sideways stories from wayside drive

We have moved...

2009-03-19T10:07:00.001-07:00

We have moved our blog to our own website. I've enjoyed blogger very much but WordPress rocks my world. You can sign up for email updates on the site or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Thank you! You can go to the blog here http://www.waysidedrive.com/blog1

-jeremy

New song. Radiate (Infrared)

2009-02-19T02:34:00.000-08:00

New song out! Radiate (Infrared). Like the others, download it for free at www.waysidedrive.com

Learning it live

2009-02-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

It has been quite an adventure figuring out how to translate these new songs from the recording to live performance. I made samples from the parts of the song that we won't be actually performing live. I assembled everything together in Ableton Live and added a click. The original plan was to do away with stage monitors and run everything through an on-stage mixer and then the entire band would use headphones. Part of my reasoning was due to past experiences. We have played many shows that had shoddy sound systems. You are usually stuck singing your guts out and screwing up your voice because you just can't hear yourself. So the thought was having everyone with headphones (since we can't afford in-ear monitors) so that we would all hear everything.

Well I set it up like that and it just wasn't working. Everything sounded too muddy. It wound up being worse. Mind you the headphones weren't the nicest in the world, but they weren't the worst either. Unfortunately we had blown out or mixer/PA so we didn't really have another choice. And then I had a unique idea. Natalie has this little bass combo amp. A guitar amp couldn't handle the lower-end frequencies but a bass amp sure can. In fact keyboard players can easily use a bass amp to plug into. So I set it up and viola! It worked great! In fact I think it sounded a little better than our old PA! One problem solved.

So I have Ableton Live running out into my little MBox audio interface. I have the click panned hard left and the samples panned hard right. Then I ran a set of headphones straight off the MBox for Kevin our drummer. So he gets both sides and we just send the right output to the board. Works like a charm! Learning to play to a click however, is a different story. I must say that I couldn't be prouder of Kevin. He has exceeded expectations. Having no experience playing to a click, other than it studio recording, he picked it right up. Most drummers, and musicians in general (yes I just lumped drummers and musicians together) don't like to play to a click, but he has sucked it up and done really well.

-jeremy

Band Practice

2009-01-31T16:29:00.001-08:00

Just working out the new songs for the Twestival. We were all a little
worried if we would be able to pull of the new material live. We tried
several different ways to go about it and nothing was working. After
much hard thought I finally figured it out. Wooo!!! Here are some pics
of us practicing. If it appears that we are practicing in a REALLY
dirty garage then the answer is yes. Not mine though. I would never,
ever have a garage that dirty. No way. Never. Not me.

Overwhelmed... in a good way

2009-01-23T02:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was quite a day! After hearing for years that social networking is key, and not believing it, I've given it a go and proud to say that it is true. Over just the past few months I've gotten on Facebook and Twitter, not to mention the Myspace page we already have, and built up an internet fanbase vastly larger than anything we've seen before.

I wanted to apologize for anyone that had problems with the site yesterday. A few people said it kept bouncing to Yahoo. Well yesterday we had a record high of 590 hits! In one day! Maybe it's not the New York Times but those numbers sure make me happy. So I'm guessing that the problem was stemming from overcapacity. A problem of which I have not experienced before!

I must give a HUGE and heartfelt thank you to everyone that helped (and continue to) push the message even further with their social networking abilities. We are grateful and humbled.

What a day! I am in awe. I'm glad that everyone seems to be liking the new songs. Thank you!

-jeremy

NEW WEBSITE! NEW SONGS! FREE! YES FREE!

2009-01-22T08:14:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!

Jeremy here from your favorite band Wayside Drive. A new day is upon us! We have thrown out convention! We have taken the plunge! For the past several months we have been working hard and developing new songs, a new sound, a new website, a new way of looking at things. First off let me tell you that the songs are free. Yes! FREE! We are releasing the songs via Creative Commons License meaning you can download them, copy them, send them out to whoever you like, use it in your YouTube videos, etc. As long as it's not for commercial use and you give us attribution then the sky's the limit! Also, we will be releasing the individual stems for all the new songs. That means each part of the song is broken down by the individual tracks so you can remix it! We will be doing that through a wonderful site called ccMixter. We only have 1 song available to remix right now. The other 2 will be up there in the next few days.

We have a blog, Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, Last FM, Twitter, and YouTube account. All the links for them are on our new website at www.waysidedrive.com. You can also download the new songs from there. Just click on the tab for each of the new songs and right-click the download link and "save as" (Windows) or "save link" (Mac). If you are on any of those sites listed then become our friends! Follow our Tweets! Subscribe to our blog!

Now here's what we need from you. The songs are free. We want you to help us! All we ask is that you send the songs to at least 3 friends. Just 3! Not too hard! If you feel compelled to send them to more then even better! But they're free because we want them out there. We want them out in the furthest reaches possible. We want our music in the hearts, minds, and ears of everyone we can. And you can't get better than free! So please take a few minutes and give us a hand. We would be very grateful!

