Recording, Burgers, and Stories

So we are still recording. It's been an intense 7 days of working on music and singing our hearts out. I imagine this is how Kei$ha must live, only more sober. The songs are sounding great and the finished product is going to be unbelievable.

We've been meeting a lot of great people during this experience which only adds to it all. Paul Colman's 2 young girls have become big fans. They're singing our songs non-stop which I'm sure takes that fine line between cute and annoying and obliterates it for their mother. We stayed with Jeremy Michael, our engineer, over the weekend and recorded some things in his studio. His wife, Bonnie, and 3 kids, were gracious enough to let us crash at their place and eat their Digiorno Pizza. I got to read stories to the 3 kids before they went to bed on Saturday night. I think they liked it even though the only voice impersonations I can do are 1920's flappers and bootleggers. Here's some footage from our recording sessions with Jeremy to show how serious this all is.

We also got to do a show at Riff Burgers (www.RiffBurgers.com) and it was phenomenal. We hung out with John Thatcher, who booked us, and his family there. His 6 year old son, Jackson, told me that he thought Brian and I really work well together. He may be 6, but his half-British accent and fedora made it sound much more mature.

We're wrapping up vocals on 2 more songs today. We also have Dan Haseltine (Jars of Clay), and Jennifer Knapp coming in later tonight to throw down some guest vocals. We are very thankful to Paul Colman and the other who are working on this project for their belief in what we are doing. It's very cool to see this thing going to the next level and higher, way higher.

Dave

Happy Thanksgiving (We'll be recording)

I promised a blog everyday, but unfortunately I did not get around to it yesterday. We have been quite busy working on songs and pulling this all together. It has been a really awesome process so far, and we are really looking forward to how this album is going to sound.

Our days kind of look like this: We wake up and do about 2 hours of Pilates. I'm kidding. Each night, Paul puts together some programming loops for us to play to. Then in the morning Brian plays his guitar parts over them. Then he does his vocals, which usually takes 1 take because he has the voice of an angel who was birthed by another angel and Josh Groban. Then I do my parts which usually takes a little longer because I have the voice of most child stars after they've gone through puberty.

We then take what we've done and send it off to a guy named Tedd T, who is programming the album. This means he'll be adding beats and other various sounds to give everything a nice full sound. We hung out with him on Monday and this guy is no joke. He won a Grammy, and has worked on songs for MuteMath, Jewel, and Rebecca St. James. He actually did the song that my wife and I danced to. I thanked him, but also mentioned I would've preferred it a little slower.

So far we've knocked out Red Rover, Branta Canadensis, Hot Pockets, and Smalltown Gangstas. There is some new flavor added to our older songs and they are sounding great. We also had our friend Adam Agee of Stellarkart come in to help on Branta Canadensis. We're working on some other big names to come in next week, and I'm pretty sure Jennifer Knapp will be coming in on Monday or Tuesday. Not sure what she'll do, but should be fun.

Those of you in the Nashville area, we are doing a show at Riff Burger's (www.riffburgers.com) in Franklin at 5:30 PM and 6:30 PM. We got the show through John Thatcher, who was the bass player in the band, Delirious. He came over yesterday and we talked about websites. I would've rather talked about "I Could Sing of your Love Forever," but websites are cool too.

Dave

Atlanta Has been Rocked

We have left home and will be on the road a total of about 15 days. There are shows, recordings, hockey games, and hanging out with music industry peeps that will be going on. It's going to be a little crazy.

This past weekend we were invited to perform at the National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta. We had the pleasure of performing in the "Big Room" right before the main meeting. It's a little bit of a tough spot, because people are still trickling in and it's early in the morning. A special shout out to Captain Bobby Parker and his wife Nicole for showing up extra early so as to not miss us. It was either that or they just wanted really good seats for Dr. Robert Epstein. Either way, they were winners that day.

Saturday night, we performed at the Late Night Comedy show in the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta, with Taylor Mason (www.taylormason.com) and Jeff Civillico (www.jeffcivillico.com). There were well over 2000 youth leaders in attendance, and it was a blast! The High-5 was brought back, and Canada was sent a message about their geese.

