Saturday night we headed over to Java Jams expecting to play to a small, rather subdued, crowd. I had posted on the facebook event page that I was going to be telling the stories behind some of our songs and I had planned to give the set a nice and relaxed coffeeshop vibe, even under those bright flourescents. I did not see the night unfolding the way it did. Since the place was already starting to fill up, we started 10 minutes early and by the end of the night we had extended a 23-song set to somewhere in the 30-song range. On top of that, we finally just gave up on the whole "mellow" thing and decided to blast the place out, concluding with a raucous and extended cover of the Gin Blossoms' "Hey Jealousy", which we hadn't played at all in several months. It was nice, considering that it was the first song we performed at our very first gig back in November of 2009.
I've had a lot of discussions with friends and family over the last few weeks about what the next step for our music really needs to be, and, as promised, this is the first place I wanted to bring our latest news. After a lot of talking and soul-searching, we've decided that it's time to finally make that record. I wrote and cut rough tracks of more than 25 songs in 2011, and over the past couple of days we've determined which 13 will make up the first record, entitled "These Two Shall Pass". Now, those of you familiar with the stories behind many of these songs will probably be able to immediately tell which songs are going to make it onto the LP and which ones aren't. Why? Because this album is going to tell a story, just like I hope the one after that will, and the one after that. Several of the songs you've heard are going to be saved for those other records.
The response we've received from both friends and strangers to the meaning and truthfulness in our original music has been more overwhelming than I ever would have guessed, and as a result very humbling. You've probably guessed that this record is going to have a lot of "sad" to it, and that's true. But I hope that more than anger and sadness, the songs we're putting together will still reveal an underlying message of hope amid the gray. For me, there's no anger or sadness in music that doesn't stem from love. Sure, it's fun to stagger around on stage acting bitter and spiteful, and those are very real emotions, but what's the point in writing songs like "Stand In the Same Room" and "Wales" just to be mean? I hope that someone can relate to them and that hearing and singing along can be as therapeutic for them as the writing was for me. It's a win-win-win. I get to sing, someone gets to enjoy it, and one of my not-so-evil-after-all ex-girlfriends gets immortalized in a song. (And I hope they're ready for it because as soon as the record is done we're gonna put this music all over the place.)
In tonight's post I wanted to share some videos of just some of the singer-songwriters and songs that helped inspire the songs on the record. I feel like I'm constantly being influenced by all kinds of music and other types of art. I hope you enjoy some of these as much as I did.
Of course, anyone who's been coming to our shows for a while is familiar with the song in this first video. Will Hoge has been one of my absolute favorite musicians since I first began listening to his records in the summer of 2003. He also has one of my favorite voices in the world. If you were at any of our gigs in late 2010 or early 2011 you probably heard us play this song, "Just Like Me" towards the end of the night. Sometimes we even mashed it up with portions of the Format's "She Doesn't Get It". I love the combination of soulfulness and anger in this song. You can almost hear the sneer in his voice. I think it's easy to see where this song served as inspiration for some of my music. Hope you like it!
Another one of my favorite performers and songwriters is Matt Nathanson, and I don't know if any of his songs ever had a bigger effect on me both personally and as a songwriter than "Answering Machine". I can't think of a single relationship-related emotion that's not present in this song. It's tough when you save that one voicemail because you need to hold on to that chance to hear her voice, but once you cross that threshold of no longer wanting or needing to hear it, going in to get rid of it can be even worse. Check it out - if you know me it'll be obvious why I like this one and where it had its influence on my writing:
Okay, this next video is from Matthew Good, a Canadian musician who constantly blows me away with his dark and intense songwriting ability. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing him in concert next month for the first time. It would take me a while to list all of his songs that have profoundly affected me as a musician, but "Born Losers" has a special significance in the long road to our first record. I'll probably write a whole blog entry about it sometime. Here ya go!
Finally, a track from Dashboard Confessional (originally featuring Adam Duritz on backup vocals) that really inspired the tone and imagery I tried to invoke for the overall feel of several songs that are going on our record, most notably "Summer Never Came". It makes me think of the haze through which we sometimes view the past. More on this later. I'll let you read and come to your own conclusions for now because a full entry on that particular song will be forthcoming in the next few days. What a beautiful song this is...
I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do! Until next time, happy listening...
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