DEVIN PERKINS

I met Devin a few years ago. He was friends with a dear friend of mine by the name of Kobi. I was just starting out with audio engineering and had just started up a little recording studio at my house. Kobi was a locally known hip hop artist and quite a popular figure at our high school where he played football with Devin. They struck up their friendship when they discovered a common liking for pop punk music. Devin being a talented guitar player and Kobi being an aspiring singer, they met up after school a few times to jam some cover songs and found that they didn’t sound half bad.

I came home from work one day to find Kobi sitting on my driveway with this pale, lanky kid and an acoustic guitar. As soon as I pulled in they started playing a cover of a song by Hit The Lights. I was pretty impressed, as Kobi had never mentioned to me that he could sing, and I had no idea who this other kid was. I asked them if they wanted to come upstairs and record a quick demo and they eagerly agreed.

At first, Devin and I didn’t get along. I had an ego, and he was younger and much less experienced in music than I was. But Kobi swore up and down that this kid was awesome, so I continued to work with them. I gave them a band name and helped them start up what would soon after become a semi successful band called Meaning In Masterpiece.

Fast forward a couple years…

After recording their first full length, I had all but lost touch with the MIM boys as they had grown past the point of my aid and experience. Kobi was a dear, childhood friend so he and I continued to hang out. He would call me for relationship and music advice often but I rarely talked to the rest of the band, including Devin. But Kobi’s priorities were all kinds of out of whack to say the least, and the band decided to part ways with him. It broke my heart to see Kobi split with the band after so much hard work had gone into making that band what it was. But being a musician myself, I understood the bands reasoning behind their decision and I told Kobi that if he wanted back in, he would need to make some serious lifestyle changes.

A few months later, Kobi passed away.

It was devastating to everyone. Devin was no exception.

I reached out to Devin because I was having a hard time dealing with the loss, and I figured that if I was having a hard time, Devin was having a hell of a time. We met up a few times in my favorite 711 parking lot just to vent. Talk about life, where we were going, what we were doing, and just be someone to not be alone with. We became very close. Funny how grief can do that.

The band continued to record, but after Kobi passed, they decided to change the name of the band. Most of the original members left the band over the course of the 2 years it took to finish the production of the record, including the drummer Aaron. At the time, I was playing for a band called Taylor Collins, so I had no interest in joining the band, nor did I get an invite.

But then my band broke up, and my girlfriend of 5 years left me. Back to pit of devastation and despair I went.

I had no idea what to do with myself. I had never been through a breakup like that and I didn’t have my one crutch that I always relied on to get me through emotional turmoil - music. I pushed away a lot of my friends and started to let myself drown in depression. It felt like I had nothing left.

I got a call from Devin. He just wanted to check and make sure I was okay. So I headed down to my favorite 711 parking lot and sat in my car with him and vented.

He asked me to join the band. At first I refused. I just wanted to sit in my sorrows and let my life swallow me up. I was in a lot of pain and struggling to just get up and go to work. The last thing I wanted to do was join a band. We hung out several times after that, just the two of us at 711. We got closer and closer with each congregation. Eventually, I realized I needed to do something with myself if I was ever going to get out of the slump and move on. So I reluctantly agreed to join the band.

Over the proceeding months, I dumped everything I had into this new band. I had nothing else to put my energy into and it felt good to get out a lot of my built up anger and aggression. We worked tirelessly to put together Moderne. And with the help of Devin and many other dear friends, I finally jumped the hurdled and moved on.

I’m sure that in those horrible months I was not good company. And I’m sure I damaged, and even ruined a few valuable friendships. But there was Devin, and a few others that stuck around. They cared enough, they knew that wasn’t me, and they knew that the storm would eventually pass. If it weren’t for Devin and his garage, and endless nights in the 711 parking lot, I’m not sure were I would be right now. He believed in me. He knew that I had something to offer and he wanted to give me the chance to share it. He never gave up on me. He stuck by my side and helped pull me from the depths of hell. And for that I will be forever grateful and I will never forget.

www.moderneband.com

KEVIN JORDAN

I met Kevin 5 or 6 years ago. He was in a band called The Messenger and I was friends with his drummer Zack. They were in need of some cheap demos at the time and I was in need of some clients with a name for themselves. So I agreed to record the pre-production for their sophomore release for next to nothing. When he showed up at my studio for the first time he gave off a… not so humble vibe. So right off the bat, we did not get along one bit. He was the guy in the band that wrote all the music and recorded all the parts. He had to be in control of everything and it drove me insane. At the time I was a young producer and engineer who thought he knew everything there was to know about producing a record, so when Kevin came along and basically said “thanks for opening the door, I’ll take it from here” it did not go over well.

Long story short - we never finished the pre-production and they ended up recording somewhere else. The sad part was that the songs were actually sounding pretty good being that they were just demos essentially. Kevin and I naturally did not keep in touch, but over the next couple of years he and a few mutual friends of ours developed what would become This Wild Life. Since I didn’t much care for Kevin, I didn’t really follow the band much other than what I heard through the grape vine. I know this story is kind of a downer so far - I promise it gets better. I’m starting to realize actually that a lot of my closest friendships started off with bitter hatred. Fascinating….

I don’t remember exactly what brought Kevin and I to a reconciliation point. But I’m sure it had something to do with video or photo. The earliest I remember having a civil interaction with him was when we filmed their cover of California. Which I remember being really awkward for me.

Shortly after that Kevin asked me to show him some basics on video editing because they were about to head out to Florida to record Clouded and they wanted to film some stuff while they were there. So I met him at a Starbucks to give him some quick tips and pointers and chat over a cup o’ joe. A liaison I thought would last no more than an hour.

We ended up sitting at that Starbucks until they closed and long after, sharing music, and talking music business and his plans for This Wild Life. I remember him being pretty unsure of the future of the band and kind of putting all of his eggs in Clouded’s basket. They had already been turned down by a handful of labels and their booking agent and management were not really working out. But his advice to me in my career’s journey, and secrets of the trade that he shared with me that day are still things I lean on today. To me, he was just another dude in a local band, just like me. With high hopes and brilliant strategies.

Since then, Kevin and I have been very close. He went off to record Clouded and they got their offer from Epitaph and off they went. I’m not sure what it was that humbled him up. Or what humbled me up. But he was not the same person that day that I knew years before.

He was there for me in some of my darkest times during the following year or so. He had gone through similar things, and had a lot of valuable advice to lend. And surprisingly, never lost interest in our friendship.

I thought with Kevin’s new found success he would leave me in the dust, like so many of my other friends had done in the past. But he didn’t. We remain very close still to this day. Every time he is home from tour he takes the time to grab lunch with me and shoot the shit. He continues to be a genuine friend.

Being in local music for so long, I’ve grown accustomed to making friends in the infant stages of their career. I do everything I can to help them along the way. And then they get their big break and all of the sudden they don’t need me around anymore. I’ve lost quite a few friends this way. And I thought for sure Kevin would be no different. But I was wrong, thankfully.

There is something to be said for someone who can stick by the people that were there when he was nothing. Stay loyal to his roots and the people that will be there if he falls back down to the bottom again.

The things I have learned from Kevin and the times that we have had together will be held dear to me for years to come. I am proud of his accomplishments and his humility. And I am of course proud to call him a dear, dear friend. See you at the top buddy.