[PHOTO] DON'T EVER TELL ANYBODY ANYTHING

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sTuckBeats.com VERSION 3.0

the old style was old. this one is cooler. what do you think?

[EP] CHASING STARS - UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS

introducing, Under the Floorboards, the next release from CHASING STARS. here are 4 brand new songs that should hold everyone over until the album is released towards the end of the year. as far as the title goes, you'll have to wait for the album to see where it's from.

2 of these songs were made for this EP. the other 2 are songs that i decided to leave off of the album. (which is currently longer than the last album and still only halfway done. i'm really excited.)

DOWNLOAD HERE

[SONG] A.W.O.L. BY CHASING STARS

the first single from my next CHASING STARS album, Mistakes & Heartaches: The Story of My Life. a few days ago, i posted about how i'm ready to finally tell my story and bring everything out into the open. this is the first song that really reflects that. it's weird for me to hear this song, because i wrote it over 2 years ago and it's been bouncing around in my head ever since then. here it is, finally. also, all of these songs come with a disclaimer...

Note: I don’t want people to freak out when the read/hear this stuff. Things are alot better now. I wouldn’t be making this album if I was still in the midst of that mess. I feel like now I’m in a place where I can look back in retrospect and make more sense of the hell I lived thru. Hindsight is 20/20.

(as always, click the little down arrow to download.)

A.W.O.L. by CHASING STARS by sTuckBeats

LYRICS:

“Sittin’ in the darkness, in my zone.

Except for the moon, I’m all alone.

My brain hurts. This ain’t funny.

Will i see the age of twenty?

Out the window, it looks dreary.

My mind’s growing dark & weary.

If I fall, will they catch me?

If I die, will they miss me?

//

Sittin’ on the roof, blowin’ smoke,

dreaming about trying coke.

Blacking out, the pain is gone,

feeling like the devil’s won.

I wish I could fly off this planet.

I wish I could go back, I took it for granted.

Close my eyes, I see the rain.

I think I might blow out my brains…

I think I might blow out my…brains.”

IT'S ALL HAPPENING

This album is gonna stir the pot. All my dirt is gonna get exposed. A 3 year struggle with clinical depression and anxiety, thrust into the light. It's gonna upset some people. But it's time. I'm tired of carrying these secrets around. I've been to the lowest of lows and the highest of highs in the last 3 years. I've met God. And I've certainly met the devil. I just want people to understand me. Understand what I've been through before they pass judgement. I want to tell my story.

I NEED to tell my story.

The album's name is MISTAKES & HEARTACHES: THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

"It's all happening." -Penny Lane (Almost Famous)

TUMBLR (part 2)

i got a new tumblr for various reasons. this one is gonna be more focused around the making of the second CHASING STARS album. so follow me.

CLICK HERE

TRANCE BY CHASING STARS

this was originally intended for my upcoming CHASING STARS album. i made it right after i finished The Fear. i still like it, but i made it with a totally different mindset than what i'm currently working on. it doesn't fit with the current theme.

so you can have it.

(click the little down arrow to download.)

Trance by CHASING STARS by sTuckBeats

[TEASER TRAILER] A DAY IN THE LIFE: THE MOVIE

it's a good day when there's 3 posts from A Day In The Life.

here's the teaser trailer which serves as the first video from the new movie. check it out and do us a huge favor by sending it to a friend.

INTRODUCING: A DAY IN THE LIFE - THE MOVIE

(the official poster as of right now. click for bigger size.)

if you watched the official announcement, you know that matt lucas & myself are currently working on A Day In The Life - The Movie. pre-production is currently underway and hopefully shooting will happen within the next week or two. we're trying to make it at least 45 minutes long and have it done by late october/early november. teaser trailer coming in a day or two.

watch the official announcement:

A DAY IN THE LIFE - EPISODE 4 (STEVEBERG)

the show returns from a hiatus with Episode 4. Spencer sets up a meeting with Steve Spielberg, will he be let down again?

i was gonna add the public service announcement to this post, but i think it's worthy of it's own.

