Tag: eric morgan

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How To Kill Your Band #10 – A Conversation With Hopesfall’s Adam Morgan (Part 2 of 2)

Hello and welcome to the tenth installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band. This column offers advice to up and coming artists from the perspective of a professional musician who has thrived with and without label support over the last decade. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

An Introduction:

I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How To Kill Your Band.

Part 9 – A Conversation With Hopesfall’s Adam Morgan (Part 2)

This week on the HTKYB, I will be sharing the second half of my interview with Hopesfall founding drummer Adam Morgan. Part 1 can be found here. Hopesfall was founded in 1998 and quickly developed from a regional favorite to a national force that blurred the lines between metal and hardcore with unconventional song structures and spacey melodic soundscapes. The group dealt with the entire spectrum of band troubles ranging from a multitude of member changes to publicized confrontations with their label all while their music continued to grow and become a pillar of the hardcore scene. Adam was kind enough to take part a series of back and forth emails over the past weeks where we discussed his experiences in the band and shed light on the lessons he had learned during his time in the industry.

E: So I was very curious and went back and listened to track 6 of The Satellite Years “A Man Exits” to see if I could spot any differences in the mix compared to the rest of the album. All I could pull out was a little bit of tone variation in the guitars compared to the other tracks but obviously nothing I would of picked up without a hint.

A: Yeah…I guess it’s not too big of a deal. Something about the guitar mix, right at the 0:47 mark, just irks me.

E: The grass is always greener. I think your experience resonates with many other touring musicians when it comes to deciding how to move forward in life. Like you mentioned earlier, there’s that initial period of being proud of the work and adventure you get to experience everyday on the road, especially when you know people who are trudging to the same boring cubicle day after day. But the other side of it is that when you come home you realize that these people have the financial security, relationships, and other comforts you miss out on while traveling.

It’s interesting to see the advice you’d give your younger self to enjoy the moment and to keep working on what you’ve put so much effort into building. When you’re in a position where comfort and security take a backseat to everything else, the propensity to feel that your time is running out only gets stronger. It’s what bands succumb to most often. Do you think it’s possible to find a balance between being a touring artist and living a “normal” life or is it mutually exclusive in your eyes?

A: Thats a great point and question. I actually do think it’s possible to be a touring musician while still retaining all those securities you mentioned. I’d say it’s extremely rare, but I’ve seen and met members in bands who have great, secure jobs, and understanding, encouraging spouses that help allow them to enjoy both aspects of normal life and road life.

However…I think in most cases, there will always come a time when you just have to weigh out what matters most to you.  Looking down the road, into your financial and post-band future, can be extremely hard, especially while you are in the middle of living your dream, but it’s definitely something you have to consider because let’s face it, the chances of your band becoming your full-time job, for the rest of your life, is slim to nil.

E: You said you left the band prior to tracking A Types for several reasons including not being entirely happy with the writing process. That record ended up being Hopesfall’s most commercially successful release, but also pivoted the sound in a way that separated it from what the band had been known for. You mentioned that you had agreed to push in a more traditional song based direction with a bigger emphasis on choruses and hooks. Now that a decade has passed, how do you view that record and the shift in sound? At the time, the band had already released two albums and an EP in that “original” style. Was going in such a drastic new direction viewed as a necessity for sustaining creativity among the group?

A: I think A Types is good for what it is; that being: a transitional album. We were trying something brand new to us, and just like anybody trying something new for the first time, it’s usually not going to be perfect. I wouldn’t consider it a “necessity” for sustaining creativity. I think if we wanted to put out another hardcore record at that point, we still could have produced something creative and interesting. It just felt like a good time to move forward, especially since Jay was our singer now, and had proven he could take on more of a melodic singing role.

After all, our music was always heavily influenced by bands like Hum and Smashing Pumpkins. That’s the sound we were always striving for. I believe the departure from screaming and breakdowns was actually more of a step toward remaining true to ourselves and playing the kind of music we wanted to hear.

E: In late 2005 you rejoined the band after Adam Baker left. Why did you decide to come back? You ultimately left again in 2006. Did you view it as a temporary situation from the onset?

Hopesfall toured Brazil in October of 2005. You guys had toured internationally before but Brazil is more of a rare musical opportunity. Describe what it was like to tour in that country? Was that part of the reason for rejoining for a bit?

A: The decision to come back after Baker had left the band was just a temporary thing. At that time, Josh had come to me and asked if I’d be willing to help them out with a few tours that they had already committed to; one of those tours being a Brazil tour.  It was really a perfect situation for me because I was really starting to miss touring and performing, but at the same time, I still didn’t want to be in a full-time touring band. Oh…and it was a chance to go to BRAZIL!

That Brazil tour was incredible. Up until then, the only other foreign countries I had played were Canada and the UK. It was the first time I was in a country whose native language wasn’t English (well, besides Montreal, Quebec, and a couple parts of Central Avenue, here in Charlotte). Even though a lot of the fans over there didn’t know English, or I, Portuguese, it didn’t stop them from trying to communicate to us just how much it meant to them that we were there, playing for them. They were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and they went off at every show. It was definitely an experience that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

E: Wow, that show in São Paulo looks insane. It’s hard to argue with taking an opportunity to play packed out shows while traveling Brazil.

