Dean had no patience. He enjoyed rushing every idea that came to his head. This personality trait of his, in hindsight, is the ingredient that pushed us out the door and into the bars and halls where we’d start to make our name. I liked the idea of writing songs, however, Dean leaned towards our improvisational roots. This difference between us was the catalyst that set the wheels in motion. For example, Dean signed us up for the 2011 Online Warped Tour Battle of the Bands without consulting me. I emerged from my bedroom one morning to the news that we were officially signed up for this ridiculous contest. At the time, I was a little annoyed because we had no songs or image. This left me with one option. Create them.

For the first time ever, we now found ourselves writing songs together. This proved to be a difficult undertaking because poor Deano couldn’t understand simple song structure. “Come in on 4” I’d say before starting the song. When 4 came, Dean didn’t. So, it hit me. This music theory stuff isn’t important to The Dean Project. Rhythm, tone quality and time signatures are all just suggestions. We were never out to compete with other bands. We weren’t interested in pissing contests. They get you nowhere and take all the fun from performing. Our focus was to just be The Dean Project. Little did I know, this Warped Tour thing would help solidify our web presence as an official act. However, In my mind, it was all satire. A commentary on how indie and commercial music are all built around false virtues. Performance art. But to those unhip, close-minded consumers of our work, we were barely talented kids just struggling to put songs together. It was a fine line to walk, especially for an unestablished act. We simply tried to Blur the lines between art, music, comedy and life.

We knew people wouldn’t understand what they were seeing or hearing. We knew some people would think of us as “wannabes”,  “outcasts” or just plain bad. It would be up to us to give whoever was at that particular bar, on that particular night, a show and make them feel something. I was always a believer that people don’t buy songs. They buy feelings. Even if the songs were regarded as garbage. If we managed to make you feel something or react in any way, we would call it a success. If we inspired dialog, commentary, jokes or banter it meant more to me than selling T shirts or growing my social profile. We were the growling folk dudes with a nutcracker. Who wasn’t talking?