Also we are on the play-list for Houston College Radio KTRU 91.7. The # of plays we get is sent to the CMJ (College Music Journal) charts. It's basically the Indie Billboards. The more we get played the better we chart. You can listen to the station at http://ktru.org/ and if you want to call and request us then even better! Their # is 713-348-5878.

If you have any sort of multitrack software (like Garageband) I highly encourage you to download the song stems and give remixing a go. It's fun! I have done my best to make it easy for beginners. Each track starts from the beginning of the song so you don't even have to place the parts. When you assemble them in your program you're ready to go! If you have any questions give me a shout.

Well I guess that's it! Sign the guestbook! Let me know what you think!

-jeremy

www.waysidedrive.com

Blown fuse blues

2009-01-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

So we're getting close. Sooooo close. Sometimes it feels like we're working on Chinese Democracy. Except Chinese Democracy has already been released! We have 4 new songs and here's the plan... we're going to release all 4 at the same time but they will be 4 individual singles. Then after that we will start to release a single single at a time. Or a single jingle. Anyway so we'll try and have a new song out about once month after that. We're also releasing all of the stems for each song so hopefully there will be some cool remixes coming out sporadically.

Now we're also trying to reinvent our stage show which has been both exhilarating and incredibly frustrating. Quite a few months ago we were playing a show and the fuse in Natalie's amp blew. Still haven't replaced it, of course. Then about a month ago we were playing another show and our PA blew a fuse. Still haven't replaced it and, of course, I lost the harness that holds the fuse. Then a few weeks ago we were recording drums and guess what??? I'll give you 2 guesses! We blew a fuse in the mixer. 3 fuses down. Haven't replaced a single one of them. And of course Radioshack doesn't stock them. That would be way too easy!!! I'd order them online but I don't now squat about fuses and there are all sorts of crazy options when I search for them and my head starts to spin and I get queasy.

I'm trying not to take it personally. I think that I must have lost favor with the gods of electricity and they are systematically reducing my electronic options to nothingness. I shouldn't say that. There are a lot more things that could go wrong! Knocking on particle board.

On a good note though, for live performances I want to have samples that are triggered from my MIDI controller. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't work out quite like I was expecting but it worked! I am incredibly pleased. I couldn't be happier about it. So... as soon as we get the amp and mixer back up and running then perhaps other people can hear it!

jeremy

Cuz you can't get enough Kevin

2008-12-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

Kevin in the studio

2008-12-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

BBC Talking about poster promotion at Band Camp

2008-11-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

New Songs, New Perspective, New Newish Newbies...

2008-10-27T11:26:00.001-07:00

Jeremy:

Slowly but surely working on new material. It's remarkable how much time it can take to record seemingly simple things. Partly due to the fact that it's hard just to schedule the time to do it. The new songs are coming along nicely though. What's irking me is all the new songs are quite a huge departure from the older stuff so we're in the strange in-between stage. I don't want to put a lot of effort to promote the older songs since that's not what we sound like anymore but I don't have the new songs ready to debut. So if someone asks me to set up a show or if an opportunity arises, I'm stuck in the middle a bit. It's a strange place to be.

It's all going well though and sounding great. I'm having my good friend (and sometimes side-project mate) Spinmeister lay down some killer keys. His talent is awe-inspiring. I am truly honored to have him on the project. It's funny because I'm making specific efforts to blur the lines between traditional activities and in this case a friend with whom I do a synth-pop side project (a minor theory) is now becoming a regular contributor to my main project.

Working on new songs, a new website, new promotional photos, new t-shirts?, new web networking, and new opportunities for non-traditional venues to play. Needless to say there are wonderful things afoot...

In the studio

2008-10-24T03:17:00.001-07:00

Step into the light

In the studio

2008-10-24T03:15:00.001-07:00

Natalie recording cello

In the studio

2008-10-24T03:13:00.001-07:00

An audience of two

In the Studio

2008-10-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

Cello goodness

Interview with Self

2008-02-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

jeremy osborn:

Since I’m not a famous rock star yet I’ve decided I’m not going to wait to do the big interviews. I’m going to interview myself. The photo shoot didn’t go so well though…

Me: Do you mind denied for SXSW entry every year?
Myself: Not at all. I actually look forward to it. I’m beginning to think that when I finally do get accepted I might not go. It would just spoil all this fun I’m having not going.

Me: How did the band get started?
Myself: It’s a funny story. Well, not that funny. It is, however, very long and very boring.

