I'm excited about it, I think it's good, to really good. I could be wrong. Maybe it's great. Maybe it sucks ass...who knows? But the important thing is I did it. I created a collection of songs that document where I am in life, and what I've been feeling the past couple of years.
 
The players on this CD are very important to me. Some of you may know them, some of you will not. They're the guys from my old band The Push Stars, Ryan MacMillan on drums, and Dan McLoughlin on bass, keys and production. I hesitate to say "old" band, because our band never "broke up", we just ran out of breath. We were one of those rare bands that put our friendship WAY before business, so I suppose if someone were to offer us a good lump sum of dollars today, we'd be off to the races. The reality is though, I love playing as a solo guy, and always saw myself doing what I'm doing now: carrying a guitar from town to town, spawning a few laughs, a few tears, then onward.
 
The nice thing is now I can record at my own pace with no outside pressure at all. It wasn't always this way. I think the Push Stars set the record for the most label deals in the shortest span of time. Minor, major, local, indie...we had it all in just 7 years. During the making of my new CD, and from talking to my old band mates, I realized there is a cool story I've never shared with anyone but my closest friends and family. It's the story of when The Push Stars were dropped from Capitol Records. Now I say "dropped" cause I think that's what it was but, to be honest, at that time, the pace of my life was way ahead of me. Some things got absorbed into my consciousness. A lot didn't.
 
Preface
 
To preface this story, I should start out saying that over the years, especially in the years following the Capitol experience, writers would ask me in interviews "are you bitter towards Capitol records"? And my response was always the same "Hell no!" they helped me gain a career, a following, and they spent money to try to get people (throughout the world) to hear songs I wrote in my bedroom. In fact, it always baffled me when artists would waste a page of press on what could have been free advertising for their new project, to bash their former record label. Beyond that, many of the people who worked for Capitol back then are my friends today, and still come to my shows to support me. I've gotten songs in movies because of them, on TV shows too. No bitterness here. The nice thing about our band was that we were all poor, working class kids, who were a little older, had real life experience, had worked many shitty day jobs. So our experience on Capitol was like a dream. Free dinners, meeting celebrities, private chefs, etc.
 
I should also say that the label business has changed over the past 10 years drastically, as most people know. Just try finding a record store. I do all the time on tour. It's easier finding the Wizard of Oz. I sometimes wonder if labels are less relevant, or I'm less relevant. Probably both.
 
We released our major label debut in 1998. It sold around 25,000 copies that year, which for music business standards at that time, was not good at all, but not the worst. In the "olden days" artists like Bruce Springsteen might have sold less than this on their debut, but artist development then was more of a factor. Our era was the " throw it against the radio wall and see if it sticks" era. We almost did, climbing to #13 on the Adult Alternative charts with our song "Any Little Town"...In fact, Capitol decided that if we cracked the top ten, they would dump more money into the radio pot. Oh, well...13 was the ceiling, and the money ceased. We were on tour constantly, opening for Julian Lennon, Better than Ezra, headlining a few cities too...
 
Now an important note was that we picked Capitol over Columbia records because the president of Capitol, Gary Gersh, was actively involved with our signing. We met with Don Ienner, who ran Columbia, but it seemed as though he'd been briefed about us 5 minutes before we met him.
 
So then Gary Gersh got fired, and there was a new president at Capitol, Roy Lott. Everyone at the label was either jumping ship or getting thrown off the ship, artists included. We were waiting for the dust to settle, and it did...everyone who had invited us to the party was gone, but we were still standing.

 

 

Unbelievably, we weren't dropped. Due to the fact that a lot of the "industry" seemed to like us, and some good "gap bridging" by our manager at the time, we were in the pipeline for record #2. We even got assigned a new A&R guy at the label, Steve Schnur, which was another lucky break for us because he had expressed interest in us when he worked for Arista records a year or so earlier. He brought us out on the town for cigars and scotch. Great. A good rapport with your A&R guy was crucial, because they act as your liaison to the label. We felt blessed, but still somewhat worried, because the only way to gain momentum at a label is to have support throughout the company, and they were bringing in a lot of new artists. We were the stepchildren.
 
