On Wednesday June 9, 2021 DWPresents Twitch Channel aired their first episode of Writer’s Circle with Jason Aalon Butler of Fever 333! He opens by mentioning how it’s the first ever Writer’s Circle in history and how he’s not the best with technology but he’s there so hang in there with him! He introduced his first guest, Mark Vollelunga from Nothing More! A 3 times Grammy nominated artist! He gave a little insight to his work and what he’s wanting to do! He also let it be known that they have new music on the way soon!
Jason asked him about writing and Mark explained that he’s always ready to write. He just keeps playing and ends up coming up with music and goes with the flow. He also mentioned how with lyrics it’s a little more difficult and depends on what’s going on at the time or experiences he has to write about.
He then asked Jason how it works for him and he responded with how recently he just thinks of a word that prompts a larger thought for him and how he feels in moment. He then gave an example how one time when he was in New Zealand and wrote a song and he used the words “mean something” cause he really wanted his music he makes to mean something. They then had some technical issues where Mark couldn’t see or hear Jason and then he could hear him but not see him so he had to refresh the page and that seemed to work.
Back into Jason story he mentioned how he likes to listen to Nothing More sometimes and take some of their words for inspiration and write something. Then he asked Mark how he does it, music first or lyrics and melody first. Mark said it’s different every time and that it’s super important to them. Sometimes they have a weird wacky program thing that doesn’t sound like Nothing More at all that Johnny sends him and it’s neat and they add it to one of their songs and make it a rock thing or a Nothing More thing. He said sometimes it’s just a riff they come up with and then create a song off that!
Nothing More will sometimes start with Mark making a riff and sending it to Ben to add drums and then he sends it back to Mark who sends it to Dan and then he, Dan and Johnny get together and tell each other how it makes them feel and then they write the lyrics together as a band and it’s his favorite way to write new music! Mark, Dan and Johnny all live in San Antonio and Ben is in Phoenix but they still always find a way to share and create music together online when they’re not able to be in a studio together especially while the pandemic was going on. It felt disconnecting for them at times cause they weren’t able to play together in person but they made the most of it and in November of 2020 they were finally able to get into the studio together and jam together!
Jason goes on to say that having to learn a new way to go about it left him feeling more inspired and showed him that there’s other ways to still do their work. He then asked Mark about it and whether he felt that way or just thought it sucked! His response was that it was a little of both. Sucked cause they were apart and didn’t feel like a band cause they couldn’t be together but at the same time was good cause it made him have to create a studio there so he could keep recording and doing what he loves! He has a fan art wall that helps encourage him with everything! He tries to keep everything his fans give him!
Jason showed some love for the people in the chat giving them subs and showed his appreciation for all the love he was getting in the chat! And tried getting a hype train goin! And gave a shoutout to air fryers of all things before asking for requests for songs to play by Mark’s band Nothing More! He put mark on the spit and asked him to play for everyone! He had to get up and go grab his guitar. The chat suggested Cooking With Jason since he’s in his kitchen for the stream and he told the chat not to test him cause he’ll actually do it! He put some bread in his toaster and assured everyone that the numbers on a toaster mean minutes and not how toasted it’ll be!
Mark had come back by this time and started playing riffs from one of their songs! He goes on to say he’s been listening to a lot of Fink who’s a singer/songwriter acoustic guitar player. He heard about him from an old episode of The Walking Dead where they were playing one of his songs and it influenced him and inspired him to write some of the songs. He asked the chat if anyone has heard it and likes Fink. Jason mentioned giving away the toast he just made and his mouldy tortillas and told the chat to spam toastilla and told producer Jake to pick someone for him to send it to and took a bite of the toast he’s gonna send out and said it’s worth more now!
Jason then mentions that Mark he prepared something for everyone that their gonna riff on and mess around with and let the chat get involved and make suggestions and create a song with him! He then pulls up a riff he prepared for them to write a song with. He suggested having a bassist, drummer and a vocalist each on different episode to create a song on Danny Wimmer Presents! Jason loves the idea and mentions releasing it through 333 records! He suggests himself as the vocalist for the song!
Mark talks about how Fever 333 is a really good band live and how stoked he was that they ended up liking Nothing More! He felt pressured to turn up the heat and make sure they’re also great! Jason tells the chat how Nothing More is like watching post apocalyptic warfare cause it’s just incredible to see them live! Mark mentions how they went through some weird stages to where he wore a pots and pans suit and another guitarist wore a trash can suit so it was basically stomp and rock.
They talk a little about some of Nothing More’s history. Dan mentioned how they should play outside of their hometown. Mark says he doesn’t think you’re considered a real band until you play outside your hometown! Jason agrees but says that first you need love from your hometown and tells bands that are trying to make it to make sure to get love from your hometown first to get love outside of it!
