Dull Boy Jack
Jason “JT” Thomas: guitar, vocals
Rich Frasier: bass, vocals
Greg Levine: drums, percussion, vocals
Dull Boy Jack is my accidental band.
“Accidental” you ask”?
Well, yeah. The band came about as organically as any band, project, whatever…that I have ever been a part of.
I met JT and Rich in 2004 when I joined their classic rock cover band. We played a lot of dive bars and some cool places around Portland through 2004 and 2005. Over time, what I discovered was that we had a great time playing together and enjoyed what we did onstage even if it wasn’t ours. We got to stretch songs out and through the jamming we did, I knew right away that “something” was going on other than being on stage making a few hundred bones.
DBJ rocking it out.
JT letting it rip.
I quit the band in 2005 and took a short break from playing. Later in the year though I got a call from Rich who was working on some songs. He asked if I would play on some if he got to recording. He said he wanted JT to play some guitar on it too, so we got together to see what he had. Turns out JT was sitting on a ton of songs as well. We heard what everybody had and played through some things casually. But it was pretty obvious that the “something” was still there as the songs were coming together within 1 play, and, we were all smiling. Cue the lightbulb above!
We started getting together on weekends to work on all of these songs. At least to see what was what. And as we were doing just that, MORE songs started coming in. JT would walk into rehearsal and play a new one or Rich would do the same. There was so much material at first that I just flat out didn’t bring in anything that I was working on. Plus, I liked everything they were playing me and we were working on. I remember being so overwhelmed by the sheer volume that we made a living list on one of the walls so we could track everything.
The author laying it down.
Rich and Greg grooving
As 2005 rolled into 2006 we were honing in on a large amount of finished songs. We set a date to do some recording but never hit that mark. The “band” thing was still really casual and the guys were still playing in the cover band that I left. We did a couple of gigs just to do it but nothing was really serious. Well, as serious as a band can be with a bunch of guys that work and do other things for food. The year was ending and 2007 was bearing down and we realized that we were having more fun doing this project than any other thing we were all a part of. So we decided to get official and make it our new band thing. So we did. So there.
Time was booked in the summer of 2007 at Fresh Tracks Studio in SE Portland. We hadn’t recorded before as the trio and spent a couple of weeks playing everything we were recording multiple times so we could just relax and play, not think about recording. That first session was really something. We set up the instruments, the engineer set up the mics and we just hit it. I think we tracked 12 songs, everything live, no click track or anything. We took the basic tracks out to my friend Dave Boyle’s studio, Studio 212, in the country and worked on additional parts. Some of the vocals were done at Rich’s home studio. I took a stab at doing the product artwork for what would become our first CD “Buttered on the right side”.
DBJ rocking in unison.
Rich singin' and holding it down.
“Buttered” came out in June of 2008 through CD Baby and iTunes. We didn’t put out the disc for any reason other than we wanted to. We have yet to invest any time, money, or effort in promoting it because again, this project is about songwriting. We’ve done some more gigs since then but for the most part the focus has been on songwriting. As we entered 2009, we released our second disc called “Sweet Sassy” through CD Baby and iTunes again. We cut all the tracks over 2 days at Studio 212 with our good friend Dave again engineering/producing. We’re thrilled with the way this one came out as well as it represents the songs to the best of what we were able to do on that session.
We think 2009 will be a bit more “serious” in terms of more shows, and certainly more recording. We’ve already tracked our 3rd disc (recorded during the “Sweet Sassy” sessions) and are now working on parts for those songs. It’s pretty interesting writing this and looking back over the last 3-4 years, how this whole thing started. I’m fairly certain we’ll keep doing this for the same reasons, songwriting. If more shows come from that, so be it. Or anything else for that matter. We’re just another local neighborhood band, doing our thing, using the internet as our tool to share what we do. If you like it, let me know huh? I’ll tell the guys.
You can also view more about us at our page on Reverb Nation.
Photography courtesy of Paul Matera, paulmatera@comcast.net.
Discography
“Buttered on the right side” – 2008
http://cdbaby.com/cd/dullboyjack
“Sweet Sassy” – 2009
http://cdbaby.com/cd/dullboyjack2
Find us on iTunes
Just in case you’re curious, DBJ as found via Google.
Video
“My Dog Spike” from “Buttered on the Right Side”. Filmed live at Quiet Life Productions:
Here’s a clip of us live @ the Twilight Cafe CD Release party for “Sweet Sassy”: