I suppose I should start by letting you all know what the hell “Copy and Paste” is.  “Copy and Paste” is the name of the first album release for The Deep Shallow Band. Later I’lll share where this name derived from, but first I think I should travel back in time...

During my 5- to 7-year hiatus, I ran into a band featuring a guitarist named Mike Vanhoy, and I was blown away by his playing. He had a finger-picking style with a full-on rock-and-roll attack. Mike had melody in his solos, but they were also blistering. I was amazed...

The time had finally come. The time had finally come. I woke up one day and looked at Julie and said, “I’m ready to boogie again.”  She and I met in 2010, and I had been playing her some of my new songs and some old songs yet to be recorded, and telling her...

Man, it sure felt fantastic to be back in front of people, sharing music, but it was also clear to me that I hadn’t played in a long time, and of course as I’d mentioned, my guitar was so badly out of tune that it was also somewhat hard for me to enjoy. Somehow Jason...

It is TOUGH coming back from a musical hiatus in many ways, but there is definitely another side if you want to play live again. Rebuilding my fan base was a daunting task. While I was in college it was much easier because we knew everyone in town, and the music scene...

After agreeing to be the second-to-last band to perform that day, I realized this was going to be a tall order. I figured at best I could hold the crowd’s attention for around 30 minutes, but I had an hour-and-a-half set ahead. I thought we would ultimately just fall...

What a great time we were having! I called around and got us a gig at Amos’ Southend, a venue devoted to live music in Charlotte, North Carolina. I had not played a true performance venue of the sort with a full band in way too many years.  I actually called John...

Shortly after the Amos’ debacle, the world shut down due to COVID, which particularly affected live music and other events. Man, what a hit that so many people had to take financially, and even more so mentally. I’ve always felt like true musicians feel compelled to...

Yep, you read that title right. Building our house was one of the most stressful years of my life. Don’t get me wrong; they were all First World problems, but they were problems, nonetheless.  I immersed myself in alcohol—anything I could do to distract me from...

Oktoberfest, here we come, flying blind as hell! I mean, we really only had ONE rehearsal as a unit, but I wasn’t worried a damn bit. The biggest concern with any band is the rhythm section. Remember back when I said I wished I had a pic of the smile on Mike’s face...

It felt like we had captured lightning in a bottle. Maybe even “white lightning” in a bottle, as the music and playing together were intoxicating—but obviously not tequila-intoxicating. I went back home and couldn’t sleep because my mind was working hard. I had all...

We dug in hard, and everyone came together to put forth their best effort in order for us to rehearse as much as we could before this show. We didn’t play all of the new songs at Oktoberfest because we still needed to finish crafting a few of them.  One song in...

I started a security and audio/video company in 2002, and part of my hiatus from music was when I was taking time to build the business. I got a call from one of my local musician friends, Mike Mitschele, who had just closed on his first house and was putting in a...

The studio can be brutal, man. I mean, it is hard-ass work. I’m not comparing it to some of the hardest physical labor jobs on the planet, but emotionally, it is not for the weak. Hell, I got fired off of one of the first songs we tried to record by the fucking...

We had a GREAT time Friday, and Chip and I were jacked up like two little kids leaving grandma’s house full of candy bars and cake. It was fucking wonderful, and we fell in love with the process set forth by both producers.  I told my wife, Julie, that she really...

As we recorded using my scratch vocals (“rough” vocals not intended for the final recording), Scavone said on multiple occasions that he heard the possibility of female vocals all over the album. He even offered up his own vocals (he’s an amazing singer in his own...

The way that Scavone preferred to approach my vocals was to record four songs a day, maximum. We had an eight-song album, so this was going to require at least two more days in the studio. Most voices can only handle so much singing in a day; you can easily wear your...

Earlier I wrote about not wanting to use the studio as a place to actually write the songs; however, that doesn’t mean things aren’t written while you’re there. As musicians, we begin hearing things in our heads that we may decide to add to a song. Recording is tough,...

Scavone was awesome about uploading our bounces—basically, the very raw recordings—to DropBox so that we could go back and listen to them, zero effects and not mixed at all. On some songs, the guitars may be super-loud; on others it may be the vocals or bass, etc. It...

We were all in the control room listening to the track “Last All Night” when I realized the guys had FINALLY played a certain breakdown perfectly, BUT they had only done it once instead of the three times I wanted it. I looked up and said, “You fuckers finally got...