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Black is the New AP Style


While Jamie Gehring was writing her memoir, Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber, she never once identified the book as part of the true crime genre.

Gehring grew up in Lincoln, Mont. next to a self-sustaining hermit that she only knew as Ted. Despite his odd behavior, Ted was the man that gave her painted rocks, stayed over for dinner and even held her as a baby. Imagine her surprise when, 17 years later, her neighbor was identified as Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.

“It's such an interesting, outside perspective to have experienced something like that,” Gehring said. “For me, personally, it just really motivated and pushed me to not only really understand our interactions and our lives and how they intersected but also knowing him and wanting to really understand what created him.”

Although her book was originally laid out as a set of short stories, Gehring knew she wanted to make it much more personal. More than five years later, she had researched every aspect of Kaczynski’s life, including illness as a baby, advancements in school and isolation he chose throughout his childhood and teenage years. Much like an actor immersing themselves in a role, Gehring immersed herself in the life of Ted and his family to get a better understanding of how the man behind the monster came to be.

There were a few instances where she would take a 24-hour period of time to lock herself in a hotel room and fully immerse herself, allowing her to feel not only Kaczynski’s pain but the pain his family had to endure. Her empathy is present in the book, because as a mother and as a sibling, she can understand what it felt like to be related to someone who was lacking that same kind of empathy.

“It was a rollercoaster of emotion because I would write something particularly in that scene with [Kaczynski’s mother] Wanda and her baby and having to leave him in the hospital, and then a couple of months later I would write a scene about the additional research I had done finding out that he poisoned my dog,” Gehring said. “I'm feeling empathy and then I'm feeling this intense anger as well.”

Gehring was able to develop a strong relationship with Ted’s brother, David Kaczynski, who she first met during the production of the Netflix documentary, “Unabomber - In His Own Words”. She was transparent with him from their first email interaction, saying that she was writing about how her childhood was affected by Ted and how she’s learning to cope with that as an adult. He was transparent with her in return, offering her reference material and stories of his own as well as reading the first draft of her memoir.

“He really thanked me for trying to connect with Wanda because her voice can no longer be heard; she's passed away and for me to spend the time really trying to tell her story as well was really important and was very appreciated by David,” she said. “He was so incredibly supportive and complimentary, not only of my writing style, but also of the story I was telling. Getting his approval, somebody who's this close to the story, was a huge moment for me as a new author.”

Despite getting the approval of those closest to the story, there were still a thousand moments of thinking ‘never mind’ while writing Madman in the Woods. Not only did it take a lot of emotional energy to write about several disturbing topics, but having to learn just how close it was to the safety of her own family was hard to fully grasp. There was also the thought in the back of her mind that there would probably come a time when Ted would read the book and have something to say about it.

The most important aspect of the book is the conversation it starts. For true crime fans, this is much more than some previously unknown facts about the man that went from mathematics professor to domestic terrorist. This is about those that knew him and were also affected by his actions.

“It makes you realize the ripple effect of somebody's violence,” Gehring said. “Because of the duration of his violence, so many lives were affected. The nation was terrorized for 17 years.”

Gehring feels like the finished product of Madman in the Woods is everything she wanted it to be. It is much more than a true crime story; it has nature writing, complex themes of grief and connection, and personal essays of life outside of being Kaczynski’s neighbor.

There is one takeaway she hopes readers get, especially those who have similar stories.

“That is one thing that I really do find empowering and appreciate about the process, that I've been able to give more voice to my experience,” she said. “There's plenty of other people out there that have experienced some type of violence and it's affected their lives, and maybe that will inspire them to tell their own story, whatever that looks like.”

Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber is available here.
August 18, 2022 No comments
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At the height of the 2000s, MTV was at the forefront of pop culture. The network expanded from music videos and live performances to pimping rides, tours of celebrity homes and choosing a date based on the items in their bedroom. While the music aspect of MTV slowly disappeared, the artists did not.

The Pop 2000 Tour has been traveling the country since 2018 with artists that best represent the early aughts. The most recent lineup includes O-Town, LFO, Ryan Cabrera, David Cook and *NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick as the host.

Not only do fans get the opportunity to see these musicians perform the best songs of that era, but they can also purchase meet and greet packages that allows them to watch soundcheck, get photos and autographs, and even sit on stage during the show.

