http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/stories/ en snshamilton@gmail.com Copyright 2008 2008-10-09T18:38:01-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/howdy_howdy/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/howdy_howdy/#When:16:00:01Z For those of you who haven’t seen this site before, welcome to ESB.com! For those of you who have, welcome back! I am personally honored to have you visit this humble corner, but I think I should explain a bit about this site and what exactly is up with it. Empty Seats Band is a sort of musical project I created with my good friend Jesse a number of years ago, and then a few years after the project started, I registered this domain and started putting together a site that would enable me to post music-related stuff about myself. My other site, efaithfarm.com, has been my general-info blog for nearly six years now, but a blogging system upgrade went horribly wrong and the site is in bad shape now. So I’m going to do my best to keep everyone up-to-date on what’s going on with me, Sara, Joel and Hannah through this site instead until I can get eFaithFarm back to its former glory. The good part of all of this is that I have a good amount of content on this site that most people never see, since I usually just offer token links to this site on the ‘Farm and trust that people will find their way here. I even moved my podcast files and posts (monikered ePodcastFarm) to this site for safekeeping and to allow access; they can be found if you flip over to the “Music” page, using the handy links to your left. Anyway, all’s well that ends well I suppose, so feel free (and encouraged, even) to take a look around and see what sort of stuff there is to be found here. Thanks! 2008-08-12T16:00:01-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/mad_crazy_flickrage/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/mad_crazy_flickrage/#When:18:38:01Z Okay, so I uploaded a whole bunch of pictures to the Flickr photostream. You should go and check them out. Right now! 2008-10-09T18:38:01-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/music_stravaganza/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/music_stravaganza/#When:20:30:02Z We saw a concert this past weekend, and it was awesome. Downhere, probably one of my top 5 favorite bands, was the big attraction, and Fee closed out the night in superb fashion. I got to meet Downhere after the show and they’re cool guys - even took pictures with them. Speaking of which, I’ve got some pictures and videos too I might post sometime - I’ll keep you posted. Downhere is also coming out with a new album in about a week and it got me thinking about music I’d purchase if I had money, so here’s the list: 1. Downhere - Ending Is Beginning: new music by these guys, whom I love so much, is always a welcome thing. Plus I heard a few of the songs at the show and they’re all really good. A must. 2. At Least One Full Album from DecembeRadio: They have a new one coming out that has a song (Find You Waiting) that I bought from iTunes, and a previous one I bought another track from. I love Southern Rock in all its forms, and these guys have it down. The fact that it’s Southern Rock about Jesus makes it all the sweeter. Either album would be sweet. 3. Daylight Is Coming - Remedy Drive: A friend at church recommended these guys to me, knowing that I’m a Switchfoot & Downhere fan, and demos seem to indicate that he’d be right. 4. Tree63 - either The Answer To The Question or The Life And Times Of Absolute Truth: To fill in my back catalogue of music by another top-5 band in my mind. 5. Tenth Avenue North - Over And Underneath: a worship band that I really like. Their single, “Love Is Here,” is one of my favorite new songs. 6. Robbie Seay Band - Give Yourself Away: another album I need to complete. The single “Song Of Hope” is another iTunes purchase showing the promise of further excellent rock-worship. 7. Jon Foreman - Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer EPs: I love Switchfoot, probably as much as any band, and Jon Foreman is an amazing singer and songwriter. Yes, please. 8. Jeremy Camp - Beyond Measure: I like Jeremy Camp a lot. I get the feeling that this is a really good album. 9. Fee - We Shine: Hearing these songs in concert convinces me that Fee’s album would be a very smart purchase. Rock-worship at its finest. 10. Brandon Heath - Don’t Get Comfortable or What If We: I like this guy too - bought two singles from DGC, and I’m sure the next album will be well done also. 11. This Beautiful Republic - Perceptions: Just happened to demo it on iTunes, and they’ve got a sound that appeals to me. I’d check it out. 12. Jimmy Needham - Not Without Love: Another iTunes find. Another artist that seems like one that I’d like a lot. Maybe even more than some of the others on this list. 13. Shawn McDonald - any of his stuff: He seems like someone I could be really into. Kind of a different spectrum than Downhere and Tree63, but along with Foreman, Needham and Heath, it’s a spectrum I might find myself siding with more and more. So there’s a list of stuff I’m interested in. If you want to help me with this musical endeavor, that would be most welcome. Just let me know, and I’ll tell you how to get stuff to me. 2008-09-15T20:30:02-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/cleanup_completed/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/cleanup_completed/#When:18:53:00Z