Adam here… This blog is a huge ?QUESTION? for you… my hope is that you’ll jump into the discussion and just post a comment of your thoughts no matter how small or big… if you’re like me, you like to just casually read stuff/blogs and never leave any evidence that you’ve been there… but maybe this time, throw down.

I’m really interested in what you think about this… I know Nic, Jules and Matt are too… as we’re deciding if we’re gonna release EPs or a full length album, this is on our front-burner as a band………….. it’s a new world out there in the minds and hearts of music fans, the music industry and artists, (which means everyone eh?)… it’s not ‘breaking news’, that the internet/digital world has changed “everything”… but has it changed everything? There’s new information in our brains… new ways to get it to our ears… new music to make us feel things… but it’s pretty much the same old brain, same old ears, same old feelings in a slightly different form… people are still born naked and made of flesh, bone and that invisible wonder: the soul… no mater how many piercings, aesthetic surgeries, clothing styles, haircuts, makeup applications or whatevers we pile on top of ourselves we’re still just people looking to connect to other people, love and be loved, have some kind of purpose and be understood forever and ever amen…

As a singer-songwriter-whatever, I’m super interested in what it takes to communicate through music and the different ways it can be done… here’s some stuff you already know: over the last hundred years or so music has been ingested more and more through the ever-present form of live performance but also through the “new” form of a recorded medium. Unlike the myriad generations before us, now we can take music with us. Gosh, it wasn’t THAT long ago that we crossed that line from big stereos to the Walkman. Which has given music so many incredible new realms in which it can work it’s magic… we now know what it’s like to hear music while we do almost anything… back in the day it was a little bit hard to bring an orchestra or singer-songwriter into the outhouse with you… or to the creek for a bath… or with you while you ride your horse to your friend’s house. Now, business people everywhere have discovered that music makes almost everything better… shopping, riding in an elevator, driving, walking, running, skiing, skating… actually just sing the theme song to Captain Kangaroo for a list of things you can do while listening to music… and that’s only some of the things… There was a time I had the TV on (which had dialog and music), my computer on my lap, with itunes playing Chris Cornell’s album Euphoria Morning, and I found myself wanting to play ANOTHER song at the same time.

Anyways, we’re increasingly living in a world where we have total control of how, when and what we listen to more than ever before… so people like me are wondering:

Do people really care about ALBUMS anymore? Or do they just want THE ONE SONG they like most?

Do people want to enter the world of the artist for any extended period of time… listen to a whole album, think about it, feel about it, watch the “making of” videos, blog about them etc. etc.? Or do they just want the most easily digestible 4-minute audio-drug: THE CATCHY HIT SINGLE?

Do people care about lyrics? About the artistic-adventurous side of things?

I’m guessing the answer to most of these questions is: ‘who cares’ for some, ‘yes’ for some, ‘no’ for others, ‘it depends’ for some and ‘maybe’ for others… but it’s all about the details eh? Lets find out…

So share whatever pops into your head. Use references if you want… albums, artists… experiences… whatever.

And if you have anything AWB specific to share, that would be appreciated as we make our decision too:-)

Weigh in!

Adam

GOODBYE DECEMBER:

December is dangerously close to finishing itself out. It’s my favorite month of all the months… it gives me a birthday, which reminds me how much closer I am to corpse-dom (which inspires inspired living)… it gives us Christmas (love: the giving, the recieving, the lights, the tree, the cold, the 100 or so snowmen at my parent’s house, that ever-evaporating magical holiday feeling, the niceness of people, the rain, family get-togethers, etc. etc.).

This year I proposed to a couple people that we all should leave our Christmas decorations up. Make this the default setting. Why not? It’s better and more fun. Then next year, when Christmas comes, we just ADD to it, challenge ourselves to make it look even more festive… and just keep it going year after year. This way things are always improving. There’s no post-Christmas let down. Ya know that super bland boring feeling when the Christmas tree is gone and there’s just a blank corner? We don’t have to feel that way people!… Anyways, so we keep it all up all year. Then when we all decide it’s gone too far, after maybe 5 years… we reset back to the norm (which by then will be awesome, starkly artsy, and all nostalgic). Let me know if you’re in.

THE ALTER-EGO… a story:

Last night Natalie and I were watching tv and against our own better judgement “The Soup” came on. It’s a celebrity based show that acts like it’s better than the other ones by making fun of them… but it’s exactly the same really… So there was a whole segment about Miley Cyrus (a.k.a. Hannah Montana). I was reminded that the last time I was in the studio with her (with Nic and Andy) she was quite… energetic… Nic had come along to help out and while we were doing vocals (for a song we wrote for Hannah Montana: season 3) Miley peered through the studio-window, suddenly focusing on Nic and said, in her nasally chirp “Hey! anyone ever tell you you look like Joe Dirt!?”. No one is safe around Miley. She’s pretty hilarious… fearless and full of that nutty teenage energy… X1000… You get the feeling that, famous or not, she would be exactly like this. At the end of every vocal take, she’d start doing a Reba McEntire impression, eventually calling herself “Meba”. It soon evolved into a mix between Reba and Emenem… country rap, performed by a teen star: it’s gonna be huge. Luckily we got what we needed for the song (which was actually a mellow acoustic tune!).

