The Airborne Toxic Event

The Airborne Toxic Event's sophomore album All At Once was just released in Europe and will hit the North American shelves [digitally & physically] tomorrow [26th]. These guys are legit. The lead singer and the main songwriter, Mikel Joliett, not only has a unique voice... but his carefully crafted lyrics leave you in their wake speechless and heart pounding. They've got so much depth. I thought, "He must either be a brilliant writer or has gone through a hell of a lot to be able to communicate heartache so well... the kind that scars, leaving a lasting-not totally healed reminder of a grief thats changed you... not the emo 8th grade kind." So I looked up his story and apparently I was right on both counts. He's a writer and essayist and has written for the like of NPR, the LA Times, Filter, and Men's Health to name a few. Not to mention his short stories appeared next to Stephen King. During a week in March of '08 he underwent a break-up, learned his mother had been diagnosed with cancer, and was himself diagnosed with a genetic autoimmune disease that led to the development of two cosmetic conditions: Alopecia Areata and Vitiligo. Enter acoustic guitar and the birth of intense songwriting.

The heaviness of his lyrics and the emotion embodied in his music will take you back to those moments in life that have left their mark on you... or they might find their way to your heart, freshly bleeding.

Ahh, music... the power you hold amazes me.

Their newest album is filled with all the ingredients that makes us love music... you'll laugh, cry, pump your fist... it has 'that one acoustic track' that some of us always skip to first, the power ballads, roadtrip songs, and a couple anthems.

I think one thing we can learn from him and a thought I want to leave you with is...

"Experience is not what happens to you. It's what you do with what happens to you."

-Frey


  Numb by The Airborne Toxic Event


  All For A Woman by The Airborne Toxic Event

  Changing by The Airborne Toxic Event

Musical Servanthood

How you craft a track as a band rather than a collection of single instruments.

One of the biggest killers to groove in music, to the unity that ties the elements of music together into a single event, is the lack of perspective. And it's surprisingly easy to lose track of.

As band member, it is so easy to focus in on our particular instrument with too much emphasis and too high an opinion. But when creating music it is essential that we are able to step back and critique our instruments role in the piece of music as a whole. This is why bands will often work with a producer, who is able to see the whole picture, not just be lost in single parts.

This is the concept of musical servanthood. Musical Servanthood means sometimes you need to put down what you can be doing in order to do what must be done. It's keeping in check the musical "ego", so that what you do serves a greater cause. It's being able to step back and play according to what the song requires.

Practically this means, even though you are a classically trained piano "shredder", sometimes you need to play the pads (the synth equivalent of clouds). Even if you can teach Abe Laboriel a lesson or two, sometimes you need to play eighth notes all the way through this song. Sometimes you don't…but it is determined by what the song requires. Often what the song requires is born out of what style is it written in. It is no use trying to play gospel chops in a folk song. Same time it is not musical servanthood when you are playing everything in straight eighth notes in a Israel and New Breed track.

Musical servanthood, laying down what you can play in order to play what must be played, is not a lack of creativity. I actually believe it is a fuller use of our creativity. It is redirected creativity. Your creativity isn't going into how amazing a riff you can play so everyone knows how gifted you are. You creativity goes into conceiving the best riffs and best lines that will serve the song. Rather than making a song feel like a collection of soloists, try and make it about 1 band, 1 sound, 1 message through musical servanthood.


Some well crafted songs that show musical servanthood include:

Somewhere Only We Know - Keane



You Are The Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne

Once Upon A Time...

Remember when we were little... we could hardly ever simply state anything, whether answering a question or accounting an event. Our explanations were often dripping with imagination, our creative juices effortlessly flowing through our veins. Everything was vibrant and dramatic. Everything was epic and would often cause our listeners eyes to widen... or roll (often depending on their age). Jay O'Callahan said,

"We created effortlessly, imagination pouring out, and as we grow older our minds get more literal and critical.... All that imagination still lives inside us, and telling stories sometimes brings it out."

Jay O'Callahan is a professional story teller who travels the world telling stories. In this clip he brilliantly illustrates the power of storytelling - "that most human, and ancient, art form" - and how it taps into our imagination, engages those around us, and inspires amazing achievements.

-Frey