LIFE PLANS: It’s fun to tell you my plans for the future then, we can look back and see what fate revealed and what fortunes were won. I am currently planning to a few more albums for The Staxx Brothers then I want to shut that sh☆t down as a recording project. But it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ALL OVER. With the release our self titled album coming out, as well as Sealander and Home Cookin’ that’s 7 albums.
I’ll be able to reissue albums on vinyl, make some cool ass merch we never got around to, and I’ll look at booking some festivals that want to present The Staxx Brothers show that we only hinted at with our stagw shows at Summer Meltdown Festival, Joshua Tree Music Festival, and Bumbershoot.
Or it will be over. Who knows. But there’s 7 full length studio albums, maybe 8 if Joshua Hanson brings that FIRE and we record Lost Boys.
But what is getting me off, is the idea that I can travel the globe and keep recording bad ass songs with incredible teams built around the production prowess of Anthony Cameron in Jamaica and Scott Rowe in Brighton.
I think The Staxx Brothers have albums and songs that I will be celebrating till the day I leave this earth, and they have a chance to matter to some folks when I’m gone. But outside the United States, I’m recording HITS with these folks in the old British Empire.
July 27th, the distribution company Zojack is going to be releasing my first single with the British act Sherlock Soul, which is an extension of the English music collective Bedlam Isle, that I have helped found with Scott, Lewis Harding, Alex Roberts, and folks I can’t wait to work with again like Sam Mason, Roxanne Abbott, and Sylvain Achache.
Here’s a sneak preview of the contents of this single that will soon be on itunes and spotify. This particular song, could a real hit, and the video I am discussing with the boy genius Ryan Cory could spring board this song onto the BBC and the British charts. His concept is perfect. But his execution is legendary.
I Don’t Want To Leave:
This song is a marvelous thing. I wrote it in Everett built on Lane Schultz‘s incredible handle on Southern blues, and with help from Brandon Storms, Sean Keck, and grey haired pony tailed old homie named Lloyd we wrote ‘Jack The Ripper’. But it took the British of Bedlam Isle & Sherlock Soul to translate this song to sonic mastery. The song was all there, but it took British Mastery and craftsmanship, to fulfill the Americans’ promise of a fresh new telling of Jack The Ripper as a Creole.
Jack The Ripper:
https://soundcloud.com/user-8765724…/jack-the-ripper/s-crhZK
As for The Staxx Brothers, there is much work to do. Our best is yet to come over these next 3, maybe 4 records. The first 4 were something, and I did everything I could in my power to make sure each one was 97% of what it was supposed to be.
It took a lot of help from my incredible friends, like Chris O’Connor, Jake Amster, Tom Wilkinson, Michelle Shirley O’Connor, Angela Rickard, Kevin Chryst, Justin Armstrong, Decurrian Rapmusic, Ayo Dot, especially Megan Lueck and Laurie Leer. Not to mention pinch hitters like Daniel Nash, a guy that stepped in but never made it into the studio, but made our Band in Seattle episode possible and played Kevin in the Black & Mild video.
There’s also those folks behind the scene that made it happen like James K. Byler, Tara Mahon Eckstrom, Brian Reynolds, Matt Cyphert, TJ Minckler. Heroes in an era where labels disappeared and songs still needed to be recorded and produced.
Though the end of The Staxx Brothers as a piece of recorded history is now on the distant horizon, the next phase is how to make the END a new beginning. It’s ironic to declare an end when so many Hipster bands will be born of trust funds and privilege and spin like a top and then disappear from the sight of memory in the interim. But help me END this thing right and let’s get some HITS.
HITS, HITS, HITS, HITS. Songs that keep the party going and matter in foreign countries that speak little English. Beautiful Greek and Indonesian Islands. Mountain towns in Switzerland and Chile. Let’s get out of here and look forward to our Homecoming. Let’s live out our fantasies, eat well, and get enough exercise, and be, just maybe, the last word in Rock & Roll. History tells us the fall of the Empire is a Party opportunity.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. Davin’s recent song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube: Tuff Gong Television. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