With Kirkpatrick as the host - “taking you way back to the second time slap bracelets were popular” - it is a guaranteed comedy show on top of musical performances. During the tour’s stop in the Chicagoland area, Kirkpatrick not only hyped up the crowd in between sets but came out to perform alongside his tourmates. He performed Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” with David Cook and sang a few classic *NSYNC songs with O-Town (“Bye Bye Bye” dance moves included).

Starting off the show was Cook, who rose to fame after winning the 7th season of American Idol in 2008. His stage presence is haunting, from the gravelly vocals to the richly textured guitar. At one point he requested the house lights be turned off, and illuminated just by the audience’s phones, sang fan favorite “Light On” in a beautifully intimate setting.

Ryan Cabrera took the stage next, sharing a story about how he was one of the first people to sing outside with the crowd surrounding the TRL studios. He shared several stories throughout his set, giving the audience the feeling of catching up with an old friend.

When O-Town took the stage, the audience immediately time traveled to their former teenage selves. They knew every dance move, sang every lyric and were decked out in their finest O-Town merch.

Halfway through their performance, they brought out Brad Fischetti of LFO. Fischetti is the only remaining member of the hip hop band, losing Rich Cronin and Devin Lima to cancer in 2010 and 2018, respectively. He honored his friends in many ways, wearing their names on his shirt and bringing out a mic stand that held a pair of red sneakers and white sneakers to honor them. Alongside O-Town, he sang the band’s hit songs and spoke about how he will continue to keep the LFO legacy alive.

Something each performance had was cover songs and mashups. In addition to “The Middle”, Cook also sang Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way”, Cabrera covered The Goo Goo Dolls and The Fresh Prince of Bel-AIr theme song, and O-Town spun Nelly, Maroon 5, Missy Elliott and more into their songs.

The night was a perfect mix of everything that was loved about the 2000s, minus the frosted tips and popped collars. Unless someone in the audience wasn’t a fan of the performances, in which case, per Chris Kirkpatrick: “If you didn’t like the show, they’re 98 Degrees and I’m Joey Fatone!”

View upcoming tour dates for the Pop 2000 Tour here.
August 16, 2022 No comments

For Ohio-based band A Cure For Love, their sound encapsulates each of their personalities, giving their music a unique advantage.

Their first single of the year, “Cafeteria Harrison (Isn't It Grand to Feed the Birds?)”, was a fan favorite when they released their live EP in 2020. One of those fans, their new bass player’s brother, is the reason why they decided to release it as the first single off their upcoming album.

“We thought that since it’s one of his favorites it would be fun to have it come out as the first single and really get the momentum going,” Cameron Blair said.

It is the first song they wrote with him as their bassist, telling the story of how some friendships unexpectedly become toxic.

“It ​is more about a friendship that didn’t quite turn out the way we expected but there are other ​small allusions to Built to Spill and Courage the Cowardly Dog in the title and other personal ​struggles we explore in the lyrics,” Blair said.

The album, due later this fall, will also feature their latest single, “Anor Londo”. The song initially started as an idea from Kristian Khoury, who spent a great deal of time writing it in the studio before finally getting it to their level of perfection. The end result has made it not only one of their favorites on the album but one of their favorites to perform live.

Their upcoming album doesn't necessarily have a particular style but listeners will be able to point out similarities.

“Many of these songs are stylistically different and we are proud of how we were able to incorporate things we haven’t always done,” Blair said. “Some songs are harder than others, some lighter, and we broke the mold. We have two songs less than three minutes long, which is a feat for us.”

A Cure For Love hopes that their music not only continues to express their personalities, but encourages their listeners to take away a themed message from these songs and upcoming album.

“You can do it. You only need to find the strength.”
August 12, 2022 No comments

Motivated by my favorite bands Rush, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin, I took up the drums at age 13. I started taking lessons and was immediately hooked on playing music, jamming with my friends after school and drumming along to my favorite songs. My drum teacher introduced me to the rudiments and jazz, and I developed musically and became a decent - but by no means great - drummer.

I played throughout college but never really went full-on until I graduated and decided I wanted to get more serious and put together a band. Around that time, I was living in San Francisco with one of my best friends and jamming buddies from growing up in Atlanta, and he had an acoustic guitar. I taught myself a few chords and immediately songs started coming out of me even though I could barely play the instrument. I would say that was the moment that I knew I wanted to make music on a serious level.

I had joined a local band on drums and was beginning to get more serious with them, playing bars around the Bay Area and Northern California as well as doing a few tours of Colorado. I spent most of my time during those years playing guitar five to six hours a day and constantly writing songs. The guitar and songwriting came to me much more naturally than the drums, and once I had gotten rhythm guitar up and running, I bought some scale books and started working on lead guitar trying to find the sounds of my heroes: Mark Knopfler, Jerry Garcia and David Gilmour.