Me: What do you think about Houston venues?
Myself: For your basic “rock” venues I’d say we only have 5 or 6 worth much of anything and that’s the greater Houston area. It depends on what you’re looking for I suppose. I think the problem is more with the way Houston is set up and it’s lack of centrality than the venues themselves. We’re what, the 5th largest city in the U.S.? Every major city has some sort of music hub. A location where there is a decent collection of venues and cool shops. But must of those cities grew the natural way in which there were zoned areas for arts and entertainment. Houston was an oil and energy city. They didn’t have “nightlife” in mind when designing the architectural landscape. So when you have clubs scattered all over the city and you have to drive 10 miles between them, you get a feeling of disconnection. I think it carries over to the way we regard our own artistic output. I think Houston always feels like the little kid who lives around the block desperately trying to play with the big boys. And I think most of the other major cities view us that way as well. We have too much catch-up to do in just getting to where they’ve already been for years.

Me: What would you like to see happen for the Houston music scene?
Myself: I would like more originality. We need more bands and venues that aren’t spending their time and energy trying to be something else. I think we need to not be afraid to make our own artist statements. I’m not saying we don’t have any originality. We do. I would like Houston to be on the musical map. When I become president it will be the first think on my list.

Me: What’s it like balancing work, school, and the band?
Myself: Oh it’s hard. I work 40 hours a week, go to school 4 nights a week, and we try to practice at least once a week. And between all of that I have to find time to get work done around the house. Mow the lawn. Oh, and sleep. Argh! Stupid, stupid sleep.

Me: Do you want a record deal?
Myself: If you had asked me that 3 years ago I would have said yes, definitely. But it’s a totally different ball game now. We live in a DIY, a’la Carte world where you can have quality 10 times better than the Beatles ever had in the comfort of your own living room. Too bad there’s not the Beatles talent to back it up. Indie labels now are taking the place of what the bigs used to be. They have a smaller team and are a lot more personal. They usually believe in the bands and really put their support behind them. I would definitely sign to a good indie. Barsuk! Give me a call!!!

Me: If a tree fell in the forest, and there was no one there to hear it, would it make a sound?
Myself: No. Sound is defined upon the experience of the listening. It does, however, make sound waves. Gosh I’m a dork.

Me: What’s your favorite venue to play in Houston?
Myself: Rudyard’s British Pub, definitely. It has a great vibe and everybody is so nice. We usually get a decent crowd out there too. It says a lot that it’s one of my favorite places to play considering you play upstairs. Oh, the stairs!

Me: What was it like playing the Houston Press Music Awards showcase?
Myself: It was definitely one of the highlights of the band so far. The whole thing was professional from the ground up. The tickets were attractive, the venue was cool, the showcase was cool. We were just excited to see our name on the ballot! It was great seeing our name in line with a lot of other really great bands. We didn’t win the competition but it really didn’t matter. I know it sounds like a lame justification but just being on the ballot was prize enough. It was a huge exposure booster for us.

Me: What do you think of cover bands?
Myself: I think cover bands are a great way to make a buck for doing something you love. But that’s it. They serve a purpose, for sure, but don’t consider yourself on the same playing field. It’s not because original band is “better” than a cover band. You’d have to define what “better” means anyway. But writing and performing your own material is just in a totally different world. We were once auditioning drummers and we had a guy call that had been playing in cover bands for like 11 years. He was looking for something else and wanted to come jam with us. He was incredibly nice and we really hit it off. When we started talking about shows he asked how much we play and how much we make. When I told him he stammered. He said he was used to bringing in about 4K a month and had gotten used to that income. GO BACK TO YOUR COVER BAND!!!! Yes we’re making peanuts, but one day you’ll be covering our music. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Me: Do you watch TV?
Myself: TV is the devil. It is evil incarnate. It is a vacuum that sucks up your time and leaves you a mindless puddle of stupidity. It doesn’t mean every program is bad. I really can’t wait for TV a’la Carte. I want the History channel, PBS, A&E, VH1, and maybe a few others. Notice I didn’t include MTV. MTV doesn’t exist anymore. It used to exist. Now it’s a pale, empty shell that once held life. If you stare long enough into its eyes you can see traces of a life once lived. Now it just dribbles on its bib between bed times.

Me: What do you think of Myspace?
Myself: I think Myspace is a necessary evil. I think it’s an incredibly valuable tool for bands and people connecting or re-connecting. On a personal level I think that people get too obessed and stop connecting to other people in a personal way. They just live their lives virtually. On a music level I think it is absolutely the most rediculous and preposterious thing for venues, labels, or anyone to judge a band by their # of hits. I’ve seen it happen! First of all there are ways of faking the count. Secondly, some fool with no job hitting refresh on his browser ALL DAY, EVERY DAY does not mean his band is worth the bandwidth they’re being played on.

