History of a band part 4

Part of  challenge of writing about the history of this band is knowing where to draw the lines with how much you reveal and how much you keep to yourself.  There have been a lot of crap that’s gone down over the years between members and a lot of people who have put the screwins to us.  Do I just come right out and air all that stuff publically or do I use some discretion?  Thats a question that’s stopped me from writing on this blog for the past several months.  In the end I think it’ll be a combination of both honesty and discretion.  I don’t want to slander people, but I don’t want to hide things that went down. 

The reason this is an issue now is because I’m getting into an era of the band where a lot of good and a lot of bad happened to us. 

After ‘Bozz joined the band we decided to record yet again.  We needed to capture the big guitar sound that 2 guitarists were adding.  A mega church worship leader at the local mega church had a recording studio in his basement that was turning out pretty good quality.  The dude sat us down, gave us his sales pitch about how for “$200.00 a song” he’ll do the entire demo from tracking, mixing, and mastering.  We knew that for that price things weren’t going to be miraculous, but the other projects we was turning out sounded more than good enough for what we needed.  We coughed up the money and headed into the studio to record our self titled EP.  Tracking was going fairly well and we were happy with the progress.  However when it came time for mixing, thing really hit the fan.  Matt, the studio owner, did the mixes on his own and had us over for a playback.  The mixes sounded flat, they had no energy, the horns sounded absolutely horrible, it was nowhere near the sound we wanted.  We pushed back a bit on Matt but all we got was, “look for $200.00 you guys got your money’s worth” and he was unwilling to do any more work for us.  This rubbed us the wrong way big time.  When we sat down to discuss working together, the price was the price.  There was no discussion of “I’ll work harder for you if you pay me more”.  It was, “This is what I charge and this is what you’ll get.”  Furthermore the “mastering” was really just EQ and normalization of the tracks.  We just spent about $1000.00 for a recording that was pretty much useless to us, and the worst part was we were gearing up to leave for Cornerstone again in about a month.

I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I talked to another friend in a band who got some pretty quality recordings from a local studio.  He game me his name and I called the guy.  Roger owned a local studio called “CAB Studios” and he quoted me a price to remix the entire demo.  I called Matt, got all the Pro Tools files and we headed over to Rog’s to remix.  Roger took one listen to our current recordings and immediately said we got ripped off.  We knew it, but it was nice to have validation.  He spent about 15 minutes on the first track, “Blood on the Ground” and the difference was night and day. 

We ended up paying Roger about $200.00 to remix the entire EP, which also included rerecording the trumpet tracks because the original tracks were completely ruined by auto tuning and horrible mic placement.  Roger also did a quick mastering job in T-Racks and we were set for Cornerstone. 

The remixed/remastered version of the EP was what we were really looking for.  It wasn’t the best quality, but it was a giant step up from “What’s Next”.  That’s always our goal with these kinds of things.  When you’re in a band funding everything out of your own pockets you have to be realistic about things like recordings.  You aren’t going to be digging in and shelling out thousands of dollars.  What’s important is that you continually grow in the quality of your artwork and the way its presented.  The S/T ep did that for us.  I still look on that release very fondly.  Not because I think the songwriting or performance was the best, but because it was the first TSS release with what would be our lineup for several years to come.

History of a band part 3

Because of what happened at Cornerstone, we decided we needed to record an EP.  We had 5 songs that we thought were pretty solid and a friend just got some new recording equipment so we decided to go for it.  Between what my friend was able to do and my limited experience in recording we thought we should be able to get something descent.  We also asked Stephen Sarro of Tantrum of the Muse to come into the studio w/ us and help us out.  He mainly worked with Pete’s drum parts, helping him stay on time with the click tracks and stuff like that. 

The recording took forever.  Mostly because of the mixing.  The thing was, we had no clue what we were doing.  When it came down to getting a good mix, it just wasn’t happening.  We called the EP, “What’s Next”  A blatant rip off of “Who’s Next” by The Who.  It was supposed to pay tribute to one of our influences and also be a prophetic statement that what was to come would be rock and roll unlike what was heard before.  Unfortunately the songs just didn’t live up to the expectation set by the title of the CD.  At the time we were mad proud of it though.  It was miles above anything we’ve done up to that point.  That’s the thing about being in a band.  If you aren’t outdoing what you’ve done before, if you aren’t always moving forward, then there’s no point to being in a band anymore.  We were seeing growth, even if it was slow.

One night after mixing “What’s Next” I came home to some seriously loud guitar playing.  I walked into my apartment to see DBozz standing there with a new half stack and guitar, Scott standing next to him teaching him some of our licks.  They were running through a song called “Only Social” that was driven by a hollow sounding guitar riff.  I had to admit, the two guitars sounded much better than the one guitar.  Everyone was really digging the sound of two guitars so you know, we decided to have one of our famous band meetings to discuss DBozz coming into the band.  The discussion lasted a few minutes maybe, and we asked Derek to join (who was not christened “DBozz” yet.  Funny story about that name.  Pete has a tendency to pull things out of his arse and make them stick.  One day Pete was watching “Zoolander” and heard Hansel (he’s so hot right now) refer to Derek Zoolander as “DBozz”.  The next practice Pete called Dered “DBozz” one time…and being in Pete fashion, it stuck).

