ASCAP 2011 and Ass Punching Buzz Lightyear

Last Tuesday was the longest day ever. We were getting ready to drive our new road trip car to Los Angeles for the ASCAP Expo, a 3 day music conference put on by The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) which is a membership association of more than 400,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music. (ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works.)
We went to this last year, but it was our virgin attendance and we were so overwhelmed we missed out on a lot. This year, we knew exactly what we wanted out of it and took it by the tail.
We left Wednesday morning and drove strait through on I15 getting there and going to bed. We got up early Thursday morning and headed over the The Hollywood Rennaissance Hotel where the event was held which is attached to a super cool outdoor mall with several levels and arranged with a courtyard area and fountain in the middle and the shops working their way around. It was right on the walk of fame and attached to the Grauman Chinese Theater.


There are restaurants, shops, theaters, and bars as well as a few bridges going across to let you look across to the Hollywood sign, and the street where the stars are marking the walk of fame. It really is a cool sight.
We attended only 2 classes the first day because we met so many people and got to hang with Coop talking about our plans etc. where we found out one of our friends Shelly Riff (http://shellyriff.com/home.cfm) has been fortunate to get some placement deals (its the way to go kids to get music on TV, Movies, etc). It was exciting to hear that a good person like him has Kharma smiling on him! We met a cool guy through Shelly named Tim who invented a cool ball that doesn't deflate for kids in third world conntries who is organizing a large concert for this ball with U2 and with Sting backing the product. I though it was such a beautifully selfless cause. He was a very nice man and I honestly dont believe he is full of shit like many people with claims such as those. We saw the ball too. Its pretty damn cool!
Friday we woke up to a 70$ ticket on the car because I guess you can't park on one side of the street on Fridays because of the street sweepers. We are contesting it with no real hope of winning lol. Good start to the day lol. We attended more classes including the "Road Warriors" Class about touring which I will talk about later. Saturday was more of the same and then a night of fun....which I will also talk about later..
There are classes at this thing taught by many behind the scenes big wigs, stars, and not so stars but they ALL know their shit. There are thousands of musicians, writers, managers etc there and all sorts of booths with stuff to help you in your craft. There are also crazy people singing in the hallways and stairs as well as when they are given the opportunity to ask questions, some stand up and sing because they think it will get them discovered. Now, this is frustrating at times but really more entertaining.
But then, there are talented people who take opportunities correctly and get to perform for guitar sponsors and camera men like Valerie Mize. She was a nice girl with a great voice and catchy songs who humbly asked to play his guitar and because she wasn't a crazy person he said yes. She was beautiful and very nice.


We met some very nice people. A few from last year, a few from this year. We found that Twitter is the best for that. (tip: If you are attending something with a "Hashtag" (if you dont know what that is, you need to start from scratch and thats perfectly fine) find that tag and follow other people using it. You gain followers with the same interests, and they you and get the chance to set up face to face meeting with them as opposed to random followers in different places than you) We met 4 people face to face this year due soley to Twitter including Brandon Liss (http://www.brandonliss.com twitter= brandonliss) Ruby Castillo (http://www.youtube.com/user/MlSSRuBy twitter= MISSRuBy) Brian Franke (http://www.brianfranke.com twitter= bfrankemusic) & Antwoinne (http://www.penmeetspad.com twitter= antwoinne). Each of these people are awesome and very talented! Not only that, but they really made this experience so much better in their ways.


Melody, Brian, Mike

Ty, Brian, Mike

There were classes on everything from songwriting, publishing, composing, social media (twitter Cyberpr for a great person to listen to on Social Media), even a class on touring with someone I looked up to before, Matt Nathanson (his song "Come on Get Higher" was a big hit not too long ago and his other songs are awesome http://www.mattnathanson.com). I liked him before but he has a truckers mouth and I LOVED that lol. Now I am a forever fan. He made the biggest impact on me because he wasn't about bull shit. Mainly he was just flat out honest. He basically said what everyone needs to hear including me...You can't skip steps. There is no magic equasion or solution to the music business and breaking in. You have to work your way up just like anything else, it just takes longer. If you skip those steps they're going to shit you right out. I also got to meet Jonatha Brooke (http://www.jonathabrooke.com) who is a fantastic singer/songwriter and so beautiful in person!!!
Ty's favorite class was an interview with Bernie Worrell by Will Calhoon followed by some cool jammin. Ty really loved this class as he looks up to Bernie.


