The Strange World of Davidh - Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT (Originally Written and Posted Monday, December 11, 2006)
"Auto Pilot"
We hoped with a new singer it would breathe new life into us, i hoped personally with a new writer in the band i could pear down on the creativity. I had spent the last 11 years in a constant state of writing and was quite burnt out. Matt Scruggs, the new singer and guitarist had lots of ideas, he told us he had 18 or 19 songs already written so we went on about learning these songs, by the time we were finished with those i figured i would be ready to start writing again. The name i chose for this band was Bigfoot, none of the other guys were to hot on that but the second name i threw out they were. We were called Mammoth.
We began rehearsing a few nights a week and before long we had about 7 or 8 of the songs down tight, we demoed a few of them on 4 track at practice, demoed a few of them acoustically at my home studio, finally we felt we were ready to go into a real deal studio and record some of these tracks. In august of 2003 we went into Wintersound Studio in Gloucester, Va. (me, Mike and Tony's second time for anyone counting)and cut 6 songs in one day. Also around this time we started playing out again, opening shows for local band Bully. Bully was (i have no idea now, i haven't heard them in over 2 years) a mostly covers band with an all girl gimmick, mostly playing heavy metal tunes. The shows with Bully were kinda weird because for one, all we did was play originals and two, the music styles were vastly different, while they were heavy metal we were more radio friendly grungy, Matt was a huge fan of Kurt Cobain and it showed in his music.
In November of 2003, we played a show in Deltaville, Va. that was a festival type thing but indoors, a lot of good bands played with us like, Bully, Jack's Smirking Revenge, Mai Ancora, When All Else Fails, the no talent show and El DeSalvo. El DeSalvo was a one off band that consisted of me, Mike and Andy, Andy was going to do an acoustic thing at the show and Mike and i offered our services to make it out to be a full band. We played old favorites and a new song or two that were hurriedly rehearsed in time for the show. The whole weekend that this show took place was really cool, we stayed in Deltaville for two nights just playing music and partying until the wee hours of the night. The only damper on the whole evening of the show was that Bully kind of strong-armed thier way into bumping Mammoth earlier on the bill so they would have a later playing time when more people would be there to watch, other than that, it was flawless.
In December of 2003 i would hold the first of many Ghoulland Jubilees. The idea was to get a bunch of musicians together into my home studio and record the results. The first session consisted of myself, Andy, Marc, Mike, Tony, Dave(from jack's Smirking Revenge),and Artie. The night started with some loose jams and attempts at a few covers but once everyone got nice and cozy we started to crank out some songs. Mammoth was still going strong, we had just about learned all of the songs that Matt had and by now were itching to create some new music ourselves. We mentioned to Matt that we were ready to start writing new material as a band but he wanted to wait and get his stuff out of the way first, we were cool with that as it was only like two songs anyway. We finished out the year of 2003 playing shows in Virginia Beach with Bully.
January of 2004 brought a second Ghoulland Jubilee except this time it was smaller and split into two days. The first day it was just me, Matt, Andy and Brance. Brance was in town for the new year so he was a welcome addition to the Jubilee. We recorded many many loose jams, and me, Brance and Matt recorded two new Mammoth songs we hadn't recorded when we went into the studio back in the summer. Unfortunately Matt ruined a lot of the cool instrumentals Brance and I recorded by making random noises and comments into the mics we were unaware of at the time. The only thing i demand in my studio is a little professionalism, this was not it at it's finest. The next day, me, Andy and Artie tried to cut a few tracks but Artie was a little slushed and just couldn't get the job done, these two sessions would later be dubbed "The Junk Sessions" because out of all we recorded barely any of it was usable. I had been listening to this local radio station that had a local band hour and welcomed bands to send in their stuff, i sent in a song from the Mammoth cd (Yesteryear) and we actually got played quite a bit there for about two months or so.
Eagerly awaiting our chance to start writing again we mentioned again to Matt we had some ideas we wanted to use, he again said he wanted to finish up with his stuff first, the only problem was that it was more songs to learn this time than the last time we had talked about it, something was amiss.
The very end of January brought another Ghoulland Jubilee, this time consisting of myself, Mike, Matt, Andy and Artie. This by far was the best time we did this, fun wise, lots of strange ingestion. I would say that the seeds of the future were being sown on this night, there was desention in the air and i think we all knew. Mammoth played a show at A.J. Gators with Bully and after the set Mike and Tony were at each other's throats, they had a few personal problems between them and i think the stagnation of the band wasn't helping things at all, it got to the point where i was bored to death on stage playing Matt's songs, i was ready to write and i was ready now. Don't get me wrong now, Matt was a super great guy and if it wasn't for him coming into the mix who knows what would have happened. As a writer, his selfishness with having exclusive creative control was killing me, even though i was like that at times in other bands i had and have always welcomed outside writing and often encouraged it.
I didn't demo many completed songs myself during this time so i was ready to write in a band environment.
We were asked to headline a show at Linda's Sports Bar in Yorktown, Va in March, only thing was, there was no way Mammoth was going to be the band that headlined, i wouldn't hear of it, we were going to play on the bill but i wanted something i was a part of in my heart to headline. We were going to form a one off band for this one show, a band of (excuse the pun) mammoth proportions. There was a reason Matt didn't want us to write and i finally figured out why, what he wrote was heavy to him but the heavy we brought he wasn't ready for, the swamp boogie if you will, there was only one person who really ever was.......
