Music

Audio

Loading ... 0:00 / 0:00

What's New?

  • Dirty Little Rabbits

    July 21, 2010 By M. Shawn Crahan 0 Comments

    Well, it all started about twelve years ago when a close friend of mine invited me out to Chicago to watch her friend’s band play at the Metro. It ended up being a couple of crazy days in Chicago, and little did I know I had just met the singer of my dreams. Because of her willingness to share her inner pain with the world I knew she would be the voice and the face of the music that would eventually become the DIRTY LITTLE RABBITS. She is my favorite female singer. Her name is Stella Katsoudas.

    Sometime in 2007, during a jam session with a handful of friends the third piece of the puzzle came to fruition. Who knew that I would sit down at the drum set (after wanting to only play the organ) and that he would only play the organ (even though he had gone to college for drums?) It was all a dream. I’d never been so locked in with someone in my musical life. It felt free, utterly terrifying and most importantly, absolutely one hundred percent correct. We would be a force to be reckoned with. We knew how to sing together. We knew that we would write endless music together. His name is Michael Pfaff.

    After a month of jamming and writing over a dozen pieces of music, it was time to take this new union to its next natural step and that was to get a bass player. But who? Everyone we knew was already in their rightful place, Pfaff had always had good luck in the past so he would find someone who would help us hold down the root of our art. He made one call and our next practice day, our new bass player came knocking at my door (literally) with the most honest hand. I thought to myself, if he’s half as good as his knock, he’s in. Well, he's been in this band ever since. He is the backbone of the band. His name is Jeff Karnowski.

    It usually takes artists a lifetime to find all the pieces to their artistic puzzle, so it was not until 2010 that the Rabbits found their guitar player. He is someone who has always been around our art. Funny how it works out- almost from the very beginning, you already know the end. He was helping out at a friend’s studio during the recording of our second E.P. Simon as well as our self titled debut, Dirty Little Rabbits. Good people and good music should be fun, at least in our opinion and we have so much fun with him. He has been there from the start and he'll be there until the end. His name is Ryan Martin.

    As you can tell, it’s taken us a good portion of our lives to learn how to trust ourselves to make the music we want to make. It’s never come easy and we wouldn’t want it any other way. We’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy what we do as artists. Music is and always will be God to me, and I enjoy it most when I’m able to share it with others. I've always thought music was the only way to create perfect communication. I was very young when I took to the drums and realized the possibilities that it opened for me. My life had truly begun. The madness started, and it hasn’t stopped since. The most honest art form I can share is while playing the drums. My name is

    M. Shawn Crahan.

    That's it, really. Five people who make up a band called DIRTY LITTLE RABBITS. Nothing more, nothing less. Just the willingness to create art from within a space that does not belong to you, only us. We are here to push ourselves into unpredictable saturation. See you down the rabbit hole, perhaps?

    Read more: http://www.myspace.com/dirtylittlerabbits#ixzz0uIc2dRWm

  • Dirtfedd

    July 21, 2010 By M. Shawn Crahan 0 Comments

    My really good friend (as well as one of my mentors) Sophia John called me up one day to explain to me how excited she was about a band from the Midwest that was doing it all on their own. This band was called Dirtfedd. She told me that they were putting on a special show in their hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. She knew that I was really into producing at that point, and she felt that the band was on fire and there was a real opportunity. I accepted her invitation and drove to Lincoln to check them out. I met up with Sophia prior to the show and we made sure to speak as little as possible about the band, because she felt the proof would be in the pudding during

    the performance. The first song they played was “Said the Spider to the Fly” which ended up being the only song that we didn’t restructure when recording the album American Nightmare because of how hard it hit me that night in Lincoln, Nebraska.

    At the last minute there was an opportunity for Dirtfedd to jump on a bill for a showcase I put together in NYC. I called them two days before the showcase. Not only did they make it, but they shared a vehicle with another band that was on the showcase. The performance was good enough to be invited back for a second

    showcase in NYC in front of several labels.

    We sealed a deal with Koch Records and began our plan for pre-production and the making of the record. The band wanted to record in Omaha and utilize a great studio called Arc Studios. I wanted to do pre-production away from their home so we did it in Fort Dodge, Iowa at Junior’s Motel. Pre production lasted five days. By the end of it, (drummer) Brock’s knee was swollen to the size of a cantaloupe. He neglected to tell me about it until pre-production was over. We did the album in about a month’s time at Arc. Josh Wilbur was the main

    engineer and also mixed the album. Josh is amazing, as you can hear when listening to the record.

    Vocals began at Arc studios, but immediately took a turn for the worse because (vocalist) Dustin found it to be a little too serious, sterile. Needless to say, there was a lot of pressure. I decided to relieve this pressure and bring him to Des Moines. We put him up in a local hotel where all the strippers stay which was a perfect environment to keep the juices flowing. Dustin likes to work early; he is in awesome shape and knows that he is best when he performs before noon, so we

    recorded vocals early each morning in the basement of my house. It was one of the most amazing personal and spiritual events of my musical life doing these recordings, because I was engineering, producing and living through the reality of these characters that Dustin had come up with and portrayed. All I can say is, amazing. While we were doing vocals, Dustin was also seeking advice on art direction as he was working on the package for American Nightmare. I loved hearing his questions as well as watching him dig through the art to get to the final piece that makes the album.

    Everyone in the band is a friend unto themselves and they are absolutely a real band. It’s an honor to be able to say they are my friends and to say that I’ve been able to be involved in their career. Dirtfedd is here.

    DRINK FIGHT FUCK SALUTE