TVD First Date with | Butch Walker

I hear ya’. You’re saying to yourself, “TVD...TWO ‘First Dates’ in one day?" And we’re saying, "That’s right.” We’re obscenely attractive.

Butch Walker’s been on our radar for years now—first as vocalist for Marvelous 3, then as a solo artist, and later on as writer/producer behind the board for a host of diverse acts such as Avril Lavigne, Family Force 5, Bowling for Soup, Pink, Lit, Simple Plan, Sevendust, Injected, The Donnas, Hot Hot Heat, American Hi-Fi, Default, Puffy AmiYumi, Pete Yorn, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, SR-71, and The Academy Is... In no small feat, Butch is currently sitting at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 with his new single "Here Comes The..."

We sat down with Butch who brings his Gang of Merry Musical Melodymakers to the 9:30 this very Saturday night (3/21) to wax poetic on well, wax...and learned a bit about how Butch was forced to reacquire his ENTIRE vinyl collection after ALL of his personal possessions were lost in a devastating house fire in 2007.

"I never thought I would find something come back around, twice in my lifetime, that would be as important, exciting, ageless and timeless as a vinyl record. Sure, there’s stupid fads and nostalgic trends that have come back around.... I dusted off my waistcoats and skinny ties from the 80’s for a quick redux in the last 3 yrs. I tried the ironic, single dangling earring in my left ear (or is it the right one?) for a little ironic hipster fashion. I put disco beats into a couple of songs in the past few years, when I know the first time I heard them in the 70’s and 80’ that it doesn’t REALLY need to come back again (along with the parachute pant, capezios, bell-bottoms, etc..... But they all did). But this one thing that came back, just in the nick of time... When the music business started to crumble, and the quality of the actual sound was reduced to a kid with a laptop and a shitty mp3 of someone’s art was all anyone cared about anymore. It’s like when jack horner in Boogie Nights tried saving the porn industry by hanging onto the art of FILM making, when everyone else was just switching to video TAPE, and not caring about the quality that they shot, but the quantity... Bad analogies aside, it mirrors the business I am in, where it’s more important for how many songs a kid has in his laptop, rather than 5 good ones. And forget about listening to a collective record all the through IN ONE SITTING. Most people follow a modern dj’s lead and only wanna hear maybe a chorus of a song, if that, before skipping to the next song with ... Gasp... A SPACEBAR.

Thank you vinyl. I lost my entire record collection (that had been getting severely neglected because of my mp3 collection as well) to a fire that took everything I owned last year. The first thing I did was go out and buy a great turntable, amp and speakers, then hit the shops to re-collect the collection... I am very proud to say that when I put on anything from Blue Note records, a beat up copy of Blood on the Tracks, or even one of the Capitol remasters of The Bends or OK Computer, my face melts off while sitting on my little couch, listening to all of the quality and detail that went into the records, but most people forgot existed. The crisp hi end, the insane soothing lows. It doesn’t even compare to digital. It has given me practice in patience, focus and concentration again, because I have to listen to 20 minutes of music, sequenced the way it was intended to be heard, before getting up and walking across the room to FLIP THE RECORD OVER and continue. Try that sometime kids...And the album cover artwork actually is visible when it isn’t 3x3 inches. I am back. I am back with vinyl."

Butch Walker - The Weight of Her (Mp3)