May 18th, 2012 by cgerber
It’s 4AM and I am just wrapping up some things before I head to bed. Beach day tomorrow :) Much needed.
Been in the studio working on some new music. Kind of working on some ideas, concepts, just seeing where things go. So far I have one song done and it’s pretty cool. One of those songs that just popped out, and it hardly sounds like something I would make lol. It’s all like…. sexy music haha. No rock at all. Seriously, it’s really cool though. I don’t know if this will be going on a solo album or what, but I hope I can let you hear it soon. I’m going to sort of see where this goes between music videos, tours, and other things. I may be heading out of country for a bit this fall which would give me time to really experiment on some new music. I’m also working on ideas and song sketches for the next suicide denial record too which will be when it’s time :) Me and 2012 decided that the next record needs to sort of.. present itself. It’s very important to us we never force a record, and we haven’t yet :) We were going over production ideas for the next record as well. In all, our first record, the newest record, and the 3rd one (whenever that is) will tell a story that links all 3 albums together. Lyrically and musically. Nothing is disconnected. So it’s excited on the music front what’s going on with band stuff, our projects, and all that good stuff :)
Talked to our booking agency today and it looks like things are starting to gel. Since we’ve been making some changes with the bands team, it’s a little scary at times to see what’s going to pan out and what’s not. So far things are looking good.
Come say hi to me sometime on one of the band pages: Facebook Twitter, or theband@thesuicidedenial.com
Chad Gerber
May 17th, 2012 by cgerber
Tomorrow I am going to spend some time at the beach and frolicking in the water cause I need a mental break. In a few days we head out for this semi daunting video shoot and I have no idea if I’m even ready. I have a ton of stuff to do, including some scoring, and it’s all going to land in my lap the second I leave town lol. There could be worse problems of course, but it is funny how everything always comes down to the last second, or everything happens at once. Kind of like when I used to have a normal life and worked a normal job, the phones always went crazy at the same time, different times each day. So for whatever reason, I would be sitting there, and then 10:54AM would hit and everybody in their dog would start calling from all over the country. It’s really weird. Next day, nobody would call at that time, but everyone would start calling at like 2:13PM from all over the country. Are we all wired in together? How do people in 10 different states manage to call the same number at the same time, or 1 minute apart? What zapped in their heads to make them all pick up their phone and call the number of that business? It’s weird right? I tried to trace it back to what time of day would be the busiest or whatever, but giving different time zones, and the total randomness of the phones blowing up, there was nothing to make sense of it. It’s in the same realm of when you get that urge to call a friend, and you both end up calling each other at the exact same time. Or how you know the second your phone rings from across the room who’s calling. There’s more to us than just our 5 senses. Kind of like how you know when someone is looking at you from across a crowded restaurant before even catching their eyes, or those rare occasions when you know exactly what song will be played on the radio next before the previous one is finished. It’s something. Whether we like it or not, we’ve only managed to explain like… .3% of what’s going on in life.
Chad Gerber
May 16th, 2012 by cgerber
Just got to the studio after dropping by the Rivera Amp factory on the other side of town here in LA. Rich and the crew hooked me up with a killer amp for our music video shooting next week. I posted a pic of it a while back, but otherwise I’m not posting it so you’ll have to see it in the vid ;) I love it. I love all of Rivera’s stuff. Going there is like walking around in a candy store. When I get back from the shoot I get to drop by again and grab some more gear :) Rivera Amps has a very special place in my heart and here’s why……
When I was 17 years old my Mom drug me to a huge antique store full of musty old lady things and used furniture. My Mom wanted some old furniture or something and brought me along to carry it. As she’s roaming around looking at the junk, I come along this antique section full of old radios and a tube guitar amp. I wasn’t familiar with the brand, but checked it out anyway. The old lady that was trying to sell it thought it was an antique radio and was trying to sell it with some other stuff as a package deal. The thing was brand new, so I called my guitar guy and asked him about Rivera. He told me they were great. I made an offer on the gear and ended up getting it for like $300 (they go anywhere from $1500 to $3000). I was inseparable from my Rivera from then on. It completed the very sound I had dreamed of having. My Rivera and my Les Paul Custom. A few months later I dropped into a small guitar store and began chatting with the shop dude about amps. I ended up telling him about my awesome Rivera I found at the antique store and he stopped me mid conversation. Come to find out, he sold that exact amp to a crazy credit card wielding guy a few months before. I don’t even remember how I tracked down all the details, but apparently a crazy guy went around buying guitar gear, ended up at a truck stop in the country days later selling that same gear, and ended up selling that amp to a little old lady who thought it was an antique. The thing had probably never even been played. A few months go buy and I found it :) It was since been on every record I have ever made, every tour, and in every video! Other than the fact that I love the thing, they are truly amazing amps, all handmade right there in the shop. I’ve had plenty of other amps, but none remotely compare to Riveras. Not to mention if I ever need to get in touch with someone it takes 2 seconds. Geez… seriously, if you need guitar gear just get Rivera. I know the guys, the stuff is locally made, the highest quality, it will survive billions of tours and millions of studio sessions :) I’m honored to be sponsored by them and get to rep their gear…. so look for it in the video ;)
Chad Gerber
May 15th, 2012 by cgerber
Waking up with a cheetah head and the heart of a lion. I need to go work off this misguided energy. The human body desires to be used just like a fast car wants to go fast. If we don’t use our bodies, they begin to adapt to our lack of use and become broken. Maybe I’m just odd, but I still enjoy running around and jumping off things like I did when I was 10. I like doing back flips off walls and running around on stage. None of which could happen if I didn’t let my body go crazy almost every day for at least 20 min :) Use it or lose it right?
