South of Shaw was always a fun project though and while we had our ups and downs, overall it was a great experience and I think we wrote some very cool music within that genre. So when Bob and I started kicking around the idea of writing again, I got really excited about it.

So last weekend I drove down to L.A., Rich flew in from Las Vegas, and together we sat down in a tiny room with my new JamHub and banged out three new songs in 48 hours. Honestly, we were on fire with ideas and the songs just spilled out of us like water from a clogged toilet…. ok that’s an absolutely horrendous metaphor. But you get the idea. We were unstoppable!

Anyway, I went into my studio this week and tracked the drums for the songs and they sound HUGE! Bob is going to be tracking rhythm guitars in L.A. and then we’ll get together sometime during the next month to do leads and melody lines, and then vocals and bass at a later date.

What’s really cool about recording in today’s connected world though is that we can share ideas instantly. We use DropBox to share the scratch tracks and so everyone can drop them into GarageBand, rehearse and whatever, and then when we get together we’ve already got things down, so our time is very well spent. It’s really a cool way to work. No more twice a week band rehearsals and fighting with schedules and all that. Each of us can now work on his own schedule. The other great thing is that since our production cost is basically zero in today’s digital world, we can release singles as we finish recording them. No need to spend a year writing 12 songs and go press a physical CD. Now we can just upload to iTunes as we finish the songs. Very cool.

I’ll be posting audio snippets as we make progress. Stay tuned, 2012 is gonna be a rocking year for SOS!

We led worship at Northpointe church today and it was outstanding. Im going to dote on my band today because I am truly blessed to be a part of this project.

Tim is a truly gifted keyboardist and his wife Jill has a voice like an angel. That’s no B.S., this girl can sing. My long time buddy Frankie is a monster on guitar as is our friend Paul from Northpointe. Our leader Paul Haugen is truly a great frontman, and Chris is without a doubt the best bass player I’ve ever had the pleasure of jamming with. The dude is almost a part of me when we play, and that’s how drummers and bass players should be. It was a fantastic gig.

They actually recorded our performance and as soon as I get a copy, I’ll be posting it here for download. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.

The real kicker though is that everyone is just so low key and cool to hang with. We’re all here for one reason; to worship and give glory to God, and so with ego and greed removed, it’s just a pure joy to jam with these folks.

So it’s been an outstanding weekend and I can’t wait to do it again.

Daughtry is touring with opening bands Lifehouse, and a band I’d heard of but never really listened to called Cavo. All three bands are straight up commercial rock bands so it was a very balanced bill. Cavo opened and they were really very good. The first thing that struck me was that the sound in the arena was phenomenal. Normally the first band gets crappy sound, about 3 feet of stage space and maybe a lightbulb hanging from a wire for dramatic effect. Daughtry gave his openers a large stage, great lighting, and a perfect mix. That right there just set the show off right.

So Cavo did their stuff and then Lifehouse was up. Now, I like Lifehouse. They are great musicians and have several great vocalists in the band so they put on a great show. The problem is that they are kind of a soft band. They never really rock it out enough for me. So while I like them, I quickly got bored. Luckily they didn’t play a long set.

Daughtry came on next and a lot has changed since I saw them at the Fresno Fair two years ago. They came out to the Batman theme (not the cheesy 70′s version) and some great lighting effects. When the curtain dropped they had a HUGE stage with ramps all over the place and a massive backdrop that would change every few songs. The lighting show was awesome and halfway through the set during a cover of In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins they fired up a wicked laser show. I love me some lasers man. I gotta get some for the house. And as I said, the sound was outstanding. After seeing Slipknot in the same arena and having my ears punished by 200 db’s of garbled noise, it was quite a pleasure to hear crystal clear instruments and vocals. It’s pretty obvious that whoever is managing Daughtry’s show knows what they are doing.

Chris also has grown quite a bit as a performer since his last visit to Fresno. He looked like a seasoned pro, interacted with the crowd, and sang great. Although he had his backup singer doing a lot of the high notes. But then again, after being on tour for who knows how long, I don’t blame him. Gotta protect those chords. The bottom line though is that the performance as a whole was excellent and pretty faithful to the albums.

So that’s my review of the show. I gotta say, it was very enjoyable. If you get a chance to see these guys, don’t pass it up.

Our regular worship set was killer. We did Sing to the King which is one of my favorite songs. So powerful, especially at the end. It goes into this little drop down with hi-hat and vocals, and a single note on the bass and then builds into a monster chorus to finish out the song. FAT!!! Then we busted into some Journey, and while the song itself is probably the most uninteresting song from a drumming standpoint, it really rocks.

If there’s one thing Journey understood, it was the need to keep songs catchy, and simple. Songs like that just stick in people’s heads and make them memorable. The other good thing is that a simple song can really be rocked out. As a drummer you can almost kick into auto-pilot and just really pour yourself into the vibe and not have to worry about parts so much.

So it was a fantastic worship set. Now I need to go download the sermon so I can enjoy the message too!

Hope everyone has a rocking week.

However, there are some things to talk about; Journey. Yep, the band from the bay that we all love, or love to hate. Personally, I love them. I think they rock. Not in the bang your skull against a brick wall kind of rock that I normally dig, but more of a feel good, get in your Pontiac Trans-Am with T-Tops and crank the cassette deck while driving real fast with your feathered hair girlfriend kind of rock.

OK, when Journey was huge I wasn’t old enough to drive a Firebird, or have a girlfriend with feathered hair. But my brother did, and he loved Journey, and I looked up to him, so that’s the image that pops into my head whenever I listen to them.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because our band is rocking Journey songs every weekend for the month of October. And where are we rocking said songs? Church. Yes, we are rocking Journey songs at church, which honestly, I think is the coolest thing on the planet.

Let’s face it, hymns are cool. Acoustic guitar sing alongs have their place….. ok maybe not…. but anyway, to the non-christian walking into church, those things are kind of creepy. Why? Because nobody in the everyday world sings hymns or does accoustic sing alongs! We’re rocking out in the real world, man! So this gives us the opportunity to give people something familiar. Make them feel welcome. And it also helps us old rockers get our rock fix.

So I’m on the schedule this weekend. The band and I will be busting out “Anyway You Want It” and our pastor is going to continue his fantastic series of talks on navigating through tough times. It’s going to be a great weekend at Clovis Hills Church.