They play the riff for everyone to get into the writing of the song. He mentions how it kind of sounds like if Soundgarden were steel. He explains how to make things stand out and tells everyone to use their imagination of how other instruments would sound with the riff and gives his example of how he thinks the drums could go. He asks the chat if they like the idea and the riff they chose! Jason tells Jake to put up a poll of fuck yea, run it or run it back. The chat chose to use the riff chosen!
Mark explains more of how the program they’re using works and shows the different sounds he chose for the riff. He showed how to mess with the timing and then plays on his guitar kind of what he’s got goin on for the song and tells Jason it’s something easy he can sing over. He then shows recording a riff to the program and explains how you can change to different amps and guitars but for the show to save time used the same guitar and amp. He mentions after the episode that they’ll hopefully have a song and that he’s gonna send it to Jason so he can sing over it!
He then plays all of what’s recorded so far and goes into some chords to bring it into the chorus and asked if the chat is feeling it! Of course they are! They then record the pre-chorus part! Jason announces how they got to the first 100 vibe check and mentions how there will be a vibe check for every show. Mark tells Jason he’s gonna need his help with the chorus part cause he wants something strong for their chorus! The chat asked for 2 variations for the chorus for them to vote on! They like the idea and go with it! So Mark comes up with 2 variations and plays them for the chat and has Jake throw up a poll for them! They decided to use both variations and had the poll be for placement of the variations within the song. Jason then suggested he add the second one to the end cause he thinks that would sound better and Mark agreed, did so and cut part of it.
They chat about the ways they go about writing their music. Jason mentions he’s not super techy but that he really appreciates everyone for all the love even though he doesn’t know everything about music. They talk about various artists that they’ve seen live and he mentions how he saw One Arm Scissor on a public access show in L.A. and was really inspired by them and felt that that’s where he belonged. Mark mentions how he saw Let Live in Phoenix, AZ and was super blown away by them and was super inspired.
They then get back into making the song. He shows how to copy and paste within the program so they can repeat the same riffs. They end up talking about health foods a little and Mark mentions how he gets his dieting ways from his mom. Jason tells the chat to spam “hi mom” and mentions how you can get a free months subscription to the channel with an Amazon Prime subscription and tells everyone they should subscribe. He gets all close to the camera and they end up talking about their teeth for a few minutes. He tells a story of how he lost his teeth and how he tried to fix them. Because he tried to fix them his dentist told him how he ended up saving all but one of them. Then Mark mentioned his story about how he lost his tooth as well!
They get back to the music again. We get to listen to what’s been recorded so far and Mark named the song Toastilla! He also comes up with some possible words for the song as well! They then mention a giveaway of 2 tickets to a DWP festival of their choice if the chat can correctly spell and spam the word amalgamate. And they choose someone random like usual. He talks about how positivity is heralded to him and his family and how it’s hard to stay positive where he comes from and especially with how toxic the internet can be and how much he appreciates how positive the chat is!
Back to the music again with a bridge pick up. He goes for a nu-metal or post-hardcore like breakdown and goes and puts in the measures he wants for that part of the song. Then they go into a big beasty it’s mosh time riff and then back to the chorus. Mark then talks a little about Nothing More’s next album and how it’s gonna be pretty progressive. He also is asked by Jason if he could do a little leak. So then Mark picks 2:22 minutes into a new song and played 22 seconds! He mentions how each member has recorded their parts at each of their places but recorded the drums at Sonic Ranch studio in El Paso, TX and talked about how dope that studio is!
Mark plays the song created throughout the stream once more and they asked chat for lyric suggestions for it! He asks Jason to bust a flow to it! He’s put on the spot but he does it! They let the rest of the song play and mention the next show that will be on the channel. Jason asked Mark how it felt coming onto the show and he mentioned how he was a little nervous at first but feels good and stays open minded to changes and other ideas and really enjoyed the show and said how it was great coming up with Toastilla! The show closes with Jason thanking everyone and telling the chat to let people know about Writers Circle and mentions how this is a great place for everyone to come be a part of!
If you are interested in watching Writers Circle make sure to tune in to www.twitch.tv/dwpresents every Wednesday at 3:30pm pst! Don’t forget to check out dwpresents other shows as well! These guys are amazing and very entertaining! I highly suggest watching their shows!
Here’s their schedule so you don’t miss out!
•Sunday: That Space Zebra Show: Battle For The Big Stage at 3:30pm pst
•Monday: That Space Zebra Show: Battle For The Big Stage at 3:30pm pst
•Tuesday: That Space Zebra Show: Riff Wars with Wes Borland at 3:30pm pst
•Wednesday: Writers Circle with Jason Butler at 3:30pm pst
•Thursday: That Space Zebra Show: Starving Artists at 9:30am pst
•Friday: The Lab with Caity Babs and Jeris Johnson at 3:30pm pst
Don’t miss out on these amazing shows!
