Hey Everyone,

I have been getting tons of great feedback on twitter from you guys about the songs I’ve released so far and I appreciate it so much. It’s truly inspiring to hear that stuff. There have been lots of people asking when they can hear a new song and the time has come. I will be releasing a song called “Dear God” on September 7th! It’s not just another song to me though. This What’s Eating Gilbert song is honestly one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. You might hear it and think it’s no big deal and that is totally fine but for me personally it means a lot. I think that is why I haven’t shared it yet. Meant too much to me to just let it go but I’m ready to let my child go into the world. It’s time for it to experience the torment, ridicule and harsh judgement that the ever so unforgiving world has to offer haha.

Besides another FREE song. There will also be other exciting news for the people who like this project. Anyone see my cribs episode awhile back? If you collect what I collect then you will be stoked. So please spread the word and tell people be here on September 7th!

I know I’m a huge slacker when it comes to blog posts on here. I just don’t want to bug you all with pointless info but there will be a lot of What’s Eating Gilbert stuff over the months to come.

In other news………

Anyone coming to the Honda Civic shows? This tour has been amazing for us. It’s a huge opportunity for us to play for new people and try to win over some new fans. New Found Glory hasn’t opened for a band on a U.S. tour in like 5 years. We do signings every night after Tegan and Sara’s set and its crazy how many people have never seen or heard of us. It’s not that I’m surprised or shocked by it it’s just nice to be able to still grow and accomplish something as a band even after touring for 13 years. We love the challenge and we love the chance.

It’s nice to see the die hard NFG fans and familiar faces coming out to the shows as well. I frequently hear comments about how we should be headlining and how we’ve been around longer and blah blah. I appreciate everyones loyalty and passion about our band but to be honest it shouldn’t matter when we play. Besides the fact that 90% of the people are at these shows for Paramore , its not when you play it’s HOW you play. We have no egos and though we have had ups and downs in the never ending life of our band, we will give you the same energy , same show no matter the size of the stage, size of the crowd, or popularity of our band. We solely love music. Everything about music and the thrill of being on a stage and getting to play it for a living. I feel people and fans put way too much emphasis on record sales of bands and who is mega popular and who isnt. No matter the popularity, the music is the same and the music is what is important. You should care about it wether 5 people love it or 5 million. Never worry about us and who we should or shouldnt be opening up for. Like I said before, we appreciate that you care about us in such a close way but we will melt your faces off either way!!!

There has been heavy debate on this tour about whether or not the Movie DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS was funny or not. Though Tegan and Sara were not impressed I’m just throwing it out there that the 4 friends I watched it with and I thought is was hilarious!

Oh yeah and Leonardo Di Caprio is still asleep. The fact that his kids were the same age and wearing the same clothes proves to me that his totem still didn’t fall. Go see Inception and you will know what I’m talking about.

I was born and raised in Coral Springs, Florida. It’s a suburb of Ft Lauderdale. It was a smaller town when I was growing up there, but it’s grown like crazy since I moved to California in 2001. I never noticed or cared about the Florida humidity when I lived there because I was so used to it. That’s all I knew. Now that I’m back in Florida it’s like living in front of an open oven. I have been spoiled by the California weather. This trip to Florida wasn’t about visiting friends in my home town. I’m actually 4 hours north of all of them. This trip brings me to the lovely town of Ocala. I think the last I was here was like in 1997 when my old hardcore band had a show here. This time I’m here working with a band called A Day To Remember.

I produced A Day to Remember’s last record called “Homesick.” Last time we worked together in the back of their bus every night when they toured with New Found Glory about 2 years ago. Has it really been that long? This time both the band and I had a couple weeks off from tour and were able to get together and start working on songs for their new album. I don’t know any details on when exactly this record is coming out but I do know that it will be another record full of infectious songs their fans will be pleased with.

We have been working on the songs at some random studio that has a lot of photos of Michael Jackson everywhere. His spirit is watching over us. We all are set up in a semi-circle just flushing out ideas.

We work out the arrangements of the songs, then do a rough demo track. We usually have to track it immediately or we will forget what we just did. Since we’ve been working on stuff every day in the same room we tend to get cabin fever and our brains turn to mush.

I’ve been living in a hotel which is pretty interesting. For the most part it’s kinda boring in the hotel but I’m a mega nerd and brought my Xbox so my Red Dead Redemption game has been my buddy. Plus there is a cleaning lady so my bed is always made haha. Im very grateful A Day to Remember chose me to work with them again. I have lots of fun hanging out with all them and being around music all the time keeps me mega inspired and I’m always learning and taking away something from everyone I produce or work with.

