New Music: Crybaby Apprentice

TL;DR -- The music:

Some story:

I've been in plenty of bands and I love them all, but nothing was ever quite the full experience Think Twice, Dublin was.

There was something about the time we (Andrew, Pat, myself) came together and the thematic ideas we wanted to play with that just clicked. Not just with us, I don't think – it may come off as a bit arrogant (and maybe it is but if it's okay to talk about anywhere it's my own blog that no one reads) – but I think we (and other local groups at the time) helped create this really great artistic feedback loop that encouraged people to make and refine something that they believed in. I could be wearing be rose-tinted glasses but I am not sure I will ever be a part of something bigger than myself in that way again, and I'm honestly not sure if anything could ever match that perceived accomplishment for me.

That was all in college/high school back in State College, PA and once degrees were earned the trio that made up TTD separated and the band slowly died out as we moved away and tried to figure out regular life shit.

We always kept in touch, of course. We even kept making music together in some form or another: Pat and I released a few EPs as Princess Barbara at around the same time our friend Emily invited us to support her as Blød Maud. It was easy for Pat and I to continue working together since we had both moved to Pittsburgh. It should be noted that Andrew did end up moving to Pittsburgh for a year or so and I totally blew it on taking advantage of that opportunity – that's for a different blog post on alcoholism and being a bad friend

In the year leading up to 2020 (so 2019?) I remember having more than a couple individual conversations with old friends from back in the TTD days. It was so odd to see us all so split up (Andrew had moved to NYC at this point, another close music pal M.Ty had gone all the way out to CA) yet what we all had to say was that we were all still pretty lonely. I'm not sure any of us found the same abundance of connection and understanding in our own separate worlds that we had together.

When COVID-19 came in 2020 and everyone was isolating themselves, however, it seemed like there was this casual opportunity to work on something together remotely while we were kinda stuck inside (especially for Andrew, NYC really locked down and also NYC apartments are small). After working on a few ideas that Andrew had started to flesh out, we decided to make it official and to try a new project together. Pat would end up recording drums and M.Ty would do mixing and some producing.

So what we came up with and are continuing to work on is a new band we're calling Crybaby Apprentice. Where TTD as a band was making more kraut type music (droney, made of many repeating parts), CBA takes a much different approach where we try to write longer, less repetitive and more musically narrative phrases. It's generally lower tempo so far, and has darker tones both lyrically and musically – we've taken to calling it "goth pop" for now, closer to "gothic" than to "hot topic" if you get my drift.

To be honest I'm not sure who our audience is or if they even exist, it's pretty weird music (I think? I can't tell anymore) – but I feel once more like I'm making music with my best friends and doing it honestly. It's what we want to make. Or it's what we can't help making? The point is, it's ours and you can like it or not but we believe in it, and that's all it really is, ain't it.