My Musical Journey to 2010

For the past 18 years I have been extremely blessed to have the opportunity to share the stage with some amazing musicians. I've toured with and shared many hours of my life with individuals who I feel will be lifelong friends. I thank God for every single moment I've shared with them. I felt the need to start this new blog off with an extremely long segment about how I ended up where I am today. It's a lot of information...but I felt a need to write it all down before I moved on to my next project.

This whole thing starts back in the very early 90's...so yeah...this will be pretty long...I'll try to slim it down some.

1991-1993

When I was in High School my room was filled with instruments, mostly keyboards. The walls were covered with posters of bands I adored and in one corner sat a raggedy thrown together drum set that I loved very much. I played it really loud. I'm sure my folks loved it. My first instrument was the piano but I always loved the drums. I did a small stint in symphonic band in Jr. High but hated having to play the timpani instead of the "trap set" or full drum kit, as we would call it today. After a year or so I decided band wasn't for me. During my sophomore year in HS I met a guy named Matt Cooper. We met in art class and had a crazy teacher who we loved because she would let us listen to loud music and do basically whatever we wanted. We found that we shared the exact same influences musically and also found that each of us would spend most of our time at home writing and recording our own music. Because of this, we decided to hang out. Matt had an awesome Ensoniq keyboard that I thought did everything in one keyboard that I was doing with four. He bought that keyboard because he had won $1000 by calling in to 93Q Q-Zoo in the Morning. 93Q was the cool station in Houston back then.
Matt and I spent countless hours writing Depeche Mode/New Order style music where he would basically create most of the music and I would write the lyrics and sing. It was a blast. We recorded around 8 songs and thought we were the coolest. We called ourselves Descend and then Immortal Symphony...but a name really didn't matter because we never played a show with that music. We did however put a band together for a few parties and a church dance. Matt actually sang, I played drums and a few other friends joined us. We did all covers and again, we thought we were the coolest. Matt eventually graduated HS and went off to college and later landed in LA, but at that time I was left looking for a new musical outlet.
I found that outlet through a good friend named Brandon Anslow. Brandon told me he had a punk band called Pardoned Fugitives that was in the same vein as Minor Threat and Fugazi and they needed a drummer. Awesome. I was pumped. I loved the drums and loved playing as fast and hard as I could. I broke a lot of sticks and heads in this band. We were a true garage band practicing in Brandon or Matt’s (bassist) garages. We even used a garage behind our church that my Dad gave me the key to (thanks Dad). The highlight of this band was playing a huge party at a friends club with our friends called MooBar. We were loud and proud that night and thought we were going to be the biggest punk band on the planet. Eventually we graduated and moved on and life got in the way of all the fun.

1993-1997

After I graduated my family moved to Longview in East Texas. I went with them. My brother was at Stephen F. Austin and I went to Kilgore JC. I lived at home with my folks in Longview and waited tables at a place called Cotton Patch Cafe. There I met a guy named Clift Tullos. Clift and I became good friends. It's really crazy that when my family and I were visiting Longview for the first time before we moved there, we ate dinner at Cotton Patch and Clift was our waiter. We remembered him because of his long bleached blond Kurt Cobain haircut. I had no idea I'd actually work there one day much less become real good friends with this guy. Clift was actually a groomsman in my wedding. Anyways, Clift introduced me to two guys, Barry Heyns and Philip Guerra, who played in a band called Euphoric. They needed a drummer...so I joined 'em. We sounded like Nirvana and played parties in East Texas and sometimes in Shreveport LA. Our biggest show was opening for our favorite band at the time called CEED in Shreveport. It was short lived but a lot of fun. We'll come back to Clift soon...