As I write this there are only about two more full days left to work on songs then I fly out to North Carolina to start the Honda Civic Tour. I am excited to be able to watch Tegan & Sara and Paramore. I am genuinely a fan of both band’s music. I’m kind of a Tegan & Sara super fan.

Besides the A Day to Remember studio stuff, my last Whats Eating Gilbert session went great. I recorded two originals and one cover. This is a photo of me recording an acoustic version of a Stevie Wonder song. The song is called “Stay Gold” and it was the theme from one of my all time favorite movies The Outsiders.

I will be releasing a new original song online soon. It isn’t from the new batch of songs but from an older recording session I did. I just haven’t released it yet because honestly it’s my favorite one and for some reason I keep putting it off. It’s like my favorite kid that I don’t want to let go of. I’ll figure out a good date and let you know soon.

Thanks for checking in!

First Some news…….

I will be heading into the studio on June 21st to record 2 to 3 new What’s Eating Gilbert songs. Mike Green will be the producer that’s recording them. Have you heard the newest awesome Set Your Goals record? Well, he produced that. He is super talented. Unfortunately, they won’t be for free download when finished, but they will be for something way cooler! I can’t really announce what that is yet but soon enough you will know.

I’ve received some comments on twitter and on this site that people have been unable to download the What’s Eating Gilbert songs off of Bridge 9’s website. The songs are no longer up there. If you click the Download button on this site you should be able to directly download them. It says “get MP3″. Bridge Nine are still my buddies , they were just helping me get started and they rule for doing so!

Check out this video a girl made. It’s her singing one of my songs on ukulele. I like her version. I’m flattered someone took time out of their day to do this and it helps so much in spreading the word about my music. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now some random…….

I know it has been quite a bit of time since my last post. I have been staying pretty active while off from touring. Not so much with music stuff but hanging out with friends. It has been a blast. I’m lucky that I get to tour so much and I love being a road pirate but it’s nice to run around where I live in LA like a Lost boy from Hook. I’ve been going on Lots of hikes, having barbecues, playing baseball, training mma, and seeing lots of movies. Eating loads of food too.

Here are some photos of the activities.

I’m not a big sports fan at all besides watching UFC stuff but I love playing sports with friends. I decided to have a barbecue at a park near my house that has a bunch of baseball fields. I called some friends and we brought tons of food and bats and gloves and had a blast. The park was packed and all the fields were reserved which sucked. We waited awhile and luckily a field opened up. There was a group of about 5 kids from Korea waiting to play on the field as well. They didn’t all speak great English but they were willing to team up and join our game. That was sort of a mistake on our part because they really meant business and came fully dressed in baseball uniforms. We all sucked and they were insanely good making it hard for us to even hit the ball. It was super funny because every time we would screw up, which was often, they would start laughing and talking in Korean to each other. Knowing that none of us would understand them we guessed they were making fun of us. It was well deserved though.

The Korean Smashing Machines!!!

Here I am getting a hit and below me is Matt Stawski, the director of the new NFG video, crushing one.

This is my friend Sweet Pete in a tree. He sang in the Boston hardcore band In My Eyes. He is in a tree because we had marsh mellows but no sticks to put them on. He was breaking sticks down for us to use.  Below that photo are two of my friends hanging at the barbecue. Dre on the left and Luis on the right who also both sing in cool hardcore bands you should check out. Donnybrook and Alpha & Omega.

Post game group photo!

My top 5 recent favorite movies I’ve seen while home

Micmacs

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Macgruber

The A-Team

Nightmare on Elm Street 2010

As I have mentioned a bunch of times already on this blog, I am a huge movie fan. Heavily themed soundtracks have inspired me just as much as some of my favorite band’s records. The place I remember first hearing Buddy Holly was on the STAND BY ME soundtrack. Please see this movie ASAP if you haven’t already. The soundtrack to that movie was filled with many classic oldie tunes, but for some reason Buddy Holly’s “EVERYDAY” stuck with me the most. I know this song has been covered a couple times before, but I still wanted to do it since it has special meaning to me. It reminds me of laying on my floor in the 80’s too close to the T.V. enjoying Corey Feldman and River Pheonix in their finest roles and me cracking up every time the junkyard owner told his dog Chopper to “Sick Balls”.

I recorded this one night awhile ago while on tour in europe. I was upstairs in our bus while parked at a venue in Italy. Be warned, the sound quality is crappy.