Yeah, it’s been forever and a half since I’ve done anything to this site, but after getting like a hundred spam trackbacks & comments every day, I decided I needed to get the site back to a reasonable state in case I ever did want to use it again. So I went through and deleted all the trackbacks and fake comments (except for two odd ones on the Welcome post on the front page, because they were funny), enabled CAPTCHAs to keep the spam comments away, and disabled trackbacks altogether. I doubt anyone’s going to be using trackbacks to report on what I’m doing to other areas of the interwebs anyway. This, hopefully, will keep the site presentable for whenever I decide I want to make more music and post it. Don’t hold your breath or anything. 2008-07-21T18:53:00-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/an_upcoming_update_of_uploaded_stuff/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/an_upcoming_update_of_uploaded_stuff/#When:16:05:00Z I’m intending, at the behest of my excellent brother, to make some rather large files semi-available for download here; they will be Reaper project files, along with the associated sound and assorted other necessary files, for the main projects I’ve posted to this point. That way, anyone who wishes to can have access to them and then be able to do remixes and add parts and all of that. The biggest thing with this process is that I’ve gotten the core songs to a point where I’m pretty happy with them, for the most part. I mean, One Who Saves needs to have the drums re-recorded, without the use of a hideous-sounding electronic drumkit, and You Gave could benefit from some percussion, and Dearly Beloved just needs to be finished, but you get the idea. So look for that, or whatever. My next project is probably going to be to try and record “How I Need You”, a song that I really like but haven’t ever sat down and recorded. It’s a slow, kind of contemplative song, but it does have a good dose of dynamics in the version where I record it correctly and don’t goof it up. Which is still forthcoming. Man, that was a weird sentence...Nonetheless, it should be within the next few posts. Which, of course, does not make any sort of timetable, just that it will be one of the next posts. Stay tuned, or not. 2007-10-04T16:05:00-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/a_rock_show_that_rocked_rockingly/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/a_rock_show_that_rocked_rockingly/#When:15:07:00Z So the Big 3DU Show is now in the past, and it is a rather true statement that we had a blast playing it. We even managed to keep the obvious mistakes to a minimum (although one of the most obvious ones was by yours truly), which is a rather impressive achievement for us. Not to mention all of the practicing that we did. That’s the real accomplishment. From my vantage point, it was a lot of fun to be with my friends and play some awesome music with them. My guitar sounded great (to my ears), as a band we sounded better, and everyone seemed to enjoy the show. Now, of course, the show was not without its perils and worries, for what 3DU show would truly be complete without its share of troubles and “oh, great"s? Our long and semi-frenzied search for a sound man ended up being for naught when we realized that we didn’t have a snake and the sound board would be positioned behind me and Caleb. This was good in the sense that we didn’t have a sound man anyway, but it presented its share of challenges when it came to sound checking. Another issue we had was that the power amps seemed to be carrying a greater load than they should have, which, in grand Three Days Under fashion, Jesse found a creative (or possibly non-manufacturer-recommended) solution for. All in a day’s work for this band. There was surprisingly little talk of everyone dropping their jobs and going out on the road together, which probably owes to the fact that we’re all getting old and being on the road is hard work that may or may not pay off anyway. Since we’re all married and more than half of us have kids, having the work you do pay off is getting to be pretty vital for us. And since we’re way past the hopes of selling T-shirts and CDs to make a living, I’m going to put MP3’s of the show up on this website as well as the forthcoming threedaysunder.com site. Just as soon as I get the time to chop up the hour-and-change-long file that currently holds the show. The recording isn’t the best, as the electric guitars (mine especially, but Nate’s too) are barely present due to the aspect of the live show being really loud even without putting the guitar amps through the main speakers much (which is why they’re not in the mix that went to the TonePort), but it is definitely a step up from the old-school live 3DU stuff you may have heard in days of old. I thought about trying to overdub some of my guitar parts, but that’s a lot of work that I’m not sure I really want to do. Not to mention it would probably lose a lot of its live-ness. Anyway, the MP3s should be available before too long, and we’ll probably get the threedaysunder.com site going in a little while too. Music is a really awesome thing, and one thing that people kept telling us was that it was pretty impressive how the five of us were able to come together, practice for a day, and be just as tight and together as we’d ever been. I guess it’s just that we have really come to understand each other and it always makes it easier when everyone understands the songs too. Plus, we’re all pretty good friends anyway, which just makes working together that much smoother and lends itself to having a lot of fun playing together, and that makes everything sound better. We all speak a universal language of music, and that’s a link between us that stays just as strong no matter how long we’ve been apart. 