I'm always talking about dedications, right? Well, today, I'm going to be talking about dreams instead. Dreams only last for a night and one last night was highly worth talking about.
Obviously the beginning of the dream was lost, because some stupid law of nature decided that's impossible, but the beginning for us started in a media room. It was nothing special, just an off white room with a Warped tour logo on the wall, filled with press people mingling as they waited for the bands to show up. As I'm standing there, someone comes up and taps me on the shoulder. I turn around and there's Zack Merrick from All Time Low in a baseball cap. As if that really disguises him at all. "Ariel?" He asked, making it pretty clear that in dream world I knew him. To clarify, I have met Zack, and most of All Time Low for that matter, but I do not know him. Nor do I think he would recognize me at all if he saw me. In dream world though, anything's possible, of course. "Hi. Zack, what are you doing in here? I was expecting a media person or something, not you." He just shrugged and said, "I wanted to come find you myself and talk to you." "So does this mean I'm finally getting my interview?" I asked, slightly excited. (All Time Low, for some reason, is very difficult to get an interview with. I have asked multiple times, and have gotten close. At this point, I think their press person enjoys teasing me. I'm not complaining, its almost funny in a way.) "Yes! I promise you will get your interview today. But hey, listen, I have to go talk to like twenty other people so I will be back." He gave me one last hug and walked away. Seconds later, a girl walked up that once again, I don't really know, but in dream world did. We hugged and said our hellos and then she all the sudden goes, "Oh, hey, I have something for you!" Apparently, we had previously talked and she had promised to pull some strings for me. It was pretty clear that I hadn't believed her a bit, but said thank you anyways. She starts rummaging through her bag and pulls out a CD with an unfinished cover. It just had a piece of printer paper as a cover and all it said was "All Time Low" on the top and "T.W" on the bottom. In the middle was a doodle of their skull logo. Considering they just released Future Hearts about a month ago, and I have no idea what "T.W" could have stood for, I'm going to assume I just made up a new All Time Low album for absolutely no reason. I gasped and automatically took it from her. "Is this real?" I asked, half assuming it was fake. She nodded and whispered, "Shove that in the bottom of your bag now, and do not let anyone else get ahold of it. They told me you can review it, but you cannot share the CD with anyone. Its not out for a while." That was the end of that, and then the scene changed. We found ourselves (myself, and this random girl, who's name was never said, by the way) under a very nice pavilion just off the water. This pavilion was set up sort of like a small movie theater. There were tons of rows of seats, a stage and behind the stage on a solid wall, was a movie screen. Some band was setting up on the stage, though I did not see who, and advertisements were being played on the screen behind them. I was looking around, admiring the surroundings and noticed in the water was a boat. The boat had like four Disney princesses just waving to everyone like they weren't surrounded by people in band merch. Somehow, nobody was questioning this, including my dream self. Now that I'm awake, I'm kind of thinking how weird but cool it would be to go to a festival at Disney world. I mean, how cool is that? Rocking out to your favorite bands with Stitch or Merida. That would be totally badass, if you ask me. All the sudden, someone comes and sits on the other side of me, totally distracting me from admiring the Disney world around me. Sat next to me was Zack again, who wasn't even trying to hide himself now. Only thing that was covered was his tattoos, as he was wearing a long sleeve shirt. This time I acknowledged the fact that people will recognize him by whispering, "ZACK! You do realize there's fans around, right? People do know what you look like, you know." He leaned closer and whispered, "They haven't noticed yet. So, I have a question for you." "Okay? What?" I didn't have a clue what he could have possibly been asking, and frankly was at that moment just worried about fans noticing he was there. "Do you have anything planned today? Like other interviews, sets you want to cover, anything?" "Dude, I don't even know the fucking lineup, so no. I came here because you guys talked me into coming. I'm only here for you, as far as I currently know." (I actually do know some of the Warped tour lineup, but apparently in dream land, I didn't have a clue." A kid a couple seats behind me all the sudden goes, "I know who's playing!" I turned around and asked who and he started naming off bands like Beartooth, Pierce The Veil, etc. I said thank you and then turned back to Zack. "Well, then I think I will be covering some people after all." He nodded, "Okay, cool. Have fun doing that, and we will meet up later." He started to get up and I grabbed his arm. "Um hold on a second. You are not leaving this spot yet. You guys have screwed me out of actually doing the interview properly far too many times. You promised." "I do promise! You will get your interview this time. I just really have to go. Here, how about I give you my number so you can text me about it. That way none of us will forget." I agreed to that, and traded numbers with him. He left after that and I woke up right as I started to text a friend of mine about what was currently going on. I don't quite know where that dream came from at all. Why was there a possible bootleg of a non-existent All Time Low album? Why was I at Warped tour as a guest of theirs, and yet not sticking near them at all? Why didn't I know the lineup? And my biggest question.....Why was Warped tour at Disney world? Or, more importantly, why hasn't that happened? That would be awesome! Obviously there'd be a lot to do with that, and probably isn't really possible, but it still sounds like a cool concept! Normally I do not have dreams that involve members of bands directly, or even a festival for that matter. It has happened here and there, but normally I don't share them with you guys. This one was too weird, but cool to keep to myself. Have you had any cool/ weird dreams lately that involved bands? Let me know!