CLICK ME TO HEAR —– “Everyday”

Also, please check out a website I created all about movies. It’s being reworked but you can sign up now anyway. It’s called Moviescenester.com

It seems like whenever you want something you can’t have there are constant reminders of it everywhere. Whether they are weird coincidences or just made up circumsstances in your head is debatable but the impact are nonetheless the same. Getting over it or recovering from your desire is damn near impossible. The reminders start to make you think that maybe you aren’t supposed to forget. Maybe signs telling you to stop doubting and just do it. I guess it depends on what you beleieve in. I feel like everything happens for a reason. Doesn’t it?  I have lived by that theory for awhile now and it all has panned out great for me. Either way it can feel like utter torture when something is so out of your grasp and it’s dangled in your face. If you can’t escape, then don’t, and fight for what it is.

I wanted to also wish my Mom a happy mothers day! I try to pick special dates to release songs on and mothers day felt appropriate. This song is obviously not about my mom but this song would not have been possible if it wasn’t for my mom. Parents are supposed to support our dreams, but not all do. Especially if you had a dream like I did. From my 6th grade year of school I wanted to play music and my Mom never took me as a joke. She wanted me to do good in school but she would never hesitate to drive me over to a friends house for our little band practices. As I got older I joined more serious bands and from that it grew to where I am today. Through my musical journey my mom has always been there supporting me and routing for me , making many of the would be stressful things in life easier for me. Even this What’s Eating Gilbert project was partially fueled by my mom. Her wanting me to do more creatively and show all of the talent she sees in me. So I guess if you dont like NFG or WEG you can get mad at her!!!!!!

Happy Mothers Day MOM! I love you with all my heart!

Hey Everyone,

It has been a couple weeks since I have made a post or given an update. I’ve been super busy in the studio producing an LA based hardcore band called TERROR . Terror has been a band for years now and are one of the biggest and best hardcore bands out today. I was extremely honored when they asked me to produce them. I was up for the challenge. I call it a challenge because producing a band like Terror is tricky. You want to help the band grow but at the same time since they already have an extremely loyal hardcore fan base you don’t want to alter or mess with things too much. It is a fine line you have to walk. The outcome has been amazing so far. I think Terror fans and new fans that may never have listened to hardcore before will dig this cd.

Scott Vogel (singer of Terror) and I

Producing bands in between touring is a blast. It’s nice being creative and talking about music with other musicians . I’ve learned a lot I can share with other people over the years and I’m always open for new ideas and outlooks. I want every record I produce to be diverse. If you want to check some stuff out, here is a list of some records I’ve produced……..

FIREWORKS – “All I have to offer is my own confusion”

A DAY To REMEMBER-”Homesick”

H2O – “Nothing To Prove”

The Dear & Departed – “Chapters”

So as far as WHAT’S EATING GILBERT goes. I will be releasing a new song on Mothers Day. My Mom is amazing and has been my #1 supporter in life so I thought this was a perfect day to release a song. It’s not a song about her. That would have been way cooler. I think I need to write one. Thanks again for visiting and be on the look out for more Whats Eating Gilbert songs. You never know when I might pop one up here randomly. Official releases in the works as well.

For the past two weeks I have been on tour with NFG. We went to Japan, Australia and now New Zealand , where I’m currently making this post. Below are some random photos I took on the trip. We had a blast and saw lots of friends.

This first photo is a shot of Osaka, Japan from my hotel room.

The major cities of Japan baffle my mind. They’re so huge and there are millions of people walking around and shopping at all times. It makes New York City and Los Angeles feel like ghost towns. Here is a picture of Jordan on the streets of Osaka. This was a Wednesday night when we first got to the city.

The first thing we wanted to do in Osaka was to go eat. My favorite Japanese food is called Okonomiyaki. Click that link to find out exactly what it is. We walked a bit and found a spot near our hotel. The cooks were cool. They let us obnoxious americans snap photos of them. Here they are preparing the goods.

We were very pleased. (Me, the chef, Jordan, Basil, Steve, and Jenny Douglas taking the photo).

My food. I did eat it all. I’m a member of the clean plate posse’.

The best place on earth to go vinyl shopping is in Japan. Somehow they have every rare hardcore and punk record released. All the records are thoroughly organized. Some by record label, some by country of release, and of course all alphabetized in their proper musical genre. There are so many good records to buy you couldn’t possibly have enough money to get all the ones you would want. This is a picture of my favorite record store in all of Japan. It’s located in the American Village in Osaka.

In Tokyo we played a festival called the Punk Spring Festival. It’s an amazing festival. We got to hang out with a bunch of friends that also played. Here are some photos I took at the festival.

