A New Band and A New Chapter

I was given the opportunity to play bass for my long time friend's band Crush, The Everlasting this past March. It's already been 4 months and things have been picking up before I could even stop take a step back and look at it all. Already a few shows deep, the connection between the 5 of us has been instantaneous. It's rare to find a group of people that you can write songs so easily with. They've been piling up and now we're set to record this summer and then tour all of next fall. I've been blessed to have this opportunity open to me.


Music is one of the greatest things in this world that is taken for granted. Can you imagine a world without it? How bland, dull, and lifeless it would be. There are people who can't even get through their day without it; that is truly a powerful thing. The gift I have to play and create music is even more powerful to me. The joy I get from playing and creating music is what creates my vested interest for it. It is my main goal in life. With that goal, I also want to be able to share it with as many people as I can. I want to be able to have a connection with people. Just my band and a crowd of people, sharing the same moment, singing the same melody, sharing the same excitement and happiness. That is joy. Joy is universal; music is a universal language.


When people ask me what I'm doing this upcoming fall, I don't feel pity that I'm not going away to some high-end college. I say proudly and acknowledge that I am taking the risk of following, what I feel is my calling, and my passion. When I ask them what they want to do, they're still unsure, and unfortunately for them, it gives me a sense of reassurance. I have the opportunity to play music and travel now and I'm running with it. It's a chance I might never get again, so I must seize it now.


It's been a long 6 years, but damn, does it feel good to look back on what I've accomplished already at age 18 and to have made it to this point. A point that is so minuscule on the scale of what's hopefully yet to come...   

Larrabe

With a new bass player, a new name, a solid line-up, a release, and the ability to write decent songs, we were ready to take the world by storm. 

"The Golden Years":

- Town Ballroom

- Club Infinity

- Mohawk Place

- HSBC Arena (First Niagara Center) for Music Is Art (Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls) 

- New York City

- The Music Is Art Festival at Albright Knox/Delaware Park

When it comes to Buffalo; we played it all..., man...

With each and every show, we grew better and better. We even started getting better gear. We wanted to be professional. That's what we strived for. '

We wrote and wrote and wrote and the summer before our Junior year, we entered the studio again. The feel and complete vibe of summer time radiated in these songs. It was right after 4th of July weekend that we entered the studio. I'd give anything to go back to these days. We spent upwards of almost a month tracking these new songs with producer, who we fell in love with, Matt Schaefer. We fed off of each other and bounced ideas back and forth with ease. If there was a sound we wanted, we found it. It was a great learning experience for all of us.

The tracks for what would become our first full release, "Outgrow", were finished that fall and due for release that upcoming December. We had our release date, release party and show planned for December 11th, 2010 (12/11/10). With a slight mix up (getting the wrong data on the CD's) we got the ACTUAL CD's the day of our show, and had some repackaging to do. (Speaking of mix-ups, if you by chance have a copy of "The Larrabe EP" collecting dust somewhere, you'll notice that two of the tracks are accidentally switched.) We never really had great success with the whole CD thing. 

It was a tremendous feeling, having two releases on iTunes, especially at age 15/16. How many young kids have a chance to experience something like that? 

We played many more numerous shows, even opened up for now industry giant, Young the Giant. This past winter, we moved to Brooklyn for a while to record at our producer, Matt's, new studio. We recorded 5 new tracks that are our best work, yet. The experience of living on our own at a young age with my bandmates in a big city and recording was mind-blowing. The whole journey with Larrabe was one of the greatest growing and learning experiences any of us could ever had. As we all sort of realized our time together as a band was coming to an end, as Rudy would be leaving for college this upcoming fall, and new ventures and opportunities opened up for us, it’s been bittersweet. Discussing the ordeal with my girlfriend, she had some very insightful words; “Don’t forget where you started.. and all of your journeys in between that lead you to your success today. Larrabe was part of that." That couldn't be more true. I've come to the realization that Larrabe wasn't going to last forever and that I have to find another permanent place in a new band.

Transition: Bad Band Names, Decent First Songs, and Worthy First Releases

We knew very well Silver Creek wasn't going to work as a band name. Being the young, on the verge of emo, middle schoolers Rudy, Jeff, and myself were, we thought of every possible lame band name there was. Some how, I'll never understand, we landed on Yesterday's Tomorrow. That means Today doesn't it? Why on earth Yesterday's Tomorrow? If you were lucky enough to catch a Yesterday's Tomorrow show, God bless you. There are even two very exclusive, limited edition Yesterday's Tomorrow t-shirts floating around out there in the great unknown...


We played quite a few small shows under this name. A show case at the luxurious Xtreme Wheelz in fabulous downtown Hertel Avenue, numerous parties, numerous ACTS Beacon Cafe appearances,  the Alden Farmer's Market, Rushford boat-dock events, and even my sister's wedding. There was even an evening where we demo'd two songs in Eric Froebel's (who engineered at Electric Lady Studios in NYC, and even recorded Yo-Yo Ma) basement. Unfortunately, those demos might be lost forever. We slaved away under this name and wrote just a couple of songs to eventually decide that we were sick of the band name. 


I won't even tell you the other possibilities for a new band name. Once again, we ended up with another HORRIFUL name (yes I made up a word for it); Alone At the Movies. I am currently shaking my head. 


Towards the end of our freshmen year we recorded our first 4 track release. At the time, it had no name. Ladies and gentlemen a quick drum roll, please.... We were ONCE AGAIN, fed up with our current band name. After the second night of recording, we were sitting at the 5-Star Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and decided that we would change it for the final time. 


LARRABE was born. Named after Alden High School band director and super-hero, William Larrabee. We decided to drop an 'e' in case he ever got really "ticked" off at us and wanted to sue us for some unknown reason (no such occurrences have happened, yet). Thanks, Mr Larrabee!