Since you went into the rejoining as a temporary position, were you part of the process in preparing what would be Hopesfall’s final album, 2007’s Magnetic North, or was another album never in your personal plans? That record is clearly an evolution of the sound found on A Types but also reintroduces some of the aggressive dynamics found on earlier works. Do you feel the record was an appropriate way to bookend the band that you had such a significant presence in?

A: I didn’t have any hands in the preparation, or recording of Magnetic North. After we finished up those tours, the band recruited an incredible drummer by the name of Jason Trabue. He came in and wrote/recorded Magnetic North with the guys. I think it’s a great album to bookend the Hopesfall discography. I can’t say enough good things about that album. I think it is a fantastic rock record.

E: In 2011, Hopesfall reunited the No Wings to Speak Of era lineup for two one-off reunion shows in Winston-Salem and Charlotte, NC. Can you talk about how the idea of the reunion came about and why this specific version of the band was chosen? I was lucky enough to attend the Charlotte date and was impressed with how the band was able to re-learn the entire Frailty of Words album after so many years and member changes between. What was it like personally for you to go back and learn those first songs and to perform them live for the first time in over a decade?

A: The reunion shows came about because we were approached by our good buddies, and old touring mates, Codeseven. They told us that they were playing a reunion show in Winston-Salem (their hometown) as part of a grand reopening of an old rock venue (ZIGGY’s) we all use to play at. They asked Josh to check with the rest of us about playing with them. It worked out with everyone’s schedule and it felt like a good idea.

I don’t really know why we decided on the No Wings To Speak Of line-up. I guess it just felt natural because we were playing in Winston, with Codeseven. It was almost like hopping in a time machine and going back to relive those early Hopesfall days for just one last time.

Relearning the songs from Frailty was a little strange for me, personally. Those songs are a reflection of where I was at as a young 16 year old drummer. I like to think that I’ve come a long way in the last 17 years. So, to get in a room and practice playing those songs that were written during the early years felt like such a digression. It was like I was practicing sucking. But overall, it brought back some great memories, and most importantly, it was a such a great opportunity to hang out and play music with some of my best friends.  During the course of the band, and line-up changes, some of the guys never had the opportunity of knowing that they were playing their last show with the band. I think the chance to play those 2 reunion shows was a perfect way to bring closure to that era of the band.

E: Quickly, I have to ask. In percentage form, what are the chances of another reunion show in the next couple years? I mean you already did the hard work of learning those songs…

A: Haha! Well…since I can only speak for myself; I’d be willing to do it again if the conditions were right. So I guess since there are 5 of us, that would make it a 20% chance of another reunion show. Haha!

E: Being a dad must be a fairly full time deal, but are you working on anything music related in your free time? When the reunion shows were announced you mentioned a new project with Josh Brigham, is that a project that is still in development?

A: Yep.

E: Finally, I don’t think I could complete this interview without mentioning your ridiculous vinyl collection. Have you always been a vinyl aficionado? You frequently showcase albums on your purgeb4ubinge Instagram account, what about vinyl encouraged you to take such an active role in collecting and discussing the median?

A: It’s definitely something I’ve really gotten into in the last few years. There are a lot of aspects to vinyl records that make collecting them very rewarding. It brings back a lot of that excitement that use to go along with buying music before MP3s became popular. Just think about all those experiences that are lost now when you click a “download” button on your computer. For me, the artwork for an album is just as important as the music itself. It’s always gone hand-in-hand. Having that first visual impression of the album in the record store, tearing the shrink wrap off the album, being able to hold a large format album cover, feeling the paper, the ink, pulling the insert out, looking over it, handling the record, putting it down on your turntable, and dropping the needle onto the record. To me there is something special about that ritual. Something that is totally lost now. On top of all that, I believe vinyl produces a warmer and overall more organic sound. The only thing vinyl lacks is convenience, which is why I still love my iPod and can acknowledge the importance of mp3 and other digital files.

E: It’s been great talking to you about your experiences as a founding member of Hopesfall. You’ve brought up and discussed many of the hard choices that today’s touring musicians are currently going though. Do you have any last words of advice for aspiring artist who are trying to make sense of the modern musical landscape?

A: I’m not sure I’m in any position to be giving advice, but since you asked: Write the songs and play the music that you want to hear. Use all the tools you have (social media, music streaming sites) to get your music out to the public. Play out as often as you can. Interact with your fan base in a positive way. Be creative. Work harder on your songs than you do your image. Have a music lawyer thoroughly explain any label contract. Never sign away your publishing. Never buy into your hype. Most importantly, have fun and cherish the time you have creating music with your friends.

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How To Kill Your Band #9 – A Conversation With Hopesfall’s Adam Morgan

Hello and welcome to the ninth installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band. This column offers advice to up and coming artists from the perspective of a professional musician who has thrived with and without label support over the last decade. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

An Introduction:

I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How To Kill Your Band.

