Six Men and a Lady: The Sixthman Sessions
I’d like to do the Sixthman Sessions the justice it deserves by writing an entire book on the craziness of how I met a group of awesome musicians on a cruise ship, wrote and recorded 9 songs in 2.5 days with them and in the process gained a bunch of great friends. I’d like to do that, but I don’t have the patience to write it, you don’t have the time to read it, and nobody would ever see these super fun photos from our reunion. SO, here’s a somewhat brief recap:
Back in January Javier and I flew down to Miami to board the Impractical Jokers Cruise. We didn’t go for the humor or the cruise; we were there so I could join six other songwriters (Andy Suzuki, Kozza Babumba, Paul McDonald, Brandon Kinder, Aric Damm, and Sam Getz) and producer/engineer/musician extraordinaire Brian Fechino on the cruise and write for a project called the Sixthman Sessions. Every year Sixthman (of the great Sixthman cruises: The Rock Boat, Cayamo, Kiss Kruise, Sail Across the Sun, etc. etc.) puts together these writing sessions with artists from bands that play on The Rock Boat. None of us knew each other beforehand, but this particular group either thrives on awkward or is just an overly friendly bunch. I don’t remember much time passing before we all felt like a big group of friends.
During that week we wrote and recorded a total of nine songs, which eventually turned into an album that was, by some miracle and planning wizardry (read: hard work at the hands of Jen and Chardy at Sixthman and Brian Fechino who produced and recorded the album in a cruise cabin – what?!) available for sale on the Rock Boat a mere two weeks later. By the way, you can get your hands on a copy for yourself HERE. We performed all of the songs together on the Rock Boat in the Stardust Theater, and the album actually sold out of copies on the boat. We went Sixthman platinum!
Once the performance was over, we spent the rest of the week on the Rock Boat lamenting that we wouldn’t be playing those songs together again. The torture! The agony! We’re a dramatic bunch…or as Brian Fechino would say, we’re a bunch of lead singers. But our whining made its way back to Chardy who organizes the Sixthman Sessions, and he got to work putting together a reunion show almost as soon as the Rock Boat docked back in Miami. Chardy is a superhero.
Now, putting together a show that brings together seven musicians from five different touring bands is impossible. I did not envy Chardy’s job, handling all of our traveling issues and putting us back together in one city. But July 9 rolled around and we all found ourselves in Chicago, ready to play the ultimate reunion show of reunion shows. Probably a bigger deal than a Spice Girls reunion. We should definitely have dressed up as Spice Girls. Here’s the crazy part: we were in Chicago and we had hardly any time to rehearse. Andy and Kozza were stressed about the set list (it was adorable) and organized a quick rehearsal in their apartment-suite that only two of us were able to attend. We had a chance to do some very last minute “rehearsing” in the green room as well, putting together Purple Rain with Sam and a Rolling Stones cover with Paul. But mostly we just took tequila shots and hoped for the best. Andy and Kozza did get to put together that set list though.
The night at Martyr’s was a complete blast, and it went by much too quickly. We screen printed our own posters (arts and crafts!!) and hung out with all of our TRB friends who drove and flew to the show from all over the country. Paul even suggested that we try writing a tune before the show – he’s a machine. It didn’t happen. We played two sets, one of the Sixthman Sessions songs and another set of originals / covers. Brian was kind and badass enough to learn two of my own songs the week before the show, so I got to perform one song that Justin Tam and I wrote for Humming House that we never play live and another song in I wrote in Portuguese for an album I released with my dad in 2008.
Once again, we all lamented the end of the show as soon as we stepped off the stage. We have so much fun together, and I’ll always remember the Sixthman Sessions as one of my very favorite musical adventures. These guys are crazy talented, so make sure to check out their bands below and fall in love. A few of them have brand new releases or pending releases, so keep in touch with all of them! Thanks again to Chardy, Jen, Brian, Andy, and all of Sixthman for doing what you do. All the love…and high fives of course.
New single “Bad Blood”
Video: “Lucy (Devil Song)”
2013 release Born out of Mischief (new album dropping soon!)
New video: “Over”
New album coming soon – check out the teaser
New acoustic album “The Great Outdoors”
Lyric Video: “Viva Voce”
Too cool! Love this post! Great music links too!
It was so cool to be able to see both live performances; on the Boat, and in Chicago.
Such really good music and people, too.
Great post, great pictures, great music, great people.