world

I’ve read that many alcohol brands with the maker’s name behind them meant that that was the very best you could ever drink from them. If you weren’t satisfied, well, they would have nothing else better to offer. I’d like to take the same approach here with my name as a brand. Everything I do with the JP Weidemoyer logo behind it, I promise that it will be the very best quality that I can produce at that precise moment in time.  That said, it’s been over two years since my last official audio release. I used to go under the banner ADP – One Man’s Journey. I was extremely proud of the material I’ve written underneath this moniker since 2012. However, the direction I was heading underneath this banner was forecasting a very dark tune (pun intended). My color scheme was all black with only a splash of white. Now, I’m going for the inverse effect. Simply having “One Man’s Journey” as the tagline now comes off as very selfish to me. I understand what I was going for, with the whole one-man-band bit, but I was really limiting myself from a performance perspective. I was implying that there was only ever going to be a one-man-band, and that’s not what I want at all. I hope that I can eventually have a full band backing me someday, or perhaps at least have this lead to another opportunity to play in another band. I have 30 full songs that I have written since my last release under ADP, which I’m now dubbing “The Lost Sessions”. Perhaps I will release them someday. For now, they will be “lost”, as I was, throughout most of the writing and recording process.

World. What more can I say? I hope to have changed it for the better someday.  As for the track, you’ll probably first notice the length. As odd as it may seem, this was a natural progression for me. In my approach to music, I would always write the lyrics first, music second, and the vocals would come in last. I actually only decided to put them in last minute upon my first EP under ADP. What a different path I may have taken if I decided to go strictly instrumental, no way to tell for sure I suppose? Anyway, back on track (another pun intended, damn me and my excessive use of puns). When trying to fit in the vocals, I was always finding them easiest to put into the songs during the first 30-seconds. I would have an idea for the first 30-seconds or so and then improvise for the next 2-1/2 minutes until reaching the 3-minute mark, which was my cutoff back then. I thought it was ironic, me writing these songs which I felt would certainly never make the radio, be restricted to 3-minutes. After my first EP, I decided to start learning to play and sing simultaneously, inspired by many of my favorite hard rock/metal bands at the time. I felt this worked pretty well for EP II & III, but as I was writing “The Lost Sessions”, I felt like I was losing creativity. I noticed I kept going back to similar riffs, to make sure I could sing and play the material as I was writing it. Feeling uninspired, I took to the internet looking up bands that got me interested in playing music in the first place. After listening to the first album I ever purchased (Saturate by Breaking Benjamin), I started watching their interviews. One interview, in particular, Ben Burnley talked about how he approached his songwriting, especially in the earlier days while learning Tool covers. He would learn the guitar parts first, and then the vocals after having the guitar tracks slowed down until the point that it was ingrained into muscle memory. I’m sure there are countless other musicians who do this, but it never dawned on me to try this until at that moment. Why not play some badass riffs, do vocal tracks separately, and then simply learn the song to perform it live. I was so worried about trying to do a perfect performance in my jam room, but I was restricting myself from ever having a performance, period. As far as trying to find the “perfect” tone, forget that noise (alright, that’s the last one, for now). I have a few hours of material somewhere with me playing the same riffs trying out hundreds of tones and effects to find the “perfect” one. Now I’m just plugging in my guitar, choosing a “dirty” sounding channel on my acoustic amp, and rocking out with my hollow-body. No pick either. I got tired of dropping them, all the fucking time. Same for having only five strings on my guitar. I got tired of replacing the 1st string, all the fucking time. Now I can worry about the music, 30-seconds at a time. And now I find it ironic that I’m writing material at lengths for an ad spot, but I wasn’t writing for the radio whilst having 3-minute songs either.

This song represents a lot for me. This surely will not be the best song I’ll ever write, nor this year, and perhaps not even this week. But right now, this is the best song I could write with what is currently inspiring me. I only hope that one day my music can do the same for others. This is my way of trying to give back to all the bands and musicians who have helped me during my darkest times of my life. Now my slogan is “A Dark Portrait of Life Painted in Color”. Life will always look dark at times, but you can reach to paint it in colors outside of darker shades of black or gray. Before I was writing for myself as a sort of therapy. Now, rather I’m writing with the hopes of others looking to my words and music as a sort of therapy. Until then, keep it metal \m/