I’m 52, A Dad and CEO and My Band Just Got a Record Deal

I’m 52 years old, a husband, a dad of 3 great kids (sometimes), an uncle, and the CEO of music tech company, Feed.fm. Our band, Fuzz Collective, also just signed with modern soul label Color Red (The New Mastersounds, Dumpstaphunk, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and many more). 

We just released our debut single, Yeah Yeah Yeah. 

Our full-length album, One, will be released in a few weeks on November 1, 2024. The album was recorded at the Color Red studios in Denver Colorado and produced by Color Red’s founder and CEO, Eddie Roberts (The New Mastersounds, Lucky Strokes).

Fuzz Collective at Brick and Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco, California. Photo credit: Eva Blue

It is both a terrifying and exhilarating moment for me.

Terrifying in that it’s the first time I’ve ever released something as personal as my original music to the public. There’s an inner voice asking “is this any good?” Or the recurring Eeyorian logic postulating  “why risk shame and ridicule?”

Exhilarating in that it’s taken me nearly 40 years to have the guts to push this baby out the door.

My college band, The Foundation Blues Band, Hanover, New Hampshire. Photo credit: unknown

I’ve been playing guitar since the age of 13 and played in bands throughout high school and college. I’m a diehard music fan and like most, can spend hours listening and discussing music from the way Wes can produce blazingly fast octave solos using only his thumb to how Corey Wong must lack any bones in his wrists due to the speed of his funk-laden strumming patterns. 

Hearing the greats do their thing is a captivating and emotional experience. It is intoxicating the way Jimi would bend a note with just enough vibrato to keep you wondering if it will go out of tune and send everything off the tracks into the abyss of chaos only to resolve into absolute perfection. You get so inspired as a burgeoning musician that you race to your guitar to try it yourself thinking “I can do THAT!”

Only to Realize

The Harsh Truth

That you may never be Hendrix

Gah

But that’s OK

Because Hendrix also wouldn’t be me. 

I remind my kids how important it is to be themselves, and particularly their authentic selves. It takes guts to show your true colors and I tell them that if others don’t like you because of it, they aren’t really your friends. As Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

It’s easy to provide parental advice as an armchair QB when you aren’t actually on the playing field. “They’re just kids,” you think as you smugly chuckle to yourself.

But when it’s YOUR challenge to “be your authentic self,” it suddenly becomes a lot more real. 

This brings me to our journey recording our first album…

Several years ago, multi-instrumentalist and singer Theo Katzman of Vulfpeck in an interview talked about some of his favorite albums of all time. He described them as being “organic” and LIVE “like it really happened.” It instantly changed my thinking. 

There’s a certain ebb and flow of energy when the band is playing together that can’t be captured when putting together disparate tracks and overdubs. One take in a continuous recording is often how bands did it in the “good ‘ol days”. They came into the studio, rehearsed, and let loose, sometimes in one take. 

But while there’s great energy in this approach, there can be errors or “clunkers”, as they are called in the jazz parlance. But those so-called errors are exactly what makes the music authentic and honest. The rawness and tension created when you think the band may trainwreck is exactly what keeps it captivating and provocative. 

Theo Katzman and Vulfpeck at UC Theater, Berkeley California. Photo credit: the author

That honest approach was the inspiration for our album. We decided that we would record each song in its entirety from start to finish as a full band all in one room together. Solos, clunkers and all. It would be our expression of an authentic and honest musical moment. 

Again, both terrifying and exhilarating.

Terrifying in that we would do a full instrumental song together as a band with no overdubs. If the band is killing it and you flub your solo, you start from scratch. Terrifying in that you have work to do and need to move on to the next song if you can’t execute. Terrifying in that our producer, Eddie Roberts basically told us that we had 3 strikes and we’re out. 

But exhilarating in that it would be completely raw and in the moment. 

Yeah Yeah Yeah was not only the single that Color Red identified, but it was also the very first track that we recorded in the studio. We were incredibly amped and the adrenaline was at 11 (Hat tip to Spinal Tap). When the tape started rolling we attacked the song with all we had. The band was thrilled with the result and I thought we had nailed the song in the first take.

Eddie then came into the main room and said, “That was solid, but let’s do it again.” He was the boss so we all played it again.

To our amazement, the second time was even better. No one thought it would be possible. This was a perfect example of a good producer pushing you to your best. 

He then came back in and said, “I like where this is headed, so let’s do it again.” We pushed back saying that we didn’t want to burn an unnecessary take, but he reminded us who was in charge so we went for it.

Even though the second take was the best… we found our sweet spot and learned that a good producer tests a band’s limits and finds what works best. That became the strategy for the remaining 10 songs on the album. 

I must admit that the session was a tremendous amount of work. It was exhausting at times and emotionally draining. But, it’s always the hard things in life that are the most rewarding and memorable. This was truly a life moment for me and the guys and we can’t wait to do it again.

We’d love to get your feedback. Here are the links to the single. We hope you enjoy it. The entire album will be available next month. 

Stream the single HERE

Fuzz Collective is:

Ethan Beard, Bass and Vocals

Pete Chung, Harmonica and Vocals

Tim Fisher, Drums, Percussion and Vocals

Jason Tavano, Keyboards and Vocals

Jeff Yasuda, Guitar and Vocals