"Auto Pilot"
We hoped with a new singer it would breathe new life into us, i hoped personally with a new writer in the band i could pear down on the creativity. I had spent the last 11 years in a constant state of writing and was quite burnt out. Matt Scruggs, the new singer and guitarist had lots of ideas, he told us he had 18 or 19 songs already written so we went on about learning these songs, by the time we were finished with those i figured i would be ready to start writing again. The name i chose for this band was Bigfoot, none of the other guys were to hot on that but the second name i threw out they were. We were called Mammoth.
We began rehearsing a few nights a week and before long we had about 7 or 8 of the songs down tight, we demoed a few of them on 4 track at practice, demoed a few of them acoustically at my home studio, finally we felt we were ready to go into a real deal studio and record some of these tracks. In august of 2003 we went into Wintersound Studio in Gloucester, Va. (me, Mike and Tony's second time for anyone counting)and cut 6 songs in one day. Also around this time we started playing out again, opening shows for local band Bully. Bully was (i have no idea now, i haven't heard them in over 2 years) a mostly covers band with an all girl gimmick, mostly playing heavy metal tunes. The shows with Bully were kinda weird because for one, all we did was play originals and two, the music styles were vastly different, while they were heavy metal we were more radio friendly grungy, Matt was a huge fan of Kurt Cobain and it showed in his music.
In November of 2003, we played a show in Deltaville, Va. that was a festival type thing but indoors, a lot of good bands played with us like, Bully, Jack's Smirking Revenge, Mai Ancora, When All Else Fails, the no talent show and El DeSalvo. El DeSalvo was a one off band that consisted of me, Mike and Andy, Andy was going to do an acoustic thing at the show and Mike and i offered our services to make it out to be a full band. We played old favorites and a new song or two that were hurriedly rehearsed in time for the show. The whole weekend that this show took place was really cool, we stayed in Deltaville for two nights just playing music and partying until the wee hours of the night. The only damper on the whole evening of the show was that Bully kind of strong-armed thier way into bumping Mammoth earlier on the bill so they would have a later playing time when more people would be there to watch, other than that, it was flawless.
In December of 2003 i would hold the first of many Ghoulland Jubilees. The idea was to get a bunch of musicians together into my home studio and record the results. The first session consisted of myself, Andy, Marc, Mike, Tony, Dave(from jack's Smirking Revenge),and Artie. The night started with some loose jams and attempts at a few covers but once everyone got nice and cozy we started to crank out some songs. Mammoth was still going strong, we had just about learned all of the songs that Matt had and by now were itching to create some new music ourselves. We mentioned to Matt that we were ready to start writing new material as a band but he wanted to wait and get his stuff out of the way first, we were cool with that as it was only like two songs anyway. We finished out the year of 2003 playing shows in Virginia Beach with Bully.
January of 2004 brought a second Ghoulland Jubilee except this time it was smaller and split into two days. The first day it was just me, Matt, Andy and Brance. Brance was in town for the new year so he was a welcome addition to the Jubilee. We recorded many many loose jams, and me, Brance and Matt recorded two new Mammoth songs we hadn't recorded when we went into the studio back in the summer. Unfortunately Matt ruined a lot of the cool instrumentals Brance and I recorded by making random noises and comments into the mics we were unaware of at the time. The only thing i demand in my studio is a little professionalism, this was not it at it's finest. The next day, me, Andy and Artie tried to cut a few tracks but Artie was a little slushed and just couldn't get the job done, these two sessions would later be dubbed "The Junk Sessions" because out of all we recorded barely any of it was usable. I had been listening to this local radio station that had a local band hour and welcomed bands to send in their stuff, i sent in a song from the Mammoth cd (Yesteryear) and we actually got played quite a bit there for about two months or so.
Eagerly awaiting our chance to start writing again we mentioned again to Matt we had some ideas we wanted to use, he again said he wanted to finish up with his stuff first, the only problem was that it was more songs to learn this time than the last time we had talked about it, something was amiss.
The very end of January brought another Ghoulland Jubilee, this time consisting of myself, Mike, Matt, Andy and Artie. This by far was the best time we did this, fun wise, lots of strange ingestion. I would say that the seeds of the future were being sown on this night, there was desention in the air and i think we all knew. Mammoth played a show at A.J. Gators with Bully and after the set Mike and Tony were at each other's throats, they had a few personal problems between them and i think the stagnation of the band wasn't helping things at all, it got to the point where i was bored to death on stage playing Matt's songs, i was ready to write and i was ready now. Don't get me wrong now, Matt was a super great guy and if it wasn't for him coming into the mix who knows what would have happened. As a writer, his selfishness with having exclusive creative control was killing me, even though i was like that at times in other bands i had and have always welcomed outside writing and often encouraged it.
I didn't demo many completed songs myself during this time so i was ready to write in a band environment.
We were asked to headline a show at Linda's Sports Bar in Yorktown, Va in March, only thing was, there was no way Mammoth was going to be the band that headlined, i wouldn't hear of it, we were going to play on the bill but i wanted something i was a part of in my heart to headline. We were going to form a one off band for this one show, a band of (excuse the pun) mammoth proportions. There was a reason Matt didn't want us to write and i finally figured out why, what he wrote was heavy to him but the heavy we brought he wasn't ready for, the swamp boogie if you will, there was only one person who really ever was.......
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