What it is.

It's light and sound. It's sticks and strings; wood and steel. It's feel and style. It's immediate art. It's the downbeat kick and the backbeat crack. It's callused fingers, blistered hands, swollen joints. It's an audience that sings your lyrics and dances to your grooves. It's bloodshot eyes and unshaved faces, leather jackets and sunglasses at night. It's brand new names and old familiar faces. It's driving through the night from Copenhagen to Amsterdam just to make the next show. It's reading novels in the green room and late night talks about God. It's finding food long past midnight in a strange city. It's the trial of a few thousand practice hours that nobody else heard. It's finding wifi so you can talk to your woman back home. It's creating memories and a routine of special moments. It's a knowing nod on stage after a sick fill. It's indignant for the pretenders, millionaire hacks, show business formulas, and tired old cliches.

It's everyone who knows and everyone else who just thinks they do.

So, just what is it about that rock 'n' roll?

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First Things First

So, it's been awhile since I last posted. That is, of course, my bad. In my defense, it's been a crazy few weeks, but I'm back out on the road where things tend to move at a much more relaxed pace.

How to fight jet lag in Munich.

Or something.

So, in the interest of catching everyone up...

We are currently 4 days away from Tyler Ward's very first major label release. The Honestly album will be released on Friday, and to both celebrate and commemorate, we've planned a little tour over here in Europe. As it stands, I'm typing this blog up in a hotel room in Munich, Germany, getting ready for a few days of final rehearsals and beating jet lag before the album drops & the tour starts.

Sean Waldron: "whatchathinkabout LOVE?"

Sean Waldron's latest YouTube single features some pretty rad video design (by Sean himself), photos from real fans, and percussion by yours truly (we even recorded some leg drumming for this one).

So, check it out. No, seriously. Watch it. I mean, why wouldn't you at this point? You're already here, right? All you need to do is click on the video and enjoy 3 minutes & 21 seconds of sheer auditory bliss. You're more than likely going to find yourself singing this one later today, too, which won't be a problem because it's a great song. So, enjoy it, folks:

Album Lockdown: Drum Day

Six or seven weeks ago, Tyler, Joey, and I walked into a recording studio in North Hollywood in order to track drums for Tyler’s next record. The studio was owned & operated by John Fields, a producer noteworthy for his work with artists like Switchfoot, The Jonas Brothers, Lifehouse, P!nk, Semisonic, and, most recently, Megan & Liz (another YouTube breakout). The day marked my very first session for an album contracted for a major record label and my first experience tracking with an A-list producer.

Needless to say, getting to sleep was a tad harder than usual the night before.

I was a little bit apprehensive, even more excited, and the morning of the session brought all the classic self-doubting questions: Was I going to contribute to the album in a meaningful way or stumble all over myself and waste everybody’s time? Was this legit producer going to enjoy my playing or would he end up trying to convince Tyler to hire somebody else? Was I going to hit it out of the park or strike out on a single pitch?

Book Reviews on a Music Blog

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's always a great feeling when you buy a new book based on the title and jacket cover alone and end up discovering that it's just as satisfying as you had dared to hope when you purchased it.

For an author's first novel, this is a stunner. Well-written, well-researched, well-paced. To put it succinctly, this book paints wonderful pictures, crafts memorable scenes, and tells a compelling story. Mullen weaves a tale of moral complexity remarkably well: this is a story about self-doubting characters forced to make ethically intricate & taxing decisions (IE: like real life). The book compounds the consequences of well-intentioned but short-sighted choices with the devastating effects of a proverbial act of God, and a cast of believable, developed characters adds great heaps of plausibility to the storytelling.

The historical aspects are impressively layered in, as well: there's much to be learned here about some of the lesser-known dynamics surrounding the first World War. Mullen doesn't simply pick a time and a place for his setting, but folds the truths of the time into his characters: into their motivations, their understandings, and their actions. The result is a very down-to-earth and credible feel for the story - it strikes a chord because it's grounded. Even Mullen's descriptions of what it feels like to be set upon by a life-threatening flu feel familiar (even for someone who's never been assaulted by a homicidal virus).

This book is refreshingly recommendable... to everyone. It's not obscene, it's not hard to read, and it's the polar opposite of an awful book. It's hard not to be envious of a guy striking gold like this on his first foray into published prose: Thomas Mullen hit a home run at his first major league at bat.

Well done, sir.

View all my reviews