During this time I visited my brother in Nacogdoches a lot. Every time I was there I'd go to the local music store down the street from his apartment. I spent a lot of time there digging around and playing all the guitars whether the employees liked it or not. This time though I picked up a bass. It wasn't a very nice bass just a red and white Fender that was around $200. I played for a little while and thought, "I could play the bass...that's easy." As I was reaching up to put it back on the rack...I dropped it. Yes it was a loud drop and everyone in the store turned and looked at me like I was an idiot. An employee came over and said "it's cool man...no problem." He obviously wasn't the owner. I picked the bass up and saw there was a chip on the bottom of it. I felt bad. I felt so bad I bought it. So there I was the proud new owner of a 1990 Fender piece of whatever red and white ugly bass. I threw it in the trunk and went on my merry way.
A short time after that I was with my good friend Tank (who was also a groomsman in my wedding) in Longview hanging out like kids do. He said he wanted to take me to see his friend’s band that was practicing that night. We pulled up to an old run down barbershop that I'm thinking now was actually still a functional place of business. We stepped out of the car (my '91 Toyota Corolla) and to my amazement I heard the loudest most obnoxious sound I'd ever heard in my life. These guys were jammin reeeeeally loud...and I loved it. Holding my ears we went inside and found some serious metal heads. I'd never seen a band like this before. I grew up listening to synth pop & punk and although I did listen to the occasional Helmet and Metallica and bands like that, I'd never heard a local band this heavy and this good at what they were doing. There was only one thing that sounded off. Their bassist wasn't there. The bass amp was there, but nobody playing it. It was two guitarists with Marshall stacks, a drummer with a kit like Lars Ulrich and a dreadlocked singer named Katori that sounded like the Cookie Monster. I asked them where their bassist was and they said he rarely comes to practice and that he's just a flake. I told them that I actually have a bass in my trunk if anyone knows how to play it they're welcome to use it. They told me to go get it. Then they told me to play with them. Little did I know, that night would be the beginning of my next band...and that I was now a bass player.



We called ourselves Mastema and played all over East Texas, Louisiana, Dallas, Houston and anywhere we were asked to play. We built a good following and played a lot locally with our friends Myra Mains, Engine #9 and A Lucy Nation. We opened for some major acts as well but didn't actually record anything solid until the end. It was around 1997 when a lot of personal things happened with the band and I decided I needed to get out of East Texas. I decided to pack up everything and move to Austin. My friend and Myra Mains guitarist Monte Pittman actually tried to convince me to move out to LA instead, but I wanted to stay in Texas. He ended up moving out there and joining a solid metal group named Prong and then was asked to play guitar for an up and coming indie chick named Madonna. I'm hoping this Madonna chick can make it one day...for Monte's sake.

1997-2003

I sold all of my bass gear and headed to Austin with only an Ovation acoustic guitar. This guitar was a gift from my parents my Jr year in HS.
After being in Austin a short time I decided to start playing solo acoustic gigs at coffee shops and small venues. I ended up getting a residency at Austin Java Co. because a good friend of mine managed the place. It was fun, but a lot of my songs were covers and the songs I wrote were somewhat sad so it wasn't a very uplifting show. I did this for a few years off and on. All of this time I had been writing new songs and someday hoping to get a band for those songs. My new girlfriend Hollie had also bought me a sweet new Taylor 414ce guitar for Christmas. I knew she was the one after that. We eventually got married and in 2010 we'll be having our first child. :)






Around 2001 I asked my old Longview buddy Clift Tullos to play bass with me since he was now an Austinite as well. We went through a few drummers but stayed a three-piece. We played around Austin at places like Steamboat and Waterloo Icehouse as well as Austin Java and called ourselves The Todd Meador Projekt. Not sure why there was a K in Projekt...but there was. We recorded an EP out at my folk’s lake house in the summer of 2002. I felt like we had some good songs but like all of my other bands, life got in the way.
In 2003 I was offered a pretty decent job in sales and decided to take it. I also decided to stop playing music all together and hang it up. That period of time was very dark and scary...just kidding...it was alright...just not for me.

2005-Present

In 2005 I left the lucrative but stressful sales position to leap back into the music world and join forces with some wild and crazy guys in a band that went by the lead singers first name...Cord. I found Cord on Craigslist while working my sales job and shortly after quit that job to focus on the band. After playing all over Austin in clubs like Stubbs and Antones and numerous shows throughout Texas, Cord was signed to Emerald City Entertainment Group in Santa Cruz California. We headed to the west coast with unbridled enthusiasm and made a record. I was really thinking this was it. This was what I thought was supposed to happen to bands and it was finally happening to one of mine. We toured around, made some great music together and had a lot of fun for sure.