0 Comments
This morning, much like most mornings, we found ourselves on Pintrest. Today though, we found a picture that featured bands as we know them now, and their original names. Imagine with us for a few minutes if these bands actually kept the names they were tentatively called. Whether or not all of these are truthful, we aren't entirely sure, but nonetheless, imagine if these were the actual names! This is going to be an interesting ride.
If bands kept their original names...
The other day, we posted a very important moment that was shared between us and a friend of ours. We shared it as an attempt to inspire and help people out. Our friend helps us out a lot, and we both felt sharing her story would be helpful. She at one point was a t a spot where she wanted to end it all, and never would have believed she would be where she is today.
It didn't make sense for us to write out her story. Its hers, therefor, she should be the one to tell it. What you are about to read is a letter of sorts from a girl we fondly call, Jose. We highly recommend you read it, maybe it will inspire someone out there. Whether its to keep on living, or help someone out in their struggles, we hope you take something away from this. Hi guys! So if you're reading this, I'm sure you've read Immortal Music's last post. (If not, it was basically about me - Pablo - and how as of today, May 18th, 2015, I am officially a year and a half clean from self harm. And how the creator of Immortal Music - we'll call her Jose because it's an inside joke - was the reason for it). Well, I'm not entirely sure where to start. I'm sure I'm not the first person to tell you that life isn't easy. We all have rough spots, and some of them are harder than others. For me, it started early on. When I was 3 or 4, I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. It got so bad that I used to beg my parents not to leave the house because I was scared they wouldn't come back. And I got put on medication for it that made me sleep all the time - so when I started going to school that became an issue. And eventually we decided I didn't need it anymore. Fast forward a few years, and you have a 9 year old me who got treated like crap by the other kids at school. They all hated her, and they made it perfectly clear. At this point, I was just starting to wonder just how painful death could possibly be. But I'd never admit that. Fast forward another few years, to when I was 15. My best friend at the time was dating someone who consumed her life, and she stopped talking to me as much, and seeing me. We fought but in the end we made it out okay. One night, I stumbled upon a page called "Music = Life." And I decided to like it, because hey, it's a music page. What's not to like? And as I saw all the posts, I realized that whoever it was, had amazing music taste. After a while, (in May or June of 2013), I decided to message her. I was nervous, because I'd never done it before and I was scared she wouldn't like me. But I thought she was cool and figured, why not? But little did I know, that one message was going to change my life in ways I couldn't have ever imagined. When her and I started talking, I wasn't exactly in the best place. I self harmed pretty much every day, and was often suicidal. I had lost almost all my friends, and I just felt very alone. I felt like I had no one I could talk to about what was going on. As we talked more and more, she managed to break the wall down and get me to open up. Once she knew what was going on, she helped me every way she could. And I slowly got better. I felt less alone, and I knew i could talk to her, which was nice. Her and I helped each other through our problems. Then, when I was 17, I hit another rough patch. I had dated a girl for 8 months who ended up breaking my heart, and it killed me. I just couldn't take it, so I went back to self harming. I talked to Jose about it, and I was okay for about a month, but one night I knew just couldn't take it anymore. That night I got really suicidal, and I decided to try to kill myself. I couldn't take it anymore, and I just snapped. The attempt obviously didn't work, but I was desperate to just be gone already. I really felt like my "friends" wouldn't have cared. But Jose proved me wrong. She was genuinely worried about me, she kept messaging me to make sure I was okay, and she made me promise her never to do it again. Of course I said I would try, but no promises. Well, here I am, a year and a half later. Completely clean from self-harm. That's not to say the urges aren't there, because they certainly have been. Everyone who self harms (or ever has) does get the urge at some point. But the problem isn't always when you get the urge to self harm, it's what you do when you get it. It's how you handle it. Do you try to talk yourself out of it? Do you ignore it? Do you take it out a different way? I know there are people out there who give in to those urges. And the reason I know that is because I used to be one of those people - key words being, "used to be." I've always said Jose came into my life at the most perfect time. I was alone, and I felt like I didn't have anyone who I could talk to. She was dealing with some issues at the time as well, and I did everything I could to help her from across the country. (Oh yeah, did I mention we've never met in person?) Jose was more than just somebody to talk to when I was upset. She taught me that you need to not give into the urges to hurt yourself, but rather find a different outlet to get out your emotions. She also taught me that sometimes, even when you're at your lowest point in life, all it takes is one person. One person to come into your life, and make you see that life isn't worth giving up on. All it takes is one person to be there for you, and to never give up on you. And for me, that person happened to be her. She is my inspiration when I don't have any, and my reason to keep going every single day, even when I don't want to. I'm grateful for everything she's done for me, and I want to try to do the same thing for other people. If you're reading this, and you need a sign to not self harm, or to not pill yourself, let this be it. