The Submarines are an indie pop band from Los Angeles, California.
Working as solo artists in Boston, the two members of the band, John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard, were introduced through a mutual friend, Joe Klompus. Dragonetti and Hazard became partners and soon toured Europe together as members of the band. The relationship lasted for four years, but ended in the fall of 2004 when the pair moved to L.A.
After the break-up, both Hazard and Dragonetti continued writing songs, and because Hazard still recorded her music in Dragonetti's home studio, the pair quickly discovered the songs they had written were about each other and their sadness in having broken up. Knowing this, the duo decided to work on a few songs together and eventually got back together. The songs that they had worked on together were mastered for the couple as a wedding present, and those tracks eventually became their first album.
Hazard, has said of the relationship, "It’s hard, definitely hard. Luckily we are like-minded aesthetically and musically." Declare a New State!, The Submarines' first album was released in 2006 on the Nettwerk label.
Blake Hazard is from Burlington, VT. Her real name is Eleanor Blake Hazard, although she prefers and uses her middle name, Blake, as her first. She attended the Putney School in southern Vermont, south of her hometown Burlington. She is also a graduate of Harvard University and is the great-granddaughter of American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Blake has released a solo album of her own titled "Little Airplane" (2002) just two years previous to her breakup with John on California's election night in 2004. "Little Airplane" was recorded by John in his studio and was released on Boston-based independent record label Kimchee Records. The album can still be obtained on Kimchee's website or through The Submarines web store.
She is also an avid runner and has run numerous marathons and races for many causes, research and fund raisers. These marathons have taken place in Boston, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Her next race is in Berlin for the Pablove Foundation. Which is a foundation for children fighting cancer. She asks "if you only have one extra minute to spare, visit this page: http://pablove.org/about-kids-cancer/pediatric-cancer-facts/ ."
John attended the The American School of Dubai.Originally from Jackson, Michigan. His family moved to Dubai when he was young. Upon arriving in Boston, he briefly attended college at the Berklee School of Music.
To support himself, John worked as a bike messenger in the city of Boston and played in several Boston-area bands before going solo. Jack Drag was his moniker for music he recorded at his apartment home studio, which he called Space 67. Much of the recorded material was done on a 4-track cassette recorder.
Several singles and a self-titled, full-length album, "The Red Record," or "cataloged as Pop Spelled Backwards" (as dubbed by his friends and bandmates) were released. The first single, "Velour," was released by Dave Gibbs (of the Gigolo Aunts), on his label called Sumerville Records. The second single was put out by John's record label, called Devil's Weed, Inc. A third single was released on Hepcat Records. As a result of these recordings, John was signed to A&M Records. When A&M was acquired by Universal Music, Jack Drag was dropped from the label and he continued recording independently in Space 67.
Vowing to keep releasing his music, he rolled up his sleeves and released more albums with Shifty Disco, Scientific Records and Sugar Free Records. This eventually led to a project with his old friend Peter DuCharme (AKA: Master Cylinder) called the Junior Communist Club. Several tracks left over from the Jack Drag A&M sessions were used for the project, and a few staple commercials resulted from the release.
To this date, there have been no plans to release any new material by Jr. Communist Club. John has stated that "Although encouraged to, we never did put together a live show. I'm sure we'll collaborate again but whether it will be under the Jr.Commy moniker remains to be seen." As for his moniker Jack Drag, he states on the Jack Drag web site, "It's all about The Submarines now!"
Jason Stare and Scott Barber are part of the touring band. (As an inside joke, John has said that when the Subs play live with some computer tracks, the band is called The Robots). The Submarines have toured the country and world, sometimes as a duo, and sometimes as a full band. Many shows in the beginning, for the band's first tour, consisted of just Blake and John.
For the band's second release, Honeysuckle Weeks, Jason joined to play drums for their live shows. Jason has been the band's live set drummer since the release of Honeysuckle Weeks, and is featured in Apple' commercials for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. He is an artist, a college graduate and is from Long Island, NY. On bringing him on tour, John has stated, "I saw him live and I liked his playing. But seriously, just look at him. He's looks cool!"
For the first leg of the 2011 Love Notes/Letter Bombs tour, The Submarines brought on Scott Barber to play Bass for live performances. Also, Jason and Scott also have a side project together.