Me: What do you think of “Battle of the Bands”?
Myself: I think 99% of all so-called “contests” are crap. I think it’s a huge (and brilliant) scam to make money. Between one’s that we’ve entered and one’s that bands we’re friends with have entered I’ve seen all different types. You always wind up selling tickets to every person you’ve ever known (and their friends) and flyer every place you’ve ever been in hopes of gaining the big “prize”. Let me tell you, the prize is usually a bag of straw. You’ve just waisted your time and money and annoyed all your friends and loved ones. One of the stupidest was a contest our friend’s band entered. It went to several levels, as they usually do, and at the last level, the cream of the crop, the winner was decided by a noise meter. That might have been fine except people brought those small hand held horns! And they weren’t disqualified!!! You could be the worst band since Creed but as long as you have horns, you win. The logic is astounding. I could go on with many more stories but that would fill a book. They can be a beneficial experience for the exposure. You reach a lot of people that way. But word of advise, don’t enter a contest that you have to pay money out of your pocket and don’t bill every one of these events to your friends and family as the “most important show of your life”. After 5 of those people stop coming. Not that I know anything about that….

Me: Is it hard being so darn attractive?
Myself: Aw thanks (blushes), yeah but it has its moments. It’s nice getting into clubs for free and people buying my drinks. I just wish they would stop staring at my chest and respect me for the man that I am. I’m not a piece of meat! I have feelings! By the way, you’re pretty attractive yourself. What are you doing after this????

A Deal In the Hand Is Better Than Two In the, uh… Bush?

2008-02-06T12:05:00.000-08:00

jeremy osborn:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard fellow struggling musicians talk about what they’ll settle for with their music career and what they won’t. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said those things myself! It’s usually a declaration in defense of one’s “art”. They won’t give away copyrights… They won’t give away publishing… They want FULL artistic control. They either want to do it all themselves (good luck) or they want a record deal that hands them the world on a silver platter. They won’t be happy unless the president of the label is personally bringing them bowls of M&M’s with the brown one’s removed.

It’s really easy to tout your principles when no one is knocking at your door. I would give anything to be a fly on the wall for the slim chance they get that knock. If you’re a struggling musician and have to balance work (sometimes several jobs) with your band you might fall pray to desperation. When you’re faced with the choice of working at Starbucks and gigging every other weekend for $80 (if you get anything at all) or a record deal with a nice beefy advance, which looks more appealing? It’s like wandering through the Sahara desert for 10 years and somebody offers you ocean-side property in Hawaii. You just have to forget about the fact that you must agree to sell every child you spawn until the day you die. I’m not making judgement calls here. I just want to look at the situation practically for what it is.

Life is about comprimise and conformity. To what level you’re willing to go is the real question. When I was in junior high I once wore my sisters Corrosion of Conformity t-shirt to church. My Sunday school teacher asked me why I was wearing that shirt. I replied, with as much cockiness a junior highschooler can, that I was a non-conformist. He told me, “We all conform Jeremy, just on different levels.” Silly story, I know, but it really did stick with me. It’s about what you’re willing to give and what you must hold on to.

I have another short story, if I may, to illustrate. We had a weeknight show booked at Rudyards British Pub (one of our favs). Mike over there had me book the other bands for the night so I asked another band to play (who shall remain nameless) whom I really liked their stuff. They were really nice guys and I was excited to play a show with them. We were playing a weeknight show, which is tough for anyone. Even if you have a pretty decent following most people have to work the next day. At Rudz you pay $50 from your cover at the door to pay the soundguy and whoever is working the door. In an effort to get some people there we decided we’d pay the $50 ourselves and make the show free. Wow we sure are nice! When split between band members, and sometimes the other bands, it’s not that bad of a hit and you can usually make it up in merchandise sales. That’s what you call p-r-o-m-o-t-i-o-n. It takes money to make money. Also, it was an effort to get some of the people hanging out downstairs to come up and hear the show. Gosh, we’re so smart.

So I emailed the band-that-shall-remain-nameless to see if they would be willing to go in on it but specified that it wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t. They replied with something about that idea being and insult to our “art” and it cheapens what we do, blah blah blah. When you make fliers for shows, it’s an expense you eat to try and get people to shows. When you have a business and you have sales or special promotions it’s an expense you eat to improve business!!! You can stand by your values for your “art” all you want but it doesn’t do much good when there’s no one else to hear it.

I’m not saying you have to sell your babies. Like I said, it’s about what you’re willing to give and what you must hold on to. In the 90’s the Smashing Pumpkins were accused of “selling out”. What does that mean? Selling out? They weren’t trying to earn a living before? Oh, but it’s different when you go “corporate”. But that was the 90’s. Now we have Mojave 3 selling Hummers. We have Death Cab for Cutie putting out records on Atlantic. For some reason the sell-out naysayers have gone by the, uh… wayside.

New video for "Automatic" is up!

2008-01-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

jeremy osborn:

When you have no budget, when you have no equipment, when you have no scruples, do it yourself!!! We wanted a video for our opening track "Automatic" for a while now. Our last video for the title track "The Red Room" was awesome. Our good friend Adam Gilleland from the band Fake Believe did that. We knew we wouldn't have access to any professional equipment with this one, so we took the approach we have had with most of our endeavors. Work with what you have! And what do we have? Thanks to the most awsomest present from my Brother-In-Law Mark and my sister Jennifer, I have a beautiful MacBook Pro. And it’s a wonderful thing, let me tell you. This is my first Mac and I'm definitely seeing what all the hubbub has been about. And yes, I'm going to put the Apple sticker on my car. I'm an addict now. My life has been changed forever. I’m going to be one of “those” people.