You can't see this but Bernie has a plate of food he was trying to sneak to his room to eat but I cut it off lol. Aaah stars...
Sara Bereilles came and interviewed Lindsay Buchingham from Fleetwood Mac. He seemed so down to earth and cool. But....I am betting that guy partied the shit out of his rockstar years! I was surprised that this talented songwriter said he hated it and liked performing and producing much better. He also said he liked bands today like Arcade Fire, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, and Dirty Projectors.

SHIT it was beautiful there too. I didnt want to leave I swear. I heard it snowed back here in Utah while we were gone. Sorry bout that SUCKAS!
Another of my favorite things about LA are some of the little quirks.


(right) This was a crazy manaquen in a costume shop...fucking wierd!!!; (left)I posted this one day with "I wonder the nutritional value of Love"
Saturday we finished classes and found that the place we did dinner last year was closed down. That place was BADASS! We were pretty dissappointed so we went to The Hardrock Cafe with Coop, Brandon, Brian, Mike, Brandon. Amy, Shelly, Brandolyn, and of course Ty and I and ate and drank a bunch lol. During this time, Ty and I went to smoke with Brandon and some street performers came and talked to us. Then a bum they knew joined in. He suddenly looked at me, asked me to hold his stuff, (which consisted of a partially consumed Sierra Mist, and what looked like a cat bowl with money in it) which was more handed to me than asked so I did. Now, in case you dont know this..... The walk of fame is a place where people are dressed up like almost any character and actor you can think of. Some are in full suits, some are in clothes with wigs and make up. One we saw on Friday looked like RuPaul and then he/she walked into the makeup shop next to us and started working behind the counter. We were really glad we didnt ask for a picture lol. Seriously...looked just like RuPaul. Sooo...the bum hands me his shit, and walks over to a very plush Buzz Lightyear character and ass punches him!!! No. Seriously!!! So Plush Buzz, walks up and gets all up in the bums face and they do the I'm in your face' dance for a bit and the Buzz walks away. The bum gets his stuff from me and walks back over to give the stink eye to Plushy Lightyear and they do the dance again as you can see part of in this epic youtube film but Tyler Forsberg lol...( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjcTm4rvre4 )
It was nutso. WHO ASS PUNCHES BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!!??
We drank our fill, continued on the night to getting kicked out of Brian's room because we were jamming too loud, walking back to our room a few blocks away which was sad because there were all these people waiting in line wearing extrememly nice clothes to dance in a club and not more than 15 feet away were 2 people sleeping in a doorway. It made me realize that someday when we have money, my foundaton will be for the homeless in our country. There are far too many and no one should have to sleep in a doorway while people ignore you and go dancing. Its wrong people. Its wrong.
We made it back to our room and the drunkness took over. I vaguely remember Ty ordering a pizza which I literally woke up to eat and passed back out.
We left early Sunday morning and drove home in a daze. I didnt want to leave. I wanted to come home, get our guitars, and start our travels. Anyone who says ASCAP expo is a waste of time doesn't understand how inspiring it is to be in that atmosphere.
This weekend made me want to roll up our foam mattress, sell our shit, and just drive and book, drive and book. I realized that I want to be a musician yes. But I want to travel and meet new people. I want to see the strange, sad, messed up, and exciting. I want to be cold, hot, and comfortable all in the same day. I want to sit down in a place I have never been and play what ever I think people will like as long as I am feeling it. I want to get up early, nap in my car, and perform late. I want to do something so uncomfortable and so out of the norm that we can't help but feel like that is where we are supposed to be and all the people we meet along the way will make the road our home.