Steve NFG and Jordan SYG

Set Your Goals on stage after they tore it up at the Punk Spring Festival!

Lags from the Gallows denying my love.

After our Punk Spring trip in Japan we flew to Australia. We took Fireworks and Hit The Lights with us down there. The tour was super fun but really hectic so I wasn’t able to bring my camera around much. I did however take it to the Koala sanctuary in Brisbane. I went there years ago but this time was way more fun since Fireworks went with me.

Fireworks and their new Koala baby Pepsi.

It has only been a day and I already miss my new Kangaroo friend.

Brett Jones from Fireworks and the most unfortunate looking animal on earth.

The Koala park had a photo of NFG hanging on their wall from the first time I went their in 2004. Crazy!

I’m currently in Australia so my timeline and dates are all screwed. I’m not sure what time it is in the states, but today was one of my best friends birthdays. His name is Toby Morse. He sings in one of my favorites bands called H2O. I thought this date would be appropriate for releasing a cover I did. Below is a cover song I recorded by Toby’s band. The song is called One Life, One Chance. When going into record my own solo What’s Eating Gilbert songs I was super nervous about what people would think and worried about the outcome. The lyrics to this song rang in the back of my mind and gave me inspiration to not worry and have confidence in what I was doing. We only have one chance in life so we should live everyday like it’s our last.

Click the link below to hear my version,

One Life, One Chance

LYRICS:

What if I said, I was an accident waiting to happen
Woudl I trip and fall, fall on my words
And would you say, say that I was wrong
My words were out of place, went where I didn’t belong

This to me is fact and fiction plays a role
Confusing situations that I can’t control
The heart of matter, it beats with pride
Sometimes I wear it on my sleeve, sometimes I keep it inside

And no one said it was gonna be easy
And I’m not afraid to try
And with the odds stacked up against me, I will have to fight
One life, one chance, gotta do it right!!!

And I can’t let fate dictate what’s best for me
Gotta take control of my own destiny, you can’t relate
You think there’s no escape but I got everything at stake
Here just to prove you wrong!

And no one said it was gonna be easy
And I’m not afraid to try
And with the odds stacked up against me, I will have to fight
One life, one chance, gotta do it right!!!

More importantly , today my friend Toby launched his new website called http://www.onelifeonechance.com/ . He recently began speaking to young students at schools about having a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) and living a drug free life style. It’s a real admirable thing he put together and worth your time. Go see for yourself and check out his website. There is also a video testimonial by me on there.

Thanks for reading. More What’s Eating Gilbert songs coming soon.

www.onelifeonechance.com

I’m in Japan on tour!!! woohooo! It is my favorite place to tour in the world. No offense to the rest of the amazing countries and territories I’ve played, but if you visited Japan you would agree. It’s like no other. Tonight’s show in Nagoya was awesome. The Japanese fans are always beyond enthusiastic. They sing along to all the words and 95% of them can’t even speak english. Its so surreal. They even make up there own chants through random parts of the songs.

Tonight a friend of mine came to visit me at the show. His name is Hammer. Well at least thats what he wants me to call him. He owns an amazing brand called T.W.I.M which stands for The World Is Mine.

Hammer and I

T.W.I.M makes rad hardcore inspired clothes but the coolest thing Hammer makes are his trademark BOMBER KID figures. You can find them in the states at Kid Robot. Check out two of the Bomber Kids he brought me!

I don’t want to jinx anything but him and I have been in talks of doing a limited edition NFG bomber kid that looks like the guy on the cover of our Catalyst record. He showed me the mock up design and it looks so cool. If it works out I’m gonna flip. I am a huge collector of toys and Japanese figures so to have an official Japanese New Found Glory figure would be a dream come true.

Check out other T.W.I.M stuff at http://www.twim-theworldismine.com/

Tomorrow we play a big show in Tokyo. I’m excited to see my friends from Set Your Goals and The Gallows. More blogs from Japan coming soon.

Also, I will be releasing a cover and and original What’s Eating Gilbert song this month so be on the lookout!

Thanks to everyone who voted and most of all thanks to all the artists who took part in designing a cover. It took me awhile but I marked down all the votes and counted them all up.

And the winners are……

First PlaceSecond PLaceThird Place

There you have it folks! Those were your choices. The top three. I am currently in Japan and will send the prizes personally to the winners when I get home on the 14th of April. I will email the winners for their addresses.

My Special choice was

Thanks again and be on the look out for new Whats Eating Gilbert songs coming this month!!!