I wanted to write a little bit about the story behind the "Little Jesus" split with Jonni Greth and the Drones.
Jonni and I were at a MewithoutYou concert last summer and there was a man with Down Syndrome standing next to us with the biggest smile I had ever seen. It was contagious and Jonni and I were instantaneous happy. The man put his arm around Jonni and started to sway with him. I joined in after he gave me a look as if to say he wanted me too. After that he started to hug Jonni. This wasn't just a normal hug. It was filled with emotion and it lasted way longer than any hug given from a stranger. It just kept going and going. At first Jonni didn't know how to react but it was so powerful for him he started hugging him back.
After the show we talked about the experience for an hour. It was such a powerful thing for Jonni. Even just being there was life changing for me too. He asked me what I thought about the situation and I said that the man was like a "Little Jesus" (he was very short, not quite 4.5 feet tall).
A few months later Jonni started talking to me about recording and not being sure about what he should do with his music. He didn't want to just jump into hunting for a big label but he also wanted to be serious about his music. After some thought about his situation. I figured why not make a split cd. We both respect each others music even if it's totally different. He said he thought that it was a good idea.
In October Jonni came up to Chicago and stayed at my sisters and we headed over to Mystery Street to record 4 songs one Saturday and then my band would go in and record the following Saturday and we would play a show at the Fireside Bowl in between. We learned that recording in a studio on a schedule where time is money was different that what we expected. Jonni took both days to record and we had about 3 hours. We cranked out 5 songs in 3 hours but after listening back I found way too many problems and wasn't sure what to do. I couldn't afford to go back in to the studio and almost gave up.
About 3 months later I had dinner at my sisters and her roommate is in the Drones. She told me that she wanted to hear the split and was wondering what was going on. She told me that she really wanted to see the project completed and it was really important the Jonni as well as the rest of the Drones. I told her that we could put out their songs as an ep but my band just wasn't ready to record. She said that it wasn't just important for them to have their songs but they really wanted to have a completed split with me. She convinced me that I needed to do something.
I spent the next couple of weeks trying to record my half of the split by myself on garageband and on a tape recorder boombox that I got at a thrift store. I had this elaborate set up with the boombox on the kitchen table with a blanket draped over a mop handle and a broom handle to muffle absorb some sound. It just wasn't working. I sat down at my computer and it all started to happen. I recorded two songs; Grayscale Rainbow and Hey Na Na Na. After a couple of days I recorded Rings. I played them for the band Overhang to see what they thought. Grant told me that he felt that the songs were more interesting but the recording wasn't as good as my other. I told him that I felt that it might be cool to have a lo-fi aesthetic to change the feeling from Jonni's stuff and my stuff.
I had been talking to some folks about some of my shortcomings recently and had heard a lot about how I didn't really throw myself out there very much and most importantly I didn't receive criticism very well. I realized this was one of those times. I talked to the rest of the band and they said they would be down to do more but I had to take on the role as leader of the band.
I have never been good at this "leadership" thing. I always felt that it should always be an equal things when it came to bands, but then again, my bands never lasted very long. I decided to take it and I took on the responsibility. From then on I started meeting with the musicians in the band and taking it more seriously again.
Kristen and I bought a minivan from our friends Allen and Lindsey Keating Moore who needed more money to move to New York and we thought having a van would be good for craft fairs and shows.
Because of this a tour became the result. So we started rehearsing to record and prepared a tour of the South. It would be a chance to release Consistent Themes #3 and continue toward the goal of touring the ep across the whole country. Then the stress of everything I had before me started to set in and I started asking everyone in the band if they were prepared to do what I wanted to plan.
Everyone was down except Kevin. Kevin started out as our engineer and has become our bassist. Chris and I have been working with him for a while and it was hard to hear but I knew that it was the right thing. He said that he would continue with the role of being our engineer and it would be better because he would actually have more time to do that.
So I needed to find a bassist.
I went to a guitar expo with Jesse from Beard and he introduced me to his friend Chuck. I had been meaning to share the album Illusions of Repetition with Jesse for months. We had it mastered a long time ago but could never afford to put it out. I've been sharing it with people ever since hoping someday to release it. Chuck listened to it with us and really liked it. When he heard that we were looking for a bassist he told me he would like to try out. It's great to know that the first audition is the one. Chuck joined us and we prepared to have one last show with Kevin as our bassist. We soon after that went to the studio. I work as much overtime as possible and even ended up getting a promotion in the process.
I got my tax return and thought maybe we should take the van into the shop to get a quick diagnostic. About 1600 dollars later and more than my whole tax return gone we are getting closer to having a great touring van.
We recorded 4 songs in two weeks. Mixed in 1 week. Matched up Jonnis songs and put them in order with ours. I contacted Ryan from See No Evil design and he helped with designing the cover.
About 5 months ago i bought 500 cd's for 50 dollars so I could just duplicate my own and Jonnie mentioned something about grocery bags as covers to keep things cheap. So thats the direction we went.
I had a plan of duplicating 200 splits/100 copies of consistent themes #3/100 copies of consistent themes for promotion/and 100 copies of Illusions of Repetition.
I figured I may never have enough money to make a full booklet for Illusions so I might as well get some copies out there while I have the chance.
It was just yesterday that the cd was mastered and we started making the covers. The covers will be handmade and the cd's will be duplicated sometime this week.
Because of positive glitch at the printers we got 100 extra copies of Illusions covers so we decided to scratch the promo idea and just have 200 copies of Illusions.
So here we are now. Getting ready for tour and we haven't even been able to book all of the cities yet but we will have 500 cd's to sell.
If it wasn't for friends then I don't know what would have happened. We are finally getting our music out there.
Some bands already have financial backing and some don't have any at all. It's about time that some people heard a band like ours that started out with me being homeless and broke and working like crazy to get a good job and few days off a year to tour. None of us have just had this handed to us. We believe in our music and art and we work hard to for it. It doesn't happen often that a band of poor folks get their music heard by a lot of people but this is definitely one of those times so get ready. We've got some good music and art coming your way.
Thank you for all of your help!
Best,
Bill Tucker and Friends
1 comment:
i should film you before you go - and after you get back.
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