Lights Over TaLL

I started last week in Atlanta and within 24 hours I had been on 3 plane rides and in 6 different states.  Exhausted!!  After an amazing day at warped tour in Ohio on the 28th, I jumped in the Nation van, and drove across Kentucky, Indiana, and up to Chicago where they dropped me off at O’Hare International Airport to catch a 6AM flight to NYC.  My iPHONE of course didn’t reflect the correct time (even though AT&T changes automatically when crossing time zones) and I arrived to the airport an hour earlier than the airline did.  The security line resembled Space Mountain at Disneyland on the first day of summer.  I was not thrilled about this considering I had a few hours of sleep the past two days and those hours came while sitting half way crooked on a miserable flight from Delta.

I landed in NYC, held a few meetings, and met up with Kash to work on some tunes.  Hit up the usual Artichoke Pizza and Meatball shop spots and swung by Universal Republic where I picked up my Taylor Swift autographed acoustic guitar that she signed for my sister.  Pretty much spent a few days working on songs and exploring the city and just getting to know each other better which always serves for better songs when collaborating.  I also found a street vendor selling amazing artwork that I can highly recommend to everyone.  Sunday evening, Matt (tour manager), picked a friend and me up from the Thompson hotel in a 15 passenger Ford van and we drove to Boston to start the East Coast radio run.

We woke up in Boston at 6am when I started my daily vocal warm up.  The 5th floor was PISSED!  Brian and I started a segment called, “Inappropriate vocal warm ups” and the very second I walked outside the door, I saw three people already standing in the hall way ready to unload their rifles.  Shortly after I heard, “Shut the fuck up.”  Security came, people were complaining, it was awesome.  We jumped in the car after a Starbucks nutritional breakfast, and drove a few hours north to Portland, Maine.  We did an acoustic set for the PDs and the staff in the lobby.  First time that has happened on the tour.  After walking around the modest city for ten minutes, we drove all the way back down to Boston and performed for Kiss 108FM.  We walked into the studio and a legit green screen, camera and audio set up was waiting for us.  We played TOTL for the cameras, did video liners as well as audio and shook hands and left.  The PD wasn’t able to meet us which really sucked, but the staff was awesome.  Once again, we jumped back into the van, drove another grueling few hours to New Haven, CT.  We met one of the PD’s named John and hung at the station for a bit and talked about the project.  After a few liners, we took John to eat at the local sushi/habachi house and had an amazing dinner cooked on the grill right in front of us.

After another 3 hour car ride and a 16 hour day, we checked into our hotel rooms in Albany, NY.  I hit the gym up for an hour or so, and came back to the room to enjoy the silence.

I woke up really late today since I went out with Derek and some friends from Sum41 last night.  Needless to say why.  I did wear my brand new LA hat last night to the bar and woke up with it missing; not cool.  

Today pretty much kicked major ass.  I got to the venue around 1PM after my first time eating White Castle and it was scorching hot.  The humidity really was kicking in and I felt like I just got out of the pool after walking around for no more than 3 minutes.  I got to the Lights Over Paris tent and immediately began meeting new fans.  Some kids had already heard the single on the radio but most were walking up blindly.  It’s great to see people put on the headphones and dancing within the first 10 seconds of a song being played.  We ran out of EVERY Cd we had, so I pretty much signed posters with DJ Shiny and met all the really cool bands that the Nation team has been traveling with for the past few months. 

At 7PM Sum41 went on stage right after The Casualties played (punk band I grew up listening to).  I haven’t seen Sum 41 play since 2002 when they played with Fenix TX and The Used at the Glasshouse in Pomona, CA.  The show rocked and being on stage was great inspiration to continue writing great music to be able to be in that spot one day.

I am now sitting in the van heading to Chicago where I am hopping on another plane to take a few meetings and writing sessions over in New York.  Ohio to Kentucky to Indiana to Illinois to NY in less than 8 hours!  I need to take a nap!

…. Young and hostile but not stupid

The west coast radio run was a success.  We got a few ads right on the spot (when the Program Director places your song into rotation it’s referred to as an “ad”) and got ourselves into the bill of a few really cool shows.  After that I got to take a night off in San Diego and head back home to celebrate Will’s birthday.  LOP took responsibility of being the music directors at the downtown standard, and his birthday turned out to be really fun and a little blurry.

The next day (running off of almost no sleep), I had a lot of catching up to do, a vocal lesson, and a red eye plane to catch to Atlanta.  On the way home from vocals, a police officer decided to impound my car for window tint and leave me on the side of the road.  Rather than napping prior to the flight I got to deal with all of that.  The red eye was the most uncomfortable flight of all time.  We took off from LAX at 1AM, landed in Atlanta at 8am Eastern, and paid 30 bucks to shower at the red roof inn prior to our meeting (once again, I had no time to shower due to the strict window tint enforcement).  We took care of business in the very humid weather, got back to the airport at 5PM and then I fly to Cincinnati, Ohio to meet up with LOPNation.

It’s been almost two months since I have seen these guys so I was very excited to see them.  TaLLfren and Teecey picked me up in the van from the airport and we all grabbed a bite and then headed to a rock bar in downtown to hang with friends in Sum41.  The bartender kept buying us free shots all night and the next thing you know I am waking up in the hotel next to Brian “Sting” King who must have flown in while I was gone because he wasn’t there the night before.

Now it is 12pm Eastern, and I am about to shower and go meet up at the warped tour.  I needed to sleep in a bit since it has been a while.  After today, LOPNation immediately starts their drive to Milwaukee where they will drop me off at the Chicago airport to take a flight to NYC.  I have some amazing meetings lined up with songwriters, producers, PR,  and a lot of life changing peeps that have been in the game for a while. On August 1st, Devin and I start our East Coast radio run hitting cities from Maine to Virginia Beach.

colbyguarino asked: LOP is so GLAM... just thought i'd tell you that :)

This is an obvious statement…

Devin and I will be taking off this Saturday to Seattle to start our west coast promo tour.  We basically show up to the various Top40 radio stations, play a few acoustic songs, do an interview, and get to meet a bunch of new friends.  At the same time we will be writing new songs for us as well as other artists and making sure new material is still the number 1 focus.

The tour starts in Seattle July 18 and ends in San Diego July 23.  From there we will fly to the east coast to start our promo tour there.

1. KBKS/Seattle
2. KKRZ/Portland
3. KDUK/Eugene
4. KSXY/Santa Rosa
5. KMVQ/San Francisco
6. KREV/San Francisco
7. KDND/Sacramento
8. KHOP/Modesto
9. KKXX/Bakersfield
10. KRCK/Palm Springs
11. KHTS/San Diego

If you live near by make sure to tweet me at @LightsOverTaLL !