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be graduating high school in a month. I wouldn't be attending my top school in the fall to begin studies that will launch me into my dream career of being a music therapist. I wouldn't have even had the desire to get to this point if it wasn't for her. I am living proof that no matter how bad life gets, it will always get better. If anyone needs to talk, please feel free and message Immortal Music any time, and she will answer you as soon as she can. But please, please stay strong. And to quote my favorite song by my favorite band, "Darling, you'll be okay." So, I have a story for you, and it isn't entirely music related, but its something that needed to be talked about. I posted earlier about this on the Facebook page, but there was much more to it that didn't make it. Here seemed like the most fitting place.
Immortal Music has a very close internet friend, who I fondly call Pablo (Its an inside joke, that is not her real name), who has previously been in some very rough patches. We first started talking in May or June of 2013, when both of us were not in the best of places. Before I go on, I want to state that we do have permission to talk about this, and it is something quite important. She told me that she at the time self harmed, and often wanted to end it all. If there's one thing I wish to stress to people in this world, its that there's forever a better outlet. Nothing is worth hurting yourself over and absolutely nothing is worth ending your life over. I've gotten into that many times here on Immortal Music and all the things connected to it, so I won't go off on a tangent about it. Anyways, given the way I feel about it all, I decided to try our best to help. I stressed to her that there's better ways, whether it was through music, a sport, art, or even just venting, there was always some sort of healthier outlet for the stress and emotion life brings. Istarted encouraging her to open up, and started offering the best advice we would. I also encouraged her to pay very close attention to lyrics, because encouragements could be found there. Fast forward two years, and she is now a year and a half clean from self harm, graduating high school in one month and is going to go to her dream college to become a music therapist. She said somethings to us earlier that actually brought us to tears. She told me that she was designing the top of her graduation cap today, and designed the most beautiful thing. This is what I talked about on the Facebook page, and once its all done and she actually has it, maybe we will share a picture of it, but for now, its staying a secret. What I thought was touching though, was she said she wants to add "Music is immortal" to it so later she can look at it and remember that's the reason she didn't give up. If that wasn't touching enough, she later painted quite the mental picture that's almost haunting in a way. As we were talking, she said I turned everything around for her, because she was going to kill herself the night we started talking. She took our conversation as a sign that maybe it wasn't the right time, and I tried to tell her that no, i didn't turn it around. She did. I just helped offer advice. She's the one that decided to listen. Her message may forever stick in my mind, and she and I both thought maybe talking about it could actually encourage some people to push further. This is word for word what her text message to me said; "You're certainly the reason for it, and I can't thank you enough for it. If I had given up, I wouldn't be graduating. They'd have an empty seat with a cap and gown, and they'd spend an hour talking about me. A friend probably would've had to make a speech. I wouldn't be going to my top school to start my dream career. And I wouldn't have met you, or maybe we wouldn't have gotten this close." If that doesn't serve as proof that things get better if you just keep going, I don't know what will. I asked her to add something to this all on her own. I told her she can write whatever feels natural to her, whether its telling her story or offering advice, but that will come later on its own. It was going to be part of this, but this is fairly long as it is, and maybe that needs to be a stand alone thing anyways. She and I both though, do want this to stand for something. That something is never giving up. Remember, it always gets better. Its a cliche', yes, but there's truth hidden behind the word cliche'. Whatever is bothering you, know that unless its life threatening -it can't actually kill you. Don't let it either. If you or someone you know needs someone to talk to, please feel free to message us over on Facebook. We may not be able to answer right away, but we will as soon as we can. There's also a ton of hotlines, and To Write Love On Her Arms is always available as well. Someone is always there for you, and remember you are not alone. Oh...and, darling? You'll be okay. Voting began back in March for the 2nd annual Alternative Press Music Awards, and you can vote for a while longer. Immortal Music has been voting too, and felt like addressing who was in it, and may even be taking notes for the Immortal Music Awards. Those won't happen until closer to the end of the year, but tips on how to run things are always kept in mind.