The computer comes with a really nice built-in camera right above the screen. It also comes with a great program called iMovie. For freebee software that program rocks. Of course almost every program that came stock with the computer rocks. That's one of the many reasons why Mac is so awesome. Ok, I digress. So iMovie has ability to edit videos, even to the smallest of increments, and it can add text and audio. I tried a few test runs to see if it would be sufficient for our needs and it was perfect.

So now we had to come up with the idea for the video. One of the most fundamental tools that a DIY'er has is when you have limited equipment; make it look like you chose the tools you're using on purpose. Perfect example, the movie "Clerks". Kevin Smith was an independent filmmaker with no money and wanted to make a simple film that takes place in a convenience store. So he got some credit cards and purchased a black and white security camera. What a brilliant idea! What better way to film a low-budget indie flick about a convenience store than to film it with a security camera! And it's in black and white so you can say it's "artsie". Now he's making major films for lots of money. It’s the American dream people!

Since we were in the same situation (but don't have any room on our credit cards) I decided to make the video look like we filmed it on a webcam... on purpose. Not quite as brilliant as the previous example, but pretty clever I think. We decided to start the video out filmed entirely in the same room with each of us in the band cutting in and out while singing the song. You may notice that the walls are red. Yes, it is the very same room we filmed “The Red Room” in (MTV take note for future pop-up videos). After the first chorus we then took the actual laptop out and about and filmed us singing in various locations around Houston. Since this was obviously not going to be a dramatic affair we kept everything pretty light hearted and had fun with it.

It was filmed over 2 Sunday's and then edited by me on iMovie. Overall it was incredibly easy to do. I'm expecting the call from Spielberg soon...
You can view it on our myspace page www.myspace.com/waysidedrive or directly at YouTube here.

On Making Music Videos...

2008-01-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

jeremy osborn:

The filming in for the “Automatic” video Natalie mentioned went really well. I don’t want to go into great detail yet because I want to leave some surprise. We decided to have Kevin meet us at our house at 1 PM last Sunday. So he did but we still had quite a bit of preparing to do. A good portion of the video was to be filmed at various locations so daylight was an issue. We didn’t leave the house until 3 PM. The first place we wanted to film was a park. We specifically wanted a see-saw and one of those spinny things. I think it’s a carousel or a merry-go-round. You know the one when you where a kid and the bully would spin it incredibly fast while you where on it forcing you with the choice of motion sickness or possible bodily injury if you jump off. Good times.

So we went to the largest park in Pasadena (TX), Strawberry Park, and looked around and didn’t see either ride. How can the largest park in Pasadena not have either? So we tried a few other parks with no further luck. Upon discussion we came to the conclusion that parks probably stopped having those type of things because of their supposed “danger”. You know, the early 90’s movement of blocking all things potentially dangerous for kids, which resulted in removing great portions of things that made childhood worth living. Oh but it’s ok for kids now to coop themselves up in the house all day and play video games and get fat from no physical activity whatsoever. But that’s another blog for another day.

We determined that parks in the poorer neighborhoods might have them. I don’t think that is cynical. I think that unrealistic federal regulations get more stringent the higher you get on the pay scale. As the great poet Bruce Hornsby once said, “That’s just the way it is”. Well didn’t have any luck there either. Where have all the see-saws gone? I feel like I should busk on the street corner with a beaten-up acoustic guitar lamenting the loss of our reason. I bet you Abraham Lincoln had a see-saw.

With no usable park it is now about 4 PM and we were running out of daylight fast. So we stopped at a few other locations on our list and got a few quick shots. Then we went to the lovely park right by downtown Houston, I think it’s Heritage Park, where we finished of our daylight filming. No see-saws though. Just a lot of ducks. I think they where ducks. Man they were ugly.

We stopped by on of our favorite pubs, Rudyard’s, for dinner and a pint. Thought we’d try and sneak a little filming in there but it was too dark. Drove around downtown to get some nighttime shots. Didn’t feel too safe doing that. Instead hit the Starbucks in Rice Village and got some footage in their patio. We had to get some coffee while we were there, of course. It was, uh, for project research. Yeah that’s it. Kevin, however got tea. Haha. No further comment there. We then went to Border’s Bookstore off of W. Alabama and snuck a few shots in the children section. Don’t tell! It was now a little after 8 PM and Kevin had to be at work by 4 something so we went back home.

