Genius - Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Here's some personal footage of us in Colorado. This is your chance to see some real, behind-the-scenes Genius. Find out what's really going on inside the minds of Sean & Henry...



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John - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 12:35am

Watch people sometime. They're fascinating. It's especially interesting to see how people treat other people. To me, it seems like most people these days are so consumed by their own small lives that they can't see the big picture. Human society has become very self-consumed; very self-driven.

I've come to the understanding that people treat other people poorly simply because they either can't see outside of their own lives, or they don't care. Normal, daily interaction between one person and another has become fundamentally detached. We almost feel if a person is a "stranger", then they don't matter. This idea then deteriorates to the unconscious notion that if we don't know someone, we can treat them poorly.

Why?

At the heart of it all, every human being on the face of this earth matters. We're all made from the same things. We all exist based on the same conditions. If we would just step outside of our daily routines for a moment and appreciate the human connection that we all share, I believe that people would generally treat other people better.

At least treat a person nicely until they give you a reason not to.

Say hello to a stranger. Say thank you if someone holds a door for you. Be that person who holds the door. Wake up from your small, insignificant sleepwalk through life and recognize that every other human life matters as much as yours. Bitch.



John - Wednesday, February 11, 2004 - 7:37pm

The act of sitting down and trying to write a song is nothing more than a hilarious example of wasting time. The only thing that's ever going to come from that is shit. I'd rather never write another song again in my life if it came down to actually sitting down and trying to write one.

You can sit for hours and hours and push and pull and try as hard as you can to write a song, but that's bullshit. The only songs that will ever matter in this life are the ones that just come out. Relax and open yourself to those things in life that matter to you. Be sensitive to them. Only then will those feelings turn into honest melodies and lyrics.

Songs sound better when they're real.



John - Sunday, November 16, 2003 - 11:55pm

I think you're all so wonderfully, wonderfully, wonderfully, wonderfully pretty...




Henry - Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 8:24pm -

So my friend Samantha and I were hanging out at Urth Café in Beverly Hills (best hot chocolate anywhere!) and the place was packed. Pretty soon this guy rolls in wearing the DIRTIEST denim you’ve ever seen. I couldn’t help but stare. I’m thinking, “Beverly Hills….dirty denim..yep, that’s Diesel.”

It didn’t stop there, he had the old worn-out novelty t-shirt with the Von Dutch trucker cap that looked like he backed over it with his Mini Cooper a couple of times. (If you are unfamiliar with what this particular L.A. guy looks like: walk outside, turn left.)

The ensemble was tied together by a week-long, scrubby, un-shaven face. Overall I’d say his outfit was around $600. Way to go there douche, you look homeless. Paying big money to look like Cooter from Dukes of Hazzard is fucking stupid. At least the poor guy on the street corner won’t spit on your rich ass thanks to your bum-camo.

Get with it people, unless you’re auditioning for Mugatu’s Darolique collection, there’s no reason to dress like a no-talent assclown.



Henry



John - Monday, October 13, 2003 - 1:50pm -

I've been sick for more than a week. Germs are retarded. Just now am I starting to feel better. I was sick for 10 days. Singing is impossible when you're on your death bed. The announcement has now come that I am well. Praise Jesus for the human immune system!

[Link]




John - Friday, September 26, 2003 - 2:17am -

So here's a picture of my bass player Tommy's hand after our show tonight at The Galaxy Theatre in Anaheim. His wounds are from playing bass...



Obviously this kid rocks a lot harder than you do.




John - Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 9:05pm -

So here's what I learned from my mom today:

It's not okay to be happy believing in what you believe because you're actually being blinded from The Truth (tm).

I learned that my mom is really the only one who can believe in what she believes and be ok in the end. Everyone else who believes in something contrary to what my mom believes is, unfortunately, wrong and misguided.

For example, my sick, dying grandmother is a member of a competing church (Assembly Of God) and believes that she has been spiritually "healed" by God. That belief brings my grandmother peace and happiness as she approaches the end of her life. She is happy because of her faith.

But my mom says that that's not ok because only my mom (and other members of HER church) have the "real truth" and that my poor grandmother is being blinded from the truth. So my mom has to be sad that even though my grandmother is happy in her particular belief, she is being blinded and wrong.

So I'm thinking wow, it's okay for my mom to be completely brainwashed by her religion (Jehovah's Witnesses) because her religion is the One True Religion (tm), and it's not okay for everyone else to be brainwashed by their various religions because those religions are, of course, not true.

And then I'm thinking, well, that's too bad for my mom because I know that SHE'S the one who's really being blinded from the truth. The truth is: Genius rocks and I'll see all of you crazy kids on Thursday at The Galaxy for a not-L.A.-jaded, positively-charged rock show that no one will ever forget!