This however, isn't about this. There's several different categories, and many nominees for each one. We all have our favorites, but ultimately only one will win. The voting is anonymous, as most voting situations are. But we thought, why not share our thoughts on it? Here is who we have been voting for for the APMAs this year. Some commentary is added to each category and we may just suggest someone entirely different that is not nominated. We named every nominee, and highlighted our choice. Our choice is usually followed up by a quick explanation on why that was our choice. If there wasn't one, the explanation will be highlighted. Best Vocalist Tyler Carter (Issues), Vic Fuentes (Pierce The Veil), Lynn Gunn (PVRIS), Adam Lazzara (Taking Back Sunday), Jeremy McKinnon (A Day To Remember), Hayley Williams (Paramore) This was a tie for us between Vic Fuentes and Jeremy McKinnon. Since you can vote as many times as you would like, we have voted for both. Both Pierce The Veil and A Day To Remember are in our list of favorites, so this was a difficult choice. If forced to choose outright, we probably would have to say A Day To Remember as we find ourselves listening to them slightly more often than we do Pierce The Veil. Best Live Band A Day To Remember, Letlive., Panic! At The Disco, Paramore, Twenty One Pilots, The Wonder Years We have yet to see any of these bands live, but we chose ADTR because they are ones on this list we want to see the most. Out of the bands we have seen, we want to say its either All Time Low, Shinedown or Papa Roach. Best Breakthrough Band Beartooth, Echosmith, Modern Baseball, Neck Deep, PVRIS, This Wild Life PVRIS has totally blown up, as have all the bands on this list, but their lyrics are rather impressive. We still need to do more research on the bands to make a totally fair choice, but based off what we have been exposed to, we do wish to give this category to them. More research will be done soon for all bands mentioned in this article. This will include album reviews, and blog posts in the future. Stay tuned! Best Bassist Kyle Fasel (Real Friends), Jeph Howard (The Used), Ryan Jay Johnson (Letlive.), Zack Merrick (All Time Low), Devin "Ghost" Sola (Motionless In White), Dallon Weekes (Panic! At The Disco) After following All Time Low's work since 2007, and having seen All Time Low live twice, Zack seemed like a reasonable choice to us. They all are very talented, of course. Best International Band The 1975, The Amity Affliction, Marmozets, New Politics, Northlane, Crossfaith After they toured with Fall Out Boy a while back, they drew our attention and as it stands right now, they are the only one on this list we have listened to a decent amount. Artist Philanthropic Award Andrew McMahon (Dear Jack Foundation), Bayside (The Human Rights Campaign), Koji (Doctors Without Borders), Jake Luhrs (HeartSupport), Simple Plan (The Simple Plan Foundation), Taking Back Sunday (American Cancer Society) We were slightly torn between HeartSupport and The Human Rights campaign, after we did some research. We are all for equality, and reminding people that they're not alone, so both foundations spoke to us well. Best Guitarist Arun Bali (Saves The Day), Jordan Buckley (Every Time I Die), Tony Perry (Pierce The Veil), Kevin Skaff (A Day To Remember), Will Swan (Dance Gavin Dance), Jacky Vincent (Falling In Reverse) Tony has just impressed us, and we felt the need to choice him. 