I'm a few days late with this months news letter. The truth is I wasn't sure how or if I was going to address the fact that this month five years ago we lost Scotty. Even as I write this I know it's uncomfortable for us who miss him the most to talk about it or even think about it. Remembering someone we lost is a personal thing and in Scotts case he left behind a large amount of music so it's a unique double edged sword we have. For some listening to those songs hurts and to others it helps heal the loss. I know this to be true because over the last five years I've had to come to terms with not just deciding to listen or not but whether or not to play those songs. Unfortunately it's not a cut and dried type of decision that works for everyone who misses him.
A collaboration of music with other musicians who think the way you do and feel the way you do is a very special friendship and the music that "Disgruntled" wrote spanned over a decade of our lives. It wasn't just Scotts music or Johns or Chris's, it was all of ours and we all earned those memories, good bad or otherwise. Deciding to play some of those songs in our new band was not an easy decision, until we started playing them again. We play them because we're alive and thats it, and if we don't play them and share them who will? It's music, it's meant to be shared and recognized and remembered just like John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Jimmy Hendrix and all the greats. I would like nothing more than for every local, national or international band to play his music but it starts with us, we're here now so we remember and we play.
The Red Desert is part of an undeniable link in a musical chain that started with Chris coming to my house across the street from his in 1994 and asking if I wanted to jam with him. As long as Chris and I are able we will continue on this bizarre musical journey and we're doing it with big smiles on our faces, because thats exactly what Scotty would have done if it was me or Chris that left five years ago. It's not to hurt anyone or disrespect anyone but as we've learned thats not always how it's interpreted. I understand. I understand the responsibility to our past with Scott and our future with our new friends Keith and Mike. Disgruntled released two albums but we wrote so much music that never made it to a cd. We were in fact writing and recording our third album when Scott died. The Red Desert plays some of those songs, some the same and some manipulated and changed. Some parts of riffs that existed then have sewn their way into our latest songs. We do this with pride and will no doubt continue this approach. I have volumes of practice tapes and mini-discs that I've been referring to since the day I recorded them. These are moments of our lives, pieces of time that make me happy and proud of the path I've chosen which is music and friendship. At some point Chris and I are going to finish mixing the "last" Disgruntled album and release it along with some live shows from CBGB'S and The Stone Pony. I also have some amazing jams that are absolutely one of a kind moments recorded at practices in the basement over the twelve or so years we had with Scott.
As for today I'll remember Scott for not just our musical bond but our friendship. The canoe trips the parties and the snow storms. Mountain biking, kayaking and lotsa beer drinking, and sometimes just talking. We all miss you Scott and will always remember you.
John Ardolina
Time for our second installment of our monthly news letter. Only four weeks have gone by and there's so much to report, and thats why I love this band. I'll start with the release of our latest video, Cro-magnon Man which we debuted Valentines Day because the theme of the video is really what a man will do for love. In this case the suitor is actually a caveman living in modern times and his methods for showing his sweetheart his affections aren't unlike methods used now. The video parallels that same passion into what a man will do for the love of power, which inevitably leads to the endless wars which have become so indoctrinated into our lives that we rarely question those men who perpetuate these wars. This cycle has gone on through mans existence from the discovery of the club as weapon to unmanned drones wiping out entire villages at this very moment in Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc and soon to be Iran. Weather or not you agree with the video's message might make you a fan of ours or not, but the cycle will continue until we all decide to put down our clubs and start talking about peace.
So what else has The Red Desert been up to? Tank, our drummer has been finishing up the production of our "Live Studio Audition" album. We've decided on the concept for the artwork and are currently putting all the pieces together for an early spring release. It's a nine song live recording from June of 2011 that we did for an audition for Blue Raven Artist Management and we're very excited to bring it to you, our adoring fans. Here's the best part. We were asked to do a 45 minute set of our original material as well as some covers so, we'll be giving the discs away for FREE as a promotional avenue to get more gigs and more fans. I have a funny feeling that March's news letter will be filled with lots of details about this release as well as upcoming gigs to promote it. Would you like to hear one of the songs now? No problem, we used the live audio track from this album for the Cro-magnon Man video, so go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DKc9v9ANgM to check it out.