Part 8 – A Conversation With Hopesfall’s Adam Morgan (Part 1)

This week on the HTKYB, I will be sharing part 1 of my interview with Hopesfall founding drummer Adam Morgan. Hopesfall was founded in 1998 and quickly developed from a regional favorite to a national force that blurred the lines between metal and hardcore with unconventional song structures and spacey melodic soundscapes. The group dealt with the entire spectrum of band troubles ranging from a multitude of member changes to publicized confrontations with their label all while their music continued to grow and become a pillar of the hardcore scene. Adam was kind enough to take part a series of back and forth emails over the past weeks where we discussed his experiences in the band and shed light on the lessons he had learned during his time in the industry.

E: For those who may not be familiar with you, let’s start by stating your name and position:

A: My name is Adam Morgan, and I played drums for Hopesfall from 1998-2003.

E: Hopesfall formed in 1998 and found success as one of the cornerstones of a budding hardcore scene. Can you tell me a bit about how the band came to be and what the local music scene was like as you were first getting involved?

A: Hopesfall started out as just a bunch of friends playing music together. We were always a tight-knit group of friends, in which music played a huge part in our lives. We were all at that point in our lives where we were discovering and sharing our newest musical findings. The further we got from the radio, the more we were learning about the underground punk, emo, and hardcore scene, and it was an exciting time. We were all so hungry for new, cool music. Eventually, we just kind of decided to make our own music.

At the time, I thought the local scene was great. There seemed to always be a good show going on at Tremont Music Hall [Charlotte, NC], and especially in Winston Salem and Chapel Hill.

Bands like Prayer For Cleansing, Undying, Learning, Aria, and Codeseven were amongst our good friends, and we were constantly playing incredible shows together.

E: That same year you recorded your debut album, The Frailty of Words.  Can you tell me about the writing and recording process for that album? Was it your first time in the recording studio?

A: Well I was still in high school at the time, while everyone else was either in college or working.

As far as writing the album goes, I don’t think we ever had that in mind. We would all just get together every single chance we had. I think I can speak for everyone when I say, there was nothing more we’d rather be doing. We just wanted to play, write, and create music together.

Eventually, we had just written enough songs to make a record.

The studio where we recorded our first album was just a small building, behind someone’s house, in Columbia, SC. If I recall correctly, we would leave our gear down there and drive down on the weekends until it was finished. For the most part, it was our first time in a studio. We were young and severely limited with what we had to work with. I don’t think we realized that at the time, but looking back now, it was somewhat of a guerrilla approach at recording an album. Nonetheless, we were having the time of our lives.

E: That debut album was released in 1999, was it a situation where you guys started touring as soon as you graduated? Did the others have to chose to leave college to tour full time? What was the decision like for you between choosing to do music full time vs applying for college or starting a non-musical career?

A: We didn’t really start touring full time until later down the road. In 1999, up to around 2002, we were mainly playing weekends around Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and the Carolinas. During “summer break” we’d play longer stints and get further away from home. Mostly east coast and a little Midwest stuff. No one really had to compromise their schooling, or career at that time, but eventually, as we started entertaining the idea of taking on more shows and signing with a new label, we did end up losing our singer, due to choosing to pursue his non-musical career path.

For me, personally, I never really had college on mind. Even before I was involved with a band – which I regret.

I started working, right out of high school, which was when our first album came out. I ended up having to quit that job shortly after, due to tour scheduling conflicts, and ended up getting a new job that allowed me to take off whenever I needed to, for however long I needed to. After that, I never had to choose work or tour. I was lucky enough to have job security while hitting the road.

E: Musicians, even within the same band, seem to have drastically different personal feelings towards tour. What was being on the road like for you initially? How did it compare to your expectations?

A: Initially, I thought it was great. It was an incredible feeling of freedom, adventure, and sense of “living the dream”. I would often think about all my other friends and co-workers back at home, while riding around in the van, heading to a new city, and think to myself “This is incredible. Everyone back at home is heading to work right now, or making the same drive down I-77, toward school, and I am lucky enough to be on the road, playing music, meeting new people, seeing new skylines, all while hanging out with my best friends.”

It wasn’t by any means a feeling of superiority, just more so a feeling of gratefulness, and pride.

I’d say the only thing you really can’t prepare for though is learning how to live with four other guys in very close quarters. No matter how long you’ve been in a band, or have been friends with the people in your band, up until the point you all pile in the van together, you are use to doing things your way, on your schedule.

All of that changes immediately once you enter that van. That can be difficult to adjust to. So the more flexible you can be, the more easy going you can be, and the faster you can come to terms with not being in control, then touring will get easier.

E: I would have to agree that living in a van with even the best friends can redefine your relationship and really opens you up to vulnerabilities that are hard to hide in a 10’ by 5’ metal box. It’s hard to give up absolute control over your daily decisions, but like you said, the ability to be flexible makes things a whole lot easier for all parties.

It sounds like you were playing a lot of weekend and DIY type tours up until your EP No Wings to Speak Of was released in 2001. Takehold Records initially put that record out, what was the process like working with that label? How did they approach the band?

A: Prior to meeting Chad Johnson, (Takehold Records owner) we had played with a lot of the bands that were on his label. Bands like Underoath, Tantrum Of A Muse, Few Left Standing, Two Thirty-Eight, etc. So after our first album had been out for awhile, we had already met him a few times. Eventually, we were sitting on four new songs and Chad offered to send us to the studio and put out the EP for us. I don’t even remember signing anything. He was always such a great dude and the timing just kind of worked out. Other than just being friends with him, we never really had to deal with any “business” with him. We were never under any contract with him.