Unfortunately, I was never truly comfortable in this band. Something wasn't right. There was something missing from my life during this time frame and I was either not wanting to accept it or really just didn't know exactly what it was.
In the end, I wasn't sure the direction Cord and the guys were headed in was for me.
While on the last leg of my final tour with Cord, I felt a strong calling to join a worship band when I returned to Austin and become involved in a new church. I knew then what was missing. That calling led me once again to craigslist. I opened only one post. The post was from a worship leader who was to be moving from San Diego to Austin on July 3rd 2006...my birthday. I corresponded with Toby Walters from the road and planned to meet him once I got home. Having only listened to a little piece of one song of his, I just knew I wanted to meet him and see what he had planned. After one meeting we decided to give this venture a shot.






It was at this time I'd also meet someone who I felt like I'd known for years, fellow Houstonian, drummer and sure to be long-time friend Richie Deegan. Richie had played in bands throughout the 90's that played the same venues & festivals that my old band Mastema played. Both of our bands actually shared the stage in 1996 in Nacogdoches Texas at a festival called Nacapalooza. We didn't know each other at the time, and I'm sure we never thought we'd meet anyone who played in any of those bands 10 years later, much less become really good friends with them. Toby, Richie and I set out to find a guitarist and a church. After going through numerous guitarists and playing many different churches we found a young guitar phenom named Wes Ardis (who would also play with my next band as well) and landed ourselves an amazing church home called Calvary Austin. We made multiple albums together and recorded our last one in Nashville Tenn. with some amazing producers, Steve Hindalong, Marc Byrd & Derri Daugherty (Leeland, Jars of Clay, Caedmon's Call, Hammock, Lost Dogs).
It was during this time frame with the Toby Walters Band that I ran into a few old acquaintances at SXSW named Jason Poe & Corbin Petersen. We had shared the stage together back when I was with Cord and they were in a band called The Professional Americans. Those guys rocked...that's all I remembered. They were really nice too. Jason passed on to me some songs he had recorded with producer CJ Eiriksson (U2, Incubus, Jacks Mannequin) called Jets Under Fire. Right when I heard those songs I knew I'd love to be a part of it. I let Jason know that if he ever needed a bassist to let me know, and he did.







Jets Under Fire toured all over Texas and the Midwest numerous times, played quite a few SXSW shows and shared the stage multiple times with good friends Alpha Rev, The Soldier Thread, Quiet Company, The Rocketboys, Pompeii and Sounds Under Radio. We had an exciting run. This past year we recorded three EPs that I'm very proud of. We set out to record four but life seemed to deal us each a new hand for the end of this year. We all started work on new projects and Jets Under Fire seemed to be placed on the back burner for some reason. We all decided to move on with those projects. Jason has a new solo project and Corbin & Wes are touring with a worship leader named Stephen Miller. There is a slim possibility that Jets could rise again one day...but who knows.

All of the musicians I've mentioned in this blog are very important to me. I love them all very much. Without them, I might still be looking for that perfect job or thinking that being a professional musician is just crazy talk. There have been many thoughts of simply hanging it up for good because I've felt like I haven't "made it" in the music industry. When I look back at all I've done, the guys I've worked with and the places I've seen and venues I've played...in my eyes...there's nothing better.
I've been given so many opportunities to work with some incredible musicians and see places that I never thought I'd see. What a blessing God has given me in this life. I'm extremely thankful...

Now on to what's next...

I've got something new on the horizon and it's called Apodiform. This is not something extremely new to me because it's been something I do on my own and basically keep somewhat to myself. However, this past year Richie Deegan and I got together to have some fun with it. I never thought that little bit of fun would drive us to be where we are today. This past summer we decided to add another friend to the mix. We called on our good friend Darren Brock to play bass and keys with us. This just fueled the fire even more. Darren's drive and enthusiasm about this music lit a fire under my ass. You really don't know how good something is until you hear D-Brock explain it in his own overwhelming words.
Our newest member just so happens to be the very first musician I spoke of, Matt Cooper. He's back in Austin now after some good time in LA where he had the opportunity to work with musicians like No Doubt, John Taylor (Duran Duran), Flea and John Fruciante (Red Hot Chilipeppers) and Stephen Perkins (Janes Addiction). He's now hard at work engineering and producing our new music for us. It's surreal to be working with him again...and all of this really feels like a dream. It's amazing to me how life comes full circle. If someone had said to me in 1992 that in 2010 Matt and I would be in a band together...I would have laughed. But here we are.

Soon I’ll be introducing you to my new bands music. I'm really excited about what God has in store for me this time...we'll see...