Leonardtown, MD – Drake Bell is a well-known American actor and musician. He is most recognized for his role as Drake Parker on Drake and Josh and the voice of Peter Parker on the Ultimate Spiderman. He is currently making waves in the music industry with his new sound; working with artists such as Josh Dun, Mike Taylor, Lil Mama and Tank God. In February 2018, Drake released two music videos which have received ample press and over one million views combined. Drake released two new songs this summer of 2018.  Drake will be headline Park Rock Fest as part of his current tour of the US and other countries promoting his EP Honest released on June 30, 2017.

Drake the Actor

Bell was born on June 27, 1986 in Newport Beach, California. Bell started acting at the age of five, encouraged by his father. He stated “I was five, and my dad kind of said, ‘Hey, you wanna be an actor?’ and I said, ‘Sure,’ that kind of thing, you know? I was kind of put into it by my dad but, you know, good. I really love it, and I still do it.” Bell’s first televised commercial was for Whirlpool Appliances. “I had to sit under a tree and eat a Popsicle,” Bell later stated, “I thought, ‘I could get used to this.” His first television show appearance was on a 1994 episode of Home Improvement.

He starred with Roger Daltrey in the 2001 film “Chasing Destiny” until the show was cancelled in 2002.  In 2003, Bell was cast as Drake Parker alongside real life best friend and former Amanda Show costar Josh Peck on the Nickelodeon series “Drake & Josh”. During this time period, he made a guest appearance as himself on Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 and won the first of three consecutive “Blimp Awards”.

In the spring of 2008, Bell had a starring role in the comedy spoof film “Superhero Movie”. Bell recorded a theme song featuring his co-star Sara Paxton for the film called “Superhero! Song”, which was released on April 8, 2008. In August 2008, he co-starred in the comedy “College”, which was shot on location in New Orleans. Bell also starred in “Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh” alongside Josh Peck, which began production in July 2008, and premiered on December 5, 2008. In 2009, his songs “Unbelievable” and “Modern Times”, which was featured on a commercial for “Twalkin”.  Bell was also cast in a pilot for a then upcoming CBS comedy series, “Fish Tank”, stating Bell’s involvement is what put the series into production in the first place.

In 2010, he made a cameo appearance as Drake Parker in an “iCarly” episode entitled “iBloop” and a guest role in “I Owe My Life To Corbin Bleu”. He starred as Timmy Turner in the live-action TV-movie adaptation of its hit animated series “The Fairly Odd Parents, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!”, released in 2011and reprised his role in the 2012 sequel, “A Fairly Odd Christmas”.

Bell was cast in 2012 as Spider-Man in the animated TV series: Ultimate Spider-Man based on the comic book of the same name. He later reprised the role in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, replacing Josh Keaton who originally recorded his role for the series. He has also voiced the role of Spider-Man in two video games, Marvel Heroes, an MMORPG, and Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes, in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Bell later reprised his role as Spider-Man in the 2015 game Disney Infinity 3.0.  The season four premiere of “Ultimate Spider-Man” on Disney XD, starring Bell as the title character, aired on February 22, 2016.

He was also in the 2012 Nickelodeon movie “Rags” as Shawn and a guest role in “Keenan Cahill’s Story” as himself. In 2013, Bell participated in the first season of the ABC reality TV series “Splash”, a celebrity diving competition, in which he made third place. In February 2012, Bell appeared in a Shane Dawson YouTube video entitled “Kidnapping Drake Bell”.

Throughout 2013 and 2014, Bell had roles in several animated films, such as “The Naughty List”, “Adventure Planet”, “Birds of Paradise” and “Under Wraps”. Bell starred in the third of the trilogy of “The Fairly Odd Parents Live”-action films called “A Fairly Odd Summer”, reprising his role as Timmy Turner, which was released on August 2, 2014. In 2014, Bell was nominated in the Capital Twitter Awards for Biggest Twitter Feud vs. Justin Bieber. Bell starred in an animated film entitled “Frozen in Time”, which was released November 11, 2014.

He starred with his “Drake & Josh” co-star Miranda Cosgrove in the animated film “A Mouse Tale”, which was released directly to DVD on February 10, 2015. Bell stars in the slasher film “L.A. Slasher” as The Popstar, which was released on June 26, 2015, in a limited theater release. Bell recorded a song for the film’s soundtrack, titled “Day & Night”. He also stars alongside Bella Thorne and Cameron Dallas in the United States dub of “The Frog Kingdom” which was released on June 30, 2015 on video on demand and on DVD.