The introduction of DBozz led to what would become a somewhat trademark sound for us over the next few years.  We strived to not just have a typical lead/rhythm format where Scott played all the riffs and DBozz played power chords underneath.  Rather, we approached things from an angle of DBozz harmonizing more with what Scott was doing.  Sure his riffs were a little more simplified, but he added layers to what was being done on the lead guitar.  Not that we didn’t have times where Bozz did just rip the chords and Scott took off on a solo, but that wasn’t our main jive.  The thing was, D Bozz wasn’t singing yet.  George was the front man and Bozz didn’t have to worry about things like “how do I play this and sing over it?”.  In some ways, the music was more technical in those days.  Not that the songs were better, because they weren’t.  There was far too much fluff and filler.  Technically speaking though we were doing more.  It took us a long time to figure out that more does not equal good.  I’m not trying to take a dump on what we were doing though.  That time was good.  For one thing, DBozz really grew as a guitar player because we were pushing him to break the mold of a typical rhythm guitar player.  He got really creative in those first couple of years.  Everything I would have done as a rhythm guitar player, he seemed to do the opposite, and it was always better.  Guess that’s why I play sax and he plays guitar.  Pete and Kyle also enjoyed the strengths that Bozz added to the rhythm section.  Almost immediately he was locking in with Kyle and Pete.  That’s always the biggest concern musically when you add a new member to the band, particularly to the rhythm section.  How will this person jive with the chemistry that’s already in place?  For some reason, that was never a problem with DBozz.

History of a band part 2

I’m not going to promise that we’ll be doing these blogs every day, but I want to get to a certain point in the band’s history fairly quickly.

I haven’t written anything about DBozz yet and that’s mainly because he wasn’t in TSS at first.  Not that he wasn’t lurking around, catching wind of what were doing.  We played with just Scott on guitar for quite a while.  DBozz used to play with us way back in the “pre-TSS” days, but left around Y2K.  Not sure why but things were so lack luster back then that it was probably one of those situations where he just stopped coming to practice.  Either way, by the time TSS was formed and we had songs written, he was trying to find a way back into the band.  For some reason, we were a bit hesitant to add a second guitar player.  We tried one guy for a little bit, but he ended up being a complete jerk who was only interested in working with George and the first chance he got, he tried to get George to quit the band.  I think that experience made us a bit weary to bring anyone else in, even if it was someone we knew and trusted like DBozz.  Now obviously Dbozz did find his way into the band…but that’s another story for another time.

On Scott’s Christmas break we were actually able to land our first gig.  It was in Albany NY which, looking back was a mistake.  Our first show should have been in Lancaster where at least if no one showed up, we didn’t lose that much money.  Instead, we rented a van, loaded up and drove up the Albany to play for 15 people.  The upside of the trip was that for a “first show”, things went surprisingly well musically.  We kept the show moving, played pretty decently and seemed to hold the attention of the “crowd”.  Of course, the best part in these kinds of things is simply spending time on the road together.  It’s hard to count an experience like that as a total loss when you have so much fun.

As the summer approached and Scott came home, we started making some bigger plans for the band.  The Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, IL was something I always wanted to do as a band.  The time seemed right to try it.  Scott was back for good as he decided to stay local for the rest of his college career and the band was ready to up the ante.  We did Cornerstone twice, but the first year out was the odder of the two trips.  We had a friend with a large flat bed trailer and a power generator.  We loaded that thing up w/ all our band equipment, not having a clue what we were going to do at the festival once we got there.  The caravan out to IL was quite impressive.  We had a Rodeo towing a trailer, 2 VW Jettas, a Honda CRV and a Volvo station wagon all loaded to the gills with tents, sleeping bags, coolers, and of course band equipment.  Somehow we all managed to stay together for the 18 hour trip out.  The first year we got there so late that all the good campsites (the sites by main roads where we could run shows w/ a generator) were all taken so we found ourselves tucked along some side road that went to nowhere.

That year was a bit confusing for us and honestly, we probably weren’t ready to play out at Cornerstone yet…even if it was just at people’s campsite stages (which used to be called “generator shows”…but these little shows got more and more sophisticated.  They got to the point where sometimes a generator show had better production than a real festival sponsored stage.)  As a band we were playing fairly well but our identity was still being found.  Our songs didn’t have a consistent feel to them.  Still, we turned some heads there, built a bit of a following, and pulled some legendary stunts.  Most of all we became known as the “bullhorn band” due to the fact that our main promoting technique involved us walking around the festival with a bullhorn making announcements night and day.  To this day, I feel sorry for the ladies taking a shower that night George wandered into the ladies shower and announced, “Good evening ladies!  This is a reminder to catch The Suburban Sound tomorrow night at 7!” 

