Home safe from Los Angeles, CA and the jet lag has officially worn off. I had a great experience at the Production Music Association (PMA) Conference and was able to meet the people who have been keeping me busy writing music over the last few years & made some really great connections during the conference.
I notice so many times when I sit in on a music seminar or read a music blog about the music industry, the 1 thing that is mentioned nearly every time is that the music business and the people who create it, is a global community.
In this day & age, it couldn't be anymore true. With modern technology and home studios pumping out quality music just as well as the big studios people can write a song together & never be in a room with each other. They can be ANYWHERE in the world!
While I was in LA, my very good friends released their new CD The Elite 'Total Destruction' featuring 1 of my closest friends / ex STEMM vocalist TJ Frost - my ex manager & still guitar hero / Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold and 1 of my favorite touring buddies, bad ass drummer from DevilDriver / Bleed The Sky - Austin D'Amond.
As I was waiting to board my plane back home to NY, I was staring at the promotional picture of The Elite band & made the picture attached to this.
Here is my personal take on music as a global community: TJ met the guys in Chimaira on tour as a guitar tech for the band Ill Nino and the 2 bands were touring together. After the tour, TJ returned to Buffalo, NY and formed a band called '5 Years Gone' and shortly after became the new vocalist for STEMM.
While recording our EP at Spider Studios in Ohio, Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter came to the studio & sang on our song '13 Years'
While tracking in Ohio, we were already setting up a 1 week tour in WNY area for a band from California called Bleed the Sky who also happened to record a CD at the same studio we were at.
When we met & toured with Bleed the Sky, we had so much fun, they offered us a 1 week tour in Southern California. In fact, it became a tradition for both STEMM & Bleed the Sky to tour each coast regularly because we got along so well.
Rob from Chimaira began managing STEMM bringing the band on the road for some huge tours and during a STEMM writing session in Ohio, the guys from Bleed the Sky were also in Ohio recording their 1st CD with Nuclear Blast Records.
This is where Rob & Austin met in the Chimaira jam room. A night of jamming Slayer songs led to Austin getting behind the kit going toe to toe with Rob playing Meshuggah songs. They clicked so well musically & personally, I remember sitting there thinking "Austin could be the next drummer for Chimaira"...a few years later...He was...
Chimaira, STEMM, Bleed the Sky have been broke up for quite some time but we all seemed to keep in touch with each other over the years in some way, shape or form....Which leads to The Elite and the picture I have attached of the band below.
Had it not been for music, for the love of music, the drive of music that is in our very DNA, there is NO WAY IN HELL that these guys would have EVER crossed paths to even have a beer in a bar let alone become a band and create such kick ass music! (Kind of like a musical spiderweb right???)
So this is a proud moment for me that my brothers have this release. We are all on different paths, but it was music that held us together. just as I am meeting new people from all over the world in the music business to write for as well as write with.... I have friends all over this country that I would not have met had it not been for them coming out to a show & getting to know each other over the years.
It's truly a remarkable thought, remarkable life how someones music can touch another individual and create a bond.
Here's to MANY MORE memories to be made down the road as we all forge ahead! Sorry this is so long winded... It was something I needed to get off my chest! Go pick up THE ELITE 'Total Destruction' at all Download and Streaming sites. You won't regret it!
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