I'm baaaaaaack...

...in more ways than just one.

#1, the blog is back. I haven't posted much of anything this summer, and that's for a lot of reasons. The main thing is that I was up to my eyeballs in responsibilities and other things going on. For one, I was running the program side of a corps in the hunt for a DCA Class A World Championship. On top of that, I was helping to plan my wedding, I had 7 bands to write for this year, two bands to coordinate programs for, band camps, etc, etc. It's been wild.

So, to catch you up in chronological order...


Fusion: My summer with Fusion ended with a 2nd place finish at the DCA World Championships in Rochester, NY. In only the corps' second season ever, Fusion placed 2nd in Class A by just tenths of a point and won the following captions: brass, visual, and colorguard. A lot of the percussionists blamed themselves for coming in 2nd, but really it was losing GE that did us in. The fact was, Alliance was a damn good corps and either one of us could have walked away with the big prize that night. It just so happened it was them. We made it close and had a great ride...that's all that really matters.

Finals weekend was a spectacular weekend of drum corps for us. We had our best attended, most focused, most productive rehearsals of the year...at the right time. It was a good way to end a great season. I couldn't be happier for the members or prouder of their accomplishments. The members of the corps are absolutely amazing and deserve the best drum corps experience available. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for welcoming me, listening to me, and believing in the program. I told them it would be rough at times. I told them to believe and to work and that everything else would fall into place. It did. They did what it took to be one of the best corps on the field that night...one of the best in the world at what they do. Bravo.

Off the field, it was a frustrating, sometimes fun, awkward time. There was a lot of talking...mostly TO me. A lot of conflicting feelings and emotions. There was a lot going on in my brain because with the end of one season comes the beginning of another...and I had not yet made up my mind whether I was going to be a part of another season with Fusion.

This was nobody's fault. I have no ill feelings towards the Fusion organization, the administration, the members at all. I don't hate the color purple, think the name is silly, or anything like that. I didn't get in a fight with the director or make ultimatums, or had ultimatums imposed on me...except one...that I make my decision on whether or not to return before my wedding. I wanted to wait until afterwards so that I had time to decompress and to think clearly without all of the emotions that finals weekend brings. That was not going to be possible, and so I made the decision to not return for 2009. I offered to write the show and was taken up on my offer...then later asked to not write at all.

I don't blame them for wanting a quick decision, but it was not something I was prepared to do at the time. I had a rough year...getting laid off twice, a wedding 2 weeks after finals...there was just too much going on at that moment for me to make a promise and a decision that would effect not just myself but my new wife, all the members of the corps, my family, etc.

Regardless, the end result is the end result and that's just the way it is. I enjoyed working with my friends again: JR, Al, Genny, Jess, Simon...etc. I made a lot of new friends in the process, including some of the staff I inherrited when I took the job. Hopefully we can all remain close and/or work together in some capacity somewhere someday again. Who knows. It was fun while it lasted.

Wedding: On September 13th I married Dena Berry (now Dena Kilian) in Dillsburg, PA with about 110 family and friends. It was a stressful time leading up to the wedding, but the day couldn't have gone off any better. She was beautiful (pictures to come), our families behaved, and nothing blew up.

We flew to Disney World the following evening, and had a blast. What a great spot for a honeymoon! She had never been there, and I hadn't been there since I was in high school. There is PLENTY to occupy and entertain adults down there! We made our dining part of the experience as well and ate at some incredible establishments such as Citricos and Wolfgang Puck's. Unreal food every night. Great times. Downtown Disney is awesome.

Bushwackers: Jay Morlot, director of the Bushwackers, contacted me after finals and we talked about me coming on board as the brass caption head for 2009. Apparently, Joe Exley was looking to take a step back and spend more time with his family and/or look into other options and situations as an instructor. Joe had asked me a couple times during the summer to come back in 09 and help or take his job or whatever...so I knew that the interest was there. I hadn't really given it any thought because I was happy with my situation at Fusion and wasn't really considering leaving until faced with the decision the day after finals.