E: In 2002, Trustkill Records re-released the EP. Was that partly a consequence of Takehold being absorbed into Tooth & Nail Records? It looks like this lines up to when you said you guys started touring full time, was getting the Trustkill deal the catalyst that turned this into a full time band?

A: I’m not sure if that really had anything to do with Trustkill re-releasing the EP. That was all pretty much between Trustkill and Takehold. I guess it was just in Trustkill’s best interest to purchase the rights to that record.

Signing with Trustkill was definitely a time in the band’s career where we decided to start touring full time. Being on a label with Poison The Well and Eighteen Visions, and seeing how much they toured was sort of an eye-opening thing. It just clicked at that point. “This is what you need to do to market yourselves and get your name out there.” So that’s what we decided to do.

E: Around this time, things for Hopesfall started to spark and get national attention. At what point did you realize you were doing something incredibly special?

A: I think it really started to click when we went out to the west coast for the first time. At the time, a lot of our shows were sold out, and the kids were singing along to all our songs, and going crazy. Keep in mind, this was all before Facebook and Youtube. It was much harder to get a gauge on your fan base, other than weekly SoundScan reports.

E: That’s a great point, it’s probably impossible for today’s bands to think about developing at a time when there wasn’t Facebook, YouTube, or even MySpace – now these services let artist know instantly how far their music has spread and even how many people will be at a show weeks ahead of time. I imagine that it would of been a bit liberating to play music without having to worry about posting statuses everyday, maintaining twitter accounts, etc.

Would you have preferred to have this tools available when Hopesfall was born? Do you think it would of helped or hurt the band’s development? In your eyes, has this state of constant connectivity been positive or negative for the music scene in general?

A: Honestly, I could go both ways. I think if we had all the social networking tools that bands have now, it could have definitely helped us. Being able to broadcast new songs, tour schedules, links to ticket vendors, merch sites etc, would have helped tremendously.

Even now, if it wasn’t for Facebook, I might have easily missed out on an opportunity to catch my favorite band while they were in town. Even music streaming sites like bandcamp and SoundCloud have been great resources for helping me discover new bands.

The days of taking a blind chance at buying a band’s album, because you saw their name in your favorite band’s “thank you” list, in their CD liner notes, are over. I think the only problem I have with social networking within the music industry is that it makes it too easy to sell a bullshit image, and diverts the attention from the most important thing; the actual music.

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How To Kill Your Band #8 – Everyone Has To Start Somewhere

Hello and welcome to the eighth installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band. This column offers advice to up and coming artists from the perspective of a professional musician who has thrived with and without label support over the last decade. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

An Introduction:

I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How To Kill Your Band.

Part 8 – Everyone Has To Start Somewhere

To kill a band, you have to start one first. This week I’m going to be diving into the musical influences that hooked me on playing music. I try to write music in some form almost every day  and after a recent fit with writer’s block I went back to my early roots to get some inspiration. In past interviews I’ve almost always been asked about my band’s influences but not so much as my personal gateways that encouraged me to start writing my own songs. So here’s the chance to relive my own musical adolescents and discuss the artists that shaped the way I look at music.

Rufio – Perhaps, I Suppose (2001)

This was the first band that really motivated me to become a better guitar player at a technical level. There is simply no other pop punk band that shredded like these guys. Though I don’t remember what made me pick out their debut Perhaps, I Suppose in the first place, I vividly recall leaving the mall and popping the album in my discman as the crescendo into “Above Me” quickly filled my ears. Just fifteen seconds into that lead track was enough to leave me stunned and instantly inspired to figure out what on earth they were doing on their fretboards. I just never knew it was possible to do so much on guitar and still be maintain the ever catchy pop punk spirit that Rufio rooted themselves in. The moment I got back home I grabbed my guitar, booted up the Compaq Presario for a quick Dogpile (yes!) search, and stayed up all night learning that album.

Senses Fail – From the Depths of Dreams (2003)

Running through the gamut of Drive-Thru Records releases, I eventually landed upon Senses Fail’s From the Depths of Dreams EP in 2003. By now I had a large collection of the label’s records filling up my pseudo-leather bound CD booklet that included the likes of The Starting Line, New Found Glory, Allister, Midtown, Rx Bandits, and The Movielife. These were all great bands endemic to a profoundly influential period of pop punk at the turn of the millenium but there was something different about Senses Fail. This band was serious. While their peers were busy with self deprecating humor and the mistrials of high school romances, Buddy Nielsen was singing about death. The band gets right to the point as the lead track off that debut EP, “Steven”, is about a close friend of that name being killed in a car accident. That song gave me chills on the first listen. Buddy’s raw, unique but slightly out of tune vocal delivery coupled with the bands darker melodic arrangement was sort of a breath of fresh air to me. Senses Fail also clearly had hardcore influences and the metal tinged guitar riffs were a gateway into my discovery of early metalcore acts.

