Almost Arlington!

The lead guitarist for Almost Arlington has been one of my best friends since kindergarten. In the midst of a terrible cold he was able to answer a few questions about the *new* band.

 

You’ve been through a lot with Almost Arlington; being the only original band member, you’re really persevering. Where do you feel you are at with the band’s progress as of now? Being the only original member from afar really just makes me seem like a bit of an asshole doesn’t it?!  hahahaha..  But honestly, no matter how bad things have always seemed to get I never backed down.  I come from a very unique background where things in life have always tested me to give up and just take a backseat but no matter what I’ve always seemed to have gotten right back up.  I am sure that being in the type of business that I have been working in for the past 3 years, losing my father at an early age and being surrounded by the most amazing group of family and friends you could ask for has helped teach me a few things about perseverance and love.  I love this band more than anything and it is the love for this music that keeps me going.  I’ve been in plenty of bands growing up and honestly this is the first one that I have started myself and really poured my heart and soul into.  I wrote everything about my personal experiences and what I’ve learned – it has all been therapy for me.  I come from many different backgrounds of music from Metallica to Keith Urban to Pink Floyd (you might be able to hear a little of those influences in my guitar playing) but I love the poppy music that I write.  As long as I am alive, I do not see this band breaking up.  I have had problems finding members in the past that have shared the same drive for success as I have but I think that we will start to see that change.  As for the progress of the band, I definitely think that I hit a bump along the road with losing singers but I am confident that things will pick up soon enough.         Tell me about the band’s members. Well currently it is just me and my good friend Eric Gregg on vocals now.  Both Eric and I are not your typical kids in bands because we’re both pretty responsible guys with full time jobs and some bills!  We definitely aren’t struggling to scrape food off the curb like most musicians so I am thankful for that. However, we both would give up our luxuries in a heart beat to take this band to the next level and start touring!         Almost Arlington has a show on February 20th in Cherry Hill, NJ? Well it’s a show in Cherry Hill, NJ with some other really good bands that I have had the pleasure of sharing the stage with before. They had come to us and asked us to headline the show which was a bit of an undeserved honor if you ask me! I definitely look forward to playing this gig because it will be the first show where Eric will be singing. I am also happy because my old drummer Ray Beck will be drumming and my best friend Vince Canonica will be on bass so I am sure that it will be a great time. This is honestly a show where its all about having fun, playing songs and enjoying the time with my friends rather than stressing about every little aspect of being the tightest sounding live band. Since we will have a new lineup soon there isn’t as much pressure to be at practice playing the bass and drum section over and over to get the rthythm on point or dedication issues. This is all about having a great time with your friends and thats what I plan to do on February 20th.     You’ve been playing guitar since way before you grew into your ears.  What do you love about it? Well I was unaware that I grew into my ears so thank you!!!!! I just love everything about playing all the instruments that I play.  Each instrument has its good points.  I love playing a nice smooth guitar solo, I love playing some relaxing piano, I enjoy a groovin’ bass line and I love beating the shit out of the drums!  Plus I have always gotten a lot of attention from playing guitar so I’m sure that has a lot to do with it too.  I come from a long line of great guitar players in my family.         How’s the recording with Goot going? Are you going to rerecord “Save Yourself” now that your lead singer has changed? I will be rerecording all of the old songs with the vocalist along with 5-6 brand new ones.  The recording with Goot has taken a backseat for a little while due to the fact that he has been touring and tracking the new Morning Of record.  Between those things and our search for members we’ve both been quite busy lately but I look forward to finishing it.            Tell me about the CD. Well the CD is mainly a bunch of songs that I wrote about specific things that I went through. The centralized theme of the CD is all about my break up with my first girlfriend of nearly four years so there’s definitely a lot of heartfelt stuff in there. The song Living In The Moment is a song that Vinny Agresta and I wrote about my old singer and his group Striving For Better. It’s a story about chasing dreams and the selfish things that some people would do to get ahead. So you really get some good stuff in there. There were a lot of bitter emotions and feelings in there between me and those guys for a while that you sort of grow out of. I am definitely on much better terms with them and wish them the best with their future projects. It was such a heartfelt song that honestly scared me when I wrote it. When I sat down and typed out the lyrics they just flowed right out as if I had been waiting to write it forever. When I reread it, I realize that its definitely a song that was immature but hey, good songs are written out of emotion and bitterness is an emotion. I would definitely consider these songs my therapeutic autobiography haha. A lot of these songs tell stories about the past 2 years of my life. So far I have Save Yourself, Living In The Moment, Life of an Actress, Death of a Drama Queen, Last Song For The Ride Home, Sex In A Prom Dress & Memories of September written. Eric is bringing a lot of new songs to the table and putting his input into it. Within the first weeks of being in the band Eric wrote the song P.S. We Love You which is a nice song dedicated to our fans/friends. Lyrically speaking, these songs have helped me through a lot. I could do an entire seperate interview just talking about the lyrics and analyzing them to break them down for what they mean… but you know what… maybe we can do that for the album release. Are these pop songs and some of them cheesy? Absolutely. I am well aware of that. I know that songs like Life of an Actress and Living In The Moment are going to mean more in depth than songs like Save Yourself. Lets be honestly, there is nothing symbolic about the lyric “whoa oh whoa oh oh whoa oh oh oh.” A lot of people have always struggled with my musical integrity because they feel that I do not display my full ability into these songs. I have songs that I have written on the side that would be considered too dark for this band, of course. I have instrumental pieces that are erie and weird sounding that I just love that I do on the side in my personal studio but those songs don’t fit into this project.. I have a great deal of loyalty and love for this project and all of the people and listeners involved in it. I have always been a huge fan of dynamics in a song so this album has a lot of layers of different instruments that I played on it along with a couple of sweet guitar solos just to get my digs in. I am definitely really proud of the progress of this CD and I can’t wait to finish it, start filming videos for it and promoting it! I am in love with this music.