He is also set to appear in an episode with his “Drake & Josh” co-star Josh Peck on Peck’s new FOX television series, “Grandfathered”; Bell will guest star as Kirk, a wealthy tech investor. The episode with Bell aired in the Spring of 2016. Bell is set to star as Dan Orange, lead singer of a band called “Orange and the Dead Ends” in a new digital series called “Dan is Dead”. The premiere date has not yet been revealed. Bell has recorded a song titled “We’re Dead” for the series.

Bell stars in the 2017 film Bad Kids of Crestview Academy, a sequel to the 2012 film Bad Kids Go to Hell.
 

Drake the Musician
He began to play guitar at the age of twelve. Bell career in music starting in the early 2000s, at the time of his appearances on “The Amanda Show”, with a band named Drake 24/7. He received his first official guitar lessons from Roger Daltrey in 2001.
His song, “Found a Way” (featured as the theme song for “Drake & Josh”) is also included on the show’s soundtrack, which was released on February 22, 2005.

In 2005, Bell performed with Hawk Nelson in a video for the Hawk Nelson song called “Bring ‘Em Out,” which was featured in the movie “Yours, Mine and Ours”. The studio version was included on Hawk Nelson’s EP “Bring ‘Em Out” and on the special edition of “Hawk Nelson Is My Friend.”

On August 23, 2005 he independently released his debut album, “Telegraph”, released under Bell’s own name. The album includes 12 tracks. All the tracks were single-handedly written by Bell with the exception of “Highway to Nowhere”.  Being an independent release, the album ran out of print, and was re-released on August 7, 2007. Bell’s song “Highway to Nowhere” was performed on an episode of “Zoey 101”. “Highway to Nowhere” is included on the “Drake & Josh” soundtrack and Bell’s album “Telegraph”. Bell’s song “Down We Fall” was played on an episode of “Drake & Josh” titled “Number 1 Fan”.

His second album, “It’s Only Time”, was released in 2006 after signing with Universal Motown Records and debuted at #81 on the Billboard 200, selling over 23,000 copies during its first week of release. It also charted on the Billboard Rock Charts at number 21. The album was more successful in Mexico, reaching number 4 in the Mexico Top 100. It is his first album to chart on the Billboard 200, and his highest-selling album with more than 178,000 copies sold in the United States as of 2012.  Bell wrote all of the songs. However, they were all co-written with C.J. Abraham, Michael Corcoran, or both.

The video for “I Know” was released in October 2006. The single topped the Mexican music charts. “I Know” also appeared on the 2010 compilation album, “Pure Love Songs Vol. 2”. His song from “It’s Only Time”: “Makes Me Happy”, peaked at number 3 on the “Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Chart”, which is an extension of the “Hot 100”. The song also made an appearance on the “Pop 100” at number 67 and on the “Hot Digital Songs Chart” at number 45. Because of the song’s popularity, on October 16, 2007, the Radio Disney single edit version of his song “Makes Me Happy”, was released on iTunes.

He also featured on the theme song for the show “iCarly”: “Leave It All to Me,” with his Drake & Josh co-star Miranda Cosgrove. The music video for the song was released on Cosgrove’s Vevo YouTube channel on September 28, 2010. The song took the lowest position on the “Hot 100”, peaking at number 100. It also peaked on the “Pop 100” at number 83.

A DVD entitled “Drake Bell In Concert” was released on December 16, 2008. The video was unable to crack the 2008 or 2009 “Top 100” in the U.S., but did chart on the “Top 100 Mexican Album Charts”, peaking at number 81. The DVD contains footage of him and his band live on stage while they toured in Mexico, filmed during five sold out fall nights. It also features 2 new songs and five covers, all of which are exclusive to the DVD.

On May 18, 2011, a music video for Bell’s song “You’re Not Thinking” was released on YouTube.

Bell’s EP, titled “A Reminder”, was released on June 28, 2011. The lead single of “A Reminder”: “Terrific”, was released on June 14, 2011, with the music video being released on December 9, 2012. The EP was produced by John Fields, who previously worked with Rooney, Jimmy Eat World, Selena Gomez, the Jonas Brothers, and Bleu. Bell said he decided to release “A Reminder” because he hasn’t put out new music in a few years and “a full album will probably not happen until next year.” On November 1, 2013, Bell released the studio version of his unreleased song “Nevermind”, on YouTube. He released a holiday single, “Christmas Promise”, on December 17, 2013.