Sunday night we had the pleasure of performing at The Salvation Army's Atlanta Temple Corps. I can't describe to you how fun this show was. Some had seen us before, some had not, and even though there were over 130 people there, there's something about performing for Salvation Army folks that feels like performing for family. Our good friend Dan Kulp opened for us and as always was awesome to not only work with, but hang out with. A special thanks to the Atlanta Temple Corps, Bernie Dake and the Territorial Music Department, and Major Art Penhale and the Territorial Youth Department for making it happen.

We have begun the recording process. Expect at least 1 or 2 blogs everyday to update. We are working on getting different artists to guest such as Adam Agee of Stellarkart, Jennifer Knapp, and maybe Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer.

Dave

New Blog with a ton of videos!

I don't know what happened. One thing lead to another and now here we are about 2 months without a new blog. Shame on me. My punishment is that I am skipping an episode of Ellen to write this (or just part, depending on how long this takes me). Brian and I have been very busy since I last wrote. We've been to a Youth Councils in Maine, a Campus Fellowship Retreat in Kentucky, The National Youth Workers Conference in San Diego, and did some pre-production work in Nashville with Paul Colman. I would love to go in to great detail on all these, but let me just give you a bunch of videos that came from these trips. I'll write more when we get down to Nashville to record and keep everybody up on that process. You won't want to miss those blogs! We're going to be working with Paul Colman, Adam Agee of Stellar Kart, and maybe John Reuben, Leigh Nash of Sixpence, and Jon Schlitt of Petra.

Kentucky:

New Song "Branta Canadensis" performed at NYWC in San Diego:

Branta Canadensis from Daveandbrian on Vimeo.

Paul Colman and Pre-Production:

Only a few hours left to donate to our fundraising campaign for the new project! Check out this cute video:

Thanks everyone!

Dave

Dave and Brian Lost Their Minds

As many of you may have already seen, we are trying to raise $25,000 to record our next album. Some of you, including myself, may think that we've lost our mind, but we look at it as something to move the Dave and Brian business forward. If we were starting a Taco Bell and needed $25,000 it would probably seem less weird. One major difference though, is that I can guarantee our album was cause way less stomach issues.

So let me give you some back story on this. A few weeks ago, Brian and I performed at Camping for Christ in Kresgeville, PA. It's a fun event with a pig roast and everything. This year, the headlining guest was singer/songwriter, member of the Grammy nominated Paul Colman Trio, and member of the Newsboys, Paul Colman (www.paulcolman.com). He sat through our whole show, which often times other entertainers (or much of the general populace) won't do, because they've got too many other cool things to do. Afterwards, he approached us and was very excited about what we are doing.

Paul was very complimentary about our show and being Australian, he used several phrases we don't understand. Don't get me wrong, I eat at Outback and all, I'm just not fluent. Anyway, he mentioned that he live in the Nashville area now and works with artists on producing albums.

He later followed up with Brian on a phone call and shared some great ideas. He plans on not just working on the album, but wants to work with us to improve our live show. Paul is also very connected in the music industry and wants to shop us around to various labels, and get us on the music festival circuit next summer. The goal is to be done by December and get things moving for 2012. To be perfectly honest, if he's able to introduce us to Michael W. Smith (www.michaelwsmith.com) at some point, it'll be worth it.

After looking at our bank accounts, we've come to find out that apparently, we do not have this money (does anyone other than Mike Whittle get that reference?). $25,000 is a lot of cash to raise. If I've learned anything from films such as Tommy Boy, Hot Rod, and Dirty Work, we just need to sell more brake pads, stunt jump some buses, or start a revenge for hire business. Until we get there though, we're going to beg. We've started a page on indiegogo.com to help raise funds (see link below). Every little bit helps, so if you think you can donate it would be much appreciated! We have great fans who have been very supportive and we look forward to this next step in our career to be able to connect with more people. Thanks for all of your help!

TYI Was an Eskimo's Nightmare

Last week, Brian and I had the privilege of performing at the Southern Territorial Youth Institute (TYI) for The Salvation Army in Texas. There were about 250 students there and the temperature averaged about 108 everyday. At one point, I think it got up to 112. Going between the excessive heat outside, and then going to the freezing air conditioning inside, I now know what it feels like to be a woman in her 60's (I made this joke last year, but I love it so much.).

We did our show on the Tuesday night and played our new song, "Branta Canadensis (Down in Flames)." It's basically a protest against the illegal immigration of Canadian Geese. For those of you who want to correct us by pointing out that they're actually called, "Canada Geese," realize most people call them "Canadian." It's kind of like how we call the Kardashians celebrities. It's not true, but generally accepted.

