In this short monologue, the speaker recounts his early struggle with playing to a click track during the recording of their first album, which was ultimately abandoned because he couldn’t keep time. Later, while working with producer Anthony Resta on a single, he was forced to record to a click and performed poorly, which became a pivotal wake‑up call. The experience pushed him to improve his timing, songwriting, and overall musicianship. By collaborating with more experienced writers and producers, the band’s sound elevated, leading to increased fan and industry attention, radio full‑rotation play, and offers for larger shows. The speaker emphasizes the importance of working with people who are better than you to accelerate growth.
Chapters
I actually just had this conversation recently with somebody where, you know, the drummer of Red Crown who we work with, he was like, hey, when did you start playing to a Click track? And I said, oh, I got a good start on that. Like, I went in and started working with Anthony Resta because I remember going into the studio with you, Jim, for our. For that first record out of the Ashes, and we tried with like me playing to a click at first, and then you're like, fuck it, scrap it. Like, because I couldn't do it. Like, I just, I never played to a click. So I, like, I just wasn't there. And so we scrapped it. And that whole album is not to a click, and you can tell. And then we ended up going in with Anthony Resta for a single and he forced me to do it and I, I sucked. I was. It was trash. And that was like that pivotal moment where I was like, I got forced into doing it and I was like, okay, you know, I got to either elevate or, or fucking step, step aside. And so that was, that was the mentality on it. And I ended up elevating and obviously working with, you know, like someone from you then to Anthony Rusta. And that's where things started changing. We started working with people that were more experienced writers and producers to then help elevate us and get us to be better players, better songwriters and just better overall, you know, like producers ourselves. And so that was a big wake up call. And that was a pivotal moment for me personally and for the band because we had to elevate as a collective. And, you know, that song definitely did some, some work for us and changed it changed our, our perception of, like, what level we were at pretty much overnight once we released it. And a lot of there was, you know, massive, like fan attention from it, but then also industry attention. And we were starting to get picked up by radio stations and getting put on full rotation and getting offered bigger shows. So that was a big, pivotal moment, I'd say always working and elevating with somebody that's better than you are, you know, for sure.