Further Seems Forever – The Moon is Down (2001)

Chris Carrabba was only barely in this band long enough to record their first album, The Moon is Down, but it is by far my favorite indie rock/emo release of all time. I’d assume this is a product of a perfect storm where I am going through newly turned teenage angst and Chris’s powerful emotionally soaked lyrics. His vocal delivery, while not tunefully perfect, is undeniably catchy. His choruses come to the verge of screaming several times on this album giving you the ability to tangibly feel the emotion he’s pouring out over every line. The instrumentation here is undeniably second fiddle to the vocally driven tracks but they are subtly complex and provide just the right atmosphere to push each theme to it’s climax. Listening back over the album now, I’m amazed at how much melody is hidden in the guitar tracks while still managing not to detract from Chris’s dense but soaring storytelling. Even when it wasn’t the focus, there seemed to always be something intricate going on guitar wise and that idea propelled much of my early songwriting. One secret gem of this album is Steve Kleisath’s insane drum work. While the guitar and vocal lines on the album conservatively tend to play around the same ideas, Steve makes each song stand apart with a complex yet song supporting drumming that fills the emptiness and creates variety in places where there otherwise are none. This is an album I go back to from time to time for inspiration and a refresher on how instrumentation properly supports vocally driven songs.

Thrice – Identity Crisis (2001)

I was introduced to the wonder of Thrice by Justin Brown, AHAF and Bornstellar vocalist, back in 2002 during our sophomore year of high school. He brought his super awesome mini-disc player to school one day and the first song on his latest mix was “Phoenix Ignition”. The track starts off innocently enough with frontman Dustin Kensrue singing softly over a single acoustic guitar before abruptly kicking in with the full band under the anthem of his now screaming voice. This was the first time I had been intimately exposed to screamed vocals and I was quite taken back by it. It took me a good half dozen listens to come around to the band but once I got past the nascent startle of this new sonic aggression, I realized how amazing and beautiful it all was. The viscerally raw rage that permeated Identity Crisis stoked an undeveloped side of my musical dexterity that changed my perspective of what songs could be. Up until that point, most of my library came out of the Drive-Thru roster who’s pop punk ethos contrasted greatly with this new post-hardcore purposefulness. Teppei Teranishi’s guitar playing was another major influence to my riff building framework. While bands like Senses Fail also had metal influences infusing their guitar sections, Teppei brought a technical level to the hardcore/punk band that was quite novel at the time. His instrumental prowess was a constant inspiration as I continued to develop my guitar playing early on and brings us to another band that Justin introduced me to:

Hopesfall – No Wings to Speak Of (2001)

Being a Charlotte native, I along with nearly all other aspiring local musicians were heavily influenced by the rise of Hopesfall in the early 2000’s. They were the first hardcore band to really put Charlotte on the map and their early success sparked a creative renaissance in our music scene. 2002’s The Satellite Years may have been the band’s most well known album but 2001’s No Wings to Speak Of  is the quintessential masterpiece of the entire melodic metalcore genre. This record showed me what was possible if you broke all the rules. There were no defined choruses, verses, or even a semblance of song structure but a weaving path of evolving melodies carried each song like it’s own separate story. The band freely rotates between aggressive hardcore sections and spacious reverb drenched cleans that taught me how much you could change the mood within a single song. This EP is probably the biggest influence to my writing on A Hero A Fake’s first release, Volatile. My fascination with abrupt transitions between heavy and clean passages, soaring guitar driven atmosphere’s, and the orchestration of sporadically changing time signatures is traced back to this amazing record.

Honorable Mentions:

AFI – The Art of Drowning (2000)

Boyhitscar – S/T (2001)

The Starting Line – Say it Like You Mean It (2002)

Underoath – The Changing of Times (2002)

A Static Lullaby – …And Don’t Forget to Breathe (2003)

Thursday – War All the Time (2003)

Misery Signals – Of Malice and the Magnum Heart (2004)

 

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How To Kill Your Band #7 – Down With The Sickness

Hello and welcome to the seventh installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band. This column offers advice to up and coming artists from the perspective of a professional musician who has thrived with and without label support over the last decade. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

An Introduction:

I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How To Kill Your Band.

Part 7 – Down With The Sickness

On the road you’re going to roll the dice quite frequently. Sleeping in sketchy parking lots, never washing your hands, loading gear while simultaneously resisting knife wielding St. Louisans trying to rob the 50” plasma TV you just won the night before in a raffle while watching the Super Bowl in a Tulsa, OK Hooters because the show snowed out. It’s tour and it’s a kind of a weird thing to want to do and taking risks is sort of a necessity. Our modus operandi was always to find ways to limit the downsides i.e. putting new locks on our trailer, depositing cash every couple days, leaving way too early for the next venue etc. But sometimes probability catches up with you and things get shitty. Sometimes you decide to eat at a DQ Grill.

On a beautiful spring day in 2010 we were heading eastbound on I-90 from Buffalo on our way to Holyoke, MA and I suddenly felt a slight urge to use the bathroom. Per usual, I made a request to our rod hog Patrick Jeffers to stop at the next exit. Driving along in our dependable Chevy things started to feel unevenly heavy. Then just completely wrong. I’m now in a deep sweat yelling at Jeffers that we need to find an exit or pull off into the woods. Fortunately we opted for the 6.0L V8 that helps him channel his inner Dale and we top 90 mph before spotting the dirty gas station oasis in the distance – I’ve never been more relieved in my life.