After our show, a kid came up to me and shared the affect that our show had on him a few years prior. He explained that he had seen us in North Carolina and shared, "Your show really meant a lot to me. After seeing you guys a few years ago, it gave me the courage. . . (here's where I'm expecting a life changing story). . . to wear a dress on stage." This was one of those genuine, "Can you repeat that?" moments. He went on to explain that he was asked to participate in a play, but he had to wear a dress for it, and thought it was too stupid. Then he saw how stupid we were on stage and having fun, so he had a change of heart. So there you go: Dave and Brian, changing lives, one student dressed in drag at a time.

For those of you who know me, I am a huge Phillies fan. Let's just say this was a great week for them to go on a 9 game winning streak, because I was surrounded by Braves fans and was doing a lot of "talking." At the beginning of our show, the sound guy started playing the Braves fight song, and half the audience got up and started doing the Tomahawk Chop. When they finished I said, "That was cute. You should all get together and do that in October when you have nothing better to do." I've become a baseball jerk, but I justify it by all those years of being a fan of the laughingstock of baseball.

At TYI we met a lot of awesome students, but one that stands out was a young man from Alabama, named Will. Will was an incredible guy with a great heart, and could pray with such insight and authority that it'd blow your mind. Anyway, he came up to Brian with a song idea about a fictitious product called "Super Detergent." The beauty of Super Detergent is that it can clean anything. You could put your clothes and dishes in the same load. According to Will, it's like Jesus who can clean anything. I guess it's a religious allegory, like Lord of the Rings. Brian wrote a sweet jam for it and put it together with the full band. Here's some rough footage below. It starts with me sharing a little about some stuff God had shown me personally this week, so that's what I'm rambling about in the beginning. Thanks to Matt Cunningham for the footage.

Dave

Spandex Band, Lemonjellos, and Flash Mob

I had the opportunity to hang out with CIY Staff, guests, and Bible College Students during my time in Holland, MI. I really got to know people well during the weekend when we had a bunch of free time. On the Saturday night, we had an awesome picnic involving some tasty BBQ Ribs, KanJam (www.kanjam.com), and a baseball game. In the middle of our picnic some older dudes showed up on their bikes hauling instruments. It turns out they're called The Joybox Express (www.joyboxexpress.com), and bike across Michigan to raise money and awareness of the arts for children. The juxtaposition of their beautiful music playing and their spandex fitted bodies was the true expression of art in my opinion.

There is a great coffee shop in Holland called, Lemonjello's. I got in a little bit of trouble, because the ignorant human being that I am pronouncing words as they're spelled, called it Lemon Jellos. It's pronounced "Lemawnjawlos." It's kind of like the whole "Target/Tarjay" thing, except less absurd. They have a great atmosphere, wonderful coffee drinks (I recommend the Stress Reliever), and one of the coolest soda drinks I've ever had. It's called a "Green Army Guy" and here's the ingredients: green apple soda+strawberry+an army guy. That's right! There is a little green army man floating in your drink. Phenomenal!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Mike, Chris, Annie, and Bethany from Central Christian College of the Bible (www.cccb.edu) for taking the time to hang out with me. We all learned a lot about each other. For instance, Chris and I could become professional KanJam players if there were such a thing, Mike has an inner-Martin Van Buren like no other, Annie could never be on the A-team due to a fear of vehicles with open doors, and Bethany has strong opinions about Chipotle. They actually offered me a scholarship if I were to come to their school and gave me a T-shirt. I didn't say anything, but I would've come just for the shirt.

The last week at Michigan consisted of 1300 fired up high school kids, who I once again referred to as Martha. One kid on the last day, hugged me and whispered, "Marth loves hugs." I'm not sure he understood how creepy that was. This group was especially cool, because they pulled a planking flash mob on me. It was very well planned, because none of us on leadership had any idea it was going to happen. I was doing my thing one night on stage and when I put a picture up on screen, 1300 people dropped to the floor in unison to plank. It was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.

In closing on my CIY MOVE adventures, the fine CIY people made a great film about the persecuted church around the world that they showed at these events. It's called Love Costs Everything, and was very intense, but also very challenging and eye opening. It's not available yet, but you can check out more info here: http://2011.ciy.com/lovecostseverything.

Dave