No, We Weren't Kidding - Old Florida in the Studio

Well, after a couple of postponements, we finally got in the studio (aka Dave's house) this past Tuesday night. It was a good time and productive as well. We're focusing on drums at this point, and will flesh things out from there.

Let me tell you, playing to a click track is harder than you'd think.

Here are a few photos. 

Dave - the man with the plan

Dustin - bringin' it to the people 

Marcus - slicin' a piece o' groove steak (no idea what that means)

William - cannot count, sing, play and sit upright at the same time

Coming Together

Well, last night Dustin and I got together with "the band" - that is to say Marcus on the skins and another way back/high school pal, Dave Auvil, on bass. It was a lot of fun to go through the songs for this first album with a full band, and both Marcus and Dave brought some insights and flavors that gave each tune new possibilities, throwing out suggestions for auxiliary instruments and helping us tighten up a few loose corners.

Though the intent of this get together was to flesh out the songs for recording purposes, hearing everything with fuller arrangements really opened up the possibilities for maybe getting these songs up on a stage.

Dave has offered to record us at his home studio and we're heavily leaning towards this option right now. If this is the route we take, we should be laying down tracks in a couple of weeks with completion...well, as soon as possible.

Of course like a dummy I didn't get any pix or AV, but let me tell you - it was legendary.

Day of the Song

song of the day posted by dustin
im sure mr gladstone will share some of his music interests here in the near future!

Old Florida

Rehearsal

left - william / right - dustin...

hmmm

Dreams

Last night i dreamed. In that dream i wrote a complete song. I performed it in a live setting a few times in the dream. All day long i've been trying to pull that song from the depths of my consciousness.

Drummer in the House



We’re thrilled to have secured local pizzeria tycoon Marcus Haines to lay down drums and other percussive delights for the forthcoming album. We’ve both played with Marcus in various groups over the years, so we expect this to be an exciting dynamic to our present sound.



He’s got a copy of our demo and will be ready to start putting down tracks in the coming weeks. Until then, we’re considering getting started on a couple of tunes that may not need a full set as early as next week.



Of course you’ll be kept in the loop with all of this, so stay tuned and out of trouble.

Introductions are in Order



Perhaps it’s time to reveal our identities in the Old Florida project. Not that we’ve been keeping it a secret, but we have been maintaining a bit of a low profile in the booming “scene” of Panama City, FL.  As alluded to on our first proper post, we’re both local boys, born and raised, and both played in several bands “back in the day.” Way back.



Dustin was bassist for Hall Puzo and Killing Darlings, and more recently helmed Whitelodge. His favorite color is red and he loves a good bowl of cereal.



William Gladstone relocated to Nashville, TN for nearly twenty years, where he enjoyed time strumming with the likes of Rides on Trains and Seesaw Records alum, Heroes and Villains. He likes cats more than people and has a Plants vs. Zombies problem.



Long ago, before you were born, we were in a band together called Early Voices. We wrote about six songs, played two shows and broke up because we were teenagers. This does not embarrass us at all. In fact, we’re thinking about getting the old group back together.



Not true. One of the guys is now a hermit.



As also mentioned previously, we still very much love music, and we spend as much time talking about it (and Doctor Who, H.P. Lovecraft, etc) as we do playing. Again, I wish I could name drop some of our biggest influences, and I’m sure eventually some names will appear, but I’d hate to leave anyone important out – though I will say that we have both been huge fans of the Church for over two decades. In fact, we were the only two Church fans we knew, and for the most part that remains to be the case.



Having said that, Old Florida isn’t really influenced by the Church in any way.



So, that’s us, Dustin and William, a couple of old guys, who like the old school and are really excited about what we’re doing in Old Florida. We hope you will be, too.

Old Florida Introduction

Howdy, and welcome to the first “official” post of the musical effort, Old Florida. In brief, we are a couple of family man/working stiffs, born and raised in PC, FL, who have known each other for years, continue to hold a deep, abiding love of music and have maintained an affinity for the way things used to be done “back in the day.”

Now that’s a pretty broad statement, so we’ll just leave it at that, because our tastes and influences fly all over the musical spectrum (not to mention other mediums) and embrace just about every genre imaginable. To name drop anyone would be a discredit to those we don’t have room for, or simply fail to remember, because there are truly too many, but bottom line - if it’s good, honest music, at least one of us will champion it.

As for our own sound…well, that’s still in the developmental stages, and this will hopefully always be the case. And since neither of us are overly fond of labels, etc, I guess we can sum things up by saying we are “old fashioned in a modern way,” which is again a pretty broad and even cryptic statement, but we believe music is a personal experience, so it should be up to the listener to define it and determine any worth.

The purpose of this blog, for now, is to promote our music and everything related to it. We currently have about fifteen songs worked up that we can strum through pretty well, and ten of those (nine originals and one cover) we plan on making into an album in the extremely near future. What we do with that album is still up in the air, which is funny since we’re already writing for a second album, but without a doubt, the first folks to lay ears on it will be those of you who bless us with your attention to what is found here.

And from there you can and will find anything and everything we’re up to, from how the album is coming along, to any live appearances we may make (one of us is a touch gun shy) and maybe just random thoughts on the music that’s currently spinning our tops at the moment, and thus making an impact on what we’re creating.

So follow us, say hello and keep the music close to your heart.

New Old Florida Album Coming Eventually