So I wrote 40 new songs for the next record. It sounds like a lot, but that was the norm for me at that time (2000-2001)...we demo'd them and turned them in. We struggled to decide whether to turn in the whole batch, or just a handful, eventually settling on the "more is more" theory. Hoping to prove that I was a songwriter's songwriter...someone whom getting content from over the years would not be a problem.
 
Around the same time, Rik Ocasek came to see us play, and he wanted to produce our next record. This excited me to no end because he was a cool guy to hang with, had a great history, was Boston based, (as were we, which made a good story for press), had written songs that had great impact, and had a hot wife. It all worked for me. It was then that our A&R guy made a phone call to our manager. "I want Chris to do some co-writing" my manager seemed confused..."Well, he turned in 40 songs, and surely there's enough to pull from"
 
This was the point of entry into the exit door.
 
Exit Signs
 
When my manager told me the full story, it went like this. Steve, our A&R guy, had another band, whose name escapes me right at the moment. And had a producer named John Shanks co-write with the band, and produce their record. He liked that system, and it made for a great record, from his perspective. John Shanks, at that time, was a new producer. He had been Melissa Etheridge's guitar player, and produced something for her that did well, and was now branching out. (He's since gone onto a lot of good success, including winning a Grammy) Well, we were hesitant, but agreed to meet with him, so he flew out to see us play in Boston.
 
When I met him, I asked, "what are your thoughts on our demo?" he said "I haven't listened to it yet". Now this bummed me out. I was bright enough to know that if someone "flies out" to see us, it's on our dime, and this trip was at least a week in the making. We hung, talked...Not really any good or bad impression, just bummed out that, here we were ready to start recording with Rik Ocasek, and the label's pushing an unproven guy on us who doesn't seem to have any passion for the project.
 
At that time, I was talking to Ric Ocasek every couple days over the phone. I explained what was happening. He said, "the songs are fine, the label most likely didn't even listen to them”....
 
So at Ric's advice, I asked Steve if HE could tell me what the songs were missing, and give ME a chance to fix them before I opened them up to someone who doesn't necessarily love the project. He said no, and said I'd enjoy writing with John (Shanks)...
 
I went back to Ric Ocasek, and this time he suggested I spin the label a bit, and tell them HE would sit down and co-write with me. He reminded me that he thought the songs were perfect as they were, so it would be just a story to quell whoever at the label is lacking confidence, if indeed that was the reality. It probably wasn't, he said.
 
So back to our A&R guy, who argued that Ric Ocasek, although great, was not as relevant as John Shanks at the time, and we should stick to the plan he was vying for.
 
Now I was also bright enough to know that A&R guys are under great pressure to have hits, and the fact that Steve Schnur was taking us on at all was nice. He liked the way he made his last record, and felt it would be good for us too.

 

 

A few weeks later, our manager, who was trying to keep us in the major leagues, came to me with a look of desperation in his eyes. (Looking back on it, I'm impressed by the fact that he let this be my decision completely, and didn't steer me any direction. I think he was excited about working with Ric Ocasek too, as he had secured his services to begin with.) He said, "Chris, Capitol records has given us an ultimatum. Either you sit down and write with John Shanks or we're dropped"...
 
"Wow!" I thought to myself. When I started trying to make music my profession, I made $50 on tips at an open mic night. My bank account had $200 in it. I had a handful of fans. And I was never happier. If I end up back there, so be it. At the same time, I was now steering a ship, and although it had many leaks, was employing about 6 people, so my decision would affect all of them. Fuck.
 
The same weekend, we had a gig on Nantucket. My two band mates and I walked to the edge of a dock as the sun was setting, and talked it out. "Here's the deal, guys, either I sit down and write with John Shanks, or we're dropped" there was no uncertainty, no pacing...their response was "Chris, if you sit and write with him, we quit"
 
I understood what they meant. We had loaded our gear up steep snowy hills in the middle of January in Vermont; we had carried our 80lb. amplifiers up the death defying three story rusty metal staircase at Gabe's Oasis in Iowa City. What we had, we had carried. It felt nice to have support for a while, but we also knew it might be fleeting.
 
But the fact is we could carry the burden of the band, because ultimately, we were proud of it. Proud of the music, proud of ourselves for getting as far as we did on a lark. What started out as three guys having fun, became a business by default, and brought us across the country, to Europe, and even made some people think we were cool. If we weren't proud of it, then we might as well go back to the old day job.
 