That ordeal concluded, it was smooth sailing to Massachusetts. Except 15 minutes later I get a very familiar feeling in my stomach. How could this be?! Immediately we rush to a rest area and this time I’m not just feeling heavy down low, I’m now upchucking at the same time. For the next 100 miles I repeat a pattern of vomit and diarrhea at the same time every 15 minutes like clockwork.

By the time we get to the venue in Holyoake, I’m very worried about my health. I’ve spent hours expelling liquids from every orifice to the point that I’m just a dripping bag of bile. Jeffers made the decision to drop the trailer and have our vocalist, Justin Brown, rush me to the closest hospital while they loaded in the equipment. We roll into the emergency room and explain the situation to the receptionist before sitting down in the seats closest to the restroom. It doesn’t seem too busy, only a few other people waiting, so I’m fairly confident I’ll get in and out with some type of medicine before we are scheduled to go on that night. A couple hours go by and my condition is getting worse. I’m still puking and pooping every couple minutes and I’m getting very weak and dehydrated while slightly starting to worry for my life. It’s getting closer to the show start and I’m realizing there’s no way I could possibly play a show in this condition. I’ve never missed or canceled a show due to sickness but it’s just not possible. I’d literally be pooping my pants on stage.

A half hour before our set time I still haven’t been able to see a doctor so Justin decides they’re going to try and play as a four piece so we’ll at least earn our guarantee. I was super bummed that I had to miss a show due to illness but I’ve never been more proud of the other guys for stepping up and going through with the show as a four piece. Just for perspective, we had always been and recorded as a three guitarist band. Literally two weeks before we had to let one of our guitarist go in the middle of the previous tour. Jeffers and I had just crammed three intense guitar tracks down to two and now it was just going to be one. But he got up on stage, without a chance to even think the parts over, and straight killed it.

After twelve hours of wilting away in the waiting room I finally get called back to see a doctor. After 20 minutes I was told I had viral gastroenteritis, an inflammation of the stomach and both upper and lower intestines. That’s pretty much all he did because he didn’t prescribe medication or put me on an IV to deal with the severe dehydration. I stumble out of the ER with a new word for the describing the worst I’ve ever felt and a $700 bill. The band decides to meet up with Attila at a nearby motel and get a room with the night’s guarantee so I can have a bed to sleep in.

What I didn’t know was that during the set Justin announced deadpan to the crowd that I had died. So after another night of horrific amounts of expulsion we meet up with the other bands in the morning who are all shocked to see that I am infact alive. We also learn from a local that there’s another ER nearby that has a policy of no wait times over two hours. Great. With the help of a little dopamine I was able to hold down enough fluids to play the next nights show and started recovering after a couple days. It was without a doubt the worst I’ve ever felt in my life.

Four days later, Jeffers got it.

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How To Kill Your Band #6 – Nightmares

Hello and welcome to the sixth installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band. This column offers advice to up and coming artists from the perspective of a professional musician who has thrived with and without label support over the last decade. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

An Introduction:

I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How To Kill Your Band.

Part 6 – Nightmares

 

I’m 27 years old and there are two recurring nightmares that haunt my unconscious hours: 

#1 – I’m back on my high school baseball team. It’s a tie game in the 9th and I’m up to bat with a man on third. The pitcher checks his signal as the runner edges off third then throws a pitch that seems to spin in slow motion as it tumbles towards me. I turn to square sliding my right hand down towards the center of the bat executing the most beautiful suicide squeeze down the first base line. The ball hugs the crease between the infield grass and the dirt base path, staying undeniably fair as I exit the batter’s box starting my sprint. I pass the untouched ball halfway to first when I hear the crowd erupt in a deafening roar reacting to the runner from third crossing home plate and knowing I’m just a few steps away from beating an uncontested play at first. Except at that exact moment, my legs freeze. I can’t move. What was a certain walk-off bunt has turned into a tragic disaster. The pitcher looks up in surprise after fielding the ball to see my stalled husk and chuckles lightly at my struggle before his tag ends the game and my slumber.

#2 – In this dream I always start by crawling out of the tour van and realizing the opening band before us has been finished for dozens of minutes and I’m late to setup. Time drips away as does attendance in the frantic struggle to get the gear on stage. There’s always something strange that defies logic i.e. the stage is 300 ft deep, it’s raining inside the venue, my guitar has no strap buttons. Even when we finally get started with our set, this becomes a Murphy’s Law nightmare where one by one, every piece of equipment in my rig goes wrong. On stage in front of people completely helpless I am left to the pit in my stomach and the mortifying embarrassment, that even after waking, will ruin my next several hours. 

While I haven’t stepped foot on the diamond in nearly a decade, I do frequent the stage and the anxiety to get everything perfect is palpable. Any of our old tour friends will attest to my resolute dedication to arriving before the scheduled load-in just to make sure nothing interferes with a proper soundcheck.

