I thought to myself as we were arriving at the airport in Los Angeles to depart for Australia, I wonder if I’ll have anything to blog about on this trip. I laugh when I think about that thought now because it was only 15 minutes of being at the airport that things became interesting.

The first thing we noticed upon arriving at the airport was that it appeared that every band on the festival was going on the same plane. It was a rendezvous of rock stars. Black clothes, tattoos, chains, piercings, plugs and guitar cases were the average attire of all those checking in. It was a collection of individuals all excited to do what they love but weary of the actual travel. It was a bit surreal to see Slash next in line behind me.

As we got to the desk, it was the beginning of what was to be a stress-filled flight. Taking a few steps back, the night before we left, I was emailed a spreadsheet of the backline equipment. This is the equipment to be rented by local dealers to all the bands playing. This includes amplifiers, drums, keyboards, etc… Usually all we have to do is bring our guitars. In the past, we have rented the exact model keyboard we use here at home. As I scan the spreadsheet, I notice under keyboard, it says Roland RD 700. At first I think, is this just their generic identifying title of the keyboard or is this the actual model? I look it up and sure enough it’s a model of an electric piano. The stress begins to simmer. Someone has made a mistake in giving the backline company the impression we could use this. All this has is basic piano and rhodes sounds and none of the synths, bells, choirs, strings that we normally use. The tedious hours I spend fine tuning the tone, decay and shape of every single sound in every single song would be useless on this. We’d turn into the Dommin jazz quartet. Not bad for a smokey New York City lounge, but perfectly wrong for an outdoor rock/metal festival. I start to do my own research checking the stock of all the backline companies in Australia. There is ONE in Sydney but we don’t even know if it is available. I start to think…do we have to cancel our first Brisbane performance? What are we going to do? We have no keyboards!!! Upon realizing we may have to bring our own, we call the airline to ask if something of this weight and size would be allowed. They assure us that it should be ok and if not, there are cargo companies that will pick it up from the airport and send it separately.

So back to the airport on the night of departure, we put the keyboard on the scale. It comes up at 132 lbs. The airline tells us they can’t take it. They also tell us that the cargo company is not on site and won’t pick it up. And even if we take it there, it’s likely that, because we didn’t make prior arrangements, it will take over a week. The stress went from simmer to boil. Conveniently, the company that said they would come pick up the keyboard were not answering the phone. So here we are with a 132 lb keyboard that no one can take and our plane departs in less than an hour. Fortunately a complete angel really helped us out, came back from dropping us off and took care of the arrangements. However, we didn’t know the outcome until 2 hours after we landed in Brisbane. It made for a uneasy 14 hour flight. There was some light-hearted banter that came from an aussie lady in her late 70’s sitting in the adjacent row with so many questions. “Are you all together? Is this a competition? Why are you all wearing so much black?” It was humorous to hear Billy James come out with the explanations.

So as I sit here in my hotel room in Brisbane, we’ve been told the keyboard will arrive tomorrow morning. And also another keyboard was found locally and made available from the backline companies here. So it seemed only hours ago we had nothing and now we have more than we need. It’s funny and completely annoying when someone on the outside says, “what were you worried about?” As if they had the crystal ball that allowed them to know it was going to turn out ok. All I could think about was arriving at the festival grounds at 6 AM on the day of the show and tinkering around with an electric piano I know nothing about trying to manipulate the piano keys to sound like bells for “My Heart, Your Hands” and splitting the keys into the various sections we need for “Without End.” All I could think of was the horrible first impression we would make here.

Hopefully it arrives without delay and it all works out okay tomorrow morning. I still have a seed of anxiety that won’t go away until the keyboard is in our possession, we plug the keyboard in and it functions just fine. It’s somewhere over the Pacific Ocean as I type and hopefully it’s been handled with care.

It’s pretty interesting so far. All the bands were on the same plane, the same shuttles and most are staying in the same hotels. I just hope tomorrow goes well.