I agreed, and once I came back from my honeymoon I set about the business of putting together a staff, organizing the caption, getting my arms around the recruiting and technology situations with the drum corps, etc, etc. There was/is a lot of work to be done to help get this brass program back to the top.

I'm excited to be back with the Bushwackers. I mean...I spent 12 years here. I was the drum major for 9. I put everything I had into the Bushwackers for a long, long time...so of course I'm elated to be back so I can help continue to build this thing again. I'm excited to work with the kind of people we have on the staff and on the design team. I'm excited about the opportunity to come "home" and take the reigns of a top teir brass program that is only 2 years removed from winning the caption at finals. BUT, there's no time to be excited or to bask in the wonderfulness of it all. I have a lot of freakin' work to do.

Last season, the Bushwackers had less brass players than we had at Fusion for most of the year. It didn't end up that way by finals, but that's a frustrating way to spend your season. I want to overcome that. There's no reason why the Bushwackers can't be full earlier. There's no reason why, out of the hundreds of thousands of brass players in the world, we can't find 45 of them to march Bush...

...but it takes determination and a lot of hard work. I have to convince the brass playing world that the Bushwackers is where they should be in 2009. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that...but I have to.

What I'm hoping is that those who have worked with me, marched for me, or marched with me in the past will see me in this position and decide to come check it out and give me a chance. I have been a program coordinator before, and I've done the arranging thing now...but I have not been a brass caption head. I've learned from some spectacular instructors, and I have a lot of great ideas myself. I've also hired two guys with a ton of knowledge and we have one of the best brass arrangers in the business. There are a lot of reasons why everyone should want to come check this out.

If for no other reason, just the fact that it's a young, yet experienced, hungry, competitive, fun staff should be enough for people to want to hang out and do the Bush thing. I hope they do.

It's going to be a very organized effort on our part...and a TEAM effort. This isn't high school band. I'm not here to yell at people all the time and hold their hands as we go through things...no. This is about me doing my job, the staff doing theirs, and the members doing theirs. If we all understand our roles and responsibilities...and we execute...there is no reason why, with the program we'll have in place, that we can't again be one of the (if not THE) best in the activity.

There's no magic potion. There's no drum corps fairy dust. Do your job. Believe in the program. Execute. Love what you do and put that into your performance.

Done.

If you're reading this and not currently betrothed to another corps for 2009 (which technically, almost none of you are because there haven't been any rehearsals yet really)...I hope you come check us out.

Band: Since coming back from the honeymoon, it's been band all the time. Both Ryan's and Penns Grove's shows are complete and both bands took home victories this past weekend. We're having some weird judging things going on that I won't go into here, but it's fun to see all the kids starting to have a good time. October is when band really starts becoming more fun than work...and I think they're starting to get that. I've enjoyed working with both programs. We'll see what next year brings, but I thinkn it might be time for me to try my hand at judging during the fall and opening up my schedule for more arranging. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'm still having fun most of the time teaching, and it's especially fun this year to hear two groups every week playing my arrangements and to watch one of those groups marching my first ever drill. Good stuff.

So...that's where we're at. I have a design meeting this weekend for the Bushwackers. The goal is to put together a blueprint for the 2009 show. There are a lot of cool and crazy ideas. A lot of people liked the Bushwackers last year. It was different, entertaining, hard, but accessible...fun stuff. This year, if we go down the road we're headed right now, will make last year pale in comparison. It's going to be very cool, very eclectic, and very cool. As usual, you just can't pin us down when it comes to style...but SUBSTANCE, you can always expect the best.

It's the offseason now, and there's not a whole lot going on in the drum corps world except behind the scenes stuff (which I'll share a bit of with you)until our open house on November 30th. Until next time, feel free to comment or email me at bushbrass@gmail.com Thanks for reading!