 

Unfortunately, my nightmare came true last weekend during BORNSTELLAR’s second ever show. it was the kind of venue where there wasn’t a true soundcheck, the stage didn’t allow for backlining gear, and you loaded in as soon as the band in front was done. No problem though, I’ve toured enough that I know how to set things up quickly in a disorganized rush. So we load out of the trailer onto the stage and by the time we get everything powered it’s time to start the set. We begin with a little ring out to get everyone’s attention before going into the uptempo riffing that intros our first song, “Wake the World”. Then nothing. I make no sound. Everyone is chugging through the song but not me. Nope, I have nothing. Actually, I have worse than nothing. I have some type of alien noise endemic to nothing on this planet inundating the few moments of otherwise silent rests in the song. Things happen, I’m used to fixing little things that tend to go wrong during a set. I start the mental checklist: wireless? batteries? speaker cable? loose connections? After the song I scamper back to my amp and check everything in order. None of the usual suspects are showing. I am, however, getting an oddly low input signal to my amp, like there’s a pad being applied. Wireless can be finicky in some venues, and in the absence of any other clues, I decide to ditch it. The first instrument cable I try seems to have a short. My other guitarist throws me his backup cable. It seems to be working. I signal to our drummer that we can start the next song and I climb back to the front of the stage. Thirty seconds into the song, aliens. This is my nightmare. I don’t really remember the rest of the set other than I spent it back near my amp trying to coerce a usable sound out of my guitar. Or hide. Mostly the latter.

I was in such a disheartened mood on the drive home that I swore off thinking about music for the rest of the week. It didn’t last, I was in my guitar shop the next morning almost daring the technician to figure out what the hell went wrong. After three hours of isolating every single electronic and mechanical component, we found the issue: the three-way pickup switch had one shorted wire causing the pickups to cut in and out with the slightest nudge. After I had the switch replaced, the lingering frustration had me on Amazon ordering backups of any part that could potentially fail in the future. Five days later, I’m still going over the disaster in my head. Usually the HTKYB series gives some sort of lesson or advice about navigating your music career discerned from my experiences in the industry. Not here. This week’s post shows that no matter how long you’ve been grinding, new shit happens that can knock you around. Sometimes you have to accept the bad luck with the good, take your lumps, and figure out how to move on.

This column was contributed by Eric Morgan. Eric spent a number of years touring the world as part of the Victory Records band A Hero A Fake. He’s currently developing a new project,Bornstellar, which plans to release its first EP later this year. Click here to learn more about Eric’s time in music.

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How To Kill Your Band #4 – Don’t Tour. Yet.

Hello and welcome to the fourth installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band series. We run this column every other week and encourage anyone who enjoys the material found below to visit previous editions of HTKYB they may have missed. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

An Introduction:

I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How To Kill Your Band.

Part 4 – Don’t tour. Yet. 

Learning to book your own tours is perhaps the most important skill you can learn as you make your way in music. It’s not only useful because of it’s immediate impact on your ability to promote yourself on the road, but is also one of the few skills that can pay dividends after your own band calls it quits. Becoming adept at booking takes practice more than anything, but it heavily favors those who are a bit obsessive. Locking in a tour dates takes a certain neurotic tendency necessary to piece together a complex puzzle that never really has a exact solution. No tour is ever going to be 100% perfect from start to end, something that tortured me early on, though the key is learning how to adapt and work to the constantly changing variables – venue closings, promoter drops, competing tours in the area, etc. But before we get to the actual mechanics of tour routing, we’re going to spend this week answering just one question: 

Why would anyone book your band?

Every young band would want to be out there promoting their music nightly but it just isn’t something most should do. There has to be a reason for a promoter to book your band and you need to be able to communicate that clearly. As I touched on in HTKYB #2, being signed gives you immediate value to a talent buyer even if he’s never heard of you before. They can build a show around your band because local bands are smart and know every single label so it gives them a reason for sharing the stage with you – essentially something to put on their resume and the fleeting hope that you’ll be so amazed by their set you’ll personally recommend them to your label. 

If you’re not signed it’s still possible to tour diy, plenty of bands do it successfully, but you need to be able to offer another kind of value to the promoter. Here it helps to be different – why would a promoter in Toledo book an unknown metalcore act from out of state when there are plenty local bands who actually draw? Offering something not already saturating the market gives them an unique event to promote while also just supporting the basic economics of the situation. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need be genre defying but could also stem from having a distinct live show or an unconventional type of branding. If all else fails, you can even separate yourself by brute force through effort. Offer to set up your own publicity for the show with local radio stations, get posters hung at local joints, and even go out on foot to promote. On many of the early AHAF tours, we’d call ahead to Hot Topics and FYE stores at malls located near that days venue and set up our own in store meetups. We’d get to the store around noon to ready our merch table by the entrance where we’d handout show flyers and promo items to people as they walked in. During the holiday season it was even more valuable because parents would be rushing around looking for last minute stocking stuffers and it was it was easy to convince them they could end their search with an album or t-shirt. 

The long and short of it is that it all comes down to giving a talent buyer something they can promote. Whether that be through label support, originality, or meticulously growing your support region by region, you must understand the basic economics through a promoters eyes and give them something they can build a show on. There are bands that get insanely lucky by starting out with notable agent even before their first show (Woe, Is Me, Capture the Crown) but that’s rare and having the ability to book your own tours is a highly valuable skillset if you plan on working somewhere in the music industry post bandlife. Perhaps what I’ve learned most from my experiences on the road is that you shouldn’t rush into touring. I’ve witnessed many bands, who while sounding great, simply weren’t ready to be on the road and eventually succombed to the depleted morale and mounting struggles of unsuccessful tours. It’s much more financially and emotionally supporting to be patient before going on the road, as the consequences of premature touring could end even the most promising bands. 

