grace manor/ hollywood caliber, we were our own biggest fanss

inspiiration

my sister emily called me a little bit ago, and i talked to her. She has apparently been planning my life for me, and i was eager to hear the path she had chosen for me.

oh and i am too lazy to use capital letters at the beginning of my sentences or for proper nouns, only what spell check will fix for me, thats all your going to get, grammar police.


oh well long story short, i am more determined than ever to accomplish my goals in music, as vague as those goals are. Ever since i saw the rentals live in 2007 twice in one week, i swear, that week changed my life. The energy of those shows, pittsburgh and philadelphia, it was amazing. I want to be involved with it.

I have played in some garage bands with my friends, but few of them have the same ideas in music as i do. Music for me is all about listening and being able to hear where the melody is going. I can sit in with a band and lay down a guitar or synth track off the top of my head that perfectly(or at least almost.....) harmonizes with the song, and it brings the song to a whole new level, in my eyes and the band. I did this a lot with my friends band Hollywood Caliber over Christmas break. That has turned out to be an ugly situation, the whole Holly wood Caliber affair. Sorry im just rambling now, but hey, a blog is a blog, take it or leave it.

To understand Hollywood Calibur, you must understand where i am coming from. Ever since early high school, my best friend has been Alex Bergeron. We have been friends since elementary school, and in middle school he moved 2 streets away from the fortress on Iroquois Dr, so i have been at his house so much since. We both discovered our passion for music at the same time and together along with our other friends Steve and Nick, wanted to be making our own music too. I have such amazing memories of times spent with these guys in Steve's attic, man that was a great part of my life. I didn't even know how to use the guitar that my brother Brian had given to me that summer while me and the family were vacationing in Utah, but it quickly became my favorite possession in the whole wide world. We successfully smuggled that white guitar from salt lake to pittsburgh without my dad knowing, knowing full well that if he discovered it in the back seat of the old van(oh how i miss the old Dodge van, Ole' Bess) he would not let me play it. Curse Dale Hoggard and his constant opposition to rock and roll. To be honest i don't know what he did with that white guitar, supposedly locked up in the lock room but it has vanished. i miss that guitar, i remember the day in Steve's attic when i learned how to channel the music i heard in my ears and in my head into my fingers and onto the guitar. the song we were covereing was Sleeping In by the Postal Service, oh, what a great feeling. I have been playing by ear ever since.

But yes, that band we started back in 9th grade, Almost Airborne, as it was called, eventually fel apart, for the sole fact that we just didn't know what we were doing. at least in my eyes, i didn't know much about music. i just knew i loved imagining that i was a member of Weezer or something like that. I also have early memories of always imagining that i was a member of an orchestra playing Star Wars music by John Williams. Every time i imagined myself playing a violing and the girl i had a crush on at the time just falling in love with me for the beautiful star wars music i was playing, man, what a great time of life.

I sorta fell of of contact with berge for about a year or so, him and steve were jsut doing stuff that i wasnt interested in, thats probably when Almost Airborne fell apart. But by 11th grade i was hanging out at this house again almost every day. Here are mutual love of music and star wars and the office have jsut been fostered. THen i got stuck working at Coldstone and music didnt much happen with me. that was an odd time of my life working at coldstone. I have never had a liscene or really driven a car at all, so i got by mostly by "borrowing" the neighbors bikes. I dont know how many times i biked my way to coldstone and the cd stores in robinson. Most of my coldstone music ineveitably went to buying cds, which is unfortunate, becuz i am very fond of "illegal" downloading. balder dash, if you ask me, free music is great. And then an epic day happened when Koman and me and Berge started playing in Komans basement, me making drum beats on berge's old keyboard that he let me use all the time, and berge rocking out and Koman doing his thing, and it felt like old times again, and i loved it. That was this spring, and Grace Manor was born. Koman's band Hollywood Caliber has just broken up and there drummer Brett White came and jammed with us, and we all became fast friends. Brett White is quite the character, if you ask me. His love for music is very deep, and we click on a lot of levels. But he is very abbrasive and has a very confrontational personality and really you jsut have to meet him, i dont care what a lot of other people will say, Brett defintly is a wise ole' 19 year old drummer who gets into fights a lot. regardless, he is one of my best friends now and i have only known him for a year.

but yeah Grace Manor was an exciting thing my senior year, let me tell you. we got together to play the upcoming battle of the bands at school. i remember sitting in Mr............... (oh my goodness i cant remember his name, the political systems teacher, oh man this is gonna bug me forever , i gotta google it right now...........Mr. Morgan, thank you Google) yes, sitting in Mr. Morgans class for a fewa periods making posters for the presidential debates with berge and we were discussing the good old days of Almost Airborne and we worked out the basis for re instating that. oh man, i felt like a million bucks hanging out with berge and koman every day again, good friends like that are hard to come by for me at least.

well along came the battle of the bands and that was an odd experience. I first went on as Brad Hoggard Experience, and i covered some songs with berge playing guitar and brettt on drums and , frankly it was awesome, the crowd liked it.

then up went greace manor and we flopped. The singer, his name was breain, was a very "....odd" indiviual, lets jsut say after he basically flopped at the show, he didnt come back to practice with us ever again. he was weird. like messed up weird, his arms were literraly raw with self inflicted scars all long his entire arms, it was frightening. but yeah, that night, grace manor did not do so hot, but our spirits were not dampened, becuz we all love music tooo much just to give up on it like so many people do.

well then i lefdt for school at the end of a fabulous summer of playing with Grace Manor all the time, Every day, we would rock out in komans garage, and i felt so accepted there with all of my friends, we would make songs, then play video games, then go out to eat, we did everything, and it was a happy time for all of us. especially for me having lost my mother , i really appreciate these guys, they were and still are a huge support to me.

grace manor fell apart after i left for school, and that was hard for me. brett and koman got back together with there old band hollywood caliber. its funny cuz the day after i got back into pittsburgh this Christmas break, i first hung out with berge, then the next day, koman picked me up and we randomly drove past brett white at a gas station and then we got together and they invited me to play with hollywood caliber and thats basically all i did over christmas break. and frankly, i loved it. these guys are such a vital part of who i am, and it has been very hard leaving them again for another semester at school. sigh........ i grow weary of school.

things are looking good though, i feel that in the near future things will happen in my life that will cause great havoc mostly to myself, but i don't like to talk about these things. the only people that know these things are basically my band, and maybe a few others, i feeel like i cant tell many people the truth about me, it would only hurt them i think.

wel yes, that is the history of me and my music so far in my life, im sure theres little details that i am forgetting, i am excited for the future of my music, it really is limitless.