The Up and Coming for Melody & Tyler

I had it all planned out. I was going to go off about a thing that has been bugging me lately. I had been writing the beginning of it in my head all day. I had worked out the great lines to bring home the point and had decided how to talk about this subject with out offending or pointing out offenders. Then, as I turned on my computer to get going I realized, this is NOT my angle this time.
I decided that if you read my blog, you dont want to hear me complain. I decided that most people who read my blog aren't the people I would be refering to anyway, so whats the good of bitching about something I have no control over nor should care that much about in the first place. No. This is my uplifting exciting time right now. SO much has been going on that I can't wait to tell you about!!!
So, this blog will be about whats goin on!!
We are doing our CD release on March 25 at The Fifth. This will be our first release as Melody & Tyler! We have a design for shirts that matches the album that looks like will match the banner and we will have Andy Livingston come play keys with us as well as Marc Cooper who produced the album come play with Rockfish Records Artst The Wayne Hoskins Band, and Narah Black with Greg Downs. We have been working on all of this since Dec after recording in September. It seems to take forever to get things done in the world of music sometimes lol.
We painted our basement for a back drop where we have spotlights and curtains so we can hold concerts at our house in the summer. It looks Rad. Yes. Rad.
We are working on a mini Acoustic All Stars Festival in June with Alex at Rovalis Ristorante Italiano in Ogden. We will be booking that soon and will get the chance to book people under 21 for this since we dont get to do that for the All Stars cause its in a bar lol.
We will be working on more recording soon and have come to conclusion that the days of the full album are slowly dying or maybe just in a coma. Where everything comes in packages of 1 like iTunes and download cards, why wait to release albums for a year when we can release 2 3-4 song albums a year and keep it coming in a more cost eficient way?
Just thoughts. :)
We were fortunate to have Rally For One from California come play at Liquid Joes with us and Brian Bingham and Mason Fetzer from The Precinct. It was one of the most fun shows we have done in a while. If you havent heard any of them check them out.
We also have been being asked more and more to perform here and there and it is exciting that searching out venues and shows and begging and tracking down booking agents is less and less hard to do. We just need to start traveling a little more. Next weekend, we will be playing at Fats Grill with Brett Turner and then the weekend after that we will be playing at Sammys in Rexburg Idaho with Brian Bingham and are trying to find another show while we are there so we can get Ben Hoganson to play with us too. Hes awesome!
Then in April, on the 16th we will be holding our first basement concert with Steven Swift and then at the end of April we will go to ASCAP for the second year. I cant tell you all how excited I am for this!!! As soon as we get the dates booked we will start working on the Acoustic All Stars year FOUR!!!!!! :D
We have been so fortunate to be a part of a scene here in Utah that is growing and growing. I have started realizing that Utah plays a little different. Maybe a little unfair, but different. Its like any other place. If you know the right people you get more opportunites. Thats just life in general. But Utah has something unique. If you can play fair and be open to helping more than yourself, the world will open wide for you. Its all about what you can do for yourself that will help others because in the long run, it helps you more than just looking out for me myself and I. So we attribute these great things to 'what goes around comes around'.
So no, I will not complain and bitch about the problems with music in Utah etc. I will tell you all that we are being patient but we are a LONG way off still. If you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen...or something like that lol
We have so much going on and are excited for all of you being a part of this journey!!!
Love you all!!

ASCAP 2010

This past week Melody and I had the amazing opportunity to attend the ASCAP "I Create Music" Expo in Hollywood, Ca. For those of you who don't know what ASCAP is, it's American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers. We had the amazing chance to interact with some of the music industry's top people as well as listen to some amazing speakers talk about their careers and what got them to where they are at.
I'm going to take you with me on the journey and tell you how the weekend happened from my point of view . . . . here we go!

Wednesday morning comes and the anticipation has been killing us to head out on the road and start our first "long distance" road trip. The few days before Mel spent a lot of her time compiling the "perfect" iPod road trip mix, just to find out that Kole's car doesn't have an input jack. DOH! So it's CD's & old fashion radio for us on the drive.

After picking up Mike, getting some road snacks, and stopping to pee, we're finally on the road headed south towards warmer weather. The drive wasn't bad at all, except that it rained the whole time up until we rolled into Vegas, where the sky cleared just enough to see the sun setting over Sin City.

Now the plan was that we were to meet up with Kole at one of her friends house, after changing plans 3 or 4 times, we eventually ended up doing what we had originally set out to do. Now the only problem was that her friend lived in a gated community that had a guard at the front gates. *Note to self: Make sure that you know the name of the person who's house your going to, make sure you know the correct gate to go to, and also, make sure that you understand that they may want to do a complete background check along with a rectal exam before letting you into their "gated club"

Finally we were in Vegas and headed over to The Freakin Frog for our show. The Freakin Frog is located just across the street from the UNLV campus so they get a lot of the college crowd in there. Another draw they have is their 777 different beers and over 200 different kinds of whiskey, SCORE! The sound guy, Howard, pulled us aside and explained to us the history of The Freakin Frog along with the 777 beers, and finished off with a tour of the beer cooler *drooling*. He basically said to us "If you come in here and fuck around on stage and make a spectacle of yourselves, don't expect to come back". So we start the show, Mel and I take the stage for our set and we're playing for a few sparse couples in the place and at the bar is a UNLV softball rec team, they seemed to enjoy the music and we had a great time. Next up was Kole, this deserves a whole new paragraph to tell her story . . .

Kole takes the stage, and if you don't know anything about her, let me help you understand her a little better. She's a ball of friggin energy ALWAYS! So she's up on stage playing her songs and interacting with the crowd. "If I leave here without at least some sort of tip, I can't get a pack of gum on the way to LA, so please tip me" she says in her quirky way. Sure enough, she get's a couple dollar bills and a stick of gum. Always be conscious of what your asking for, because you might just get it!

