As some of you know, I have done my best to honor the memories of a lot of my friends, and my father, with my career as an independent artist, and former long time Northwest & Seattle scene member from the late 80's to '98, that has always been about musical integrity & love and respect, for the craft of song writing and recording albums with a purpose.
To this day I still see a lot of posts on social media that think that the movement of the 90's scene, that was actually about putting some integrity into the arts again, died with the amazing artists from our generation that we lost. Nobody wants to leave behind devastated friends and loved ones. Love is wanting them to continue on with that love in the memories being the inspiration and reminder, of the good things we can do in life together!
The intent in the Seattle scene days was simple and artistic, and there was no need for it to be more complicated. If you were a 70's & 80's kid that was now in your 20's as we were in the 90's, you know we all grew up on kick ass music, and we were just fighting to get back to the good stuff when the 80's got too image based, and it became super appealing for people to be able to find stuff, that makes you feel something real, and that has real power in it's message!
That's why it felt like a second home to me so quickly, as a seriously dedicated kid guitar player from California that was up in the Northwest, working for my uncle to save up for a pro guitar rig, for a serious band. While I was up there helping build a house for my uncle and doing paid fill in gigs in the Spokane area when bands would have gigs booked and have their guitar player quit on short notice. It wasn't at all what I wanted to do musically, since I had already had some cool bands in Santa Cruz Ca on two occasions when I was back and forth between the Northwest and Santa Cruz, before I finally moved up to Seattle to start the band my brother Sean and I had for almost 10 years on the West Coast, primarily in Seattle, along with a cool stop in Eugene Oregon during one of the coolest years that town had in the early 90's! For me it started with a trip over the pass from Spokane Wa to Seattle for a friend's show (Marq Torien who had taught me some cool guitar stuff in LA back in ‘84-’85 just after he had briefly played for Ratt and for Ozzy with Rudy & Tommy!) at a little Holiday Inn conference room that was smaller than a small club, so I was right up front watching the open band, and this guitar player that was playing this vintage white looking G&L with a trippy graphic I couldn't figure out, and he was getting cool heavy groove rock tone, which I didn't expect from a G&L since that was Leo's company after Fender so they were Strat style guitars, but his was the first one I had seen that rocked! Of course that was Jerry Cantrell in the late 80's and the band who was playing “Queen Of The Rodeo” was of course Alice In Chains who were soon to not be playing the Holiday Inn once Facelift took off!
After the show I wanted to ask Jerry about his G&L but he had several girls talking to him and Mike Starr was there with that big smile and a friendly cool guy, and he talked to me for a while about the local scene, since I was tired of freezing in the Spokane Wa winters, and only getting those last min gigs when bands needed someone who could cover it! I told him I was working some cool stuff with edge and groove and a lot of melody and harmony within that edge since I liked a lot of styles of music and liked to mix them together when I write. He said that he thought I'd fit in and find players if i moved over. I ran into him a couple of years later at a show they came to Eugene Oregon to play at the tiny WOW Hall for the release of “Dirt” and my brother Sean and I were there writing songs, just a few months before we were going to finally move up to Seattle full time, after being back and forth between Northern Cal, Eugene Or, and Seattle.
Mike came out the side door followed by the guys after the show and Mike saw me and and walked over smiling asking when I was moving up, and I told him Sean and i were writing songs that summer and were headed up, and he said I'd thank him later, and I would have!
I never got to thank Mike, for encouraging me to move up there full time, to find my band, and that still bothers me! He took the time several times, to talk me when I was a new kid in the Northwest from California looking for a scene where I could do the kind of stuff that I wanted, and he was exactly right with his advice to teenage me, who would later record and produce the "Funky Shade Of Blue" album by The Smoking Section at Robert Lang Studios, where I learned all I needed to know, to start my own independent production company, just a few years after the last time I saw Mike at that WOW Hall show in Eugene Oregon, for that "Dirt" release party. I would have loved to have let him know that he made a big difference in my early career, since he could see how serious I was, even though I was still just a 19 year old kid, that probably looked about 14 at the time! haha
We never know how much time we have, so you really do have to appreciate people, while they are here! For me the loss of my Father was beyond devastating since we didn't get nearly the time that we wished he had, and after spending most of my life looking for him, once we found him, we only got a a short time before he got sick and we lost him for good. That's why I go so out of my way to say what's on my mind and ask you what's on your mind, since a blink from now we might be gone to, so there's no time like the present!
Another thing then, that some people forgot is that it wasn't cool to be a rock star, since it was cooler to be a real writer and musician than understands writing & playing for the song! Don't let the sadness take that joy as the defining way we look back! Instead of constant funerals for the lost friends and the way the labels juiced the lemon & tossed it, since there is nothing we can do about all that!
It does much more justice to that memory, and fully given positive energy, to continue forward, with that spirit & sincerity in the expression still. You can't fake funk, you fake soul, you can't fake expressive art forms like the mix of style that came out of Seattle and all of the other cities that had kick ass bands contributing big time! After that, you don't give up real music, to go make artificial product, I know I will never do that! We need to support the cool independent stuff out there that they bury under their algorithms! Flash sells, ego sells, but what's actually real is forever!
On that note, one of my two new albums that honor that spirit & my return to my Seattle scene sound has been awesome with me coming back to my roots! The new album "Not Alone" is officially available on my website with some really cool extras it comes with there! I put everything I had into both albums, like I have since I was a kid, and it was a blast to record them! The other album I just released in June “Melody Crash” features a Really Cool cover of the Foo Fighters song "Stranger Things Have Happened" with a full band arrangement, in honor of Taylor Hawkins! The album also features the singles "No Egos On This Trip" "Not Alone" the fiery instrumental "These Things On My Mind" and a lot more cool stuff!
Give 'em both a spin if you like music that's actually about the music, the art form of song writing, and that's written with depth & purpose, because I actually care about that! As always recorded with Zero pitch correctors, vocal aligners, or any other plastic production tricks or robots! Just a band kicking ass playing for the song with a purpose!!
There is a lot of really good independent music out there, and we really should be doing what we did in the Seattle scene days, and raise your voices with your choices! "Too many melodies got crashed, but it ain't over till the last day we breathe!" ~from the song "Melody Crash" from the album of the same name! The struggle is real, but I'm working as hard as I always did to keep bringing you guys new albums, and I still bring it for real! Just like it did back then!! I hope you enjoy the albums as much as I enjoy writing and recording them!