I want to point out that Keith our singer has developed a chat forum at our website. It's easy to sign up for and Keith, Chris and I are on it daily right now checking in and hoping it takes off so sign up and say something, we're listening. Ok terrific, thats about it for this month. See you on March 15th for the next installment of The Red Deserts news letter.
Sincerely, John Ardolina.
Welcome one and all to the first of a monthly news letter from The Red Desert. We as a band have in the past set goals for ourselves specifically to keep you the listener or fan (we hope) interested. But let me be clear, the four of us are constantly challenging each other and ourselves to create our form of art to the best of our ability, we are our own benchmark. We officially formed on 08/08/08, thats our Birthday. We soon had a website and started recording in Chris's basement with the intention of releasing our first album "Playing Scared" on New Years Eve 2009 on our site. We are proud to say that we did in fact achieve that goal. While we admit we're not a professional recording studio we gave our best possible product to those who chose to listen and kept our promise. We are extremely proud of the songs on that album and continue to play them intermittently with new creations as well as songs from the past. If you don't know the whole story of how this band came into being please visit the "Bio page" on our website. What I'm getting at is we realized early on how important some songs from our past are and how important it is to keep alive the passion those songs represent. That being said the future may provide even more songs from our past if we decide to revive that passion....(read the Bio).
As the band started booking more and more shows to promote our album a funny thing was taking place between the four of us. We were getting to know each other and learn allot about each of our strengths and weaknesses. I know I speak for all of us when I say we began a true brotherhood, a true friendship and respect for each other. The fact is each of us brings to the table an equal amount of enthusiasm and passion. Thats not to say we don't disagree or argue, in fact we have over the last three and half years gotten down right ugly with each other. But not mean, not vicious....passionate. There's that word again. Passion is music and it shows itself in many forms. Without that passion we don't have The Red Desert, we only have a desert....void of life. The RED in this band is the passion to create and it's the bond that keeps us coming back to our "house of logic", to our home base.
A very unexpected thing happened to us through a series of events that eventually led to the creation of videos for our songs. Sean Monguso shares that passion of creation as much as any one of us but instead of holding an instrument Sean holds a camera. We met Sean at Ocean County College while doing a cable show called The Undertow, where Sean was the director. After the shoot he and most of the crew came back to our lair for what turned into the ground work of future collaboration between our band and a man with an idea. Sean heard every word of our songs but one song reached deep into his creative soul. Immediately upon hearing "Nectar" Sean decided this was to be the bands first live action video. To accurately sum up how the Nectar video impacted our lives in this short article would be ridiculous. Trust me, Sean Monguso contributed to The Red Desert more than words can describe. He has since moved to Hollywood and is currently working with that same passion to fulfill his destiny as the true artist that he is. (we you love brother).
Other videos followed and will continue to follow. At present we have "Nectar", "Factory" and "Bomb The World" with a "Cro-magnon Man" video set for release on Valentines Day 2012.
Last summer we reached out to Blue Raven Artist Management on a whim. Sean Gilday (Sean Too) is owner and operator and decided to meet us at his office in Fairfield NJ. After auditioning for him at a well known studio in north Jersey Sean decided to give us a shot and soon we were playing a biker rally in Cumberland County. The show went well and Sean recently called and requested we send our best stuff to him (videos, music, picts, etc.) for his website. We're very much looking forward to working with Blue Raven in 2012. The funny thing is we decided to record our "audition" for Blue Raven on our 32 track Korg D3200. We liked the show so much we will be releasing the entire show (minus 2 songs) in the next month or two. This "live" unexpected moment in our lives will be the official follow-up release to "Playing Scared".
Wow we had allot of catching up to do. This is the very first monthly news letter from The Red Desert. Please join me on the 15th day of each month for the latest info concerning The Red Desert, our songs, our dreams....our passion.
Sincerely, John Ardolina.