New Endorsement

I could not be happier with our new endorsement. Clayton Picks offers custom made picks and accessories and we could not be happier to be part of the family. Support from industry leaders is huge for us and we look forward to a long relationship with Clayton USA. Be on the look out for giveaways at our upcoming shows.

30 Songs.....Yikes

It's Friday night and this is the First Friday in a long time that I am not writing or working on music, I did have a rehearsal tonight, but as far as song writing goes I got nothing right now. What I do have, is a shitty sore throat that is forcing me to be quiet and rest, which for anyone who knows me, is not an easy task. With shows in San Diego, Yuma and Tucson next week I don't want to take any chances with hitting the road sick. Send me good vibes and I will be on my best behavior nursing the wind pipes.

This week was a good week of writing, but forcing creativity can be very difficult and I am trying to switch it up and keep it fresh. Its crazy how writing in a different room in my house or sitting in a different chair can bring on inspiration and with 30 songs needing to come out I am going to do whatever I can to bring it on. Years ago I remember reading about someone who laid down with a pad by their side and right when they felt themselves falling to sleep and stream of conscious would kick in, they would wake themselves up and write down what they were dreaming about. I used to to that and some really random lyrics would come out, maybe next week I will try that.

I started writing this week writing some Rock Steady songs, 1 called Sweet Sweet Girl which is a tune about running around in as a kid sneaking in and out of houses and causing trouble like a teenager does. One of our Friday night sessions with Seismic Leveler and the boys produced a track called its never too late which is somewhat of a slow tune bordering on a ballad. I am pretty happy with the parts on this one and the hook is pretty strong, but the verses are pretty lame. I actually think I stole the melody of the verses from "Crazy" from Gnarles Barkley so I better come up with something better on that one.

Another song that I am really happy with is one called Too Far to dream. This is one of those times when I was able to sit down and crank out a full song from finish to end in a half hour. I am going to try to record this one tomorrow or at least get the rhythm tracks down.

The Other night I wrote a song called Angeline which is a girl done me wrong kind of tune. When you are writing and in a relationship it can be a weird thing to write a song like this because you get hung up on thinking your girlfriend is going to think its about her. I do write about real life, but a lot of times I write on themes that have nothing to do with what is happening in my life at that moment. Maybe this inspiration came up from years ago, or maybe this is me seeing someone Else's life, but either way being able to write honest is crucial to tapping into real creativity.

In this last week I also remixed the song Bolivar, which I am counting as writing a new song cause all of the music is new and I also wrote some definite throw aways that I may never breathe life into again. Next week is going to be a huge challenge trying to write on the road so stay tuned for those updates and see you next week Arizona.

Check out this version of Bring Fire on You from our Belly Up Show!

30 Songs in 30 Days

I was talking to my sister and she told me about this writer who wrote 30 plays in 30 days as a way to stay constantly creative and improve on her writing. She mentioned to me that she thought I should do this with my songs and I thought it was a killer idea, so here I am.

Starting April 1st I am writing a song a day and will be posting Blogs about it through the process. It is my goal to get as much of this material recorded so I can post it and hopefully not forget anything I have written. The other part of this project I really think is cool is that everyone can get an inside look into the song writing and recording process...warts and all.

Last Friday I started writing and recording and I can already tell that this is really going to be a challenge. I don't know how I am going to find the time with work, rehearsals, recording sessions and life happening. Friday night, I wrote a song called "how do you do it" which is a little rocksteady number and honestly its nothing special... they can't all be hits right? I recorded this track on my Iphone and jotted it in my notebook, but don't know if anything further will come from this already forgettable track... Ha!

Saturday Doug, Jay and Cue from Seismic Leveler came over and we recorded a Rhythm simply named "Number 2". Its funny cause when you write songs on the computer, you have to name them first just so you can save a file which leads to a bunch of lame song names like "Fryday Rhythm" or " Window dub" or.... "Number 2". Anyway, we recorded a nice dub track with Cue, Doug and I switching off engineering the session and had our Flip cameras rolling the whole time. Doug is working on a "Making of" video over the dub version of the song which we will post soon.

Early Sunday morning Destructo Bunny (Local Producer/MC) and I grabbed coffee by the beach and got reacquainted prior to getting creative in the studio. We talked about hip hop and music in general before producing a pretty sick Dubstep track. The intention of this session was to have Destructo Bunny lay down some verses over I track I made Saturday night, but we ended up perfecting the instrumental version first. Pretty excited to put this one out.

Monday night I lucked out. I picked up my guitar, sat down and literally wrote a song from start to finish in 1 long freestlye. Fortunately, I had my Iphone recording and will post the raw audio file to this sometime soon.

Tonight was more of a challenge however. I was not feeling creative when I got home and I had some weird form of song writing ADD. I could not focus and everything I was singing sounded cheesy or like something else I had already written. This can be a challenge sometimes. When this happens, I like to pick up a different instrument to write with as this usually forces something new out, but today I just took a nap. I just actually finished a song tonight called "Will we make it". I think it started out as a love song, but after I read the lyrics I realized it was more a song about civilization and if we as a people are going to make it. The song really is happier than it sounds :)

Anyway, I look forward to posting more about this project and you reading along with me.

Much Love,

Tommy Dubs

- Posted from my phone... Don't trip on Errors