I was too excited so I went ahead and started editing the material from the day. It was a success and we have a good amount of usable material. We will have to film more this weekend though. You’d be surprised how hard it is to fill a 3.5 minute video. It doesn’t seem like that long but when you do your best to mix it up with enough stuff to keep the viewing audience interested it can take a lot. Oh, and Kevin broke his finger the next day at work. Won’t be playing shows for while!

Good Intentions...Planning the "Automatic" Video

2008-01-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

Natalie Osborn:

I’m just about finished with the banner. I must say, so far it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. We’ll have to see how it turns out once it’s finished.

Today we are planning a music video for our song, “Automatic”. We had scheduled to start work on it at 1pm, however Kevin had to work. He’ll be working until 3 – 3:30 today so if he’s available we’ll start work tomorrow. Just another example of how it’s not easy to balance the band and our day jobs. Perhaps one day we won’t have to and can do music full time. The dream….

Anyway, Jeremy has an idea for the new video which I won’t be at liberty to reveal just yet. He has an idea, but no plan of action. No storyboard, no set, no script…I could go on but I won’t. I’m the business part of our team. I can’t stand the idea of not having a plan. I have been nagging and nagging him to sit down with me and his idea to map out a plan to bring the “idea” to fruition. It’s not that I’m a kill joy, we just have such limited time that I hate to waste any of the time we do have.

We had a photo shoot a few years back. It was a disaster. We had our photographer, we had our helper and we were all dressed up and ready to go. It was like 100 degrees outside and we were in the warehouse district and downtown. We were sweating so much that we could only take a few photos before we had to take a break to towel off. We had no plan on where to shoot so of course it took even longer to scout and setup and plan our positioning. After hours and hundreds of digital images, only a few were actually usable.
This is what I wish to avoid.

So now I have until 1 o’clock tomorrow to get him to script this new video. He’s on the telephone with Kevin now discussing costuming. This seemed promising until he told him to bring three different options of clothing. Three options because he’s not sure which we’ll use. Errr…

I pointed out to him how well the filming of “The Red Room” video went because it was all planned. He agreed, so hopefully he’s beginning to see my concern and we can sit down and script this before 1 pm tomorrow.

It looks like my night is planned out for me. With a bit of luck and a lot of work, in a little while you will be wowed by our brilliance and originality. We want this one to be a lot of fun for everyone. (Seriously, I didn’t mean for that to rhyme.) I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

DIY for dummies

2008-01-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

jeremy osborn:

As I type Natalie is making us a banner for the band. Why is she making us a banner? Because we don’t have the money to get one made. Anyone out there that can relate with that? The old adage, “It take money to make money” is very true, but you certainly have to have it in the first place. As of right now we’re a bit short on investors. That doesn’t mean we don’t have supportive friends and family. Quite the opposite thankfully. But lines of independently wealthy individuals lining up to give us cash hasn’t panned out yet. When you play out enough you see plenty of other bands. Some have more goodies than you, some less. Some obviously have it handed to them, some have to work for it. I’m a bit in-between to be honest. My parents and my sister and brother-in-law have blessed me 10 times over.

For most bands, whether you’re U2 or you’re the band next door, you can have the same type of things to sell at a show. There’s T-shirts, stickers, CD’s, and even buttons if you like. Then you need some type of way to display that merchandise. Some just stack it up in a semi-attractive way (this is what we do) and some have full-on displays that look like they’re setting up a booth for a Las Vegas convention. Our friends in The Crisis have an amazing display that has a metal frame that wraps around the back of the merch booth with the t-shirts pinned to it. It is pretty darn cool. Of course they have like 5 different t-shirts to sell so that certainly necessitates something that grand.

Another really popular thing for bands to do is have a banner to hang on the wall behind the drum kit. I personally think it looks very professional and, of course, advertises the band for all to see. If you just walk in the door in the middle of a set there’s no doubt who’s playing. We actually had a street sign company make us a Wayside Drive street sign to use in place of a banner. We thought about helping ourselves to a real one off the street but stealing is bad. Didn’t your mother teach you anything? So we had one made and it turned out really cool but now we can’t think of a way to mount it. There are bases you can by for like portable parking lot stop signs but they can be pretty expensive not to mention really heavy to carry. Thus far we haven’t thought of a reasonable way to do it ourselves. Anyone have an idea?

For t-shirts I actually made a stencil. I went to the art supply store and bought a blank plastic stencil and cut it myself. Then I bought some small sponge rollers and fabric paint and just did it myself! This is a pretty sufficient way of making shirts but since you have to use a stencil then everything has to connect within the design. So all text has to have “breaks” to connect the plastic of the stencil. That forces you to make it look like you meant to do that. You make it a part of the design itself. That’s fine and good but it can be quite limiting. Ideally you want to use a silk-screen printer but I neither have the equipment nor know how to use it. I’m taking a printing class this semester so I’ll get back to you on how that goes.