Now if you’ve decided that you have a band ready to tour but unsure on how to get started, then check back next week when I’ll go through some tips and tricks from my experiences on creating your own promoter lists, negotiating prices, and communicating effectively in your offer sheets. 

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How To Kill Your Band #3 – Road Burn

Hello again. We may only be five days into March, but we have a good feeling this month is going to be something special. Our features thus far have been fairly exciting, and this afternoon we are rolling out the third – and perhaps best- installment of Eric Morgan’s How To Kill Your Band series. We run this column every other week and encourage anyone who enjoys the material found below to visit previous editions of HTKYB they may have missed. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

An Introduction:

I’ve been in the music industry as an artist for nearly 10 years now. In that decade I’ve achieved nearly all of my childhood music dreams, but I’ve also made just as many mistakes that run over my mind before I fall asleep each night. A wonderment of how a few different decisions, rerunning in hindsight, would work out in some alternate universe. This ever creeping determinism is a fallacy I’m quite aware of but one that I will never completely shake, though it’s these experiences I’ve learned the most valuable lessons. These are the things I’d like to share in a series of mini-blogs I call How to kill your band.

#3 – Road Burn

In my last post, I discussed my ‘$200 Hump Theory’ and how breaking through that barrier signals the difference in a band’s financial outlook. However it can take a few, if not many, $100/night tours to get to that point. In that post I mentioned how important it is to tour smart, and now I’m going to give the five most important money saving tips I’ve learned during my time on the road.

1. Stick to water.

Probably the most overlooked facet of tour is it’s effect on your health – fast food, limited sleep, and catering exclusively from Little Caesar’s every damn night wrecks your entire body. Not to mention living and sleeping in a cesspool of germs that take advantage of your weakened immune system. All these things work together to do one thing – make you feel like shit. And when you’re under the weather, it’s a lot easier to justify superfluous purchases on comfort items like junk food and soda which only perpetuate the problem.

This simple rule is by far the hardest for me personally, but it really does make a difference. Not only does sticking to water make you feel better in general, it saves an easy $5 per day. A little trick I learned from Patrick Jeffers during AHAF’s touring days was to fill your water bottles up whenever you stop at gas stations. All the soda fountains carbon filter their water and we’ve never been given trouble from owners, though I reckon spending hundreds of dollars of gas at the same time helps.

2. Free Breakfast

Skipping a meal is an easy way to save money but it’ll just make you hungrier later and that only ends up countering your first move. Plenty of bands do their best to sleep through breakfast but we learned early on that there was a much (well, not that much) tastier trick – continental breakfast. Rather than sleeping in a Walmart parking lot, we always preferred the more serene quarters behind a Hotel Inn Express. In addition to not being tempted all night by Walmart’s endless spoils, there’s the benefit of being just a 30 yard walk from hot free breakfast. Even though the front desk clerk that watched you plow through their parking lot isn’t usually the same one working in the morning, you should still be smart about how you walk in – mainly don’t all half dozen homely looking dudes walk in at the same time. Stagger it.

This might sound sort of like stealing…and well I can’t really argue that. However in four years of touring, I’ve only ever been kicked out of one hotel breakfast. While I’m sure more managers figured out what we were doing, being a courteous and clean definitely keeps you from getting the boot. In fact we’ve befriended some pretty cool people working at these hotels, several of which even ended up coming out to shows.

3. Grill the fuck out.

We first learned the art of tour bbq from Dr. Acula on the RAGE Tour but it took a while for us to start grilling ourselves. A couple years ago my girlfriend gave the band her old portable charcoal grill and that was the spark we needed to finally start cooking on the road. From grilled wieners n’ beans to marinated chicken with roasted vegetables, we never ate better fourth meals than tours with the grill Not only was it delicious, but it ended up being significantly cheaper for all of us to pool our money on bulk items.

For touring bands, that fourth meal is more important than dinner in most cases. On your typical day the band loads in by 3pm, gets “catering” (Little Caesar’s) at 7pm, but doesn’t finish packing and settling with the promoter until after midnight. By the time you’re on the road scoping out the next sleeping lot, it’s been 12 hours since your last bite. Grilling out to finish off the night is not only an effective way to curb the hunger pangs, but it gives you something to do with your bandmates. The boost in morale and camaraderie are pleasant side effects of saving money grilling out and something that helped us all unwind at the end of the night.

Looking back at my tips, I think there’s an obvious theme here: food is expensive. Other than gas, it’s the most costly aspect of life on the road. This also means it’s the area where your personal choices can have the greatest impact on your bottom line. Being smart with your food choices can mean a difference of hundreds to thousands of dollars over the duration of a tour. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but if you’re just starting out touring I hope it helps keep some cash in your wallet.

If you have any tips of your own, please let us know below.

This column was contributed by Eric Morgan. Eric spent a number of years touring the world as part of the Victory Records band A Hero A Fake. He’s currently developing a new project,Bornstellar, which plans to release its first EP later this year. Click here to learn more about Eric’s time in music.

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