We had some new tracks in the works, a brand spankin' new name, BUT,  we still didn't have a bass player. We had some fun with this. We had a middle schooler play with us for a while. Keep in mind we were freshmen and juniors in high school. I'll just leave that story to rest. Eventually, a God send, a complete miracle, out of sheer luck, Jeff posted an add on Craigslist (before the days of the notorious Craigslist killer), and we got a response from one Mr O'Shea. 


Mr O'Shea was a drummer looking for another band to play with, and he noticed our add and responded, informing us that his son, Brendan, was a bass player. The connection was made instantly. It was a match made in heaven. We had finished our EP just prior to meeting him and were gearing up to release The Larrabe EP that October. He showed up to the practice and already knew our "hit song" Seattle. We were in utter joy. To this day, Brendan is one of the greatest things that have ever happened to Larrabe, and even to myself. He's one of the greatest people I've ever met, and one of the greatest friends that I will hold on to for dear life. 

The Transition: Garage Bands

Sometime during 6th grade, I was invited over to a young Rudy Schieder's house for an "exclusive" Silver Creek band practice. I remember there being Rudy, Dylan Phelps, Emmett Sweet, Ryan Siudzinski, and myself. We tried to play Hotel California; who were those guys kidding? No one could actually play the song or their instruments. I think there was a total 5 minutes of "music playing", which ended up in a "Who Can Play Smoke On the Water or Iron Man Better? Competition". 


Long story short, Rudy met Jeff Crawford in the Alden Middle School jazz band. Jeff had been playing drums and the two would get together and to my knowledge, play Big Machine by the Goo Goo Dolls at least 50 times a night. When Rudy decided he couldn't sing that well and decided they would need another guitar player, they wrote up a very official contract, asking me to join the band. I signed with "Silver Creek" and joined. To this day I remember writing our first song with Rudy entitled "Rip Tide"; "I'm on a Rip Tide, rollin' from side to side". It was never finished, practiced, or performed by any means.  I'm pretty sure we could still sell it to John Fogerty and make a quick million, though... 


We mainly focused on learning Goo Goo Dolls songs. I started showing them a lot of music that they had never heard of, and a passion for the bands that they still love to this day was born. We practiced in either my basement (for a short while), Jeff's basement, but mainly Rudy's garage. You could easily drive anywhere down the Two Rod Road neighbourhood and ask the residents how many times they've heard and "appreciated" a band playing, blaring away, for all the world to hear. 


We had been doing all of this practicing and learning covers without any plans of performing until one afternoon, Rudy's family friend Bo was having a very Polish going away party out in Cheektowaga. Rudy's dad had mentioned that we were practicing in the garage at the time and they suggested that we pack up our tiny practice amps, poorly strung guitars, and head over to play: this was our first gig. We were beyond ecstatic. 

The Transition: G, C, and D Chords

I had my first guitar, but I didn't know what to do with it. I messed around for quite a while pretending like I knew how to play it. I had an electric guitar, without an amp. It was a black Fender Stratocaster. I thought, "I look cool with it, so I guess that counts for something". After seeing Steve Roth a few times and deciding how practical acoustic guitars were, I told my dad, "Hey, you know what? I want to try an acoustic guitar instead." So, he and I both got acoustic guitars. He learned how to play somewhat before I did (my dad used to be a drummer).


"What's a really easy song I can learn how to play?"


It's something unpredictable/ but in the end is right/
I hope you had the time of your life


"Wow, 3... No, 4 chords! I'll learn it."


I think it took me a total of two hours. I learned how to form a G chord, a Cadd9 chord, and sort of learned how to form a D chord. Once I learned those 3, that's all I strummed for the next couple of hours, and the days to follow... 


Right after that, I learned how to play Blackbird by The Beatles. Quite the challenge, but I did it. I can't imagine where I would be without trying to tackle that song. I've no clue how I taught myself the picking technique, though. 


So, at this point, I had a guitar, the skill, the vested interest, but still no true outlet...

The Start of It All

Growing up, I remember listening to a lot of music around the house. My dad would always be playing tapes in car rides or there would be some sort of song playing in the house, definitely a lot of Beatles. However, there was never really a point up until the time I started to play music where I thought or said, "I want to be the person who does that". There was definitely a time where I thought acting was the coolest thing ever and was pretty sure I'd end up in some sort of movie some day. In 5th grade, I started listening to more modern music and started getting into all of the punk music; Green Day, a lot of Green Day actually, some Ramones, bands like The White Stripes, The Clash, Nirvana, typical stuff like that. Those interests expanded into the punk bands that took a lot of pop influence and were really thriving at the time; The Academy Is, Fall Out Boy, all of those bands who gained a lot of success from a little website called Myspace. Sometime during the start of 6th grade, Green Day released a live DVD entitled "Bullet In A Bible". It seems I watched this DVD almost religiously. I was simply amazed at the level of performance and energy they each held to such high regard for the whole show. This definitely had some sort of influence on my choice of wanting to be a performer. Another great factor, I believe, is when my dad found out about a singer songwriter by the name of Steve Roth, who was from Alden. He took me to see him perform a few times and I think this is when I started to experiment with the idea of being a singer songwriter myself. Steve invited me to play with him a few times, to attend the open mic night that he hosted at Clarence Center Coffee Company, and even put up with me playing his own songs, before him, at his own shows. He would even go onto introducing me to his son, Joakim, who would then eventually become one of my best friends. 

So, at this point, I was aspiring to be a singer songwriter, performer of some sort, with no true outlet to such aspirations. My dad had already bought me a guitar, which I then taught myself how to play; single handedly the greatest thing I've ever done/accomplished...