After five years of constant practice, I was ready to switch to playing guitar and singing my songs in the bands I was in instead of playing drums, so I left the band I was in and started Seconds On End, where I learned to play live and in studio as well as produce and engineer records.

Playing my songs live to audiences was a second moment for me that I knew I wanted to make music more than anything else in my life, and I “went pro” then and there! Seconds On End had a great 10-year run, after which I formed a reggae/funk project with Jason Bryant (Damien Marley) called Echo Street. In Echo Street, I worked with Murph and Celso (who are now drums and bass in Brightshine) and refined my skills as a songwriter, guitarist and producer. I formed Brightshine in 2018 and we made an album, Shadows In The Sky, together and were poised to begin playing live extensively when the pandemic hit. We took the time during the pandemic to make an album that I feel is far and away the best work of my career, The Wire, and that brings us up to the present date!

- Pete Sawyer, Brightshine
August 09, 2022 No comments

After the release of their album, Survival, in 2020, punk band Keep Flying found themselves in constant conversation with one another about revisiting their discography. This ultimately led to Revival, out August 12.

“As musicians, the idea of attempting other styles of music is just something you always want to do but doesn't really always make sense to,” saxophonist John James Ryan Jr. said.

This time around, creating a hook and chorus is unnecessary, but instead a new composition must be created.

“We were able to take the already existing song, zoom out on the microscope and have even more fun putting it back together,” he said. “Swapping instruments, trying new things, bringing in some additional musicians… We really got to explore the songs more in depth and really smash the parts we wanted to emphasize, and also leave out the parts we didn't.”

The first song they chose to release from this revisited collection was “Firesale”, released on their latest album, Survival. It was a song that listeners really connected with, and the band felt that with that connection it would fit perfectly in this idea of reimagined songs.

The band cites John Mayer as an influence for the reimagined version of “Firesale”, saying that Mayer’s carefree energy when it comes to music is what pushed them to try something new.

“Upon revisiting what [Mayer] is doing musically, it all kind of reconnected synapses where I just feel I get it more now than ever before,” Ryan said. “The new version of ‘Firesale’ is aimed at that same kind of target as far as taking something and putting a chill, more loose and open tone on it. It made me want to just jam the track out into a longer version of itself, which is what I also love about John's live show.”

Revisiting these songs in the studio had both rewarding and challenging moments. The need to nail every single part that made the original so good while also incorporating new ideas was a healthy challenge to them, as long as they didn’t get too into their heads about whether or not listeners were going to want a new version of these songs. Watching one another try new instruments, or the days they brought in additional performers, were some of the most rewarding. To them, it was such a breath of fresh air.

By reimagining these songs, Keep Flying hopes that their listeners will find some peace when they hear their new versions.

“Maybe it's a little easier to relate to the lyrics this way and also be able to get some emotions out while driving your car or taking a shower,” Ryan said. “We just want people to feel the rush we felt when we listened back to the final version of this the first time. Fingers crossed you like a little slow jam.”
August 04, 2022 No comments
Photo courtesy of Andrew Thomases

My father was always very into classic rock when I was younger. He constantly had the radio on or albums on the turntable (yes, vinyl back then in the 70s). He got me hooked on The Beatles at a young age, but it was when he took me to see Beatlemania on Broadway when I realized I wanted to be like Paul McCartney.

After that show – maybe even on the drive home – I asked my dad if I could have his old bass guitar. He gave it to me, but I didn’t even have an amplifier. I figured out a way to plug it into our home stereo and I remember almost blowing out the speakers. I tried my hardest to teach myself, but, alas, I had no idea what I was doing.

Coincidentally, that summer I was headed off to summer camp for eight weeks. I took the bass guitar with me, but I didn’t have any specific plans to take lessons or even play. One of my friends, however, was excited to try out for the camp’s rock band as a lead singer. He came back all excited that he got the gig, but he said that the camp had a shortage of bass players. He had mentioned me to the head of the rock shop, but said I didn’t know how to play.

“Does he have a bass guitar?”

“Yes,” my friend said.

“Well, get him up here, and we’ll figure out a way to teach him.”

