The DBC - Denver, CO

WEEK 6: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”

Hey there everyone! The next tune in the lineup is “Enough is Enough”. The main outline, changes and lyrics for this song were written over a year before this record and it wasn’t until the tour that I brought it back into the fold. 

I guess you could say that a deadline is really what pushes me to finishing a song. There are so many songs on the shelf half-written or somewhat complete but missing a few pieces, and then the deadline comes to make an album or prepare for new shows.

Really it’s the band and the musicians that inspire and push me to be creative and play what I hear in my head. When it all comes together and the smiles on everyone’s face is what the spirit of the song is about.

WEEK 5: “THE NEWS”

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been writing these backstories but I’m catching back up...

“The News” is the oldest song on this record and is the one that is always being updated and adapted to new situations. I must have re-written and arranged the jazzy-instrumental section so many times I don’t know if I could re-create what it was originally. 

I’ve been writing this song since I was a college student at about age 20. The song fell together in about a week, but the overall arrangement still continues to this day. I finished this arrangement the day of the recording and made the final tweaks to what you hear now. 

It was decision at the very last minute to give the horns a chance to trade solos and build together to create a huge climax allowing us to return to the chorus with some gusto.

“The News” originally began is an inside joke between an old college roommate and myself. I was in a CNN phase and would watch the news all the time. My roommate would always walk in and ask me, “Are you watching the olds again”. “The olds?!” I questioned back. “Yea man, the olds. The news has nothing new to say. It’s the same old nonsense!” 

WEEK 4: “What It’s All About”

For the fourth installment of the behind the album series is track #4, “What It’s All About”. This song is the oldest song on the album and has pretty much been the same since I first wrote it years ago.

The lyrics behind the song are an attempt to convince those around us to reciprocate the love and care we have for them. “It takes a village...” as they say and is really the essence behind this song. 

I don’t view myself as a band leader screaming for and/or dominating the attention of the music. It is a true collective effort amongst the musicians to lift the music and I want each of the band members to feel as they are a part of the creation process as well. What they bring and what they play is tremendous to the overall sound of the music.

Everyone in this band, including myself, has been or is currently in other bands as sidemen, or what we call, “hired guns”, and it can be a tough act because every band leader is different in their approaches, so I want to create an environment of musical freedom, creativity and passion within The DBC because everyone has a place to shine.

WEEK 3 - “OUT OF THE BLUES”

Week 3 of the backstory series is the title track “Out of the Blues”. “Out of the Blues” is the longest song I’ve ever written and I had a little help from my good friend and partner in crime, Alex Scott. 

“Out of the Blues” to me, means that we have to find a way out of the misery, the negative, the lies, the ego and anything that brings us down and unable to live our lives to the fullest. But it also means to me, that I’m trying to find new ways of writing to get away from the traditional blues/rock n roll format. I like writing in ways that create multiple meanings because I’m not a fan of one-sided, tell-all styles of writing.  

The song was very heavily influenced by jam-band Umphrey’s McGee and is a 10minute long, epic journey through various keys, times, with an incredible Moog solo by keyboardist Chris Beck. Originally, we had rehearsed and practiced that I would be taking the solo on the guitar through the instrumental section, however, on our tour, I handed it over to Chris Beck one night and he took it over to a new dimension. It’s what I love about my band, no ego. 

WEEK 2:

The next installment from The DBC’s latest record track #2 is “Cinco Scutti”.

This song began 2 years ago. I have been teaching music lessons to students of all ages since I arrived in Denver back in 2009. One of my students is a huge Beatles fan and was really interested to learn “Don’t Let Me Down”, so we worked it out together. Later, I got home and was playing the chords and structure fairly openly and got the idea to make different time signatures for parts and give it a little bit of a different groove and feel.

The main times in this tune are 5/4 and 6/4 (Cinco=5 Scutti=6). This song has always felt most naturally to me without lyrics and the main horn melody line only came to me as we were preparing for the winter tour and towards the record. I wanted this song on this record because this truly is the next direction of The DBC and my compositions for this band. 

This is the most true to my heart composition and I never get tired of playing it live and listening back along with the video. I love it.

Starting this week, every Monday I’ll be doing a special tumblr only feature about each of the songs from our latest CD/DVD effort. First up is Track #1 - Red Lights.

Red Lights first came into being from a writing session with a friend of mine named Austin Feagan. We began exploring ideas after establishing the groove right from the beginning and then the chorus line, “The Red Lights are deceiving!” just came out so naturally, I immediately knew where to take the rest of the song. 

I finished the arrangement and it sat on the shelf for a while but decided to bring it in for our tour and for this album. For me, the best part is playing the song live. Every time we change the form, who takes the solo, and seeing the reaction of the crowds and having them sing along is probably the best take away for me.

All the pieces just fit together and a room of 9 musicians making a collective and balanced sound is precisely what we were after on this take.