2011's been a crazy year for me emotionally. I never thought I could reach inside myself to write something that, to me, is incredible. Making our new record wasn't easy on us. After dealing with everything from getting dropped from one major label to move to the next, I felt scared of what was to come. Luckily, when you're with 4 other amazing guys you're bound to figure it out somehow or do something right eventually. Lucky for us, we did what we wanted and only got hand shakes and smiles for it. I'm glad we did it. I've heard some people say we stuck it to the man. You can say what you want but we just did what felt right in our hearts and because of that I feel like I'm on a much better roller coaster than I was before this record and during the writing process of this record. With that being said, the year for us is over. We've finally gotten a chance to come back home for a bit to catch our breaths. It's still hard to believe I have over 2 months to enjoy life away from touring.
After trusting my girlfriend's opinion, I moved into an apartment in LA during The Noise Tour which was the name of the last tour we were on. I literally didn't even see the place before moving in. Haha.On the first day being back home, I didn't know what to do with myself. Once you become so used to touring it's hard to adjust to normal life. Lucky for me, there is a ton of things to do close to my house. I was kind of lame and went to the mall. I only did it because I needed a few things from GNC. I also needed new pair of running shoes because my dumb ass left my other shoes on the bus before flying from Tallahassee, Florida to LA. On the way back from the mall, my girlfriend suggested we hit up a chinese place close to the apartment. She heard from a friend that it's to die for and well, I like the thrill of death. Haha. It was insanely delicious. I've been craving it again ever since. Later that night, I went for a run on the running path next to my apartment. It was freezing, but I did my 2 mile run anyway. After being on the running path, I didn't realize how many people have dogs around here. God!!! I want a dog soooo badly but I'd never be home to take care of it. Just to think when I was feeling down about not having a dog, I ran by a guy running with a Welsh Terrier. Dude! My dog Riley at my parent's home in Cairo is a Welsh Terrier. Ughhhhhhhh. Get me out of here. I ran back to cry myself to sleep only to realize that our apartment is freezing at night and we have no heater. I soon added "a heater" to my to-do list for the next day.
Today's day two and guess what? I bought a heater! It's a tiny little guy that I thought would totally heat the house up nice and warm. Man....this thing's a piece of crap. I've gotta return it in the morning. I've been working with Zildjian for a few years now and my rep at Zildjian, Sarah, e-mailed me today. She wanted me to approve a video interview that they did with me while we were in Boston on The Noise Tour. The video was awesome. Every time I sit down to play drums I never really feel like I'm playing anything that difficult or intriguing to the ear, but after watching the video and hearing the sound of the drums from a different perspective, I now realize some of the things I've been playing are pretty awesome. It's always nice to hear it all from a different point of view. It really does help. Lastly, my plans tonight are to hang with some friends at a local bar down the street from my house. I can't wait!
I hope you're all doing well. We'll be back on the road soon enough. Next year's gonna be crazy!!! Eat lots of Turkey or Tofurky!!! ;)
Jake
Comments