Ok, well here is part 2 of this tour blog. How I wish I had the time to do more blogs throughout this tour but this tour was just as brutal as expected. So many times we had to cut out of the shows early just to make the next one in time. It was a true test of health and stamina under the worst weather conditions and little to no sleep.

The good news, continuing from where I left off last time, I did not have to cancel any shows. It was a very close call after the Mesa, AZ show but I rested my voice, got some medication and really held back from pushing myself too hard when I was singing. I pretty much had to be careful for all the shows up the West Coast, from San Diego to Seattle.

As I’m writing this, I’m thinking back on the fact that we’ve pretty much avoided any major catastrophe’s on this tour regarding our transportation. I mean, there was the one incident when I woke up after playing El Paso. We stayed in Albuquerque that night and I wake up to a text from Konstantine saying, “did you see the van?” A number of things ran through my mind but this has to be one of the oddest incidences. The story goes that at about 2:30AM, a truck pulled up behind our van and trailer in the hotel parking lot and a man quickly got out and started hacking at the back of our trailer with an axe. Then the hotel security yelled at him and he sped off. So now we have these dents and gashes in the back trailer doors. And it looks like the lock was pretty badly damaged as well. But fortunately for us, it was an unsuccessful attempt.

Another major happening on this tour is that it’s the first time we had to compete a tour without the four of us being together. It was strange, but after the first show of the tour, Cameron started mentioning pain in his wrist. I took him to an emergency room on a day off in a small Texas town. They determined that he had tendinitis but not before they questioned him about drug use and why his pupils were dilated. It was pretty ridiculous. But they gave him a splint to wear and instructed him to alternate hot and cold compresses on the affected area. But Cameron managed to push through until we made it to San Francisco. Once there, he stayed behind to get himself back to full strength and and we picked up our good friend Chelsea. Chelsea is an amazing drummer and anyone that has managed to catch her on this tour has witnessed something quite special. She has been working with my friend & collaborator on all things Dommin, Lucas Banker. Her project has yet to be named but I think it can only be described as something like Bjork meets Depeche Mode with a bit of a Fiona Apple influence. I had the pleasure to sing on one of her songs. It was pretty crazy considering we never practiced with her at all. She was already a Dommin fan familiar with our music. She just listened to everything, took some notes and jumped on tour and played perfectly. I’m definitely thankful to her for having helped us out and I’m very excited for her project to come out. She has certainly been getting a lot of praise from Dommin fans on this tour.

One interesting story that really blew me away is that we visited a radio station in Merced, California on the way to the San Francisco show. The DJ there has been someone who has been spinning Dommin excessively for a little while and we’ve been trying to work out an in-studio interview for a while. When we saw we were heading up that direction, we made sure to work it all out. I met two DJ’s there and both attributed Dommin’s music to them getting married. I will refrain from revealing their personal stories here, but it was pretty mind-blowing.

The day before the Seattle show was the first day off we had that we were able to spend some quality time with our good friends in The Birthday Massacre. The tour had been so hectic that we really felt like we were missing out on this opportunity. So most of the band members and their tour-mates on the bus from Aural Vampire joined the Dommin crew for dinner and an all-nighter on the bus. It was bittersweet because it was the first time we were really getting to take advantage of the tour we had been dying to be on since the first time we toured with them in ’09, yet it was so far into the tour that we were already sensing the end of it all.

From Seattle to Michigan, we experienced some seriously cold weather and treacherous road conditions. There were a couple of times we hit black ice and slid across lanes and then there was the time when a semi ran me off into the shoulder of the road full of snow and ice. It definitely wakes you up.

This was the first time I had experienced my Thanksgiving holiday on the road. And while I wasn’t with my family by blood, I was with my family on the road. Our tour manager/merch-girl/lighting-lady had invited us over to spend the holiday with her wonderful hospitable family. We also invited the other bands on the tour. I think they all had a really great time and it was nice to spend some time in an actual house with really good food. It’s weird how much you appreciate a nice clean and comfortable couch as opposed to the busted, ripped and stained furniture we usually get in the cold and dank backstage rooms we are accustomed to.

