LVHRD: Okay, so this is the DRTS series of LVHRD, something new that we’re starting to find out more about LVHRD and its members. It’s complimentary to LVHRD MGZN’s NTRVW series, and is presented in AIM format to offer more of a conversational approach similar to the fast moving, fast talking internet age. Today, we’re talking to Jeff Newelt, aka JahFurry. Jeff is interesting because he dips his toe into so many different things. On one hand, he’s a PR man at MWW Group for Samsung (the day gig), SMITH Magazine, ACT-I-VATE online comix and anything else he finds interest in, and on the other hand, after hours, he’s a reggae singer who performs with many famous artists in the field, most recently three times this past week with the legendary Studio One / Skatalites saxman Cedric Brooks. Jeff.

JahFurry: Scaddamoosh.

LVHRD: And a smooch to the nooch to you. So, before we get started, do you prefer Jeff or JahFurry?

JahFurry: JahFurry will do swell for these porpoises.

LVHRD: Great, so how did you decide upon the name JahFurry?

JahFurry: Well, after years of backstage imitations at gigs I promoted, I started making guest vocal appearances with musical heroes of mine like Clark Gayton, Bill Sims Jr., Pat Cisarano, Cedric Brooks, etc doing dancehall-ish improv shenanigans… I was just Jeff at first, then — I do sport plenT of fur, when I go the beach, PETA throws paint on me — then Pat called me Jeffurry, and my friend DJ Ananji came up with the final morph and that was retroactively always my name.

LVHRD: Swell, what else?

JahFurry: When I graduated UPenn, I moved to NYC, and during an ill-fated attempt to stomach law school, I met Kochie Banton who was singing in the reggae scene, and Pat Cisarano a blues singer, and they sometimes sang together which, upon first hearing that jahxtaposition, gave me quite the zetz in the noggin…and they teamed up with a cat named Clark Gayton (trombone for Sting, Steel Pulse, Skatalites, Springsteen, Prince etc) to start the ultimate reggae meets blues meets jazz All-star band.

LVHRD: What year was this?

JahFurry: This was 1994 when they thought to do that genre bending band. They got a regular gig at the Metropolis Cafe.

LVHRD: And what was the band like?

JahFurry: They … got this insane All-star band [and they] wondered how to promote it. Well, one of them said ‘what about that guy Jeff who brings people to our gigs?’… so I met with them, and we all brainstormed the idea that instead of a band it could be a scene inspired by Giant Step, the Acid Jazz pioneers. We created a Reggae-meets-jazz scene and weekly night club called RubADub Jazz. And all of a sudden I was promoting this night, and it was an instant hit, on the cover of the NY Times Styles section, packed nite etc…

LVHRD: How did you go from doing reggae/jazz fusion to becoming a PR guy?

JahFurry: Over the years, I’d be called up to do quick guest appearances by different permutations of this extended family of topshelf musicians, many of which are smack on my MySpace Top 24. Until about now I was imitating guys like Kochie and DollarMan … eventually I got more and more confidence to let whatever nonsense JahFurry is come out.

LVHRD: But that still doesn’t explain how you got into doing PR.

JahFurry: PR / RubADub - all this was contemporaneous, I have a nonlinear career path.

LVHRD: Explain, por favor.

JahFurry: RubADub Jazz in 1994, pre-internet. I had flyers, and I would walk the green at Central Park and hand out hundreds. I’d also sit with folks and had the energy to do so because I knew this was some of the most wikkid fine sounds of alltime, forreal and surreal. And low and behold, on Monday night, sometimes more than 10 folks I met on Saturday in the park were there digging it. Then, of course, some of those people wound up being journalists.

LVHRD: Just like that, huh?

JahFurry: Without knowing it, I was doing PR. I was helping writers develop pitches about RubADub jazz, and it wound up on the cover of NY Times Styles, in The New Yorker, etc… when that ended… someone said go into PR because that is what I [was basically doing].

LVHRD: Hmmm….Well, we could talk music all day, but I kind of want to move on a bit. According to your MySpace page, one of your heroes is Alan Moore. Have you ever met him?

JahFurry: No, but last month, his daughter, Leah Moore, came across my essay on him that I posted to my MySpace blog, and she asked if I minded if she showed her Dad, she thought he’d get a kick out of it… I was like, uh…let me sleep on that one and get back to you…HELLZYEAH!

LVHRD: Nice. And what about SMITH Magazine, what is your job as Comix Editor?

JahFurry: As comix editor I’m on the lookout for comix related stories to blog about and for original online graphic novels to premiere and serialize online. I became Comix Editor de facto when I brought Shooting War to Larry [Smith] …

LVHRD: And can you explain Shooting War?

JahFurry: Shooting War started as a treatment by my friend Anthony Lappe, executive editor of Guerrilla News Network (GNN) who shot a documentary in Iraq during the war that was on Showtime called Battleground,…. So one night I was out at NuBlu seeing Clark Gayton with Anthony, and in the back at around 4 AM he told me his idea for a fictional story that he wanted to make into a movie or animated film taking place in 2011 about a young videoblogger in Iraq. I told Anthony to screw film right now and turn it into a comic….

LVHRD: This was all in a bar, correct?

JahFurry: Yes….and he agreed after I frothed some more….so the next day I had lunch with Larry S.

LVHRD: Okay, and that’s when he made you the Comix Editor?

JahFurry: Yep. SMITH Magazine is all about personal stories, and celebrating the new technologies that enable us to tell our stories, so a magazine about personal media revolution and a comic about a wartime videoblogger made the perfect combo. So, simultaneously, I became the creative consultant on Shooting War and Comix Editor of SMITH …Anthony then found artist Dan Goldman, whose work I knew from his psychedelic existential strip KELLY on ACT-I-VATE.

LVHRD: So what power does a creative consultant have with a webcomic?

JahFurry: That just means I know my comics, so I was an extra eye and brain, looking at scripts, art and just sticking my two cents in. And then, taking this Webcomic, and enthusinating about it to all I know wherever I go.

LVHRD: So how did you get involved with LVHRD?

JahFurry: My pal Paul Pope invited me to The Super Heroes Ball, for which he drew the poster….

LVHRD: So you went to the Super Heroes Ball, and then you wanted to be a member?

JahFurry: Well, I had a ball at the ball as Captain Marvel (though speaking of, and a tip for all aspiring heroes, I wore an athletic supporter under my spandex … for consistency).

LVHRD: Like the members of Spinal Tap.

JahFurry: There were a lot of heroines and villainesses.

LVHRD: So, then you contacted Chantal and became a member?

JahFurry: Well, Chantal, what a piece of work that one is.

LVHRD: Ha! Please expound on that statement.

JahFurry: Always showing off her superfluous navel. I’m like ‘I’ve SEEEEN it.’

LVHRD: Do you remember who she was dressed as?

JahFurry: I only remember what was photographed from that evening.

LVHRD: Ok, so, on a totally related note, what is your favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Jah?

JahFurry: Kindergarten Cop.

LVHRD: Wow, bold choice.

JahFurry: It’s a good film.

LVHRD: OK, last question, are you celebrating Hanukkah?

JahFurry: Yes, I’ll be celebratin’ a lil….

LVHRD: Bull’s-eye!