Purchase Student Hopes to be Next "Hometown Hero"

Christmas is just over a month away, but Brian, Travis and Jeffrey Crowley may receive the biggest gift of their lives sooner than that.

"We're the biggest pop fans in the world. We've been performing covers of all our favorite artists, and if we win we'll get to meet them because of that. It's ridiculous," Brian said.

The Crowley Brothers are one of five finalists in radio station Z100's "Hometown Hero" contest. The winner, announced on December 6th, will play live on stage at the pre-event to the popular Z100 Jingle Ball concert at Madison Square Garden on December 10th. Among the scheduled performers for this year's event are Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Michael Buble.

Judges for the contest include executives from Island Def Jam Records, Universal Music Group and Clear Channel Radio.

"A friend of mine on Facebook told me her friend tried out and that we should do the same," said Brian, a 20-year-old junior at SUNY Purchase majoring in Media, Society and the Arts. "Did we imagine we'd have success? Yes. Did we expect this kind of success? No."

The Crowleys, influenced by musicians like Jason Mraz, Matchbox 20 and Maroon 5, grew up in a musical household (their parents met at the famed Berklee College of Music) but are mostly self-taught. Travis, an 18-year-old freshman at CUNY Baruch, plays guitar and piano and Jeffrey, a 16-year-old junior at Croton Harmon High School, also plays piano. All three share vocal responsibilities in the group.

"It's been difficult juggling school and everything with the band, but we've managed to stay on top of it," Brian said.

Like Bieber, the Crowley Brothers have found success through YouTube. Their channel was originally made to keep in touch with family members and kids from a summer camp they worked at. Now it has over 1.1 million hits and over 13,000 channel subscribers from around the world.

"It's mind blowing," said Brian. "We uploaded a cover of 'Tik Tok' by Ke$ha and people just loved it. We have fans from places we'd love to visit like Argentina and the Netherlands!"

Adding fuel to the band's spike in popularity was a Valentine's Day encounter Travis had with Disney star Selena Gomez.

"I asked her to be my valentine and she said yes!" Travis said smiling. "I sent her a video later and she posted it on her Facebook and Twitter. We got a lot more fans because of that."

In the Spring, the Crowley Brothers won a contest to play in the "Shop Til You Rock" Tour with another Disney star, Demi Lovato. The brothers played the last stop of the tour at the Paramus Park Mall in New Jersey.

"It was our biggest show yet," said Jeffrey. "People walking around the mall who had no idea about the concert were into it. We even met three fans from Canada who took a bus down just to see us."

In addition to covers, the Crowleys have a few original songs titled "Radio", "Song For Her" and "Run Away", and are writing more with the intention of making an album. According to Brian they've already been approached by labels requesting a demo.

Despite being overwhelmed by their growing success, the brothers admit they obsessively check the voting results online.

"The leaderboard keeps changing. There's no clear favorite," Travis said.

Brian added, "We're by far the least famous of the finalists. The others have played bigger venues and have gotten some radio airplay. They're more power pop while we're more acoustic."

When it's all said and done, do they think they can win?

"We have a 1 in 5 chance," Travis quipped.