Stickers you can’t really do yourself. Well, you can, but it will likely not be a very good quality. I shopped all over the internet and found a company that are both very reasonably priced and do quality, prompt work. They called Stickerguy. Business cards you can also do yourself easy enough but I went with Vistaprint for that. Also very inexpensive and high quality. It’s all about professionalism right?

CD’s you can certainly do yourself. With the technology you have available now you can make an album and handle 100% of everything from the recording to the pressing of the CD’s. Now you will likely have to burn them as CDR’s which has it’s limitations. Not all players can play CDR’s but my personal opinion is it’s a non-issue these days. There’s no a CD player made today that can’t play it so a device would have to be pretty darn old to not be able to handle it but it can be a possibility, you do have to keep that in mind. The main problem with CDR’s is if you use the cheaper, thick white printing CD labels then it can make the CD itself too thick. I’ve heard of problems with this in car stereos. The CD gets hot inside the player and can ruin the player or just won’t eject. There are glossy labels you can buy that are considerably thinner.

Then there’s the matter of a website. Yes myspace is all you really need. You can put your photos on there, your music, keep up with your fanbase, etc etc. It’s really a matter of taste for me. I don’t take a band as seriously if they only have a myspace page and nothing else. It seems like they took the easy way out. Since I couldn’t afford to pay someone to make us a website, and since at the time I didn’t have any friends who could do it for free I just taught myself. I learned HTML first and got pretty good at it. The very first site I did for the band is pretty funny though. I was so proud of it too! After a while I really wanted to learn Flash so I bought some “for dummies” books and went through the tutorials that come with the software. After I got pretty good at that I made our current band site in Flash http://www.waysidedrive.com/. I enjoyed it so much I started doing sites for my friends and family. Next thing you know I started getting some paying gigs out of the deal so I started my own design company http://www.waysidedesign.com/. Clever name!

My opinion is you have to make it happen on your own. If you don’t have the money to just acquire everything you need then you have no other option. A lot of that sentiment I applied to our song “Time Is Now”. I think it really sums up our feeling about making things happen for yourself.

Time Is Now
You can sit, you can hold out
Wait for someone to do it for you
The choice is yours, the door is open
Will you resist or walk through it

All the wasted time I threw away
All the missed chances I didn’t take
If I’ve learned one thing, the time is now
All the years I could’ve done much more
I don’t know what I was waiting for
If I’ve learned one thing, the time is now

Only you can make it happen
All you have to do is claim it
The time is now , the clock is ticking
All your future is what you make of it

All the wasted time I threw away
ll the missed chances I didn’t take
If I’ve learned one thing, the time is now
All the years I could’ve done much more
I don’t know what I was waiting for
If I’ve learned one thing, the time is now

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

2007-12-12T23:19:00.000-08:00

Natalie Osborn:

We just wrapped up a cover of John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War is Over). You can find it posted on the Houston Chronicle web site under Entertainment in the Houston Bands section.

I can’t even begin to tell you what a humbling experience it was to cover that song. Jeremy and I were at dinner celebrating our 7th anniversary when we made the decision to cover that particular song. We are huge John Lennon fans so we knew that we could pay proper homage and maintain the original sentiment. We aren’t exactly a political band or an activist band, but as a band we are all in agreement we would like to see an end to the war in Iraq and see our troops come home. We also thought that we could record this quickly enough to make the deadline for the Chronicle site. We were dead wrong.

We thought that the production would be easy and that the song was fairly straight forward. So we began recording at home on our ProTools recording software. Jeremy laid his bed track (a temporary placeholder track) for guitar and we were ready to begin. Well we soon discovered that the vocals alone were quite challenging. It went from extreme lows to EXTREME highs. We decided to record a keyboard part and since we didn’t have actual sheet music Jeremy had to write a part. We added percussion and Jeremy added a pretty cool lead guitar part. We tried to add drums, but had to use an electric kit because we are still a modest band and we haven’t afforded ourselves the luxury of acoustic drum mics. The electric drum kit sounded very electric so we cut the tracks in production.

For production we decided to entrust our dear friend Kenneth “Golden Ears” Scott. We went over at 8pm and were there until about 11 before we had a workable project. For some reason the tracks that Jeremy had stored on his external hard drive from his PC would not load into Kenneth’s MacBook. Kenneth finally had to close his MacBook and remove it from its stand (ironically its stand was a Dell notebook) and load everything into the Dell and then manually transfer each track to the Mac. There were a lot of tracks. Once loaded, Jeremy then had to manually move all the instrumentation and vocals to the right place.

Three hours later Kenneth got started. That is when he made the executive decision to cut the electric drums and my extremely over annunciated s’s. Two days later we showed up and he had it all mixed. We gave our input on levels and we all worked on the ending and finally we had a finished product.

Even Kenneth said that he underestimated the project. Nevertheless we got it done and we are very happy with the finished product. We hope that you like it too.