I was going through my emails and messages and stuff and came across a cool Skrillex video. Very cool stuff. More like one off party type music but still cool. Great find minds that are really distracted and get bored easy.
Have another band meeting tonight to go over music video prep, tour, new keyboardist, rehearsals, set lists, and who knows what else. Once again everything is piling up for the last second. Always works that way :/ ALWAYS.
Can money really replace a missing limb? Can money really replace hurt and pain? I understand lawsuits and people who get them for being wronged in an accident or from negligence by a corporation, but what does the money even do? If I lost my leg from some stupid corporation or whatever, I would sue to have a revolutionary leg built or something. No money, just the guarantee that they would take care of all the details until I’m happy. I’m sure this all equates to money, but I don’t know.. just getting a pay check seems weird for some reason.
Chad Gerber
May 14th, 2012 by cgerber
I’m back in the studio working on an untitled project between projects. I’ve had some music floating around in my head so I decided to get it out and see how it goes. So far it’s really cool. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all these new tunes, but I’m considering a solo record or something. The style is a bit on the 80s side. Of course I’ve only done one song (which isn’t finished) so that could change by the next one. I’m taking my time with it as we gear up for music videos, touring, and I’ve got some scoring projects I’m going to be doing. I might post it up here when it’s a little more finished if I get the time to polish the thing off. Not sure it’s lyrically ready though. Some of the phrasing sounds rough… at least on the scratch track anyway. I’m starting to figure out where all my personalities are going. The Suicide Denial gets my anger and frustrations, Heights Alliance gets my past, and I’m not sure what this new project is going to get exactly. My tender softy side lol?
Tour approaches and about 900 things aren’t in place as always. We’ve making some major adjustments to our touring world so this has been a pretty rough transition. Fingers are crossed we won’t have to postpone anything, cause that would suck. Still, this economy isn’t really helping matters as venues are opting for more local talent and cheap DJs rather than bring in a national act. I wish we had a tent we could just place in parking lots or fields lol.
Am I the only one that doesn’t enjoy birds chirping outside? It bothers me that that basically means the world is awake. I prefer crickets.
Chad Gerber
May 11th, 2012 by cgerber
Know why Netflix sucks? Netflix sucks because it has to buy its content from the 2 companies who run everything. Universal and Warner Brothers. The problem is, those 2 companies have created their own versions of Netflix (Hulu), or are creating one anyway… so they charge Netflix a lot for content, and tell them they can’t post certain stuff. Basically Netflix will die. Those companies would rather people came to them for content than go through someone, so it will be a miracle if Netflix survives. Just FYI lol.
Did you read about that girl that got a flesh eating disease yet? Terrifying. Maybe you shouldn’t read it lol. Can you imagine… right now as I write this (as you read it) this girl is fighting to survive as they keep chopping off body parts. While we worry about stupid stuff, this person is living a nightmare. I’m selfishly glad we’re not all super connected… I don’t think I could handle all the trauma that goes on in the world daily. I mean, I know some people do who live in messed up countries…. but yeah, I’ll just fill my brain with movies and fun instead :/
I’m not in a very talkative mood, so writing this blog is like doing homework at the moment.
Done.
Chad Gerber
May 10th, 2012 by cgerber
Do you ever get the feeling that music doesn’t REALLY matter anymore? It seems like 30 years ago music was a big deal. When a good song came out, everyone loved that song and the world adopted it into each person’s personal soundtrack. Now songs are just annoying, or played until they become annoying. Actually I don’t think that’s it… I just don’t think music is a big deal anymore. It’s almost as if since recording music was invented, we’ve been filling up this bucket full of music, and now in the last 15 years or whatever, we filled our music bucket up and don’t have anymore room. Now in movies you still only hear songs from the 70s and 80s, people’s favorite bands have been dead for 20 years, and the coolest newest music is fragmented among all the underground outlets of free music and all that. What a weird time. What if movies all of a sudden became played out. What if movies were no longer new, and everyone just started going back to watch the old ones? I doubt that will ever happen, but it is weird what happens when we have access to everything we want when we want it. Sort of takes the specialness out of things in my opinion.
I had more strange dreams last night. I was mopping someone’s carpet at one point, and working a night shift in a giant warehouse.
Chad Gerber
May 9th, 2012 by cgerber
Well I’m glad I opened my browser to the news today and had the pleasure of reading about someone who has flesh eating disease and is getting chunks of their body cut off. I don’t know if I can think of a more horrific sounding medical issue on earth than flesh eating disease…. which is avoided from sanitation by the way. Being paralyzed from the neck down used to freak me out, but now I think it’s flesh eating disease. Don’t get that stuff, it’s bad.