'Nuff said? Best Drummer Cyrus Bolooki (New Found Glory), Rian Dawson (All Time Low), Jake Garland (Memphis May Fire), Adam Gray (Texas In July), Matt Greiner (August Burns Red), Luke Holland (The Word Alive) Best Underground Band Being As An Ocean, The Hotelier, Knuckle Puck, Major League, State Champs, Tigers Jaw We heard State Champs one day while in a Hot Topic store, loved it and asked who was playing only to discover State Champs. They're just a good pop punk/ whatever-you-want-to-call-them band, and we were impressed. Most Dedicated Fans All Time Low (Hustlers), Crown The Empire (The Runaways), Fall Out Boy (Overcast Kids), Motionless In White (Creatures), Paramore (Parafamily), Twenty One Pilots (Skeleton Clique) Our personal choice is All Time Low with the Hustler Club, but that's because we would consider ourselves to be in that category. We actually must say that Motionless In White's Creatures probably are the most dedicated. You can spot them, or any member of the BVB Army from a mile away. They wear heir 'fandom' with pride, and its awesome. Song Of The Year Beartooth "Beaten In Lips", Motionless in White "Reincarnate", Real Friends "I Don't Love You Anymore", Set It Off "Why Worry", Sleeping With Sirens "Kick Me", PVRIS "My House" Its just an incredible song, and that's all we have to say on the matter. Hakuna Matata -it means no worries. Worrying does no good -so why worry? Album Of The Year Beartooth -Disgusting, Black Veil Brides -Black Veil Brides, Circa Survive -Decensus, Every Time I Die -From Parts Unknown, Frnkiero andthe cellabration -Stomachaches, Gerard Way -Hesitant Alien, Issues -Issues, La Dispute -Rooms Of The House, Linkin Park -The Hunting Party, Real Friends -Maybe This Place is The Same and We're Just Changing Out of these choices, we do have the say BVB's self titled album wins, BUT our actual choice is F.E.A.R by Papa Roach. The songs never leave our head, and every song speaks to us on a personal level. Artist Of The Year Against Me!, Black Veil Brides, Crown The Empire, Issues, Motionless In White, New Found Glory, Of Mice And Men, Slipknot, Taking Back Sunday, Weezer We actually were torn between Of Mice And Men, Black Veil Brides and Slipknot. Slipknot has made a massive return and their guitarist, Mick Thomson has been through some terrible things this year and is still going strong. He was stabbed in the head and is still killing it on stage nightly. If that's not dedication, we don't know what is. Best Music Video Bring Me The Horizon "Drown", A Day To Remember "End Of Me", Fall Out Boy -"Centuries", Modern Baseball "Your Graduation", PVRIS "St.Patrick", Set It Off -"Why Worry" A Day To Remember's "End Of Me" video is incredibly thought provoking and deep. In our hook, it wins with no questions asked. So, there you have it -that's who all we have been voting for for the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards. Who are you voting for? Care to share? Let us know here, or over on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. You can vote on AP's website now! Remember that the second annual APMAS will be happening on July 22, 2015 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH. The event will be broadcast on AXS TV, and highlights will be online soon after its all over. Tickets are now available, but get them quick -some packages are already sold out. The event will be hosted by All Time Low's Jack Barakat and Alex Gaskarth, and there will be performances from Weezer, Panic! At The Disco, All Time Low, Black Veil Brides, Motionless In White, The Madden Brothers, Sum 41, Halestorm, AND MORE. Be sure to check back here on Immortal Music for a bunch of content revolving around the APMAs, such as commentary, reviews for nominees, adn who knows what else! We're trying really hard not to get our hopes up about something right now. On July 22, as many should know, will be the second annual Alternative Press Music Awards. Now you're probably thinking -yeah, so what? That's great, I'll watch the highlights later or catch it on AXS TV. Well, so will we more than likely, but we have a slight chance to get to attend the APMAs. Not as a fan, but as Immortal Music.
