Hey RoshamFAM!
We finished the video for this month's requested cover song this week, "Ring of Fire," by Johnny Cash. Thanks to Jeff C for requesting it! We wanted to give it a little darker tone and we're really excited how it turned out! Check out the Trailer below!
You can unlock the full version of this performance on Patreon. Every month we take requests and decide which song to put our own spin on. We've had a lot of fun with your suggestions!
What's Up With J...
This week I lost one of my best friends. He was always there to comfort me when I needed him, to bring a smile on my face when I was feeling down, and the an amazing listener. We noticed last week that something wasn't right with him and made an appointment as soon as we could. Took him in the following day and had all the tests performed so we could figure out what was wrong. The vet and nurse walked in with their heads down after the results came back "it's kidney failure". They explained to me what was to be expected in the coming days and laid out the options....well the one option.
I held it together on the ride home and once my son went into the house I completely fell apart. My heart was broken to pieces. My friend and family member of 9 years was dying and I had just a couple days till we needed to put him down. He made it through the weekend and we spent as much time with him as possible. Telling him what a good boy he was. On the last day he started crying out. The pain had gotten to be too much. We called and had to have them move up the appointment. We took him in and stayed by his side the whole time so he wouldn't go it alone. We wrapped him in his favorite blanket and had his favorite toys right there with him. And as we all held our hands on him and told him it was ok and his suffering would soon be over. He had a moment of calm and his spirit left his body.
Ted, you were my best friend and a positive force in my life. You will be missed and never forgotten. Where ever you are I hope there is an abundance of butt rubs and endless fields to run. To anyone who reads this....I love you very much and I hope that this can serve you as it has me a reminder that death is inevitable. Don't wait. Tell those you love how much they mean to you. Cherish each and every moment for everyday is a gift. -J
What's Up With Kyle...
As a musician, it's always difficult making someone else's music your own. You write your own music and hope it connects with people but when you're starting out with an audience that's never heard of you it's hard to get people to want to listen to it. There's a lot of debate on whether playing/producing covers is a "sell out" but personally I feel like sometimes it's the only way of making a connection as an artist to someone you've just met. It's Socratic in a way. "Hey, do you know this song? I do too! Now we have something in common." I think it's something that even wildly successful artists still hold on to. I think it's especially powerful when you're help others see something familiar in a new way.
I always really liked Johnny Cash. When this month's cover request for "Ring of Fire" came in J and I both knew we wanted to take a stab at it. My immediate thought was to "punk rock it out" but after a few YouTube searches we found that Social Distortion did the best punk rocked out version of the song and we felt like anything we tried along those lines would be an inferior copy so we decided to try something completely different.
A few month's ago I went down a rabbit hole on YouTube of what popular songs would sound like in their relative major or minor keys. If that sound like weird music jargon, major keys are often associated with happy, light and uplifting music while minor keys are associated with melancholy, dark and immersive music. So, when the relative keys are reversed Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" becomes a bubble gum pop song and classic children's songs like "Where The Watermelon Grows," turn into creepy, edgy horror soundtracks, lol. I really wanted to experiment with this concept with Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." After reviewing some music theory I got the basic melodic and chord structures reformatted and took it over to J. I think we ended up coming out with a really cool, emotional version.
Someone once told me, "You don't want your old toys back. You just want to feel the way those toys made you feel again." I think producing cover music can give listeners that feeling. A lot of time's I'll go back and listen to a song I haven't heard in awhile and swear I'm listening to to the wrong song. It just doesn't sound the same to me because I'm not listening to a song; I'm chasing a feeling. Johnny Cash & June Carter gave the world a tremendous volume of real world, raw emotional music. So this version is somber tribute to the legacy they've left behind.
-Kyle
Special Thanks!
We're so grateful for everyone that continues to support our music every month by donating to our Patreon or on our Exclusive Access. Every month we produce extra exclusive content for everyone that continues to support us as well as give them early access and first dibs on anything we put out whether it's merch, singles, albums, tickets or a behind the scenes look at what we're working on. Patrons and Exclusive Access supporters: We couldn't do this without you!
Steve B, Nancy B, Renee T, Nadia M, William H, James M, Jeff C & Phyllis F!
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