Any way, the last few dates of this tour went by too quickly. The shows were great. We had a lot of fun hanging with the fans at the shows and meeting all sorts of new people that were turned on to the music. I think the most memorable thing about this tour was the song ‘Closure.’ It’s a song that has meant a lot to a lot of people. And it’s also a song that allowed us to connect emotionally with people who had never heard of this band called ‘Dommin’. Getting the crowd to sing “goodbye” with me every night felt powerful. And it’s something I’m considering making a part of every show that we play this song. There’s something special about making a Dommin show a therapeutic experience that people leave feeling stronger than before the concert. I don’t know…it’s just a thought at this point, but it sounds attractive to me at the moment. I know Konstantine and I have a whole lot of live footage to go through from this tour as well as all the ‘Closure’ submissions we’ve yet to see and receive. Between the videos we are putting together and pre-production for the next album, we’re going to be arriving home with a whole lot to do.

I’m writing this as we are making our way through Texas to Tucson, Arizona. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to do a full headlining tour to support the ‘Love Is Gone’ album. But I’m certainly grateful that we get to close out this support run with two headlining shows, one in Tucson and one in Hollywood. I’m not sure what to expect from Tucson. But I think The Viper Room in Hollywood on a Friday night with Dommin headlining is going to be a night to remember.

It’s November 14th and we are on our way home. We are about two weeks into this tour and as I sit here trying to keep my mouth shut, insanely nervous that I might be forced to cancel tonight’s shown because of harsh singing while sick, I realize that I haven’t posted a tour blog like I usually do. So now that it looks like I have some catching up to do, I apologize in advance for those who feel that this will be too much to read.

This tour started with myself leaving separately from the rest of the guys. I felt bad about it at first because it means one less driver to share the load as the guys trek from Los Angeles to Orlando, Florida. But the reasons I stayed behind were very important. As it is, I’ve been compiling music for the next album since July. I’ve recorded about 18 possible songs from home. The quality isn’t fantastic but it’s enough for me to figure out if I like the direction I’m going. Our label wants to hear some demos and I was pretty sure I could out-do what I have done so far and I wanted to collaborate with some people that forced me to schedule some song-writing sessions after the initially planned departure date for the tour.

However, after I heard the plans of the guys, I no longer felt bad. They drove a full 30 hours before stopping. They pretty much drove straight to New Orleans so that they could celebrate Halloween in the notorious city. That was followed by a day of shooting deadly weapons in a friend’s backyard and then making it to Disneyworld where a fan of ours was generous enough to get the guys a complimentary admission.

I arrived in Orlando on Tuesday and marveled at the Harry Potter shop at the airport. At least the extra time at home allowed me to have 6 more songs that are contenders for the next album for a total of 24 songs. When I met the guys back at the hotel, we were all happy to see each other, but as Billy explained…I’m kinda happy to see you because it’s been a while, but on the other hand, I’m not so happy to see you because now it means the work will start.” We were expecting this to be one of the more brutal tours as far as traveling is concerned.

The first day of tour is always crazy. But we pulled up to the venue and immediately noticed our dear friends in the The Birthday Massacre. This is a band that took us on our first national tour back in April of ’09. We had done some West Coast runs before but nothing like this. We have become so very fond of everyone in that band and to be reunited on this tour is a bit like a dream come true. If we could do every tour with them, we would. Not only have I become a big fan of their music and truly enjoy watching them every single night, but The Birthday Massacre is full of very kind and very fun people to be around. When we started loading in our gear, I noticed the people with Aural Vampire. This is a band from Japan that has played in the US before but only at Anime/Comic conventions. This was to be their first real US Tour. There was a bit of a language barrier but luckily, Steve, from their label, helped us make the initial introductions and break the ice. I also saw some of the guys in Black Veil Brides walking around and said some initial “hellos” in passing but never really got a chance to really make their acquaintance. This is a band that has a lot of buzz going on about them and they seem to really be skyrocketing. They definitely are building quite the rampant fan-base.