2007-05-22T15:07:00-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/tone_achieved_in_the_face_of_setbacks/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/tone_achieved_in_the_face_of_setbacks/#When:21:34:02Z When we last left my search for Tone in all its ubiquitous glory, I was about to try out my new Danelectro D-1 FAB Distortion box. The actual trying out of the box took a while, since a myriad of different things got in the way that kept me from having time to fiddle with my guitar and amp, but a couple of weeks ago I finally got my chance. As it turns out, the D-1 is, in my opinion, the REAPER of stompboxes, reflective of its unparalleled bang for your buck. The tone I was looking for was right there in that little red $15 package. It wasn’t too metal-y or fuzz-y, it didn’t sound grungy or hiss, it just gave me that pure edge I knew I needed when much of my guitar playing in the Big Show will be power chords and such on the top frets. The Blues Jr. amp has a beautiful tube overdrive, but power chords and other rhythm-guitar stuff kind of sounds a bit hollow and flat, even when I put it through the Route 66’s Overdrive side.  The D-1 was a nugget of gold in a crowded sea of effects pedals, including a lot of other cheap alternatives. The only problem was that it quit working completely last week. I was merrily stomping away, rocking out while I practiced, when all of a sudden it quit responding to my stomps. The blue light quit turning on, and the tone quit being distorted. I was mystified, but I was in luck, because Musician’s Friend has a 45-day return policy, and this happened 31 days after I had bought it. So I packed the non-functioning unit in its box, put the FedEx label on it, and sent it back. In the meantime, I bought a new pedal, which arrived in perfect working order. And Musician’s Friend, being the friendly folks they are, will wipe the charges off of my card once the dead pedal gets to them. Sweet. So, it looks like things are about ready to go for the Big Show. Travel plans are in place, everyone has practiced in earnest, and we’re ready to get together and do some rocking. Practice day is the day after tomorrow, and it should be a pretty sweet ride. I’ll try to post a post-show update to let everyone know how it turns out.  2007-05-15T21:34:02-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/tone_glorious_tone/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/tone_glorious_tone/#When:13:50:00Z After I got the TonePort, I decided that my guitar amp (a Fender Blues Jr.) could be put into storage, since the TonePort was far more flexible and could be played in near-silence, since it would work with headphones. But then when I started thinking about how to get myself set up for the Big Show, I figured it would be to my benefit to free up the laptop and TonePort for a recording interface instead. Plus, I might find that the Blues Jr. could really give me some good tone if I tweaked it right. So I talked to one of the guitarists in the praise team at church to whom I had lent the amp (he’s still pretty new to guitar, and actually only started playing electric through his efforts in the praise team) and had him bring it to the church. I then got up while the day was still very new on Saturday, packed up my stuff, and headed to the church to see what kind of sounds I could get out of the amp. Early on Saturdays, there is no one at the church, which allowed me a good hour or so of jamming out with the volume cranked (to a degree). I found out a few things: first, the amp has a wonderful, natural overdrive when you kick the “Volume” knob up; in my mind, this knob is the “Gain” control. Secondly, the amp sounds wonderful when you play it clean. This I already knew, because that’s what Fender amps do, but nonetheless, this was confirmed on Saturday. Finally, the real benefit of using the amp is that when you have it cranked pretty decently, you can use the volume pot on your guitar to go from clean to overdriven in a way that modeling amps can’t really match. Still, I didn’t quite get the sound I was looking for going directly to the amp, so I went to Musician’s Friend this weekend and put in an order for a Danelectro FAB D-1 Distortion pedal to give the amp a little more bite. I think that with the FAB and my Route 66 Overdrive/Compressor, I should be able to have a pretty nice and flexible setup to work with as I pursue excellent tone. Now I’ll have to get over to the church early in the morning again to play with the pedal setups and see if I can get what I’m looking for. I suppose that means I’ll be reporting again, doesn’t it? 2007-04-10T13:50:00-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/little_by_little/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/little_by_little/#When:20:03:59Z Thanks in large part to Jesse’s full and utter