September 27, 2012 by thesapwoods
We know its been quite a while since our last post, but there has been a lot that has developed for us since our CD release show.
First of all it is never easy when a member of your band moves, let alone decides that they no longer have to time to be in the band anymore. Our drummer Joe Paulsen had an opportunity to accept a job as a Pharmacist at Mercy Medical Center in Clinton Iowa that he couldn’t refuse. He and his amazing wife Steph had to move to Davenport to pursue their professional careers and we were going to try to still do shows, but add on top of that the fact that Joe and Steph are expecting their first born kid around January 2013 and well…it just became too much. We are going to deeply miss having Joe around, he was a dear friend who made us laugh a ton and could rock a deep pocket, best of luck to you Young Jedi!!!
So where did that leave us…
We played some pretty interesting shows this summer that were absolutely amazing. First of all the Saturday after our CD Release show(yes 2 days after!) we had a show booked that Joe couldn’t play and we had to find a last minute replacement because we didn’t want to drop off the show. That Friday I drove an hour and a half to teach my friend Ross Klemz who plays in Dylan Sires and Neighbors(http://dylansires.bandcamp.com/album/long-over) our songs for the show the next day! It was an intense night of cramming, but we had a case of beer and nothing better to do…well we did take a break to check out Sturgis Falls in Cedar Falls, just for like an hour our so…On Saturday though we were golden and Ross absolutely killed it!
Then we had a show in a small venue called The Space in Cedar Falls where we didn’t get to practice AT ALL with a completely new drummer. His name is Delayne Stallman and he is a good friend of David’s. As circumstance would have it we just couldn’t arrange a practice earlier in the week. We just gave him a CD earlier that week and when it came time to play the show he read a cheat sheet and he absolutely blew us away with his ability and knowledge of the songs. I guess it was almost an audition of sorts, because as fate would have it he has now agreed to be a more permanent member of the band! We are really excited by the amount of craftsmanship that Delayne can bring to our future endeavors and songwriting and in fact the few new songs we have worked on recently he has provided some amazing groundwork to, we love seeing songs come alive…its why we do what we do.
Come late July we also got to open for the psychedelic funk alt rockers hailing from Austin Texas called White Denim(http://www.whitedenimmusic.com/). They completely rocked everybody’s socks off, seriously they played for almost an hour straight without taking breaks between that songs…that’s insane!!! The guys from the band were really humble and down to earth for being as talented as they are, and I got to say that we hope we get to play another show with James, Steve, Josh, and Austin; maybe in Austin, TX? Time will tell…Here’s a thought: White Denim opened up for WILCO and we opened up for White Denim, ipso facto we opened up for WILCO, right? Dreamers can dream I guess…
Recently we’ve been completely elated that IPR Studio One has been playing a few of our songs from our first album Electric Glow thanks to Mark Simmet. Yep that’s our first radio airplay, hope it stays the trend too! I’ve been writing songs like mad and we are in the process of sorting those arrangements out and giving them a bit of time to adapt and evolve into what they will become. The songs are in their very early primitive stages, but the direction and ideas flowing show amazing potential. There will likely be more piano songs on the new album as I’ve been enjoying writing songs from that perspective, as well as songs that simply put are more musically intricate. The development of the stuff we have is still early so who knows what they might become as they progress and that’s what makes it fun!
Let it ride easy my friends,
-Justin
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