The chance is slim to none, but we are having a very hard time not getting our hopes up for this. We have been asked to do preview interviews with people behind the scenes, including Mike Shea and Josh Bernstein, who are producers for this event. Mike Shea is also the creator of Alternative Press. Nothing is set in stone at all, including those interviews, but it does sound as though Immortal Music has been put on a list so when preview interviews become available, they will be happening. Why we're excited and are trying not to get our hopes up too high, goes back to when Immortal Music began. Originally, we didn't want to be our own thing -we wanted to work for Alternative Press. We made a portfolio, and actually made plans to go to the Alternative Press office at some point. We submitted multiple articles, but never heard back. Never, not once. We weren't sure if we were being ignored, or just never seen due to the amount of submissions they got ever day. One day though, after just saving several articles as notes on the page (that, at the time, was just a place for me to talk about music, and had probably 200 people on it), it just dawned on us to make a website, so it wasn't being wasted. It started as a blog on Blogger or Blogspot (Its the same thing, its called blogger now but wasn't always), then went to a website called Webs, and finally we found Weebly. Thus, Immortal Music, the way we all know it today, was born. The website itself, as its known today opened on September 16, 2012, but we started writing reviews and band biographies in 2010. If you poke around on the Facebook page enough, you will more than likely find some of those old links. So, with all that in mind, getting sent the press form for the Alternative Press Music Awards is a huge deal. The fact that we are possibly being considered is even more exciting. Things like this have been having a lot more lately, and while on some level, it feels like I'm bragging, I know its not. This is the only way I can share everything with you guys, so I might as well talk about it, right? Even the things that aren't set in stone. If I get this, I will be amazed, and shocked. There will probably be tears, and there will definitely be several posts about it. Meanwhile, be on the look out for reviews, news, interviews,ect. Some will be for APMA nominees, some will not. I may even give my input on the nominees -you never know. And I just realized I went from third person to first person there at the end...well, guess things got a little more personal there at the end, huh? I love you guys, don't you ever forget it. I felt like writing but at that moment, didn't feel like doing an album review (though I have a couple in mind that I will do at some point!) so I decided to just make a list of some songs I've been loving lately. This list is really in no order, but they are all songs that keep getting stuck in my head. Some have been stuck for months, some only recently.
1. Love Me Til It Hurts -Papa Roach 2. Skeletons -Papa Roach 3. The Edge Of Tonight -All Time Low 4. Kids In The Dark -All Time Low 5. Dirty Little Thing -We Are Harlot 6. Never Turn Back -We Are Harlot 7. Bail Me Out -All Time Low 8. Hope For The Hopeless -Papa Roach Basically I've been hooked on Papa Roach's F.E.A.R album, Future Hearts from All Time Low and We Are Harlot's self titled, debut album all since their releases. Chances are if you have asked me at any point between now and late January, I have mentioned the F.E.A.R album to you. It has seriously been one of my favorite albums since it came out. I've also been listening to a Art Of Dying's new EP, and a lot of My Chemical Romance recently. Not sure why I felt like sharing all of this, I just did. Please let me know what you've been listening to over on Facebook, here in the comments or over on Twitter or Instagram. I'm genuinely curious and do want to bring more of the personal aspect back to Immortal Music. I've been recently so focused on the professional aspects, and while that's great, having the personal aspect is a lot of fun for everyone. So please interact, because this is all for the love of music. I will speak with you guys soon! About what? Who knows? We will find out! I have been teaching a friend of mine about music, as he wishes to get deeper into it. He's expressed interest in learning not only of more bands, but of who is behind the music. At the risk of sounding like a fangirl here, I thought I would write everything out that I wish to teach him this time around and share it with you guys. Keep in mind though, it is part of my job description to know things about musicians.
I think I've brought this idea up to people before, but had not gone through with it yet. So, now I'm going to try it. Its written more in a letter style ramble to him, but maybe someone out there would enjoy it as well. If you have something you would like to add, feel free to add it in the comments on this post, over on Facebook, or Twitter. I will happily relay it to him, and surely he will appreciate it as well. Now the intro is done, let's get into the learning! So far, we haven't talked about much, have we? I feel like we have, but off the top of my head, all I can think of is All Time Low. I had no idea where to start, so I asked people on the page who they would suggest to someone wishing to get into music more. I got answers including Black Veil Brides, Of Mice And Men, Pierce The Veil, Escape The Fate, Falling In Reverse, Motionless In White, and Juliet Simms. That gives me plenty of things to work with, so I will try to cover a good amount of that now. Some of it you may already know, so feel free to skip over it, but some of it you may not. By the way, he won't mind me telling you this, I'm teaching Jesus about rock music. Music is my religion, and soon it will be his too. Just felt like giving you guys a fact before I got started with the music facts. Since you, Jesus, are a fan of Black Veil Brides, I will give you some BVB facts. This does involve