Redtime

I grew up playing music. I took guitar lessons when I was 7 and started playing drums at age 11. By the time I graduated from high school I had already played a wide variety of gigs. When things went sour with my band at the time I decided to go to music college in hopes of making an unstable career choice a little more solid. I had grown weary of being in a band, (no money, multiple personalities, egos, etc.). I felt it was best for my future to study music and get my musicianship to a level where I could freelance and be hired by others rather then sink my whole future into a "band" that had to make it big. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life working in a coffee shop, waiting for the big time.
Four years of study put me a lot closer to that reality but I was missing the fun and love of creating something that belonged to me. I knew from past experiences how hard it was to lead a band from the drum chair, and if I was to get in another band, I wanted a little more control of my destiny. I'm no Striesand, so I knew my work was cut out for me trying to make it as a singer. However, I knew I had something to offer as a "front man" having had the best seat in the house watching good and bad ones from the drums all my life.
Growing up in the S.F. Bay Area exposed me to Hip-Hop at a young age. Hip-Hop wasn't just a novelty among my peers. It was the music that we listened to, danced to and partied to. My buddies and I could always be counted on to bust out some freestyle at the weekend gatherings, mostly comedic but sometimes artful. Hip-hop had made some forays into live instrumentation and jazz. I figured with the amount of talent at my disposal we could get something going along these lines.
Redtime formed in 1995 with some of my closest friends and some others that seemed to be ready to do something beyond playing jazz. I found it challenging to lead a band. It was hard convincing cats that you knew what you were talking about. It was hard being diplomatic and still getting what you needed. It was hard collaborating musically. It reminded me of a lot of other bands I had been in. I worked really hard. I won. I lost. But mostly I learned a lot about people. The real challenge was working with people and asking for the most out of them in a loving way. That was also the real reward.
We had some success along the way and there were definitely people who were really feeling what we had to offer, but I knew that I had to leave Boston. I felt we had worn out our welcome. Every time we went to New York, I felt at home. People really got it. Redtime was going to go through a change in the move. I knew that. I took a 3-month trip to Africa to cleanse the palette and arrived in New York with a hungry disposition and a healthy heart. I had some drumming work upon moving and knew a lot of people in NYC, and it wasn't long before I didn't have to go to Boston anymore and play weddings (my official job since graduating college, and though grateful for the work and the experience, I was more grateful to be able to finally hang up my rusty tux for good.) - Knock on wood.
What to do about Redtime? I had already decided that the collaborations musically would have to be postponed indefinitely until I felt like there was a solid sound to the band and I had written a body of work that was my own. I found it was so much easier for me to write the music and lyrics myself, rather than putting words to some else's music or trying to bend someone else's sound to please myself. A lot of conflict lies here because no one ever gets exactly what they want. There is majesty in the collaborative effort, but I wanted ease and fun.
The sound I had been looking for was starting to be realized. What I was realizing, though, was that that whatever love I had for Hip-Hop, I was not a "rapper" and that Redtime was not a Hip-Hop band. True Hip-Hoppers would never buy it. And I had been generally turned off by the new Hip-Hop I was hearing. There were still some soldiers doing it, but these were by no means the mainstream artists. I found that other types of music were starting to make their way into my sound, whether I liked it or not. I also decided I was going to start singing more, whether everyone else liked it or not.

The New York Concept in a nutshell:

All of the years and hard work I had put into Redtime while in Boston (the endless phone calls to clubs, magazines, agents, etc) made me resent the band. I looked back on that approach I adopted while in Boston and realized that it had taken up too much of my time. Too much talk, not enough rock. The new approach wasn't going to rely on Bio's, photos, flyers, lists, etc.
All I really wanted was a place to play every couple of weeks where those who wanted it could find it. I decided that whatever was bound to happen would happen, and knowing that I had another career as a drummer allowed me not to stress over whether Redtime hit it big. I was happy with the result, the