We’ve been having some WordPress conflicts, so the posts have not been as regular as I would like.
Regardless, I wanted to give you something fun to listen to, and a quick update.
The Jukebox podcast decided to feature The Love Sprockets on their monthly show, and contacted us about sharing a short bio and our song, Nobody Wants to Die. As it turns out, The Jukebox has a lot of really great music on it from artists I’ve never even heard of, and I’ve enjoyed all of the shows I’ve listened to of theirs so far.
So click below to hear the latest podcast (The Love Sprockets are featured three bands in) and also enjoy discovering new music from a variety of really cool artists!
5 years ago, if you’d asked me where I thought I would be in 2015, I sure as hell would not have said “Austin, TX”! 🙂
Addison and I arrived in Austin via bicycle almost two years ago (January 16th, 2014 to be exact!).
The first few months of us being here, we lived with a family of 6 in the loft of their small, suburban house. We helped them with gardening projects, turned organic dumpster produce into meals and canned delights…
…and learned about the value of clear and consistent communication (I emphasize ‘consistent’ because it’s easy to have one conversation or meeting about something–not nearly as easy to maintain open communication as things change and shift and problems arise!).
We got to know the back-roads and hilly streets of Austin pretty quickly, as our only mode of transportation was bicycles. We were able to start making money by street performing, nude modeling, doing freelance writing and editing jobs via the internet and writing songs for folks via Fiverr.com.
After transitioning out of the first family’s house, we camped in our upright-bass player, Watson,’s backyard until we found a room to rent from a lady in the neighborhood who had chickens and a free spirit.
During this time we began having band rehearsals with Watson and Pete (our drummer/harmony master) and played some of our first gigs together.
Watson
Pete
Here’s the very first gig we played as four piece band:
In June 2014 we flew back to Vermont to visit family and get some of the stuff we’d stored in Addison’s parents’ attic. We also wanted to get my Subaru so we could drive her back to Austin.
I had mixed feelings about going from only cycling to driving a vehicle again…
While we were in Vermont I hit my noggin pretty dang hard on a ceramic bath-tub’s edge and suffered a concussion that left me bed-ridden and wearing a blindfold for weeks. My eyes were extremely sensitive to light and I had great difficulty in looking at computer screens (ironic because my job at the time was being an editor for a publishing company).
I spent a lot of time in bed and listening to audio books, feeling incredibly depressed at my inability to exercise. Addison kept me fed and alive, though Zoso (our dog) suffered the neglect of his mother and made some irrational choices during this time (such as pissing on furniture and shitting in the house at random).
We decided this was a perfect time to launch a Kickstarter project and do a tour back to Austin! 😀
Zoso loves road trips!
As we drove back along the bike route that we’d originally taken down south, we promoted the Kickstarter campaign while hanging out with friends who’d hosted us along our bike trip, and were able to raise $3500 to record an album with!
Once we arrived back in Austin, it was back to camping in Watson’s backyard until we were able to rent an apartment at Tramor Oaks.
Paul (left) and Watson (right)
Thanks to our friend Paul, we were able to get in there pretty expediently (he lent us money for the depost ;).
For the first time since Addison and I had embarked on our romantic relationship, we had a space that was entirely our own.
We also added a new member to our family:
Shiva the friendly and fearless cat
During the winter of 2014-15 we recorded Nobody Wants to Die with our sound engineer, Aaron Glemboski at Music Lane Studios.
Studio recording days were long and sweaty…
Maria Pugnetti designed the album cover and layout with her mad skills…
…and The Love Sprockets released Nobody Wants to Die at an epic party held at the Historic Scoot Inn. Over 150 people attended!
We were playing at more and more venues around Austin including Poodies Roadhouse, Eastside Showroom, Craft Pride, The Parish, Empire Control Room, El Sol Y La Luna, and Blackheart. We were beginning to carve out a space for ourselves on the face of this mad, music frenzy of a city.
The Love Sprockets at The Parish
And that leads me to the present day of August 13th, 2015!
Our August residency at Scoot Inn has been a blast, and was even featured on Austin’s Music Minute by Laurie Gallardo of KUTX (a dream come true for a band who has loved this DJ long time ;).
Addison came up with a way to describe our music: ‘Mojo Folk’… and you will understand this title better and better as you hear the new songs we’ve been developing with our bad-ass rhythm section, Pete and Watson.