I was the DD for the night because we were headed to LA after our show. Here's what happens when you get a group of Utahns together in Vegas . . . Mike becomes Michael or Gapa, Mel becomes Leody, and Kole, well Kole is Kole. So on to LA . . .

The drive wasn't bad at all, Mike, Kole, and Mel slept for most of the way and finally we pulled into Hollywood at 4:30am ready to crash. After unloading the car, finding our rooms, brushing our teeth, and finally settling in, it was 5am.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* sounds my alarm at 7am and the only thing that I can think to myself is "Who on God's earth is stupid enough to wake up at 7am just for some music conference?" Us apparently. 2 hours of sleep is tough but nothing that a few cups of coffee can't fix! So we get into the car and make our way down to the Renaissance Hotel where ASCAP was being held.

I won't go too much into detail about the classes and speakers because that was something that I think you need to see for yourself to actually get the full effect.

The first day was tough because none of us had slept too much the night before, we had just spent a full day in & out of various classes, and we still had to drive down to Long Beach to play another show. So unfortunately for Mel we had to miss most of John Mayer talking, sorry Mel. On the brighter side, we were really excited about playing that night at a place called DiPiazza's. We had tried to book a gig there a few months before without any luck, but because we had helped another band from Long Beach score a gig in SLC, they helped us get booked. ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT GIG TRADING IS BRILLIANT!!!!!

The show went great, the crowd was responsive, Mel's long lost cousin showed up, and the Lakers lost! Great night!

Friday came and went without a hitch, nothing dramatic happened during the day, but once the night came so did SUSHI! We met up with a couple friends that we knew from down there at this little hol-in-the-wall place called Sushi Ike in Hollywood. Little did we know, but this place is one of the most coveted sushi stops in LA and they didn't disappoint! DE-FREAKIN-LICIOUS! The best part about eating sushi is that there's a little bit of a sushi coma that comes on after and it makes sleeping quite nice!

So on to Saturday, this was the big finishing day of ASCAP and we were trying to soak all of it in that we could. The classes went great as usual, and the whole event was capped off with an amazing Justin Timberlake & Bill Withers interview . . . some of my favorite words from Bill Withers were "It's time to stop worrying about what designer clothes your going to wear, or who your going to be seen with, it's time to get back to making music because you love to make music!". Cheers to this Bill!

Saturday night was FULL of great times, we walked over to the Grauman's Chinese Theater and saw all of the celebrity foot & hand prints, Mel got sliced up by an impressionistic Edward Scissor-Hands, we saw a Zombie march of about 100-150 people fully dressed as zombies, and then it was on to U-wink for cocktails. U-wink is a sports type bar that has little touchscreen tv's at every table. The touch screen is how you do everything at this place, it's how you place a drink order, food order, play games with people throughout the whole bar, and just an all around cool atmosphere. The best part for me was that as we played bingo with the whole bar, I kept putting my name as "Lakers Suck", this was especially great when we won and everyone's screen popped up "Lakers Suck is the WINNER!" HAHAHA, all of this during the actual Laker game where they were getting whopped on by OKC. This was my own personal victory, watching the Lakers lose twice and both while I was in LA!

So onto Sunday which was the day that really made this whole trip worth it for me. It started out a little better than the previous days because we didn't have to wake our asses up at 7am, we could actually sleep in a little bit. The weather was absolutely perfect and the coffee was extra delicious. We were getting set up for our backyard concert session that was to take place that afternoon. We hadn't really put much into planning this, other than we all knew that we were going to hang out in the back yard, and play some music.

As myself and John Zay were setting up the chars and getting all of the dog poo out of the way, John started talking to be about the "power of the tree". In this backyard there is a huge tree that overhangs the entire size of the yard. "It's full of great vibes" John told me. And let me tell you, this was ever so true. The concert started off with Marc "Coop" Cooper on guitar playing some ambient moody riffs, then Shelly Riff adding his acoustic take, John Zay on 12-string really filled up the mix, Kole & Melody singing lightly, and I was keeping some rhythmic beats going on the guitar body. This 1st jam lasted about 15 minutes and really set the feeling for the rest of the afternoon.

Each of us took turns playing our songs and every other musician would join in and create a version of the song that no one had ever heard before. This was pure magic and to me what making music is all about. None of us had EVER played music together, yet we all spoke the same language and communicated without a flaw.

Sunday April 25th, 2010 - Los Feliz, Ca - This is a date that I will always keep in my memory bank as one that helped reload my love and passion for music. The love and passion has never left me, but there are times that you need a little boost, and this did more than boost it, it redefined it. What an amazing weekend!


So what a great weekend I had and we look forward to including many many more people in trips like this in the future!