some facts about the members. Such as Andy Biersack out of high school, and is ridiculously intelligent, and is obsessed with Batman to the point that he has several Batman tattoos. He went by Andy Six until 2013, and contrary to popular believe, he did not choose the name after Nikki Sixx. Six was the number he got given while playing sports as a young boy, and somehow it stuck. Fans tended to add the extra 'x', but he personally never did. He dropped it and began going by his actual name in 2013, and only briefly looked back. In 2014, he released a song called, "They Don't Need To Understand", under the name Andy Black. This looked like a full solo project, but so far, that is the only song that has been released. More may be released in the future, but for now, that is it. He also was in several other bands before Black Veil Brides, but I was unable to find any names. He also tried to fly once, broke three ribs, still tried to perform and then three weeks later, found himself performing on Warped tour. That video can be found right here. By the way, Andy has been dating Juliet Simms for quite some time now. She was mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, so it just made sense to explain her briefly here. If you're interested, I will give you more information later on. She is the singer of Automatic Loveletter, as well as a solo artist, and is featured in All Time Low's "Remembering Sunday." Juliet will be releasing an EP on May 7. Their bassist, Ashley Purdy was in other bands before Black Veil Brides that called Orgasm, Stolen Hearts, and Children of the Beast. Stolen Hearts is still active, though they appear to still be small. You can check them here, if you're interested in learning more. It appears as though Orgasm is defunct now, as is Children Of The Beast. Children Of The Beast appears to have been a Motley Crue tribute band, which actually makes perfect sense due to the fact that a big influence on BVB is Motley Crue. He also has his own clothing company, Ashley Purdy Fashion Inc. Their drummer, Christian Coma, AKA CC, personally takes influences from Pendulum, As I Lay Dying, Rise Against, In Flames and DeadMau5. He was previously in a band called Silent Civillian, who appear to be semi active still to this day. That being said, nothing has been posted on their Facebook page since December 2014, and they do not appear to have an official website. He is a classically trained musician and has been playing drums for the majority of his life, from the sounds of it. Jake Pitts is the lead guitarist for Black Veil Brides, though he previously was in a band called 80 Proof Riot. 80 Proof Riot is no longer active, though it appears as though they were up until 2012. Its been said that he was inspired to play guitar by Metallica, and has been playing since he was 10 years old. He joined Black Veil Brides three years after they formed, which was originally in 2006. I'll get into the previous lineup in a minute. Jinxx (Jeremy Miles Ferguson), is the band's guitarist and he's highly influenced by classical music. Not only can he play guitar, but he also plays violin and the band as incorporated that into their music. He was married to another musician, Sammi Doll for a while, but they have since split up. She has been associated with a few bands, Losers, My Satellite, and IAMX. She also is a photographer. Both Jinxx and Ashley are graphic designers, on top of being musicians. Previous members were as follows;
Andy is the only founding member still in BVB, Ashley and Jinxx joined in 2009, and Jake and CC joined in 2010. Five years later, here we are. Someone correct me if this is wrong, but it appears as though the only former members of Black Veil Brides to keep going with their music was Sandra and Chris. Sandra is now the drummer of Modern Day Escape, and Chris is in Natural Born Killers. Natural Born Killers is also fronted by former bassist for Escape The Fate and Falling In Reverse, Max Green. You'll hear all about that story soon, just be patient. There's a lot to do with that. Let's see...surely there is a ton of little facts I could teach you, but I don't want to keep you for hours. If you want to learn more, the internet will tell you everything you would like to know. Jake Pitts actually vlogs on his own YouTube channel, and seems to have been quite into it lately while touring here recently. You told me that you would be insulted if I did not include my favorite songs by Black Veil Brides. I don't wish to insult anyone, so here is the list of my favorites from Black Veil Brides. The list is in absolutely no order, it is just as I thought of them in this moment.
As I said, I'm positive there's a ton more I could tell you, but I think I am going to leave it up to you now. Feel free to do your own research, Jesus. Or ask questions too, of course. With that, I'm going to leave you to it. I've said a lot and hopefully you and someone else out there had fun reading about Black Veil Brides. Sincerely, Ariel To everyone else, feel free to share your own facts about Black Veil Brides in the comments here, in a message on Facebook, or over on Twitter. Get involved and help spread the word of music! Another one much like this will be coming soon. About who? Who knows? Your suggestions are welcome too! If you enjoy the idea of these little crash courses on bands, let me know, because it does seem like a lot of fun. I also wonder if its kind of boring, because it seems like a lot of people already know things about who's behind the music. I am going to keep doing this for a friend of mine, but may not keep posting it on the website. I don't know, we shall see! Thank you for reading and for all of your feed back and I will talk to you all soon. April 2015 was extremely eventful for the creator of Immortal Music, but it wasn't overly active on the website. Due to a family emergency right around Easter, and then promotions at work that have just started, this month was not massive for Immortal Music's content.
