It's spring of 2011, warm and lovely that time of year here in Portland, Oregon. I was woken from a dream I had... In the dream, I was up on stage, a giant crowd of fans in the audience, a multitude of some thousands of people raising their hands and shouting our name, over and over again... "Saint Jacks Parade! Saint Jacks Parade! Saint Jacks Parade!!!" My arms raised up too in the excitement of it all, punching holes in the air to every beat of the name, Saint Jacks Parade! I remember turning around to look at the other members of my band, but their faces were all blurred out and I couldn't exactly define who they were really, but it was so real... it felt so real like I was right there... and then, I turned back around to the audience, and at that exact time, found myself sitting up in my bed and repeating out loud, "Saint Jacks Parade... Saint Jacks Parade! "How fucking weird is that", I thought to myself. I was living with a roommate at the time ( Joshua Alexander), who happened to be a really great DJ to a popular local Portland Internet radio station (ObscuraPDX Radio), that our whole music scene was hip to. Anyway, I went to him and told him about the dream I had. He told me that I should follow it and go with the name, as he really liked it as well. And then he also confided in me that a friend of ours, Chutchai, had been upset about some things going on in the present band that he was in, and said that I should go talk to him about it, since he was a solid bass player and it would be a good start for building the one in my dream. So I did... that very week, i set off to go downtown Portland on a mission... I didn't even have a return bus ticket to get back home, so I was just floating on a breeze, so to speak, but went downtown to meet up with Chutchai at the Tigar Bar where he was going to be singing with the Karaoke From Hell Band... It was great! He was even up on stage belting it out when I walked in. So I stroll towards the dance floor in front of the stage. As soon as he sees me, he grabs his digital camera out of his pocket and reaches out to hand it to me... lol... wanting me to get a good photo for him... and I did. But soon after he got off stage, that's when I dove in and began telling him about the band I wanted to build and the idea's around it... His first question was, "What's the name?" "Saint Jacks Parade", I say. "Hmmm, I like it", he says. So then I tell him about the dream I had and how I got the name. We scheduled a time to get together that weekend, the following Saturday, and practice and go over some things. Well, I had gotten a good hit on a new song and had been working on it just before that Saturday, and I was a little more than half way done when Chutchai arrived at our apartment. We chilled for a minute and then got right into it, jamming out this new song coming through... We we're looking towards more of a hard rock genre but didn't know exactly where we wanted to be, and we like the dark and light sides of things, so a lot to work with! But it was only maybe an hour of play time before we had our first song wrapped up in a sealed deal and titled, Little Sinner. What a great new power ballad we created with a bit of angst in it. And it was Joshua Alexander with ObscuraPDX radio who blasted it over the air waves and made the dream that much closer to physical reality right after we finished writing it. And who would have known it would end up being such a great song that it would even still live and exist in the set lists years later! The following week after me and Chutchai wrapped up Little Sinner was when I asked Regina LaRocca to join the band. She took a little more work than Chutchai, because she wanted to see where it was going to go and didn't just want to jump into a project without a purpose. And she wasn't going to do it just because we were dating at the time either. In fact, that alone narrowed my chances of actually getting her to be in the band with me. But 2 and a half months later after writing some really cool music together, It was when "Love Takes it Away" popped out, and it was something bran new but so dynamic like the classic rock we love that we couldn't help but to immerse ourselves into it. Regina drove me home after playing and rehearsing and now writing together as a team for the last couple months... pulls in our driveway, shuts off the engine, puts the stick shift in first and then just sits there looking forward, not saying anything... a long pause goes by before I turn and look at her, not saying anything but at the same time wondering if I did or said something wrong. Then, suddenly she blurts out, "Okay I'm in!" It was Regina that brought in long time friend and band mate, James Mahone (aka: James Patrick Butts), to play the drums for us. We were a complete band and working up our first set list in June 2011 and we were already set up to perform a Headlining show at one of the larger venues near downtown Portland called, RefugePDX. Since then, it's been quite a great and wonderful and sometimes difficult journey, one in which every one of us is a major part of... Neither one of us operates this locomotive on our own, this is a band project where all the forces in it are equal. There is no one looking over anyone's shoulder or telling anyone else what to do. We come together as a combined force of all of our talents creating something we love that we hope you will love as well... much like the Power Rangers if they were a Rock band and not Super Heroes... Power Rangers UNITE!!!! lol The really cool thing is, every rehearsal, every show we perform... I get to stand back and look at these guys, and see and watch and listen, and see more of how we evolve, and what's more; how this band in so many ways, has caused each and every one of us to evolve in our own way and then apply it to our own personal lives as well... We don't plan to ever stop making music together... even though we lost James in 2017, (RIP Brother). Still, we are a very blessed band with lots of talent and we are so blessed to have Charles Nelson on the drums with us... I know if James were here now, he'd be so proud that Charlie's sitting in the seat that he used to sit! We have been alive and kicking for over 8 years now... and I wonder what the next 8 will be like! Thanks for reading how we got started. Cheers!!!
Music to us is the universal language that gives us the power to express whole heartedly, with all our soul, exactly what we feel, so powerfully so, that we can relate our happiest and saddest story. Our audience and fans will be able to draw in and connect with that very emotion and gain reference to exactly how we felt, and feel what drove us to the out pouring of that particular song.
Our music dream takes us and sweeps us away to the next plateau of where we will be rejoicing from hearing our own original music being broadcast all over mainstream media and main stream radio, etc. We're all very cool with being global! But, to live, love, celebrate and leave behind the story of our journey in a song, that is our dream.
Feeding the hungry and building self-sustaining shelter for our peoples