[IN DEPTH] CHASING STARS - THE FEAR

(note: the cover was taken in downtown chicago. that's me walking towards lake michigan. photo credit: tommy confar.)

so... i always appreciate when artists give insight on their work so that's what i'm gonna do. the album wasn't just random sounds thrown together. it all had a thought process and different feelings and emotions behind it. basically, everything was calculated.

overview: i started this album in (i believe) october of 2009. i had already been doing music for a while but it was all stuff for other people that they would be adding stuff to (vocals mostly). i never really had the opportunity to completely oversee a body of work from start to finish and have 100% control over the content, style, and deadline. so i decided i would make an album of standalone instrumental tracks so that i could really experience what it was like to have total control over the music that i was making. the name CHASING STARS stems from a song i wrote maybe 2 years ago. i had been thinking about possible artist names for myself because i wanted this to be totally separate from my beats i was doing for other people. i happened to be reading through one of my old notebooks and the line jumped out at me:

"....and i'm gonna make it far. and I can spend my nights dreaming, chasing stars."

so from that point i went forward with the album under the name CHASING STARS. the album however still needed a title. now, at this point in my life i was going through a lot, as most kids that age are. it was my senior year in high school and i had really just recently decided that i was going to forgo college for the foreseeable future so i could work and focus on music. naturally this left me with a lot of uncertainty about the future. i wasn't going to follow the traditional game plan of graduation and 4 years of college. honestly, i was scared. i started out on the album without a name for it but, as i was writing, my uncertainty of the future was just pouring into everything without me really consciously noticing. i think it was a conversation with my girlfriend that finally brought me to the realization that i was just really really scared. i laid in bed that night and just thought about everything and that's when the title honestly just popped into my head. (i wish i had a better story for that one haha) but at this point in my life, clinical anxiety was driving my already-high stress level through the roof and i was beginning to wear out. i still believe that a lot of prayer along with this album is what kept me sane through that period. hopefully that gives you a little bit better idea of how this whole thing came about.

TRACK 1 - just breathe: there are only 2 songs on the album that contain lyrics from me. the intro and the outro. the intro, however, was actually written during the making of the album. the outro was older (i'll explain later). this is maybe one of my favorite things i've ever written. (sidenote: writing became a real hobby during my junior and senior year of high school. it was and still is really important to me. i have notebooks full of random songs and poems.) this is one of those songs that hits you at a really inconvenient time and practically writes itself in your head. this particular one woke me up at night and i had to write it all down. it's brutally honest but isn't gruesome and it's easy to understand which made it a good choice for the album. i have a version of this recorded but it isn't perfect yet. so for now you'll have to live with the instrumental and the lyrics i posted a while back.

sample: telepopmusik - just breathe (extended mix) - LISTEN

vocal samples: the wackness - INFO

TRACK 2 - trapped: this one i made entirely at school. (sidenote: my grades were never the greatest during high school) it really just captures the feeling of being really stuck in that awkward period between childhood and adulthood. without being too cliche, it felt like that scene from the matrix in a way:

"This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."

i still love the vocal samples i pulled for this one. it's like they were made to fit into the album. they perfectly described what i was feeling at that point.

vocal samples: the matrix

TRACK 3 - losing grip: do yourself a favor and watch eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. i could go on and on about that movie but it would be off topic. just watch it. if you've seen the movie, you've heard the song i sampled here. i don't know about anyone else, but it just grabbed me and slapped me in the face. it's one of those songs where all the sounds just seem to work together flawlessly and you almost get goosebumps. credit the genius jon brion. i love the way the drums sound on this one. they fit the title, almost sounding like they're going to just loose grip with the rest of the track and trample it to pieces.

