Today we’d like to introduce you to David Mead
Hi David, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Crasher is my band. Crasher started 5 years ago when I was first managing to write complete songs and sing and perform them for the first time. I was always a drummer in bands before then, and finally in 2019 something finally happened and I had my own songs for the first time. After years of trying to open that jar of songs finally one day it just opened, it was like I pried a lid off a well and they were all in there like fish looking back at me. I remember at that time it wasn’t so much like I was writing them but it was like I was gathering them up, and it was more of an issue of holding on to as many as you could without letting them get away, but some just always do. That’s how songs have been for me in Crasher, when the songs come it’s all at once and it’s like a hailstorm, and then there’s a period afterwards where I’m walking around and picking up as many as I can before they melt. Sometimes the hailstorms don’t happen at the best times, but no hailstorm does. Some of the Crasher songs are heavy, they’re heavy punk songs about heavy times in my life, and some are unaccompanied acoustic guitar that I play for my baby to fall asleep to. I put out a 4 song acoustic EP last spring of just solo acoustic guitar music, and I think every year I’m going to put out a 4 song acoustic EP of just acoustic guitar while I work on the full band Crasher songs. The last full band song we released was called “Heartbreak Island,” and it’s a heavy song about some heavy emotions, and the acoustic EP is a cool down from that. The live lineup of Crasher is Jordan Krimston on the drums and Josh Smith on the bass. Jordan is also a great recording engineer, he engineered my acoustic EP “Lullabye Milk Baby” and mixed and helped me so much with the recording of the last full length “Speaking Terms” There’s another drummer I play with too named Declan Halloran. Crasher is my first band I’ve ever had where I wasn’t playing the drums. I still play the drums and I play in a band called Wild Wild Wets, and that band really helps me see the songwriting and the live shows from the drummer’s perspective which I still love. The drummer’s perspective is honestly such a different experience from being the songwriter and standing up and playing guitar. I love the drums, they were my first love, and I think having had been a drummer has allowed me to have good relationships with my own drummer and bandmates, because I’ve spent a lot of time back there. I really appreciate my bandmates, there’s been a rotating cast of characters and they’ve all left their own energy in Crasher.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
A band is obstacles and challenges. I love making music so much. I do guitar repair as my job, and my life is drenched in music and guitars and happiness in such a way that I absolutely can’t believe. I never thought that I would be able to be happy at all, let alone so happy, and have a life where I get to play music and work on instruments. That said, I faced a lot of obstacles and challenges throughout basically my entire life up until about 10 years ago dealing with really extreme mental illness within my family, and there was absolutely no way to be actually happy while that was happening. It almost broke me and I am still super damaged from that experience. That’s most of what the Crasher songs are about. I’m slowly healing and getting it all out and I feel myself becoming more and more peaceful, and I’m looking forward to writing music from all the new places as I try to move on. I still have a lot of fun as we play those heavy songs, but I had to write about those experiences if I was ever going to move past them. Having a baby has filled me with so much joy and happiness, she’s so lovely and I want to write some more full band Crasher songs that feel like all the emotions I feel from her.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think what matters to an artist is being able to create. I’m so fortunate that my art is tied into my job, as a guitar tech and a musician I make my art on the same tools that I make my living at which is awesome. The best way to check my work and see if a guitar is ready is to play it! My guitar work is under the name “Magnetic Heaven.” I do guitar work for people in the community, and I restore vintage instruments.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Community is what matters. Friends, family, music, art. I can’t believe how good at music so many of my friends are, I’m so happy to live and be alive here with my bandmates and family and the community that all appreciates each other so much.