So, off I went to the rock shop, and the counselors literally had to tell me, “Put your finger here, and pluck this string four times. Then, move your finger here, and pluck this string four times.” Voila, I could make it through a handful of easy classic rock songs. Not great, but ok for a 9-year-old. We had our first concert three weeks later, and I have been playing bass guitar ever since. My first time on stage – with its rush of adrenaline – was the moment I knew I wanted to continue making more music.

After that, I played in rock bands every summer for the next six summers. I eventually learned what I was doing, and took some “official” lessons. I also studied some music theory, and wore through a bunch of cassettes figuring out how to play the latest songs. I was in cover bands all through high school and college in the 80s, and then during law school in the 90s. After a pause for career and family, I took up playing again during the pandemic, and I decided to teach myself how to write original music. I also learned guitar, keyboards and home recording. That led to my release of a number of singles, with my latest one coming out September 9. I am thankful that I still have the opportunity to play music even though I am into my 50s.

- Andrew Thomases, singer/songwriter
August 02, 2022 No comments
Photo courtesy of Elliot Sylman

In 2003, Paramount Pictures released the film School of Rock, a comedy about a struggling guitarist who is kicked out of his rock band and poses as a substitute teacher to help a group of fourth graders win a Battle of the Bands competition. When watching the film in his hometown of Toronto, a then-11-year-old Jason Maxwell sat in awe. If those children could learn to play guitar, why couldn’t he?

While he did start playing the guitar around that time, music came second to sports. It wasn’t until his last year of university that he started using social media platforms to post covers and was chosen to play rhythm guitar and sing harmonies for local artist Sarah Wickett.

Playing for Wickett’s live band gave him the opportunity to not only work on his stage performance but dive into all aspects of pursuing a career in music. He was able to have a fly-on-the-wall perspective during his time as Wickett’s rhythm guitarist, but realized that he wanted to build off of that and add his own creative spin.

He began releasing singles in 2018, with his latest release being “For Now”. The song paints the narrator in a less positive light, telling the story of a relationship falling apart and seeing that person move on to someone new. The narrator hopes that someone new is just a temporary replacement.

“I thought maybe this is just something for now and I’m something forever,” he said. “The song’s voicing that emotional vulnerability that I wouldn't just come out and say because it sounds crazy, but it's a true feeling. I wanted to write something real and I feel like it's something relatable, for better or worse.”

“For Now” was recorded at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, where Maxwell’s longtime producer was accepted into an engineering program and recommended him for their emerging artist program.

“It was an incredible experience,” Maxwell said. “You just wouldn't believe the level of sophistication. Not that I can even understand it, but I think even the average listener can appreciate all the different things they've got going on there. It was a lucky opportunity.”

Several other songs were recorded at the same time as “For Now”, and Maxwell plans for them to be shared as a larger body of work later this year. They all share a cohesive sound, with each being written by the same co-writers in a stretch of three days during his last trip to Nashville.

He may not have ever won a Battle of the Bands competition, but Jason Maxwell has turned a small moment in his life into a life-changing experience.
July 28, 2022 No comments

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated with the electric guitar. I remember my Grade 1 teacher telling me "no more making guitars" in art class. I'd use a ruler for the neck and whatever I could for the body and the head. After being told no more guitars, I literally made another guitar and tried to pass it off as an ax. I remember this as if it were yesterday. I can't remember what I ate for lunch, but I remember things like this. My parents caught onto my interest in music, but insisted I do a year of piano before trying guitar. After the year of piano was over, I no longer cared to play an instrument. I hated it. But only temporarily. I think I was only 5 or 6 years old, so it was hard to concentrate.

The moment I knew I wanted to be on stage for real wasn't until some years later. Again, I remember this as if it were yesterday. We were watching a music awards show on TV as a family and a band came on. The singer was beating his guitar like it owed him money, and every word he sang into the mic was accompanied with a shower of spit. I watched and listened in awe. I had never heard anything like it. I looked at my older sister and said, "Who is this?" She said, "Some band called Green Day." That was the moment I knew. I was in grade 6.

Before discovering Green Day, I was listening to the stuff passed down from my older sister, and what my parents were into. My parents used to blare Fleetwood Mac, Dire Straits and Michael Jackson. ALL FANTASTIC. My sister was blaring Guns N' Roses, The Doors, Metallica and Portishead. ALL FANTASTIC. The thing these all had in common to me, though, was that their musicianship was at a level that felt unachievable. There was no way I could even dream of being able to play the guitar riffs I was hearing from Metallica, Guns N' Roses and Dire Straits. But Green Day changed all of that. It was my introduction to punk rock, and I was sold.