I’m back to being convinced that time travel and mental connections on a large scale are entirely possible when we’re not trying to wrangle our powerful brains… or fill them with tv. I think achieving almost dreamlike time travel, or connecting via the brain to someone a thousand miles away is possible. Maybe not on purpose… but possible. Maybe I can explain, before you stop reading and write me off as a psycho lol…. Time is not linear.. it only goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ect to humans, but really time is already done. You are right now reading this as your 4 year old self is eating breakfast and your 78 year old self is changing her diaper. Now… what if you could mentally drift into the 4 year olds brain for a moment, almost like recalling a memory, but being able to view it from your current self’s standpoint? Take it even further, and crazy people who claim to have invisible friends, maybe those invisible friends are alive and living in a different time period, or even just a different place on earth. Maybe the person who is picking up all this has just a heightened sense of this type of activity. I know it all sounds crazy, but you have to believe me, I didn’t just make this up over night lol. I’ve been looking into it for years, and even studying people (without them knowing of course lol) to gather their own personal experiences. Of course there is no way to prove anything, thus it doesn’t exist in the world of science… yet ;)
I woke up to 2 boxes next to my bed and I don’t know where they came from.
Chad Gerber
May 8th, 2012 by cgerber
Right now I’m sitting on the couch and the AC is blowing on me, making me feel like I’m sitting outside a ski lodge in the middle of winter in swimming shorts. The off switch is like 4 feet away, but I guess I’m too lazy to switch it lol. Oh the problems of AC and being comfortable.
Things are getting complicated and busy (I think I say that every blog) with the music video, keyboard players, tours, and of course side projects and what not. Still, I can’t think of a time in my life where being busy has been a bad thing. It usually keeps me out of trouble and in a good mood for some reason. Slow things down, make things boring, and I get grouchy. I’m very aware of my lack of time as a human being, so wasting it tends to bother me. That being said, doing the same crap over and over and over also bothers me because that seems like a waste of time too lol. I enjoy the whole “live life hard then you die” type mentality. Not the stupid one where people do pointless things, but the one where you try to make change in the world, see the world, effect the world, then die. I would love to spend my life doing mega ramps on a skateboard, or wingsuit flying through canyons, but that (at least if I were to do it) isn’t going to invoke any type of change. I have a specific skill set and I will use it to help/change/inspire in any way possible. To go off and waste time NOT doing that is a waste of life to me. Sure I can go off and play in the world, but that isn’t what is important to me. I do, everyone needs breaks, but to ONLY do that, to spend your life seeking fun, or to satisfy yourself… that’s missing the point of life I think. Who knows, maybe I’m totally wrong :) Maybe I’ll die and be like “I should have just skipped the whole trying to change the world thing and just gone surfing”, but I highly doubt it. Anyone can go surfing for a lifetime lol.
I’m heading back into the studio tonight to write and record for some side scoring stuff again. A much needed break from some stressful stuff. I’m assuming right now it might be an all nighter if the material shows up in my email.
New gear from Rivera in the next couple weeks! I’m beyond excited :)
Chad Gerber
May 6th, 2012 by cgerber
Friday morning at 3AM I went to the Avengers, and it was totally worth it! I can’t remotely say enough about how amazing this movie is. My expectations for this movie were so incredibly high, and the movie ended up blowing them out of the water and being a thousand times better! It was incredible. Like playing with my super hero toys all over again but it was real! I’m going again this week lol. I’ve been waiting for this movie my whole life. No joke. I used to dream about this movie as a little kid playing with the toys. I can now die happy :)
The music video thing is of course really heating up and starting to get a little stressful. More and more people are jumping on board (which is GREAT), but that ups the level a bit for everything. So now we’re re-thinking gear and locations and all that. Nothing too huge, but stuff that needs to be figured out pretty quick. We might need to do a skype call to some people this week. All good stuff. Always nice to know we have such cool friends and fans ready to jump on board :) None of this would ever come together if it weren’t for them/you :)
In other news…….. did I mention Avengers?
Last night I was having then really really cool dream where my brother in law Nate and I were on a road trip together through Japan to meet up with other family who were already at the vacation spot or whatever it was. I don’t get to see my brother in law all that much, and we have way too much fun when we hang out, so chillin on a road trip in Japan was about as cool as things could get. He was driving, I was navigating, and it was so perfectly vivid and real… then all of a sudden, as if I were teleported through space and time, I open my eyes to my dog staring me down whining. The bed is on the floor, so she can stand over me looking down, which she was. It took me a second to figure out which one was the dream, and which one was real life, and after I figured out that Dixie just woke me up from an awesome, more real that real life dream, I was a little annoyed. All she wanted was for me to get out of bed. That’s it. I left hanging with my brother in law in Japan to get out of bed as my dog danced around exited I was up. She then went into the living room and laid down. It’s so rare I ever get nice dreams.
Chad Gerber
