defines with two rules:
What you see is what you hear.
If you hear it, at some point you see it.
On April 11, 2010, the band was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered. Conte discussed the "glitz-free" manner in which they record: Also in April 2010, their cover of The Chordettes' "Mr. Sandman" was used in a commercial for Toyota's Avalon series, set in an art-deco train station. In September 2010, Pomplamoose recorded a collaboration with Allee Willis entitled "Jungle Animal". Willis contacted the duo after hearing their cover of "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire and offered to write the new song for them. Willis also provided the single art for the song. During the Christmas season of 2010, Pomplamoose performed in several ads in the style of their YouTube videos for Hyundai, singing their versions of Christmas classics such as "O Come All Ye Faithful", "Jingle Bells", "Up on the Housetop", and "Deck the Halls". In 2011, Pomplamoose began a weekly, interactive, half-hour webcast called Hey, It's Pomplamoose: A Show about Pomplamoose and Other Things that airs every Tuesday. After the show of March 29, the webcast was put on hiatus until their East Coast tour was completed. The tour included Ryan Lerman, Carlos Cabrera, and Lauren O'Connell as backing band and opening act. For the Washington, DC show, Pomplamoose opened for OK Go, a band also known for their YouTube videos. On November 5, 2013, Pomplamoose launched the second season of the webcast — a three-part sequel to the band’s early years, including but not limited to: videos, a tour, and an album. In 2014, Pomplamoose was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #67.
Charity
In November 2010, Pomplamoose created a book drive for a school district in Richmond, CA, offering a free download of an album to anyone who would purchase a book for the school district. The drive paid for over 11,000 books. On November 8, 2013, Pomplamoose performed at "Lens", Mateo Messina's 16th annual benefit concert at Seattle's Benaroya Hall for Seattle Children's Hospital.
Both Conte and Dawn maintain solo careers, releasing videos through YouTube and songs through the iTunes Store. Conte has recorded two EPs - Sleep in Color and Nightmares and Daydreams. He released them along with the compilations VideoSongs Volumes I-IV through the iTunes Store. Conte's use of Electro-Harmonixaudio equipment has been featured by the company in several different videos. Conte's first notable appearance in mainstream media was when he supplied his voice for the "teenage boy" character in the popular videogame The Sims 2. Conte first gained widespread attention when his video "Yeah Yeah Yeah" was featured on YouTube's main page. The video, animated in stop motion, has garnered 1,057,895 views as of January 24th, 2019. The majority of his new music is released as singles posted to YouTube in the form of "VideoSongs". In 2010, Nataly Dawn in collaboration with Lauren O'Connell formed the side project My Terrible Friend. In May 2011, it was announced that Dawn would be joining Barry Manilow on his new album 15 Minutes, contributing vocals to the track "Letter from a Fan / So Heavy, So High". On July 17, 2011, Dawn announced that she would be releasing her first solo album. She started a funding campaign on Kickstarter, where the minimal goal of $20,000 was reached in just three days. On September 6, 2011, the album funding campaign came to a close with 2,315 people donating a grand total of $104,788, exceeding the original goal of $20,000 by more than five times. The album, How I Knew Her, was released on February 12, 2013 by Nonesuch Records, and features Conte, Ryan Lerman, David Piltch, Louis Cole, and Matt Chamberlain. On October 29, 2016, Dawn released her third solo album, Haze.