Peace / Love / And The Religion Of Rock And Roll,
John



John - Monday, September 8, 2003 - 12:42pm -

Band diary sections are stupid. Band websites shouldn't even have them. Guys who are in bands don't care about writing in diaries; they care about getting chicks and playing rock music.

I, however, am a rare exception. Ok, maybe not. But at least I'm man enough to come in here from time to time and open myself up on an emotional level and share my feelings with the world. At least I'm excited about our two upcoming Genius shows and am man enough to shout to the world that I can't wait to see all the Genius fans again. At least I can say with a clear conscience that next Thursday (9/18) at The Knitting Factory is going to rock! At least I can say that the following Thursday (9/25) at The Galaxy is going to rock also.

Listen, I'm not here to shamelessly plug upcoming Genius shows. I'm here to get down on my hands and knees and shout to the heavens on high that these next two Genius shows are going to be the best ever!

I won't be in a band forever and I won't be singing songs forever. But right now I am sharing my voice with the people and I'm going to share my soul with them as well, so help me God. Amen.



Sean - Tuesday, June 17, 2003 - 10:31pm -

Hi everyone. I know, I know. It's been a long time. A lot has happened over the past couple of months. My accident set me back a little, but we just played a couple of shows this past weekend and they were both great!!! It felt good to get back out there, but my shoulder is still pretty sore. With the help of physical therapy and more rehearsals, I should be getting back to my normal self soon.

Thank you again to all of you who have sent "get well soon" emails to me. I apologize for not responding to some of you. I have had several issues with email as of late. But I just set up a new account which all of my mail gets forwarded to. So I should be able to stay in contact with all of you and respond in a more timely manner. I'm such a flake!!! Typical musician.

Things are definitely looking good right now. It's summer, my shoulder is healing, we are writing more and more new songs, and my San Antonio Spurs just won the NBA title! What more can I ask for? Well, a song on the radio would be nice, but hey, we'll have that soon enough!

We are in the process of booking a lot of summer shows, so make sure and check the shows section on a regular basis. We will try and let all of you know as soon as we have them confirmed. Please feel free to email me anytime. Take care and watch out for flying boulders!

Sean



John - Monday, June 16, 2003 - 11:01am -

Well, it's obvious to me now that I'm the only guy in the band who gives a damn about you fans and this diary section. It's all good though, I can handle it. You know what guys, let me take this one.

So we played two shows this past weekend and they were both great. Why? Well, for starters, I really believe in this band. I believe that Genius has great songs and that we're all really good performers. That's not to suggest a level of complacency, by any means -- I'm simply noting a degree of confidence, which I know actually drives me harder.

But the real deal, for me anyway, is the fans! It's the fans who keep coming out to see us, as well as the new kids who are just starting to catch on, that really push our shows up to the next level. That's why I can't keep myself from gushing gratitude and thanks whenever I see you guys. The kids in the crowd make our shows great. So thank you for that!

On another note, I'm thinking about becoming a Freemason. The only problem is that you have to already KNOW an existing Freemason to become one. So I thought I'd extend a hand to any masonic brethren out there and let you know that I want in. I've got some friends of mine who want to join, too. So please email me through this website and let's get those secret, big-kid handshakes on! (Do I really have to run around with my trousers rolled up, though?)

More new songs and more summer shows are on the way..

Peace,
John



John - Saturday, April 19, 2003 - 11:47am -

Earlier this week, some jackass was up on a freeway overpass above the 110 freeway near Pasadena, CA and was throwing big rocks down at the cars below. One of these rocks nailed my drummer, Sean, while he was driving home and it smashed through his windshield.

This rock was so gigantic, it broke Sean's collar bone and dislocated his right shoulder. Needless to say, we're all really pissed and frustrated -- and we're truly regretful about the last-minute cancellation of our upcoming Santa Cruz show that was supposed to go down next Saturday.

Anyway, Sean is doing ok now and if you want to send him a nice get well note, just email him here. And remember, when you're out there driving on the freeways, if you see someone up on an overpass with a big rock -- be careful. People are nuts!

I'm sure Sean will eventually post his own diary entry here to tell you guys all about his experience. For the rest of us, it's back into the recording studio. We'll have another batch of brand new songs for you in the coming weeks...

Peace,
John



Tommy - Monday, April 14, 2003 - 8:52pm -

Hello...

Well it's April already and the band has definitely picked up the pace.

Thanks to the fans out there, we sold more than a hundred demo CDs in the first 24 hours we had it on the website. So I just had to say thanks to all the people who got one or more...YOU ROCK!

