Going, doing, working, playing.
I made it home!
After getting back into Nashville, I was fortunate enough to have my partner-in-crime and his wife, pick me up. We hopped on over to Casablanca for coffee, and then swung by Big Studios to brush up some mixes at Big Studios with Jeremy. I’m so excited about the music we have been working on for several months. We started this project when waketheday went to shambles, and its kept my creative side fed and at bay. We have final mixes coming in tomorrow, and we’ll be that much closer to putting it on disc and releasing it.
Last night, I saw Where The Wild Things Are with Allison. We both loved it. It got a lot of mediocre reviews, criticizing its lack of story line and the personalities of each ‘wild thing’. My favorite of which was ‘Douglas’ the bird. I thought the movie was superb. Being that it was a childrens book, they did a great job of adding enough to the movie to keep it interesting.
I hit the road with Anberlin on Sunday for the All-American Rejects tour w/ Taking Back Sunday. My friend Billy Grubbs is currently out there with them now. Soon after that run, back with my buds in Relient K for the Toby Mac run. When that is said and done, I’ll have some time off to relax, play music and get into some other things.
Don’t forget to wash your hands! Flu is going around, and trust me – you do not want that!
Farewell for now.
A Three Hour Tour
If you come out to a show, this is where you will find me…
Billy Grubbs Photography
Kangaroos and Kazzoos.
Things are going well with the new project. We have been in and out of studio for the past month and a half, and we are closing on on everything we wanted to track. We even had some good friends (Ethan Luck, Matt Hoopes, Travis Wilborn) drop by and help us out with playing some stuff and tone hunting. It was a blast! I think by the end of October, we will be able to release what we have been working on; and I’m pretty stoked about it.
October is also when I head back out with Relient K for their album release tour. The bands Copeland and Barcelona will be with us and I can’t be any more excited about that – I love their music. After that tour it’s a possibility I may get to go out with Anberlin for a tour, but we will have to wait and see on what happens with that.
Allison and I got to pet some kangaroos too! So much fun.
Studio Update 1
This weekend wrapped up our first sessions in the studio. Chris and I have been writing and re-wording some material for quite some time, and we have finally got around to laying some material down together. I’m really pleased with everything, and I hope that people are going to dig it as much as we do.
In addition to recording, we brought out a good friend Jered Scott. I met Jered sometime along the way through some Relient K shows, and I’ve admired his photography as a lot of people/artists do. We did some shoots in Nashville and I think they are going to be pretty cool. In the meantime, here are some studio snaps you can look at.
Stay tuned for more media! I’ve got lots on the way…
Ramblings…
It’s that time of year, where all of my joint-musical creations get to come to life. Chris Jackson and I have been working diligently on a lot of music, despite not having a ton of waketheday things going on. This has spurred an entire catalog of stuff we are going to record in a few weeks in Lexington, KY and Nashville, TN.
Yesterday, I had a day off somewhere in the lands of Michigan. I rode my bike around, washed some clothes and got my hair cut. Afterwards, we hung out a little bit with John Warne for his birthday (which was one day prior). Sitting on the curb by the bus, he zooms by and skid stops on a fixed gear. I suppose that I had it coming, as I did it like five times to him earlier as Hoopes and I gave the ‘blue steel’ look while doing the same thing. All in all, a relaxing day off as we head back to the grind in Green Bay, WI. The accent here is prominent and interesting, I caught onto it almost immediately after arriving at the venue. The word ‘bag’ isn’t supposed to sound like ‘beg’. But then again, I suppose ‘cold’ shouldn’t sound like ‘code’. Tomato Tamato!
Allison and I have a list of ‘to-do’ things when I get home, which is soon. Some include trespassing, public indecency and arson. Oh, wait – I guess we can cross one of those off. If you haven’t tried Morton’s Steakhouse you are missing out! I had a porterhouse with Thiessen somewhere in Canada on Warped Tour 08′ – but my filet definitely topped it somehow. Hands down the best steak I have ever had in my entire life. But we might stumble on something better, you never know.
In other news, please remember to dis-infect your keyboards, cellphones and bars of soap – - as they contain more bacteria than a toilet seat in grand central station, or so I hear.
Tyler’caster – 1963 Custom Project
She is finished! Oct. 19th 2008 to June 18th 2009 was the length of the entire process. I couldn’t be more pleased with the quality and pure beauty of this telecaster. After all of the parts arrived, I drove to Nashville to have it assembled with James Hedges at Shiloh Music. Currently on the neck, is a Lollar 52′ accompanied by (soon to be) Antiquity II Bridge pickup. The plate is a NOS Fender bridge with Callaham compensated brass saddles. String ferrules are also Callaham which match with the tone plate (500k pots, tophat switch), kluson aged tuners and slotted screws. The decal went on beautifully and is virtually flawless in design compared to an original decal. There are several things that are noticeable to distinguish this guitar as a ‘custom’ and not original telecaster. However, it is closely based off a 1963 model from body shape (Brian Poe multi-piece swamp ash), hardware, neck size and of course color. This thing plays absolutely amazing, and sounds even better!
Big thank you to RS Guitarworks for painting and relicing the guitar, as well as Ethan Luck for the outstanding pictures.
Tyler’caster Part Four
Parts have arrived! I went with Callaham vintage hardware all the way around. I’m really stoked on the quality of the stuff they sent me. The bridge plate is actually a NOS bridge that I relic’d myself. I use the muratic acid technique, leaving it sit in a tupperware box for about 4 hours. I took it out, and it did exactly what I wanted, tarnished the outer metal and added some brown dark spots all over. I then put the bridge in another plastic box, and taped it shut with screws, coins and some small rocks I found in our driveway. After 15 minutes on air-fluff in our dryer, this is what I got.
Tomorrow, I’m heading down to Nashville to assemble the guitar with James Hedges. Pickups are Lollar 52′ on the bridge and a stock Fender single up front. Here are some other pics of the guitar, pre-assembly. Please excuse the poor quality of my macbook isight.
Tyler’caster Part Three
I am finally closing in on my guitar project. The body has been with RS GuitarWorks since October. You don’t realize exactly how long it takes to paint and cure a guitar body until you are waiting on one. The wait was worth it though, because Scott finally sent me some pictures of the guitar after it had been relic’d. I am going for an early 60’s look on the body, and trying to keep a lot of the specs ‘pre-cbs’. The neck is as close to a 54′ as I could get – solid maple, capped truss, 1.650″, nitro. I’m hoping this thing is playable in the coming weeks!
Los Angeles!
We conquered LA in the day and a half we were there. We had great food, saw cool things and listened to boom-boom-pow about five hundred times. I couldn’t think of a better mini-vacation. *elbow-fives*
Last night was the first of the club shows in Pomona, CA at the Glass House (which is ironically made of concrete). The show was sold out, and the place shook as they played the opening riff to ‘who I am’. Actor, Tom Wilson (Biff), was at the show which was really cool. Appearances by Andy Barron, Jered Scott and Michael Schneider. I fell asleep immediately after getting on the bus, and I woke up to 94 degrees of Bakersfield weather. The only thing I didn’t mind was eating Baja Fresh and trying out Juice It Up, which was fantastical.
Dead Rabbit
This is what happens on random hills in western kentucky at 5am.
In addition, there are other ways of entertaining yourself on flights to the black hills.
