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Here we are, at the end of our journey through Love Bites.

The final entry: The Funeral
[stream it here]

I wrote this song during Thanksgiving. For those outside the US, this is the holiday where people travel to share a meal with their family. Nevermind the original meaning, for most it represents a time to spend with family.

So you may be thinking, “Yeesh, this is a pretty dark song for a holiday writing session.” And you would be correct!

The past couple of years I’ve been struggling with depression. In the past, I was the kind of person that would say things like “Have you tried being happier?” But a couple years ago I noticed that, despite having a well paying job, a beautiful wife, two awesome kids, a perfectly adequate house…I just couldn’t be happy about anything. I spent nights sobbing on my couch, wondering aloud why I couldn’t enjoy my wife’s company, or want to spend time with my kids. Shit got DARK, yo.

So Thanksgiving unfortunately fell right in a spot where I was trying a medication that didn’t work for me. So while everyone else was spending time with their loved ones, I was holed away in my room, making sad music on my laptop.

It’s weird, the dichotomy of being unhappy, while enjoying its fruits. Had I actually become the cliche tortured artist?

This song was also a departure for me, because, while I play plenty of guitar on my stuff, it’s not often the main vehicle for a song’s melody. I’ve managed to pull together a few nice solos, but I wasn’t sure if I was able to write a guitar part that really carried the weight of this song’s subject. I was also a little afraid some people just wouldn’t get this song. Like they would take it as some sort of masturbatory guitar diddy. But, I’ve had a few people tell me it’s their favorite on the EP, and I’m pretty proud of it.

But I do hold one deep regret. I wish I’d called it “The FUNeral.” Live and learn, kids.

Vlad, your Vampire Step-Dad

P.S. Love Bites is now available on both CD & Cassette. If you missed the first round of cassettes, here’s your chance. If you waitied for a CD, nows the time. If you already bought the digital version, but you want a physical copy, just shoot me an email and I’ll give you a coupon for the difference.

Hey kids!

It’s the penultimate entry in the saga that is “The Stories Behind Love Bites.”

Today’s Adventure: The Cough (where a little blood comes out)
[stream it here]

I first started putting this song together before the Love Bites concept had come to form. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with such a sad sounding song. But it’s existence is what helped me devise the story of Love Bites, the tragedy portion of the romance.

But who cares about all that crap, right? You just want to hear how I got that killer saxophone, don’t you?

OK, FINE! You can be so rude sometimes…

No joke, this song had NO sax in it until 2 days before I sent the track off for Mastering. It was completely last minute, and a huge surprise to me. Let me tell you how that came about.

Way back in June of 2016, I noticed on Instagram that a touring sax player, Chris J Hampton, was liking some of my stuff. So I went out on a limb and asked him if he’d be interested in doing some sax work on one of my songs. He was super receptive, so I sent him off an early version of The Cough (Back then with the temporary title of “Sad Pop”). Then, I didn’t hear back from him. I had to assume he didn’t dig the song, and couldn’t find a good way to let me down. Stalking him on Instagram I saw he was touring again, so even if he did like it, he didn’t likely have the time.

So time goes on, I let it go, continue on as normal. Five months pass, I’m wrapping up the mixes for Love Bites, and early one Sunday morning I get an email. It’s Chris, and he’s sent me a bunch of tracks full of his gorgeous sax playing. This is literally two days before I was going to send the final mixes off to my Mastering Engineer. (Gustav Brown, I highly recommend him.) Couldn’t have been more of a surprise.

These kinds of happy accidents seem to be piling up as time goes on. It’s been such a wonderful journey, pulling all this off. There’s plenty of stress (mostly self-induced) but it’s all made worth it with things like these happening, and people like yourself showing your support. I can’t thank you enough.

Ugh, sorry, I got all mushy again. Maybe it’s just this sad song making me tear up?

It may also be worth mentioning, in case you don’t understand the title of this song, it’s a reference to the film trope of the “Incurable Cough of Death“. When you see a character cough into a tissue, and, mysteriously, there’s blood. It’s as cliche as it gets, and I thought it was a wonderful way to mark the “turn” in tone of Love Bites. Sorry if you’re now stuck in the rabbit hole that is TVTropes.

Keep being so very awesome,
Vlad, your Vampire Step-Dad

We’re back at it with the stories behind Love Bites. (Now available on Cassette & CD!)

