Call it synchronicity, stars aligning or just plain ‘ole magic. Whatever it is, a force greater than my understanding seems to have brought (and brought back) together a group of talented musicians to create the band – BLISSKRIEG.
The new four-piece rock band is comprised of vocalist Donald Carpenter (Submersed, Eye Empire) and members of both Days of the New and Tantric. Todd Whitener (Guitar), Jesse Vest (Bass) and Matt Taul (Drums).
I’ve always felt like Todd, Jesse and Matt have had this uncanny sync with one another. You can hear it in almost every song they’ve played together on. In any case, it’s a sound that my ear has always been attuned to. I always wished that they would find their way back to one another and create new music.
As I spoke with Todd he told me how the band actually came together. I normally don’t believe in any hokey-pokey type stuff but I walked away from our conversation feeling a little more convinced.
Todd tells Sound Vapors, “Many years went by and probably from the late 2000’s none of us had really been doing much music with the exception of Jesse. (Jesse works with an event band). During all this time I had never known Donald but I was very familiar with his work. I knew his stint with Eye Empire lasted through 2014 or 2015 or something like that, so he was still busy playing music during my early days of being here in Nashville.”
Whitener continues, “So we were working on this third Tantric album that never got released. At least Matt and myself did. It was me, Matt and Hugo that recorded this. Warner Brothers just sort of held onto it and held it hostage and it never saw the light of day. But I’ll never forget during the process of recording that album, it’s when I had my first satellite radio system in my car. I’ll never forget driving to the studio in the morning and at the time, Donald’s first band Submersed that had a single (Hollow) out that I know was at least doing well on satellite radio. I’ll never forget during the recording of that record, going in and hearing that on the radio all the time and just falling in love with the guys voice. Thinking to myself as I was going to the studio to record – man I’d like to record with that guy one day. That is a voice! And I just felt a connection.”
Todd complete’s the circle and tells me, “Fast forward many years and I had been here in Nashville and to try and keep food in the pantry I wound up working with and still work for Dierks Bentley. I worked my way up to being his stage manager and his Pro-Tools guy for when I run his tracks and stuff. We were out on the road a couple of years ago and I went to the bus and got into the bunk. On my playlist comes up, which I hadn’t listened to in forever.. ‘Hollow’ comes up by Submersed. As soon as it comes on my eyes totally opened right back up and I was wide awake. I was like – I forgot all about this song, oh my gosh, this guys voice. It’s incredible. I wonder what this guy’s doing.”
“All of a sudden it turns into this Google search and trying to find out what he’s dong these days and if he’s making music. Because I just wanted to hear what he was up to and hear more of his music. That led me to an Instagram page which looked like that just got started. So randomly, like 2:30 in the morning I Instagram message him, “Dude, been a fan for a while. If you ever want to write any music, hit me up. I’d love to.” To my surprise, he responded right away within a few minutes. He said, “I’m a huge fan. Was a fan of Days of the New and I like Tantric. I would love to get together and write some music with you.” So that struck our friendship. So I asked him where he was based out of. He says, “Right outside of Dallas.” I go to thinking and I looked at my phone and my schedule and I was on a bus on the way to Dallas.”
That’s what I’m talking about. A little bit of luck and a little bit of magic.
The rest of the story isn’t written yet but the next chapter is about to come to life. Blisskrieg is about to release their debut album – Remedy (click to pre-order) on February 22, 2021.
Stay tuned as I will be publishing my official review next week! You can hear my entire conversation with Todd Whitener by clicking on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts:
-Tommy Marz
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