While the trip out was fairly uneventful, the trip home was a different story.  Eighteen hours is a long time to drive after a week of performing and camping out in hot dusty sticky fields.  Nooger fell asleep at the wheel at one point and hit the medium on the PA Turnkpike.  His car bounced off the medium strip, sent him across 2 lanes of highway and landed him in the shoulder of the road.  Misel swears to this day that he had no idea what happened.  He remembers waking up in the car and they were sitting on the side of the highway.  It’s only by grace that they didn’t hit anybody or drive off the turnpike completely.  These are the risks you take when you play in a rock and roll band though…

History of a band part 1

I wrote a while back that I think we’ll start using this blog to write about the history of The Suburban Sound.  It’s nice to have a record of our past.  If no one else is interested in our history, at least it will be somewhat therapeutic for the band to remember times past!  It’s remarkable how much you forget, but it’s even more remarkable how much you can remember when your mind is focused on the past.  So here we go.   Back to the past…

For me, it’s hard to remember a time where we weren’t playing music together.  The guys in this band have been playing together in some shape or form since 1997.  I still remember the early band practices.  I was the only one who had a driver’s license.  Kyle was only 13!  Our parents were actually driving us to practice, to shows, ect.  I think that’s fairly remarkable to think that our parents were willing to humor us in this venture.  I doubt anyone’s folks actually thought that 12 years later, we’d still be together playing music.  I’m not sure WE thought that far into the future!  Yet here we are.   I personally always thought that some sort of success would have come our way by now, but the industry’s in shambles and success looks very different today than it did when we first started.  I count it successful that we’re still together, making music, and having fun even after all the crap we’ve been through.

I don’t mean to mislead anyone into thinking The Suburban Sound has been around for 12 years.  Officially we haven’t.  That’s just how long we’ve all known each other and played music together.  TSS didn’t officially start until November of 2001.  That fall, Scott left for South Carolina to go to school.  Those of us who remained behind talked about starting a new band.  A band where the only description that would fit our sound would be “rock and roll”.  We were all out of punk and hardcore backgrounds, but grew tired of hearing the same old boring riffs and beats.  While other bands around us were chasing genres and hoping on whatever band wagon rolled through town, we wanted to form a band where the sound would be classic and stand the test of time.  We looked more to bands like The Who or Led Zeppelin than we did to whatever bands were big at that time.  We figured that people were still discovering and listening to those bands after all this time, but 30 years from now who’s going to remember the bands that were making a splash in our day?  We were right too…I’d really have to rack my brain to remember what new bands we were listening to in 2001.

There were a lot of long distance brain storming during those months when Scott was gone.  George (our old singer), Misel, Nooger (our former alto sax player), Pete and myself would spend hours at Eat n Park throwing out ideas on songs, names for the band, ect.  Then we’d go back to my apartment, call Scott and get his input.  We would also record ideas and send them down to Scott, which was the beginning of us taking our recording process into our own hands. 

Even though Scott was gone, the band would still get together faithfully week after week to practice.  Pete and Kyle spent a lot of time during those months just playing together, which took our tightness to a new level.  They would practice to click tracks, playing the few songs that we already had written, or do open jam sessions just to play with each other.  Misel, Nooger and myself would sit around my apartment in the city and just play.  Scott spent time in SC taking guitar lessons and Kyle did the same for the bass.  We did everything we could to keep ourselves sharp and better our musical ability. 

In November of 2001 Scott came home for Thanksgiving break and we were finally able to practice as a whole band.  We had several songs written before that practice through our long distance collaborations with Scott and surprisingly it did not take very long for the band to jell on those songs.  Almost immediately we were locking in with each other and playing the songs fairly well. 

We didn’t really have rehearsal space so we cleared out the living room of my small apartment, using the sofa cushions and whatever else to pad the windows and doors to practice.  It worked well in that we didn’t get shut down by the police.  I still remember Misel standing in the middle of the living room counting the band members…as if he couldn’t believe we were finally all together again.  Of course that feeling didn’t last long as Scott had to leave to go back to SC, but that feeling was enough for us to spark a fire that is still burning today…

If the power went out…

Its good to know that if the power ever goes out, we can still put on a ripping show. We’ve been working on an unplugged set for a show at the legendary Hot Topic store in the Park City mall in Lancaster PA. Mall punks, come get your fill of rock and roll!

Its actually sounding really good. We had to find a formula that works well for us. We want to avoid the whole, “lets wuss up our songs for the coffeehouse approach” that so many bands do. We tried playing the songs straight out with acoustic guitars instead of electrics. I mean, same ripping drums, same bass lines, same power chords and guitar riffs….yeah that didn’t work out. So we came up with a stripped down version of the band that seems to avoid the whole “coffee house” feel. You’ll just have to see it to believe it.

History

We aren’t doing much with this blog so I was thinking about writing out in juicy details the band’s history. I think I could compile a pretty accurate picture from old blogs elsewhere on the internet as well as from the memory of the 6 members. It should be lots of gossipy fun.

Getting back to work

Alright we’re getting back to work now on this album. We took a little time away from it because of LAUNCH and whatnot. Now we don’t have any shows until June so its wide open “making an album” time! I can’t wait to get back to work on this. Scott and D Bozz were together on Monday night writing some lyrics. Its nice that we have a big open space now to start writing and tracking again. Not that we don’t LOVE playing shows, but you know, albums are a creative process and its nice to have periods of time where that process isn’t interupted.