They’re bringing some funk and spunk to the picture and we are really enjoying the new flavors!
We’ve got a ridiculous amount of shows lined up this month, but we’ve been able to add a lot of new songs to our repertoire, and you’ll be able to catch us debuting them when you come see us:
You know, when your hormones are so jacked you can’t see straight, and just the thought of the other person sends you into state of unencumbered bliss?
I’m guessing this has probably happened to you, even if you don’t want to admit it. 😉
What I always find interesting about falling in love and about human beings in general (‘interesting’ is a nice way of saying ‘really fucking annoying’) is that when something is happening to us that we perceive to be really good, we can’t help but dread the potential end of it.
As always, we fear death.
The death of relationships, the death of the life we know now.
Even when we can recognize how healthy and normal change is, we can’t help but fear it subconsciously.
Well, at least I do, anyways. 🙂
So during the last bout of falling in love I did (which was about three years ago, thank God), the song Dark Angel was born.
This song asks alot of questions…
But does not provide any answers.
Here’s how it goes:
Dark Angel
“I’ll be your innocence if you’ll be my sex appeal
Yes, I’ll be your innocence if you’ll be my sex appeal
You’ve got everything it takes to drive this situation wild
I saw you first, I saw you first
I saw you first and now you are mine
But I’m losing control of this situation all of the time
And are you the best thing that’s ever happened to me?
Are you the one to make my blind eyes see?
Or are you my dark angel of death?
Are you my terminal breath?
I’ll be your calling if you’ll be my answering
Yes I’ll be your calling if you’ll be my answering
You’ve got everything it takes to make a murderer of me
And are you the best thing that’s ever happened to me?
This week I thought it would be fun to share the story around one of our most popular songs on the album, Nobody Wants to Die.
Nobody Wants to Die is the title track of our latest album, and set the tone for our album’s theme: death.
But when I think about what the song’s original roots are, I remember that the song arose into my consciousness from a very potent, and virile emotion: jealousy.
The way that I experience jealousy, at least these past 5 years or so, is pretty specific: I become extremely riled up, and talk about or imagine the offending party’s death at my hands.
I’m not proud of it, but the fact is it makes for good song-writing fodder. 🙂
So about three years ago, when I was afflicted with a case of such jealousy, I attempted to make Addison admit that he was madly in love with the offending party; but I could coerce no such confession from him.
As I sat down in front of the piano late that night, I decided that he wouldn’t outright lie to me, so in order for him to withhold the truth for me, he would first have to lie to HIMSELF.
So I sang:
“Well he lies to himself, so he can lie to me
Well he lies to himself, so I won’t really see.”
And I concluded that the reason he would decide to not admit to being madly in love with this other woman, was because he was afraid I might murder her if he did.
“Cause nobody wants to die, nobody wants to die
Well he tells me lies, ’cause nobody wants to die…no.”
And understandably, who really does want to die?
I did quote him in the song, when he tried to convince me against this jealous idea:
“‘Oh be reasonable, see this reason:
I want you more, I will always want you more’…”
But I concluded once again:
“He says this to me because…
Nobody wants to die, nobody wants to die
Well he tells me lies, ’cause nobody wants to die…no.”
Once I had completed the song and eventually performed it for Addison, it was pretty short, only 2 minutes at best.
Addison and I decided (once my jets had cooled a bit) that he should write his own part, and have the song be a conversation between the two of us.
He didn’t write what I expected him to, though his words were coming from a defensive place (understandably):
“How many times has she set her mind on some way she thinks things should be?
She tells me what she sees, and how she wants to meet me in her dreams.
So I accept what she suggests, ’cause I love her the best
But when those dreams turn into tests sometimes I got nothing left
Still I say ‘yes’ ’cause…”
And then he sings this part during the chorus:
“I don’t want to kill her love for me…
I would never lie, but I don’t want her love to die.”
So this song began as an unpleasant ordeal, but nowadays it has become a fun song to for us to play together, and I believe it will continue to be as the years roll on… 🙂
We were playing at more and more venues around Austin including Poodies Roadhouse, Eastside Showroom, Craft Pride, The Parish, Empire Control Room, El Sol Y La Luna, and Blackheart. We were beginning to carve out a space for ourselves on the face of this mad, music frenzy of a city.
The Love Sprockets 