Moving On
 
So I let our manager know our decision, he let the label know, and voila! no more label. They had to buy us out, which was kind of nice. For most of our friends in bands that got signed, this point was the kiss of death in what was to be a short lived career. We knew that, but were determined to just keep going, doing what was natural. Making records, touring. So we did. Later on we had a song in "The Devil Wears Prada" the giant Meryl Streep movie, opened an arena tour for Matchbox Twenty, then signed a new distribution deal with the once huge record store chain Tower Records, so we were fortunate to have legs beneath us when we needed to run. And I feel blessed to have the career I have now. Some gigs are better than others, but for the most part, it's been a stellar ride.
 
More importantly, I feel blessed to have the friends I have. And the fact that they're great musicians, and good characters, well, and that 20% extra free. So they played on my new record. As did Matt Beck, who's amazing. As did Rob Thomas, who doesn't need to (he's busy enough). As did Colin Hay.

Colin Hay
 
I am now wrapping the final week of 3 months on tour with Colin Hay. For anyone who doesn't know, Colin was the singer and primary songwriter for the band "Men At Work".
 
I love Colin for many different reasons. I was not a crazed Men At Work fan, but liked it like everyone else. I was drawn to Colin's solo work when I realized there was an intimacy and beauty to it I'd never heard before. In the songwriting, the lyrics, and the recording quality. In fact, if you play some of his solo recordings, it sounds like he's in the room with you, which is brilliant, and hard to achieve. All the more remarkable when you realize he's the same guy who wrote 4 or 5 stadium anthems...
 
Moreover, being on tour with him, you realize how honest he is, and good hearted. He tells his whole story on stage ups and down, from dining with Paul McCartney, to struggling with alcoholism. I've watched his set every night, not out of obligation, but because I enjoy it, and feel there's a lot for me to learn there. He hits notes that are in the stratosphere, and leaves every audience laughing. He treats everyone like an equal, including me, and there were many nights when I've thought to myself, I can't believe I'm touring with this guy.
 
I first really met him at the Edmonton Folk festival. He was about to headline for upwards of thirty thousand people, and was walking around backstage by himself. Every other "headliner" since the beginning of the festival, had been walking around with entourages, or staying tucked in their trailers, not bothering to mingle with the mid-level songwriters...I thought he might have been lost, but he wasn't. I thought to myself, this guy is cool. And he is...
 
Stay Tuned!
 
My new record should be available in a couple of weeks.
 
Here's some tour dates. Tell your friends, as long as they're not obnoxious...
 
CT

 

 

 

 

 

Mon Sep 26   Santa Fe, NM     Santa Fe Brewing Co.

Wed Sep 28  Tucson, AZ         Club Congress

Thu Sep 29   Flagstaff, AZ       Coconino Center

Fri Sep 30     Cave Creek, AZ  Harold's

Sun Oct 02   Athens, GA The   Melting Point

Mon Oct 03  Nashville, TN       The Basement

Tue Oct 04   Atlanta, GA          Smiths Olde Bar

Wed Oct 26  New York, NY      The Living Room

Thu Oct 27   Philadelphia, PA  The Grape Room

Fri Oct 28     Buffalo, NY          Ninth Ward

Sun Oct 30   Syracuse, NY      Jazz Central

Thu Nov 03   Boston, MA        Regent Theater

Fri Nov 04    Rome, NY           Festine Aud.

Thu Nov 10  Rochester, NY    Abilene

Fri Nov 11     Rochester, NY    Abilene

Sat Nov 12   Chicago, IL         Schubas

Tue Nov 15   Duluth, MN         Beaners

Wed Nov 16  Excelsior, MN     318 Cafe

Fri Nov 18     Edmonton, AB    Blue Chair Cafe

Sat Nov 19   Edmonton, AB     Blue Chair Cafe

Mon Nov 21  Calgary, AB         Ironwood Stage

Confirmed For 2012

Fri Jan 20    Portland, ME        Port City Blue

Sat Jan 21   Manchester, NH   Boyntons

Sun Jan 29  Norman, OK         Winter Wind Concerts