We're going to start getting really busy here with a huge string of Summer shows centered mainly in the LA area at first, but we will totally be hitting the road when the time is right.

Thanks to everyone again, You make this totally worthwhile...

Tommy



John - Wednesday, February 5, 2003 - 11:35pm -

So here's what I learned from my mom today:

When people are visited by aliens in UFOs or "flying saucers", the aliens who come down to visit are not actually aliens at all. In fact, they're demons who are simply pretending to be aliens. These demons go around masquerading as aliens for the sole purpose of tricking people.

I repeat: If you are ever visited by an "alien" in a spaceship, you should know that it's really a demon just trying to trick you.

I love you, mom. Thanks for that bit of wisdom.

John



Sean - Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 9:31pm -

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry for the delay in posts. The band has taken some much needed time to write a few more songs. Each song sounds stronger and stronger. I can't wait to finish and play them live! We will be playing a couple of shows for sure in March and possibly a show in February. We will keep all of you updated.

Have you guys checked out the merch section lately? For those of you who haven't noticed, we now have Genius zip-up hoodies. Everyone needs one!!!!! There are actually a limited quantity left. I don't believe we will be re-ordering this design anytime soon. How was that for a sales pitch???!!!

I hope to see everyone soon, possibly next month at our show. Please feel free to email me anytime at sean@geniusmusic.com.

Take care,
Sean



Henry - Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 4:24pm -

Funny thing happened on the way to the upstairs bar at the Yoddler on Mammoth Mountain. After a day of hucking large cornices off the summit, I sat down with my steaming hot cup of cocoa and brandy and noticed a man walking up the stairs.

To my surprise it was none other than an old friend from high school by the name of Jesse Lockwood. Seems ol' Jesse became a teacher down at Huntington Beach High School and had a liken for snowboardin'.

"By golly, is that you ya ol' codger???" I said.

"Well I'll be goddamn. If you ain't a sight for sore eyes!" said Jesse.

Jesse was accompanied by a pretty young lass with long golden hair and a smile pretty as a prairie sunrise.

"Good day to you, sir" she said in a voice sweeter than maple syrup.





John - Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 10:19pm -

So I can't for the life of me bring Tommy, Sean or Henry to write a diary entry. I think it's because what they have to say is so staggeringly brilliant it simply cannot be spoken. It would kill all of you to read it. Their words are just too powerful to be uttered or shared with the public.

Anyway, our newest songs are coming out great! We've got two more brand new ideas on the board right now and we're pumped about both of them. We've even heard (from more than one reliable source) that these songs might be our best so far.

We're so deeply entrenched in the songwriting process that we're not really doing much of anything else, aside from hitting up the occasional rock show (All-American Rejects, Finch, etc). We don't have any specific Genius shows scheduled at this time, but we're still planning to be back out there on stage sometime in late February and / or early March. So watch out for that! Our newest songs (that we'll be adding to our set) may in fact be too Genius.

Alright, so I'll try to get the other guys to tone down their mental supremacy about 20% so that they can come here to the diary section and share their thoughts with you without hurting anyone.

Peace,
John

PS: Damn, my new Genius Hoodie sure is cozy!



John - Sunday, December 29, 2002 - 10:10pm -

Henry made me sing "It's Over Now" at a famous karaoke bar in Burbank last night. I guess the song was recently inducted into the national karaoke circuit, but I didn't find out about it until a few days ago. So once word got out that anyone in the country could go down to their local karaoke bar and sing my song, well of course Henry made ME go do it. Yes!

Anyway, now we're working on writing the NEXT karaoke song. Three new ideas have been birthed in the last few weeks and they're all coming out great. We're looking forward to getting these new songs finished so that we can start putting together our first official Demo CD. It's sure to be packed with plenty of rocking hits! In the meantime, feel free to go sing "It's Over Now" at your local karaoke bar.

Peace,
John



John - Monday, December 9, 2002 - 7:03pm -

Well, we played four outstanding shows in the last month and a half and everyone's really happy with how things are going. I would've updated this diary more frequently in that time except my laptop overheated and had to be sent in for repairs. Now that I'm back, I'll do my best to keep the Genius information flowing.

Randy Jackson showed up to our Whisky show last week, so that was pretty exciting. He's very famous now and each minute of his time is probably worth a lot of money, so we were very happy to see him rocking out to some live Genius music. With any luck, we'll be recording a few of our best songs with him in his fancy recording studio sometime soon.

Tonight I'm heading over to Tommy's house to meet up with the other guys so that we can start working on some brand new ideas. I don't know why, but I always feel more creative and inspired during these winter months. It's just superstition, but it really seems like I feel more like writing songs between, say, November and March. That's not to say I haven't written any songs in June or July, for example. Of course I have. It's just that I really like the way the air feels during the mild, southern California winter -- and it puts me in a nice, creative mood. I hope these new songs flow right out...