GETTING ALL REFLECTIVE and what not:

It’s odd doing what I do in that realm of music. It’s like the polar opposite of what I do as an artist… and the reason I got into music in the first place… It was never my plan to work on that style of music… but I’m completely and utterly thankful that I’ve had the chance to do it… it’s an amazing “gig” in most ways… to see a song you contributed to be listened to and enjoyed by millions upon millions worldwide, is a nice feeling. But it doesn’t compare to even one person really connecting to a song I’ve written then recorded or performed with Nic, Jules and Matt. And God willing, millions will hear this music very soon. That’s the plan.

With this pop-stuff… In a way I feel like an architect who’s goal is to make really inspired, compelling, intense buildings, but was asked to make some crazy jungle gyms that would be sold to millions of kids. And I said “sure, why not, I can still design all the other stuff”. Every now and then I think “Oh frick! I’m a sellout!”… Then I remember that it’s strategic. My plan is and always has been to have fun making music AND at the same time, grow as an artist without spoiling it… it’s funny, I’ll do whatever is necessary for a pop song for someone else to sing, but when it’s MY song, I won’t bend a millimeter away from what’s honest and true to what I need to express.

It is mind bending sometimes though, to work on this shiny gleaming pop then the next minute dig deep and write music that really means something to me. Usually though, it’s like a switch. I just toggle it over and I’m back to my core (it’s always barking and thrashing right below the surface)… Then suddenly I’m back to what I really love about the power of music and the CLEAR line between the real and the manufactured. Between the contrived and the organic. Between the inspired and the made from craft… it’s a little more grey than that though… I must admit it does take genuine inspiration and belief to write ANY song… you just have to diverge at some point along the process and serve someone else’s purpose…

BY THE GRACE OF DODD:

Sometimes that side of me won’t toggle back and I find myself unable to write or produce a poppy song… that’s when I’m so glad Andy is there to pick up the slack and give me a moment to gather the energy flip the switch (which somehow got rusted stuck:-). What a guy:-)…. he’s had a lot of grace for me in those times… suddenly the dude who was willing to go with the flow yesterday, is now all full of an almost religious fervor against all things not emanating from personal experience and a sort of “this sucks, that doesn’t” aural esthetic.

If these are my biggest problems then I guess life is good… but they aren’t! And yet life is still good. ha. The weight of the world seems to land back on my shoulders weekly if not daily… I guess it’s the vocation (blessing? curse?) of artists to try to dead-lift the world:-)…. but then, we ALL feel like that every now and then, eh? Maybe we should all get together and LIFT at the same time and it wouldn’t feel as heavy.

This blog is long. I’ll finish with a few questions:

Does Nic really look like Joe Dirt?

What songs should go on our AWB EP?

How about we forget about New Year’s Resolutions and make it a Dissolution?

Make it about what can we dissolve that’s only holding us back? That’s maybe a little easier then committing to DOING something… lets commit to stop doing something! Eh? Okay that concludes the “self-help” portion of the blog AND the blog itself. 

bye for now!

Adam

Wanted to fill you guys in on EP land…  specifically a song we’ve just decided to add on to the list…

Today Matt and I are working on guitars for a song called “When Everything Else Is Gone”… maybe the longest title of any song I’ve written… just couldn’t find a good way to shorten it. It’s a song I wrote maybe 6 months ago… I recorded a lot of it back then in a flurry of inspiration… well, equal parts inspiration, fear, frustration and semi-angry, desperate hope.

I was in a place then (which feels like a long time ago now) where I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. Lost at home. Awake and sleeping. Completely free and yet stuck in the mud. If you’re alive, you’ve been there. It’s nothing unique. But there I was, it hurt, it pissed me off. But God IS good. Whether we know it or not… or believe it or not. And getting out of my own way while at the same time stepping up and owning those gut feelings about which direction to go was the only way to drag my way out of the mud. But I needed help… and God helps those who help themselves, eh?… looking back that feels just about right… and He sent a few things: new words, new music, new desire, and a person with an unbreakable belief in me. What a gift. I’ve been writing at least a few songs a week… sometimes two a day. It’s nourishing. 

Anyways, last week, when I listened to what I had written and recorded 6 months ago, I got a little misty:-)… not because the song was so awesome… who knows if anyone will like it… but because of how it took me RIGHT BACK to how I felt then… and reminded me of how far I’ve been taken since then. There’s a lot of hopeful DNA in the song… but when I was writing it, the “hope” was more of a concept… a fleeting emotion… the “hope” was like a text message I got, and as soon as I read it, it deleted itself… what I was FEELING the most was more negative and confused… the hopeful elements were there out of faith and maybe a little bit of inspiration and desperation… I was reaching for the only thing I could reach for with any confidence: the Lord. It was a preview of what was to come… a snapshot of where I was heading…. And now when I listen to the song, I’m FEELING the hope and I’m reminded of the fear and anger. It all sounds so narcissistic!! haha… And I guess in one sense it is, but not if part of the reason for creating things is to connect to other people and that’s the biggest reason I do it… but the creative process is also therapeutic. There are subconscious things going on that have a kind of “time-release” element to them… I guess this song is really the labor pains and elation of a turning point and a REBIRTH for me… AND for the band. In a way finishing this song now, is exactly the cherry on top on this new EP. It reminds me of when I got married… I didn’t want to look at the photos of the wedding until the memories had sufficiently faded to the point where the photos would BE memories rather than just give me a different perspective on ones I already had… now I can’t tell the difference between the photos and my actual memories… and the same with the song… it cements that time and points a finger in the direction I need to stay pointed in.

- A