As the show began, I saw the singer of Aural Vampire creep out on stage in a black corset and dress and a mask over her eyes. Every time she would smile, she would reveal her fangs. Then there is Raveman. (I think that’s how it is said). He has this mask that lights up in crazy ways. It’s hard to describe this group. It’s almost like if Daft Punk had a horror/anime element to them. I haven’t quite seen anything like them before and they are definitely going to be fun to watch on this tour. Then we took the stage. To me the highlight of this night and every night is when we play ‘Closure.’ Though we are asking fans to contribute videos and photos to the music video we are making for this song, I also wanted to make sure that we are getting plenty of great live footage. So we are filming every single night. I love getting the crowd to sing “Goodbye” with me. It’s very powerful and on a couple of nights, I’ve seen a few tears being shed. We definitely had Dommin fans in force that night judging by the loud responses. As we hit the last note of the last song and the curtains closed on the stage, I was met by a tall skinny guy with crazy black hair who came up to me on stage as we were packing our gear. It was none other than Andy Sixx, the singer of Black Veil Brides. He came out to me telling how much he had loved the show and loved the music we were doing. Apparently the guys were watching from the side of the stage. As he was telling me all the bands he was into and how he understood what we were doing, I saw that we have a lot of musical tastes in common. It was a flattering way to met someone. And I’m grateful to the tweet he sent out to his more than 50,000+ followers on Twitter about us. As we left the stage, we saw everyone in The Birthday Massacre watching us and we were greeted like little kids who graduated kindergarten into the arms of their proud parents. They have seen us grow from the band we were to the band we are and to see them with smiles on their faces and proud of us really feels good. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch Black Veil Brides’ opening but as the curtain opened for their show, the wild screaming fans made everyone take notice that this is a band to be reckoned with. Beneath the loud crowd, I could make out the shredding guitar solos and the sing-along choruses.

This is definitely a solid bill of bands that are all different but united in darkness. 
I’ll end this tour blog here for the moment. 
To be continued…..

We’re in route to Towson, Maryland and I’m thinking about how much ‘adventure’ has been packed into this short tour already. When we were on our way to Vegas to play our first headlining show there, we hit a bump in the road. Literally, a bump in the road which turned off our engine. Not wanting to get stuck in the triple digit degree desert between Albuquerque and Fort Worth, we decided it was best to have it looked at before we left Vegas. We were first told it was the van’s computer and it would take a week to get and cost an exorbitant amount of money. We had to stay an extra day in Vegas which sounds fun. However, when your budget is limited, a $20 sandwich seems a bit ridiculous. So we weren’t too happy about it. Also the stress free journey of making it to Houston in three days became the tense one and half day travel. There was one great thing about being stuck in Vegas. We got to spend the entire night and see the performance the next night of The Birthday Massacre. They are such good people and took us on our first tour across much of the country. Lasting friendships were forged and it’s nice when we are able to cross paths and connect now and then. I really hope we have the opportunity to play shows with them again in the not too distant future.

We finally make it to Houston, Dallas and then St. Louis to close out our four headlining shows as we make our way to New York. I always thought the headlining shows would amount to more pressure, but they’ve quickly become my favorite kind of shows. Everyone is singing every word at the top of their lungs. They put me on ‘cloud 9’ and at the same time are incredibly humbling. Whether it’s a small crowd or a large crowd, the energy is largely the same. And I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. Perhaps it’s the common affinity for our music, I don’t quite know. But it seems that there is something more that is leading to a real community feeling amongst the people at our shows. So many new friendships are formed right in the crowd. It’s almost like Dommin fans understand each other. That’s really the only way I can explain it. There is a camaraderie that i hope continues to exist as the Dommin Nation grows. I hate to make this any kind of competition, but Dallas was the most notable this time around. They were so loud. It seemed like their energy possessed the band and it was this circular recycling monster of energy. Thank you Dallas for that experience. Thank you as well to Houston and St. Louis. I hope it’s not too long before we return and have even greater moments together.