sample: jon brion - phone call LISTEN

vocal samples: eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

TRACK 4 - [interlude] life: in case you didn't know by now, marshall mathers is better known as eminem. i credited him here as marshall because i felt like this was outside of his eminem persona. c'mon, it's a poem. while i can't say i've experienced everything eminem has in his life, i can sympathize with his frustration here. during the making of the album, i was just really frustrated with everything. myself, my life, my friends, everything. good thing mr. mathers already penned this poem.

sample: eminem - if i had

TRACK 5 - life on the shore: man, it's so hard to stay on topic with this. i sampled this track from a band called noah and the whale. the song is sampled is on their album the first days of spring, which i seriously argue is the best album made in the last 10 years. it's that good. please listen to it. the sample is fairly self-explanatory:

"You can give up anything when you're following your heart."

it just really echoed what i was feeling. i had given up going to college and having a concrete plan for the future. but i was following my heart to do music/video/other stuff.

on the final version: justin taylor - INFO

sample: noah and the whale - my broken heart - LISTEN

TRACK 6 - the fear: same thing as above, but in a standalone format, with more of the sample:

"You can give up anything when you're following your heart. I never had the time to show I could depart with my whole being, go back to the start. Oh I promised more in vows then I ever give with my heart. But I'll be lonely. Oh I'll be lonely. Oh I'll be lonely, oh again."

once again, the sample just described the way i was feeling. i was scared and afraid of being alone. noah and the whale said it better than i could have.

sample: see above

TRACK 7 - reality becomes dream: this song gets past the sorrow and misery and rejoices in the fact that making the music really was helping my stress and depression. being creative and just pouring out emotions into music is so freeing. that's what this song is saying. even the vocal samples which come from willy wonka & the chocolate factory echo the imagination, fantasy, and wonderment that creativity brings. i don't know how to make that sound any less cheesy haha.

official video: WATCH

vocal samples: willy wonka & the chocolate factory

TRACK 8 - lost memories: all the built up stress from school and everything was making me feel like i was honestly losing my mind. i was forgetting to do basic things like eating and sleeping. hence the name, lost memories. if you don't recognize the sample, brush up on your music history please. the only reason i picked this song to sample is because it gave me a feeling of just being in a fog and sorta just stumbling through life, which is what i felt like.

on the final version: justin taylor

sample: the beatles - while my guitar gently weeps - LISTEN

TRACK 9 - [interlude] fear itself: one of my favorite speeches by one of my favorite presidents. i'm pretty sure everyone has heard the famous quote:

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

it fit with the album for obvious reasons.

sample: miles benjamin anthony robinson - the sound - LISTEN

vocal sample: franklin delano roosevelt's first inaugural address - LISTEN

TRACK 10 - in my head: i don't know how to say this without it sounding bad, but this song probably has the least meaning of any song on the album. it's about how my thoughts would sometimes just run through my head on loop and drive me crazy. that's what all the noises and random vocal samples are supposed to symbolize.

TRACK 11 - home at last: dido has one of the most underrated voices in my opinion. it's not amazing but i LOVE the way it sounds. this is the point in the album where things start to finally turn around and i realize everything is gonna be just fine:

"...I missed the bus and there'll be hell today, I'm late for work again. And even if I'm there, they'll all imply that I might not last the day. And then you call me and it's not so bad, it's not so bad..."

i don't think my girlfriend even realizes that this song is about her. she really kept me going during this time and i owe her a lot. she's always encouraging and supportive and she inspires a lot of my music.

TRACK 12 - good morning: this final track is like when you wake up after the storm is finally passing through and you can see the sun coming out. like everything sucks right now, but hang tight and be optimistic because it's gonna be better, and you'll be a better person because of it. i tried to pick one part of the lyrics to post here but it's all perfect in summing up the album, so read the whole thing HERE.

performed by: justin taylor

written by: spencer tuckerman

conclusion: WOW. i honestly didn't realize how much this album meant to me until i wrote this all out. i'm so glad i did it. it was a great experience and i'm really proud of what i did. if you have any questions, e-mail me (address in the banner up top) or leave a comment below. thanks for reading all this and thanks for the support. i need to sleep now.

-spencer.