reliance on Google and its multifaceted technologies, we have started to all congregate on the same page concerning the songs we’re working on for the 3DU Reunion 2.0. We’ve got all of our lyric sheets stored on Google Docs & Spreadsheets (once known as Writely, I believe), and we’re using the magic of Gmail to converse widely and freely. Jesse and I discussed the other day how proper communication was of paramount importance in a venture like this one, where five different people scattered about the countryside are all trying to practice on their own in order to come together later and all be playing the same thing the same way. It’s no small undertaking, believe us. So we’re doing our best to keep in proper communication. I suppose the best measure of how successful we are will be how closely our understandings of the songs match when we get together that fateful day in May to practice. Like I said in the last post, the set list is a good one. As we continue to work on the little bits (transitions, variations, etc.) and simultaneously get the meaty parts down pat, it should pull together to be a pretty rock’n show. I personally would feel a heck of a lot better about my chances to sing well if I could get rid of this icky feeling in my throat and nose that has made me a growly bass for what seems like the past 6 months or so. There are situations where being a growly bass might be a good thing, but this is not one of them - I’ve been given main harmony singing detail for the ten songs I’m not singing lead on, and only one of the two I am singing lead on needs a bass voice. And that song (David Crowder’s classic I Will Not Be Silent) is only a bass voice song for about the first half. That’s the thing about David Crowder; he has a deep voice but tends to use the fullness of his vocal range quite a bit. I think of myself as a baritone, mainly because I can’t sing terribly deep bass and I have only marginal range toward tenor. I guess it’s kind of like getting a degree not in Preaching or Youth Ministry or Music Ministry or Missions but just General Ministry. I have a non-specific Male Voice. Urgh. Nonetheless, as March draws to a close and April comes nigh, the excitement we’re all feeling is growing. Only about six weeks remain until we are all back rocking together again, and it is sure to rekindle the feelings of “dang, we should all do this full-time! Let’s quit our jobs and go on the road!” until our wives remind us that being in a band is not really all that great of a business opportunity unless you’re exceptionally good, and we would need to practice a lot more before we got to that point. Butta will also testify that life on the road ain’t no picnic. Can I get an amen? For my part, i’ve also been doing little bits of recording here and there, and I even wrote a song last week. It’s probably the first full song i’ve written in about a year, and I like it quite well. I called it “Dearly Beloved” and it’s a neat little 6/8 number with some fun little beat swings, for lack of a better term. I’ll try and record it sometime and post it and then you will know what I mean. The lyrics came partly from a desire to use the term “dearly beloved” in reference to God and also from the oft-repeated refrain “God is my Rock and my Refuge” used by the Psalmists. I love the idea that God is the ground we stand on and also the roof over our heads. It just speaks to the all-encompassing nature of His care for us. You may notice that the “stories” link on the sidebar has been replaced by the word “blog”. This is because it wasn’t exactly obvious what “stories” were but a “blog”, well, everyone knows what that is. So there you go! 2007-03-26T20:03:59-06:00 http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/progress/ http://www.emptyseatsband.com/index.php/site/progress/#When:16:44:02Z I spent a few weeks wondering if we were ever going to get anywhere with the preparations for our upcoming 3DU Reunion 2.0, only to miss work one day and have a slew of emails waiting for me with set lists and travel plans and all of that. I quickly set to work getting the music as deeply and irrevocably pounded into my head as I could, so as to avoid looking like a dork as much as possible when playing the show. The set list we’ve settled on is a good one; a couple of new-to-3DU-as-a-band songs to go with a good mix of Encounter Band-era staples. Honestly, this does put me at a bit of a disadvantage since the Encounter Band was the era of 3DU lore that I was not much of a part of, but it was (coincidentally, i hope) one of the best eras for the band in a musical sense. Everyone was at a very high level talent-wise and the guys really started to click like they never had to that point. Nonetheless, the show should be a lot of fun and also very cool to play. I have to decide if I want to use the TonePort as my amp and get what will probably end up being the best guitar tone I can get, or use my Fender amp and sacrifice flexibility and tone for the opportunity to record the show. While it’s true that we only own the rights to have recordings of three of the 12 songs in our set list, it would still be all kinds of sweet to have some brand spanking new Three Days Under tracks to release for the first time in like, 3 or 4 years. I’ll see if i can track down my amp and then we’ll just see what comes of all of it.  2007-03-22T16:44:02-06:00