We only reviewed two albums, which were All Time Low's Future Hearts album, and Up The Chain's Windows Into Worlds EP. All Time Low streamed Future Hearts on iTunes before its release on April 7. We did the review while listening to it on iTunes, and then received a pre-ordered copy in the mail the night before its official release. Further details for the APMA's were released. Voting has begun for many categories and Immortal Music is being considered for coverage of the event! Nothing is set in stone, and we will not know for sure until probably late June, but we were asked about doing preview interviews so be on the look out for those. A reggae group, Morgan Heritage released their brand new album, Strictly Roots and sent Immortal Music their song, "So Amazing." You can catch them at many tour dates and festivals now through July. Information on that can be found here for anyone who is interested. Their album has also debuted at #1 on the Billboard reggae charts and #16 on Heat seekers. You can get it now on iTunes. On the subject of releases, ELISIUM had a couple of the coolest pre-order packages ever for their brand new album, Shoreline. The album is out now, if anyone is interested in that! Young Guns released a new track, "Daylight." "Daylight" will be featured on their album, Ones & Zeros, which will be out on June 9. Five Finger Death Punch and Papa Roach announced one of the most legendary tours that will happen this year! They are taking votes on where all to go, but the tour will definitely be happening all over North America this fall. We are planning on attending that no matter what, as it appears as though a stop in Miami is definitely going to happen. If our speculations are correct, you can definitely expect Immortal Music to attend. The biggest thing for April 2015 happened at the end of the month. Fort Rock 2015. We were granted the pass in the early hours of Easter morning and the event actually happened on April 25. We brought along Patrick Kuron from Remedy X, and met up with several friends through out the day. This was the biggest event we have ever gotten to cover and we went into the event totally nervous and scared, but left incredibly impressed. It was one of the best days we had ever had. You can read all about it here, watch the vlog from the day, see all the pictures and watch four interviews! We interviewed Lola Black, Starset, VAMPS, and Young Guns. We actually have been shocked by the response we have received for the VAMPS interview. They told us that they are massive in Japan, and they definitely were not kidding. From what I have seen, the band has not responded to the interview at all, but fans have favorited, retweeted and liked it all over Facebook and Twitter in mass amounts from the moment it was posted. That has been incredible and we are thrilled to have gotten the chance. They are a Japanese band, and during the interview, it felt like we learned a lot about them and the music scene in Japan. We won't explain here, just go watch it to learn what we're talking about. All of Fort Rock ended up being hectic and incredible but there were three moments we will never forget because they were extra special. Two were sort of milestones as a music journalist, and one was just a fan moment. The fan moment was we finally was able to capture a video of "Scars" by Papa Roach live. Our creator, Ariel, has a tattoo quoting that song and it is her favorite song, so she wanted a video of this live. The reason she managed to capture the video was a friend picked her up and put her on their shoulders, which was actually a huge deal for her. She's terrified of heights, but did it, and is very proud of herself for that. The two milestones were when Ron DeChant from Starset appeared to know the name of Immortal Music when he was approached for an interview, and later when Breaking Benjamin started it just sort of felt like our career has come full circle in a way. Breaking Benjamin was at the creator's first rock concert, back in January 2010. That was before she got into journalism, so getting to cover their performance was a proud moment for her. It was over all a great experience, and once again you can read all about it here. While we do have some amazing experiences, we also this month decided to talk to people about the up's and down's of music journalism. A couple people had asked for details, and it really got us thinking, so we decided to share. We also decided to remind people that all music is real music, after seeing a picture that was swirling around Facebook. Then, at the very beginning of the month was the March recap blog. So, there you have it! That was our month in review! Be sure to check out everything, which is linked by category below, and let us know what you did this month! News: APMAs / Strictly Roots / Shoreline / Daylight /5FDP & Papa Roach tour Reviews: Future Hearts -All Time Low / Windows Into Worlds -Up The Chain Blogs: Fort Rock 2015 / Truth About Music Journalism /All Music Is Real Music Interviews Lola Black, Starset, VAMPS, Young Guns Pictures from Fort Rock March 2015 >> |
What's this?Blogs of various topics go here, and all are written by Immortal Music's creator. You never know what you may find here, so have a look around. Archives
January 2022
|