Artists I’ve Worked With in the Past

Being that this is a new blog, I’d like to give some credence to the fact that I’ve done this before.

Here are some artists I’ve interviewed in the past, and some interesting tidbits I remember all these years later:

• Story of the Year – I interviewed Story of the Year when they were at the height of their career. They had songs playing on the radio and music videos at the top of the charts on MTV (when that was a thing). I remember asking them something to the effect of “what has all of this success brought you?” and they gave some enlightening answers…one band member said he was finally able to pay off his old Ford Bronco. Another said he could now move out of his dad’s basement into a crappy apartment. And so on, and so on. Needless to say, I was a bit flabbergasted when these guys who were all over radio and TV were barely getting by, because they had a bad deal with a major label. They were jealous that a band like Armor For Sleep had the deal they had with Equal Vision because they were making better money on an indie label. Fascinating.
• The Receiving End of Sirens – I remember pulling up to the venue, getting out of my car with my girlfriend, and as we were walking to the entrance I heard a baseball bounce on the parking lot asphalt and then nail my car door really hard. I was pissed! The car was pretty new (to me, at least) and this was the first scratch or dent. As I turn my head to angrily confront the culprit, a guy with long hair is running over with a bat in his hand and saying “oh man, did that hit your car?! I’m so sorry man! We were just playing baseball back there and I hit it too hard over the fence!” It was the guitarist for TREOS, and he felt really bad, so I didn’t hold a grudge. He asked if he could get us in for free – we were already on the guest list, so that didn’t help much. He asked if they could pay me for the damage and there really wasn’t anything serious, so I said its cool. He said “alright then. What song do you want us to play and we’ll dedicate it to you when we play it.” So I chose, they dedicated Planning a Prison Break to me after telling the story, then we had a great interview after the show. Awesome dudes.
• Alexisonfire – I interviewed George and Steele at Warped Tour one year and whoa, was Steele drunk. After asking the first few questions where he just totally lost his train of thought, eyes glazed over and stopped talking five to ten seconds into his answer, I focused the rest of the questions to George and we had a great interview. We wrapped up and went to the stage they were performing at to take photos later on. It was funny because as I was moving around taking photos, Steele kept following me around and looking at me like he kind of recognized me/kind of didn’t through the set – but he never stopped throwing epic poses for the camera. Canadian legends.

I could go on and tell stories for pages here – there are also plenty of stories I can’t repeat.  What I do hope is that this has at least given you a chuckle, and that it can lend some legitimacy to what I’ve done in the past.

I’m trying to build something special here at I AM HOLLYWOOD. And I’d love for you to be a part of it. Ground-floor opportunity, and I’m loyal to those that help me.

Let’s make this great, together.