So as we travel to New York, we stop somewhere in the backwoods of Pennsylvania two nights before the commencement of the Volbeat tour. As we exit the van, we smell something burning and noticed what looks like dried grease all over one of the trailer tires. The more discerning eyes of Billy and Reno (tour manager) notice that the trailer bearing is melted down to nothing. Our tire was sitting on the axle and ready to fall off at any moment. We had to find a rental trailer, transfer all our gear and we got to New York about 6 hours behind schedule. We were hoping to get to enjoy New York City a bit but by the time we arrived, there wasn’t much time left to do anything. We all fall asleep wondering what this next tour will bring.

We arrive at The Gramercy Theatre around 4PM and I’m greeted by Dommin fans from the local area as well as from across the country. It seems like all the initial people lined up for the show were there for Dommin. As first days of tour are always a little crazy, we get our gear inside and start setting up. I meet the guys in Volbeat, minus one member with some passport issues, almost immediately. Volbeat is the headliner from Denmark. In my opinion they are a nice little mix of Metallica and The Misfits. They are super friendly and welcoming and I thank them for the opportunity to open their shows. The first show was a success. Our headlining shows warmed us up pretty well though it seems that sometimes I get more worn out from these support shows. I think because we are trying to squeeze in so many songs into 30 minutes that there isn’t much time to breathe. There was a distinct moment I remembered from this show. I asked the crowd how many people knew who we were. It seemed like half the floor let it be known. That certainly made us all in the band feel good and let us know that when we return in November, it could possibly be the best Dommin show ever.

We had a lot of technical issues last night in Philadelphia, but despite those, the crowds have generally been respectful and I think we’re making a few new fans on this run. The tour is so short, I really look forward to what the rest of the tour will bring. Apparently, Volbeat has had some trailer issues of their own, so we have packed our trailer with some of their gear. It’s nice to be able to help out a band that is giving us a great opportunity. I have the itch to try something new out tonight in our set. We’ll see how it goes. See you all on the road!

It’s high noon and we are on the desert highway on the way to Las Vegas. It will be our first show beginning what will be a hot and hectic but ultimately amazing month. We are in route to New York where we will begin our supporting tour of a band from Denmark called Volbeat. They seem like a group of very cool guys and I can’t wait to meet them. We caught a glimpse of their performance at the Download Festival in the U.K. However, before we reach destination NYC, we have four headlining shows of our own: Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston and St. Louis. I’m anxious to see how these shows go. It will be the culmination of our almost two years of touring. Places like Dallas we’ve hit on every tour we’ve ever been on except for the very first one. I promised Dallas and Houston we’d be back in August and I’m happy that circumstances have worked out that have allowed me to keep that promise. I just hope they haven’t forgotten.

Each of us have spent the last month and a half doing different things. Aside from coming together to play our first headlining show in our home town of Los Angeles we haven’t seen each other all that much. But man, was I so touched and impressed by that show. A group of very active fans in the Dommin Nation made plans to come together and share the hometown experience with us. They traveled from all over the USA: New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Seattle and Portland to name a few. Then we had some that came from out of the country as far the U.K. It was such a humbling experience. So many sacrifices were made to be there that I can’t thank them enough for their support. Many of our fans show their support in many different ways. We had so many people voting for us for the Kerrang awards in the UK. And though we didn’t take home the award, the amount of tweeting and promo people did for Dommin as a result of being nominated, which also came from the fans voting, was priceless and helped us so much. I’m very thankful for that. I’m also excited to say that I spent most of my time at home starting to piece together ideas for what will one day be the next Dommin record whenever it’s time. More on that in due time.

It’s good to be back in the ‘thee ol’ van’ again. There is something about being on the road that is finally starting to feel a bit like home. It’s really great to be riding along with my brothers in music again. Here’s to a successful and safe tour with fair weather, good friends, long time fans, new converts, unforgettable experiences and the rise of the Dommin Nation.