The 1991 Agawam High School graduate is amazed by the video's viral success.
Dr. Westchesterson, Agawam native Marc ScortinoAGAWAM – It started with messing around with hip hop tracks in his small recording studio two years ago, but Agawam native Dr. Westchesterson never imagined one of his quirky YouTube videos would see more than 115,000 views.
Since his “413” video was released in late April, Westchesterson – who was born Marc Scortino – has received not only the attention of local media, but he’s gaining fans all over the world.
“I got an email the other day from one of the co-executive producers of (the Fox television show) ‘Family Guy’,” the Block Island businessman-turned-rapper said. “He said he was going to send it to his brother, who is a writer for ‘The Simpsons.’”
Who knows what will come of that, but Westchesterson is amazed his video is a garnering that kind of attention on the West Coast. Locally, he said he was contacted by the Democratic committee to elect Elizabeth Warren for U.S. Senator.
“They wanted to use my video at their convention in Springfield and they asked if I wanted to come perform at the convention,” Westchesterson said.
He said they did ask if he could clean up a couple of questionable lyrics, and he said he would gladly comply.
Kevin Frank, communications director for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said the person who contacted Westchesterson was from the state Democratic Party, not the Warren campaign, and was not authorized to offer him a spot at the convention. Frank said the only musical act at the convention will be a Springfield high school student singing the national anthem.
The video, which highlights some of the best things to see and do in Western Massachusetts, pays homage to the Agawam High School Class of 1991 graduate’s home turf. The pro-marijuana character, who is often seen sporting Agawam colors with a brown suit and orange shirt, said he started writing songs and recording videos in one of his “safe houses.”
“I kind of just immersed myself in the hip hop genre and looked to my predecessors for inspiration, like the Beastie Boys, a Tribe Called Quest, Run DMC, kind of old school hip hop,” he said.
He shot his first video, “Shake Down Babylon,” by himself with a home video camera. He showed it to a friend, Chris Conway, a computer graphics pro and one of the partners in Killer Minnow Productions in New London, Conn. Conway soon offered to help Westchesterson shoot his next round of videos. Beginning in April, 2011, Westchesterson released a new video on the first of each month, through September.
“Those kind of lingered on my YouTube channel for a year,” he said. “Before (“413” was released), the video with the most hits had 2,800 hits. That’s what I got on ‘413’ in the first two hours.”
Westchesterson said he decided to shoot the video for “413” just days before it happened. He was going to be in the area for a live performance at an Agawam bar in March, and planned the shoot for that weekend. He had friend Trevor Holden, a talented videographer from Rhode Island, come along to shoot the video.
“I immediately made shot lists and a shooting schedule and a driving schedule,” he said. “I only had 24 hours to shoot everything.”
He wrote the song first, and he knew he would have to get to certain venues to videotape them because he mentioned them in the lyrics.
“As I was writing the music and hearing the lyrics in my head, other images started popping up,” he said. “I kept a little notepad in my studio and thought, ‘This would be a good place to shoot. I have to get to White Hut and Pajer’s and the Hu Ke Lau.’”
The video is styled after Randy Newman’s “I Love LA.” Westchesterson said his songs can be downloaded for free on Soundcloud. He doesn’t plan to sell his music because he samples other songs and wouldn’t be allowed to, due to copyright issues.
But, he’ll continue to have fun with it.
“Touring is for sure on the horizon,” he said. “The doctor has prior commitments throughout the summer. He’ll spend the summer refining his live act, and working on the follow-up song and video to ‘413’.”
Westchesterson said the follow-up will likely include nods to different, more far-flung Western Mass venues, but concedes he can’t please everyone. And, he said he doesn’t want to be known as the guy who only writes songs about Western Massachusetts.
“At some point, I’m going to go back to writing songs about other things, like being a gangster or kicking it live,” he said.
Meanwhile, Westchesterson is working hard to produce merchandise demanded by his fan base. T-shirts – including the “Vacationing on Bondi’s Island” T-shirt he sports in the video – stickers, and other Westchesterson products will soon be available at www.villageproduce.com