TOTAL ORDER ISSUE 102 | Page 11

“ Questions from the record label were like , are you married to the bandana ? ( Laughs ) I mean , I was married wearing a bandana . ( Laughs ) THAT was an actual conversation with the record label .”
and his note scale . Just when you think he issuing to sing one thing , he goes off in a completely different direction , sonically , from major to minor notes and phonetics within the lyrics . I took those songs to the label and they wanted to go in a different direction and pitched a pop album . It ’ s like the story of rock of ages . They get the young rocker and they tell him all these things , dress him up and tell him we ’ re turning you pop . Questions from the label were like , are you married to the bandana ? ( Laughs ) I mean I was married wearing a bandana .( Laughs ) THAT was an actual conversation with the record label . They didn ’ t like that . I took that as a challenge and its like I ’ m not , NOT going to take $ 60,000 to make and album . It ’ s all a game , so you play the game . You can ’ t gain wisdom , if you don ’ t interact . Wisdom comes from experience . Each of these bands and records is a difference experience and opportunity to gain wisdom . After that I got out of my record deal with Windup records and then I was independent . Being independent really opened my eyes to if I really wanted to continue to do this or not . What I ’ m doing , as long as I ’ m having fun , I ’ m going to keep on doing it . There has been instances and occasions and experiences where you stop having fun and then you have to stop doing it at that point .
How much of this record is you getting away from the machine and having fun , but yet still part of the machine ?
JD : Honestly , I ’ m just having fun . For a period of time I was doing something that was fun 45 % of the time and the other 55 % wasn ’ t very fun . So when the majority of something you are doing , that you ’ re choosing to do , is where you ’ re stressed out or loosing hair LITERALLY , it ’ s time to get out . I have found something now that I can really sink my teeth into and really push myself . That to me is the most fun . I ’ m not taking this too seriously , I ’ m just having fun . The Beast Awakens in a sense is my awakening .