I spent Thanksgiving up in northern Utah and went snowmobiling for the first time. A couple of friends and I drove our snowmobiles about 40 miles into the Rocky Mountains. It was pretty scenic up there at 12,000 feet. We even ventured out onto a frozen lake and jumped around for awhile, so that was pretty fun.

Now it's all about the new music. I'm giving myself the next 2 months to write the greatest songs I've ever written. I expect these new songs to change all of our lives for good. So in awhile we'll check back in with you and let you know how things are going...

John



Tommy - Thursday, November 7, 2002 - 2:19pm -

We were back in the studio tonight working on some new stuff. All we need is a few more great songs and I know everything else will fall into place. I've been fighting off a cold lately, but that's not going to stop me from busting ASS and trying to make this band succeed. Well, time to get back to work. I can tell that this band has a great chance of becoming something big. We just have to deliver!!!

Tommy



John - Tuesday, October 22, 2002 - 8:45pm -

We took tonight and last night off to rest and mentally prepare for our show on Friday. We're only 3 days away now. Last night I went to see The Used at a tiny club in Santa Barbara. They were amazing and are definitely my favorite band as of this moment.

On Sunday we rehearsed for 6 hours at a top-of-the-line rehearsal studio in North Hollywood called Leeds. We sounded better than ever and even performed a few songs for several of our industry-type buddies. You know, a few producers, producer reps, and music-type sound engineers and assistants. All was well.

As it stands right now, we're 100% ready to kill on Friday. We're expecting this first show to be landmark, both for our fans as well as ourselves. We obviously hope to see as many Genius Fans as possible.

I guess we're probably feeling that standard mix of anxiety and excitement about now. However, those chemicals DO make for a wonderfully super-charged show, so it's all good.

Rock on...
John



Sean - Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 10:14pm -

Hello everyone -

I’m sorry it took me so long to post an entry. I’m sitting on the couch at the studio borrowing John’s beloved laptop. John and Tommy are currently recording spacing and voice commands for the live adat, while Henry finishes a t-shirt design we’ve been working on. I’m trying to stay awake. Obviously, I’m the most productive member of Genius. Oh, did I mention my friend Cristina is giving me a back massage as I type? It’s so hard being a drummer in rock band!

Seriously, I am tired from late night rehearsals, preparing for the show, and trying to maintain my productive self at my white-collar job during the day. But, I am really looking forward to finally playing live. I cannot emphasize that last statement more. We’ve been writing and rehearsing material for several months. It seems like an eternity since I’ve played out!

John has informed me of a few fans driving from Arizona to check out the show. How loyal is that! That’s great!!! I don’t expect everyone who visits our site to attend the show next Friday, but it would be nice to see all of our local friends there. We could use the support.

Sean



Henry - Monday, October 14, 2002 - 5:38pm -

Although I have no opinion on the war with Iraq I would have to agree with John that it is a very scary thing. But when it comes to war, I know one thing is for certain: Jets are cool, missiles are cool and infrared night vision goggles are REALLY cool. So you can bet your ass I'll be glued to the television for all the war highlights. Thank you.

Henry



Tommy - Thursday, October 10, 2002 - 8:29pm -

Hello...

The band is working at an unbelievable speed to get ready for our upcoming show. In addition to our usual practice schedule, Sean and I have been getting together to tighten up our parts and make them like one ROCKING machine!!! The band is definitely in full force.

Everything's great and I know the first show is going be Genius...

Tommy



John - Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 11:41pm -

Well, now we're only about 2 weeks away from our first show. Isn't it funny how a single show can be so important? I remember playing show after show and not thinking anything of it. Of course back then the on-going string of concerts was second-nature. Now, this single show on 10/25/02 is like some kind of major thing. How fun!

Tonight at practice I sang several songs in a French accent. I'm not sure why. The name Sean sounds pretty funny in a French accent though. Sometimes I get confused at practice and I'm not sure what's going on. It's hard to see and hear. So I fade in and out of various accents for my own entertainment. I know my band is great though.

We also got a gigantic Genius decal in the gangster font for Sean's kick drum. You know, the kind like real bands have. It's awesome!

I think the U.S. might be going to war with Iraq. That's kind of like going on a date, but with guns. Could Saddam Hussein be the next Hitler? Could George W. Bush be the next Hitler? These are all pretty scary thoughts for a guy who knows that judged from within the grand scheme of human existence, this moment is but one tiny dot.

I'll see you on the 25th. Be prepared to rock hard...

John