BLOG THIS

2007-12-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

Kevin Robinson:

My band mates have been bugging for weeks to write a blog about myself, so here it goes. Be warned I have written anything since high school. And that’s been a long time. I guess I’m supposed to talk myself up, I’ll just tell you how I joined the band Wayside Drive . Before joining Wayside a couple of years ago, I’ve played in a few bands…Drunks in Public, Beacon, and Cold Soul. But before joining Wayside, I took a year off from playing, and really didn’t think I would ever pick up sticks again…. Until they asked me to jam one day. I really didn’t take them serious because I thought they were way out of my league…And a couple of jams later and I was in the door. Since then, Wayside Drive has put out a full length C.D. shot a video, and was nominated for best alt. rock band…And that has just been in the last few years….The future is wide open…..

Getting to know you

2007-11-26T11:58:00.000-08:00

Natalie Osborn:

Since this is my first blog, Jeremy thought it would be a good idea to give some background information about myself. I’ve never written a blog before so I hope it turns out ok. Here we go….

I joined the band when WD’s former bassist John Amelang moved to Summerville, TX. Jeremy said, “Natalie, you use to play violin, piano and cello…you can learn to play the bass.” 3 months later I was on stage playing a show organized by our good friend Ant Boogie of Collective Hallucination. It’s been quite an adventure and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I must say, it’s a lot more fun playing a mobile instrument rather than something that requires you to be still. It’s fun to see and interact with the audience. I love that I get to spend time with my husband and that he decided to share this wonderful gift with me. I know secretly though, it’s so that I can’t complain about the amount of money or time it takes. I like to tell him, “we make beautiful music together.” It truly is a beautiful thing to be able to share something that we both love so much. It is also a great feeling to be able to have this creative outlet that you share with the world; but then if you are a blogger you already know that feeling. There is something magical about pulling these words and music out of your head and heart and making it into something tangible.

Music, all music, has always been a major part of my life and my personality. I have to have it, whether I am playing it on an instrument or on my iPod. I have always been a music junkie, from the time I was 5 and my parents let me choose any album from their record collection...yes I did say record. I chose The Beatles, Live in Hamburg because it was a RED vinyl record. (I still have it!) I listened to it over and over while jumping on the bed and singing along as best as a 5 year old can imitate German. Later, I got my first cassette tape...yes I said cassette. It was U2, War. I am still a huge fan of both the Beatles and U2. I also LOVE Jane’s Addiction and had a chance to meet Dave Navarro and Flea and they put me on the guest list for the 1998 JA reunion show at Bayou Place. That is a story for another time, but how cool is it that I got to meet Flea!

Anyway, I say all this because you can hear their influence in our music. It’s really cool to listen to The Red Room album we recorded and hear how my love of 80’s and early 90’s rock and love for classical music can be heard throughout the album.

There have been some bumps along the way, (which again, is another story) but overall it has been a great experience and I really look forward to sharing all of it with you.

Introductions all around

2007-11-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

jeremy osborn:

Hello and greetings! This would be our first attempt to blog as a band. And for the most part our first attempt to blog individually. Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Jeremy Osborn and I am the lead singer and guitarist for the rock band Wayside Drive. In this blog we shall attempt to relay what it is like being in a band in this here Houston, TX. We hope to make you laugh, cry, and most importantly come see us play! Oh yes, fun will be had by all. I must say that being in a band is one of the best and most frustrating things one can attempt. For us though it is not an option. Music for me is my oxygen. It's a requirement for survival, not a luxury. I CANNOT CONCEIVE of life without music.

I was just commenting to my friend Ant Boogie (from the band Collective Hallucination) the other day that I often think about people who go home from their day jobs, watch a few shows on TV, and go to bed night after night. That lifestyle both appeals to me in its utter simplicity and scares the hell out of me. All of us in the band work day jobs. None of our jobs relate in any capacity to something that can be described as "creative". We are your band that punches the clock and practices in the evenings and then plays and plays as much as time will allow. Yes music is the "dream"' day jobs are the reality.

Being in a band is hard. It's hard work. Not very many of us have the luxury of the typecast unemployed musician crashing on his girlfriends couch. We work our tails off at work, work our tails off in the band, and somehow try and find time to actually get stuff done around the house. And just when you think you've done everything you can to promote your band, there's still 40 other things you can do. We don't have a manager (anyone interested?), we don't have a record label, we don't have unlimited cash flow. However some of those limitations can make for interesting creative spurts. Not being able to afford a studio or to make t-shirts one is forced to improvise. I think that can make things more personal. It gets your own personal blood, sweat, and tears into it (hey, that would be a great name for a band).

So there it is, the glory and the shame. I hope that you'll find our impending ramblings interesting and we look forward to your comments. I'm quite looking forward to the exercise. I think it will be interesting to see what comes out. I would like to end with a quote that is very dear to my heart and one that I think describes our situation perfectly.

"Rock music is mostly about moving big, black boxes from one side of town to the other in the back of your car."
-Pere Ubu