On April 22, 2014, Bell released his third studio album, his first rockabilly album, Ready Steady Go!, under Surfdog Records, with which he signed in 2012. It was produced by Peter Collins and childhood idol, Brian Setzer, frontman of the rockabilly revival band, Stray Cats. He has referred to the album as “getting in the DeLorian, hitting 88 miles per hour, and going back to the future.” The album’s lead single, “Bitchcraft”, was released on January 28, 2014. The single was remixed by French electro swing band Caravan Palace. The album’s promotional single, “I Won’t Stand In Your Way”, a cover of the Stray Cats original song, was released on April 17, 2014.

A cover of Cask Mouse’s song “Bull”, was released as the album’s second single on October 8, 2014. The single was listed in the Mexican radio Top 10 for a number of weeks. The album was recorded completely live. It debuted and peaked at number 182 on the Billboard 200 and sold 2,000 copies in its first week of release. He appeared in a documentary about the genre of rockabilly and its culture titled It’s a Rockabilly World!

Bell took part in the High School Nation Tour in support of Ready Steady Go!, touring High Schools all around the U.S. The tour lasted from September 16, 2014, to October 22, 2014. It began in Los Angeles, California, and ended in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bell also performed at Exa FM’s Concerto Exa 2014 in Mexico City, performing to more than 50,000 people. Though Bell started the tour in 2015, the Ready Steady Go! Tour continued in 2016.

On January 4, 2015, Bell revealed a picture of his broken wrist on Twitter saying, “Doctors say I’ll never play guitar again, it’s over”. Even though the injury (which was caused by diving into the shallow end of a pool at his brother’s birthday party) at first seemed to threaten Bell’s further career as a musician, he has recovered quickly from the injury, and is back to playing guitar.

Bell embarked on a concert tour in Mexico starting on February 5, 2016, which ended on February 7, 2016. The tickets were sold out within minutes of going on sale online. Then Bell toured high schools in the US as part of the High School Nation Tour, from March 28, 2016, to April 29, 2016.

Drake Bell’s performance in Pauley Ballroom on Sept 2017 included his EP titled Honest, released on June 30, 2017. Bell put down his guitar and sang to a backtrack;  the change brought a great deal of energy to the eager crowd, buying into his new, more upbeat sound. These newer songs required quite a bit more vocal range from Bell; featuring notes that are just at the top of his reach. The crowd was willing to award him an A for effort. (Daily Californian http://www.dailycal.org/2017/09/07/drake-bell-honest-relay-for-life-music-fest-pauley-ballroom/)

In February 2018 Drake Bell released two videos’ “Rewind” followed by “Honest”.  The combined 2 video have over 1 million views. Honest and Rewind are both songs from the his EP titled Honest “Rewind” is an exploration into a world where lines have blurred. How do you define true love versus pure passion?’” says Bell.  “Are we in love or is it just our bodies reacting to the electricity between us? Take a listen and find out.”   (https://people.com/music/drake-bell-rewind-music-video-nude-photo/)

His newest songs release this summer are: “Call Me When You’re Lonely” and “First Thing In The Morning” are available here.

Bell has described his music as being heavily influenced by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Brian Setzer. Among the other music acts and artists which have influenced Bell are Oasis, Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page, Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley, and Chuck Berry.

Park Rock Fest 2018 is on Saturday, September 1st, at the Saint Mary’s County Fairgrounds. 42455 Fairgrounds Rd, Leonardtown, MD 20650. The 16th annual Park Rock Fest is produced by the Power Jam Music Alliance Inc. and sponsored by Maryland State Arts Council, St. Mary’s County Arts Council and St. Marys County. 

There will be 20 artist performing on one of three concurrent music stages; for non-stop music! The fest features Pop, Punk, Emo, Screamo, Hard Rock, Alternative, Independent, Acoustic, Hardcore, and Metal. The headliner for 2018 is Jake Bell. The headliner on the metal, hard rock and hardcore stage is the band Fit for an Autopsy.  Back for a fourth year is the third stage with acoustic acts featuring a special acoustic set by James Tomas Woodruff the voice of the punk band Hawthorn Heights.  The Park Rock Fest also features commercial vendors and community group vendors and band merch tents. The gates open at 11:00 AM and close at 9 PM.  All ages are welcome.  Park Rock Fest is drug free, and an obscenity free event. For further information, go to www.PARKROCK.com or call 240-925-8659.