On my 14th birthday, my mom bought me my first guitar. It was an acoustic, with action so high you could barely play a note, but it was a start. I banged away on that thing for the summer and then I decided I wanted an electric guitar. The only thing I had of any value was the dirt bike I had cut lawns for three summers to buy. I sold it and used the money to buy a Yamaha electric guitar with a 10 watt amp. I also bought a Nirvana Nevermind TAB book. This book taught me the most important thing you need to know when starting out: the power chord. It all snowballed from there. This was at the beginning of grade 8. I spent months in my room pretending to be Billie Joe Armstrong, and by the end of that school year, I had a band that played in the talent show. We played "Going To Pasalacqua" by Green Day. From what I remember, it didn't suck. Although I'm not 100% sure. Ha.

After I sold my dirt bike for a guitar, my best friend Luke (having no one left to ride with) sold his dirt bike too, and bought a drum kit. He and I have been playing music together ever since. You'll be able to hear him playing on some of my yet-to-be-released material. We started out as a punk band, and as we became more comfortable with our instruments, the music evolved. We started listening to some heavier stuff like Minor Threat and eventually Slayer. As we inched through high school, we started sounding more and more like a hardcore band. As well as writing original material, we were covering Minor Threat, Strife and One King Down. We had a pretty cool little scene happening in our high school with us and a few other bands renting out halls and putting on shows. Besides our hardcore band, there was a funk band, a punk band and a straight rock band that sounded like Tool and Smashing Pumpkins. In between each band, there would be a different DJ spinning records. It wasn’t until years later that I realized what a unique experience we’d created.

By the time high school was done, Luke’s brother, Josh, had joined the band and he started singing the majority of the leads while I focused on lead guitar and singing harmonies. He was Layne and I was Jerry. We were going to be the next Alice In Chains. We spent over a decade writing and recording music together. We toured Canada, recorded a demo in Los Angeles and shared the stage with some of our heroes. While this was happening, I was building a career as a cover artist playing bars, restaurants and whatnot. This seemed like the best way for me to pay the rent while pursuing our goals. Our band eventually called it a day, but we all still hang out together regularly.

This brings us to today. Ta da!

Thanks for reading,
Grant
July 26, 2022 No comments

In her home country of Israel, Ninet Tayeb is more than a household name. As an entertainer, she has written and performed music - including scoring the winning title of Israeli Idol - starred in a long-running television show about her life, provided the singing voices of beloved Disney characters for the Hebrew dubs of Mary Poppins and The Princess And The Frog, and judged the reality television program Rising Star: Israel.

Brought up in a musical household, Tayeb found inspiration in her early years from Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Oasis, and has crafted her sound with notes of Foo Fighters and Bob Dylan.

“Foo Fighters, Dylan and Jeff Buckley will forever be a huge inspiration to me, and not only for their music, but also for what they represent and for their loyalty to music as a form of life,” she said. “New inspirations are out there all the time. I have a song on the upcoming album that starts with the line, ‘I’m an inspiration hunter’ and that’s what I am actually, always open to new sounds and forms of art.”

Her first English single of 2022, “Who Is Us”, tells the spiritual, lyrical story of forgiveness, patience, presence and bravery while facing life’s unknowns.

“‘Who Is Us’ came to me from a place of true self-discovery while I was trying to not let myself fall into numbness the whole world was in,” Tayeb said. “It was written in a time when everyone lost hope and track of time. I wanted to keep the colors of life alive.”

Her debut English album, Sympathetic Nervous System, gave her international audience the chance to watch Tayeb add another talent to her ever-evolving resume. Since that album, she has released music in both English and Hebrew. She finds the process of writing songs in English incredibly interesting, saying that she discovers something new all the time.

“Writing in English feels very natural to me in a weird way,” she said. “My first language is Hebrew of course, but I do dream in English. When people react to my music in English in such a profound way, I definitely feel the rewarding part of it. With that being said, I constantly strive to be better than my past self; be better than my yesterday me.”

Tayeb believes in constant evolution. She is a naturally curious person and attributes that to her growth as a songwriter. She said that learning, discovering and bringing it back to the universe is an important part of her creative process.

She has already received so many beautiful comments from around the world for “Who Is Us”, but the one that she sees most often is that the song is a ‘heart opener’. To her, that is the best emotion that people can take away from the song, and continues to be the reason why she shares her musical talents in multiple languages.
July 21, 2022 No comments
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