My professional life is paint by day, drum by night. We paint anything from million-dollar homes to low-income apartments, and I play in a few bands from the Valley (my all-time high was 7 bands at once-crazy). Last year, I was in Slaughterhouse Studios at night recording drum tracks for the next New Radiant Storm King album. It was move the ladder, go up the ladder, paint, go down the ladder, do it again, all day. Go home for a shower, then to the studio to pound away all night. [We] got 23 drum tracks done in three nights. It gave me the "rock fever." I had a few hours to pack after the last session, and then it was on the road with Spouse for a five-week U.S. tour. Goodbye paint world, time for the rock fever to really take hold! The tour was great, a highlight (among many) being opening a sold-out Dinosaur Jr. show in San Diego, on my birthday. After all the rock star treatment and great times on the road, we all got to come back and resume the "day job." The first day back I had to paint a nasty, filthy apartment turnover in the flats of Holyoke. The rock fever was quickly replaced by what my good friend/paint boss/bassist extraordinaire Paul Kochansky refers to as "The Humbler." This is when your so-called rock star ass gets down on your knees with your face inches from the bowl in order to paint behind the usually encrusted, disgusting toilet. Did I mention this place was nasty?!? Nothing like doing the humbler to regain some perspective! (Paul got to do the humbler the day after being on Good Morning America with Lori McKenna.) Jaya the Cat had a song called "Shit Jobs for Rock" that pretty much sums up life for most musicians in the Valley. We love playing music, it is our life-but the humbler means the bills get paid.
