Hey kids!
Well, Love Bites is out, and the reception has been wonderful. There are only 8 tapes left out of the original 40, which absolutely blows my mind. I was 95% sure I could sell 18 to cover the cost, but having only 8 left just 3 days after release…never predicted that. You guys are the best.
So, in the release email I mentioned I wanted to write out the stories behind each track, to give you some insight into what I was thinking when I wrote them. So, today we’ll start with track one:
Thursday at 7.
[stream it here]
If you’re a returning member of the family, you know that the first track of A Night In The Life Of… is also called Thursday at 7, and it features a similar TV commercial styled track. That was something I came up with on a whim, and thoroughly enjoyed pulling it off. It didn’t get as strong a reaction as I’d hoped, but I didn’t really care, cause I loved it.
So it didn’t take me long, once I had the Love Bites theme in my head, to realize I needed to do another one. One that was at least slightly romance themed. In the last installment we had Timmy causing trouble, but in this installment, we introduce “Sam”, the teenage step-daughter. What happened to Timmy? Why does Mom sound different? Well, I’m glad you asked.
I really like the idea that Vampire Step-Dad isn’t so much a specific person, but more of a concept. Like, Major Dad. It’s not that there’s only one dad that’s a major in the world. Many families could be dealing with similar situations. And so I like to think that there could be hundreds of Vampire Step-Dads out there. And I hope to showcase their different lives in each installment of Thursday at 7. Yes, I plan on doing more. As many as there are releases.
Mike Doll returns in this installment as our Voice Over / Announcer. Mike has a history in radio and television, and he has been kind enough to loan me his voice for my silliness. This time I went to his house to record him, and when I arrived I realize he had a very open floor plan, and so everywhere we went his voiced echoed. Unwilling to invite myself into his bedroom closet, I suggested we try doing it in my car.
So there we were, parked in front of his house, he in my passenger seat, holding a recorder, doing lines. I wish I’d have gotten a picture. It was quite ridiculous looking. When his neighbor walked past, oh, the look on her face…
Sam and James were played by Beverly Sylvester and Sam Groesch, respectively. Yes, it was odd for Sam to play James, while Beverly played Sam. Made directing wonderfully confusing. Even more odd was the really awkward feeling of asking teenagers to act as if they were making out.
Fun fact: Sam’s Dad, Mike Groesch, played saxophone on Breaking Curfew on Sweater Weather.
Talitha Minton played “Mom” in this installment. As she delivered her lines, I thought to myself, “Man, she’s gonna make a good mom some day.” That scolding voice, yet it still projected a caring nature in it…it was perfect! Two days later, she informed me that she was pregnant with her first child! My ears are like little weird shaped psychics! Go figure!
The script itself went through a few variations. There were a couple alternate jokes in place of “What can I say, he’s DEAD sexy!” They were as follows
“What can I say…”
a. “I like ‘em tall, pale, and handsome!”
b. “I like a man in a cape.”
c. “He’s DEAD sexy”
I’m sure you understand why we chose C.
There was also a couple other jokes that I threw out, like this one:
Sam: Why do I have to be home by sundown?
Vlad: I like to know you’re safe at home before I go…to work.
There’s a reason I pump in laugh tracks. One is authenticity. The other is to trick you into thinking my jokes are funny.
[CUE AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]So there you go. The story being Thursday at 7, installment #2. Did you think up some jokes of your own while reading this? Let me know! I’ll pretend to laugh if they aren’t funny, and I’ll steal them if they are! Win win!
If you’ve not given Love Bites a listen, you can hear it right on the front page of my website. If you’re new to the family becauseof Love Bites, check out my back catalogue. There’s plenty more where that came from!
So stay tuned for the next installment, where we talk about track two: The First Date.
Keep being awesome,
Vlad, your Vampire Step-Dad
