These American Times

When we first conceived of this tour I wrote David the following email. It sums up what this thing is all about and it has become our mission statement not only for this tour, but for our music careers as a whole.

David,

Music seems to have lost the charm that I deduce it had in the beginning days of rock n’ roll, the days of our parents' youth. In the beginning, it wasn’t about the music, or the band. It was about a common fight, a common discord, a common man to stick it to, a community of people after the same thing.

And when I say “rock n’ roll,” I mean any music that is meant to move people - to speak truth.

We need to get back to a time when music was about having a good time. We need to go to shows not because of the band playing, but because we know it will be a good time. Live music should be a part of the good time, not the whole. It should be the instigator, the host. The party requires more than that. We as musicians are throwers of parties. We must rally people not around ourselves, but rather around something bigger than ourselves. I want people to come to my show and have a great time, to remember the people there and the party they had before they remember anything I did.

It’s not about the pictures and the records and the branding, the look and clout. It’s about that moment when an artist gets onstage and does something he's never done before and will never duplicate. It’s about the moment when someone in the audience lets go and decides to have a great night. It’s about feeling, and discovering.

“These American Times” is about showing people that a show can be about more than the musician. It’s about revitalizing the live music scene by throwing great parties. It’s about caring less about ourselves and whether or not people like us, and more about whether or not people are enjoying themselves. It’s about sharing this call with other bands, artists, booking agents, club owners, managers and musicians of all kinds around the United States.

I want to bring community and excitement back to music. That’s why rock n’ roll is so great. Because it’s supposed to be about more.

So how do we do this? I don’t know. It starts with getting out there and acting less like musicians and more like people looking for a good time. We need to preach the gospel of rock n’ roll, which has always been about the most important things - the truth.

We’re going to survey the state of the club and venue scene in America and start changing it. We’re going to get people to love music again. Not the shit on the radio, but the stuff that happens in a bar with a group of hacks trying to figure out who they are. Cause that’s where the good juice is. That’s where it always has been. Zeppelin in a high school gym. Tom Petty in a hillbilly field. A bunch of bands in a field near Woodstock, New York.

- Matt