Today’s installment: Track 5 – The Proposal
[stream it here]

This song was the last one added to the EP. I’d actually had another song planned, recorded, and nearly finished, but I had to scrap it at the last minute. “Why?”, you ask. Well, I’ll tell you if you’d stop interrupting. Geez…

Originally I had a duet planned for Love Bites. I’d written a good song, wrote lyrics (something I’d not done in a LONG time) and even recorded most of my parts, but I couldn’t get a female vocalist in time to make the release date. So, in a last minute decision, I took an old song of mine, and “updated” it by making it sound older than it was. Ah, the kookiness of making retro music.

The name of this song is apropos, because that’s exactly what it is. I wrote this song (with lyrics, not included) to propose to my wife. Spoiler Alert: She said yes. 

I remember sitting on my bed with her, I played her the song, and then we sat there for a minute or two because I was scared stiff that I was going to screw something up. And of course, my hesitation was what made it weird. She later told me she was thinking, “Man, this would have been a really good way to propose.” After the LONG pause, I pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me. This was back before the most important thing in a proposal was social media impressions, so there is no actual record of these events, sorry.

But The Proposal as you know it was made completely from scratch, designed specifically to tweak our favorite nostalgia buttons. It’s interesting taking an existing song and adapting it, especially when it goes from having lyrics to not. I often wondered if people would notice that the melody sounds almost sung. Cause, well…it was, originally. But turning vocal parts into synths, backing vocals into guitars, it’s like building a something out of LEGO: You’re reinterpreting something with what you have (or what you choose to work with.) It’s an interesting experiment.

So that’s the story behind The Proposal. Tune in next week for track 6: The Cough (where a little blood comes out)!

Keep being awesome!
Vlad, your Vampire Step-Dad

Hey kiddo!

I apologize that I’ve been spotty on my Love Bites stories. I promise I will finish out the series. I’ve just been SO BUSY lately. I know, I know, you’ve heard this story before. I didn’t mean to miss your recital, it’s just I have this show coming up, and there’s so much to do!

In case you’ve missed it, I’ll be opening for Carpenter Brut and Le Matos in Atlanta on March 15th. If you’re in the area, there’s more info here: http://www.ticketfly.com/event/1404690-carpenter-brut-atlanta/

Preparing for this show has been a flurry of activity. I make all my music “in the box” meaning it’s all done in my computer. If I’m lazy, I can just compose it all with my mouse.

As you can imagine, that would not be fun to watch for a live show. So the first task is figuring out how to actually get the sounds out of my computer and to the venue’s PA system. It can be very simple, or it can be very complicated, depending on what you want to do. Considering I’m bringing a drummer, and I’ll be playing both keys and guitar…it’s going to have to been somewhat complicated.

On top of that some of the songs I’m playing are around 2 years old at this point! So I’ve got to relearn parts, and figure out how to hop in between them through the set.

But the performance itself isn’t the only thing I have to think about. I’ve got to pull together merch, signage for that merch so people actually know what’s available and how much it costs, organizing that merch so it doesn’t take forever to give you what you want, and figuring out the best way to accept credit cards, cause it’s 2017 and no one uses cash any more. AND plenty of people are asking me to film, so they can see it without having to cross an ocean. I will very likely have some people filming, that can be edited later and posted. I might be able to pull off a live stream. We’ll see…I’m not even sure if the venue will allow that.

Needless to say, it’s a lot of work for one guy. Not that I’m complaining! This year has been the most fun I’ve had in a long while. I may get burnt out every once in a while, but I’ve had so many opportunities to use my creativity to solve new problems…I’m having the time of my life.

Ultimately, I just want to bring you all the best stuff I can muster. You are the reason I can do this, so you deserve my very best.

On the news front: I will be doing a second edition of Love Bites on cassette, and I will be launching CDs of Love Bitesalso. That will hopefully be available in the next couple weeks. I’ll keep you posted.

LASTLY, once this show is passed, I’ll be pulling the trigger on a project I’ve been wanting to do for a while: The Super Awesome Supporters Club. (Actual Name To Be Determined) Many of you have been so generous and paid over my asking price for my stuff. As a way to say thank you, I will be setting up a private section on my site where you will have access to exclusive stuff. Songs no one else gets, and maybe some other goodies. (Heh, I guess this is another chance to get creative.) Point is, I want to put it together to show you how much I appreciate you going the extra mile to help me do what I love.

OK, so I’ve got 13 days to finalize everything for the show. Looking forward to seeing some of you there!

Keep being awesome!
Vlad, your Vampire Step-Dad