Here is the full account on how the band 13th Insight started...

The 90's were the beginning of my musical influences. The start of a whole new genre, a whole new realm of music. I found myself sliding away from the trends of radio all from the start. Whenever a new style would come out and the world would listen, I would hide away in my closet and play the music that really mattered... Punk Rock. You won't hear a lot of this in our band but, rest assured, it had its profound influence. Other influences include Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, R.E.M.

I used to be a very social person during this time of my life. I would write song after song, and play gig after gig. Gigs with great bands too. We played shows then with; Agent Orange, Unwritten Law, Fugazi, Good Riddance, ETC!!!! Every night was the same then, using and boozing. Party after party, after every show we would take the money and blow it on a great time. I eventually started playing less and using more. Finding myself in parks, stair cases, parked cars, missions, and eating out of trash cans in the Bay area. It was during this ultimate low that I started writing a solo project and it was only meant to be a solo project at the time. The music was all dark and depressing and about my life accounts. I was locking myself out of the world around me. I would go to band practice at the time and wait quietly for it to end. After months of not playing, we finally did a show. The crowd was the same as always but I wanted out. It was our last show. All the friends I had were losers, they betrayed my every move. I became more distant and less talkative. Leaving every one behind I started on my own. Writing... it was at this time that I recruited my brother Dru to play keys for the band, and sometime later Joel found his way out of LA to begin the begin. When I left Spun and started my solo project, I had a friend Jim Sparks who jammed with me and worked on the music at the time. He actually plays a couple guitar tracks on As Dark As Velvet. He wrote the music part to Spoken Angels 1 and had a profound influence on Spoken Angels 2.

After finding Jake, our last member to complete the band, we started playing gigs. We would play every week at a Reno Hot Spot called the "Stock Exchange". It really wasn't a great deal. We would play every week for them with the promise of radio promotions and flyers. They did pull through with the flyers, but the radio never happened. People hardly came out to this club, it wasn't a high rock scene at all. It was a dance club. During our 1st year at the Stock Exchange a terrible world event took place in New York. The twin towers were destroyed, it was a very dark day in Reno as it was all over our country. That night we were booked to play at the Stock Exchange, but we declined.

A day after the event the news networks were talking about sending donations to the families of the victims of the tragedy. We then decided as a band to record a song and donate all of the net proceeds to these families. We recorded a song at Imirage sound lab with local hero Tom Gordon, and help from Justin Lawerence. The song recorded well and we released it a month after the ordeal. We then met up with the Red Cross and met our future friend Lori Ingberg. She set us up with our single and after a few months we donated over a thousand dollars to the families. Our father was born in New York and it meant everything to us to get the single out. After recording our 1st single we recorded our 1st EP again with our producer Tom Gordon. The EP was titled PREMONITIONS the success of the EP was higher than we expected as the first press sold out in a week!!! During all of our hard work in the studio the band wanted a break so we stopped our ongoing weekly gig at the Stock Exchange. It was during this time that we decided we needed to find another drummer. The long sessions and hard work seemed to be going no where and Jake had other interests. It was then that our dear friend and sound man at the time Aaron Burt, discovered a new drummer who was influenced by hip hop.

His name was Trevor Ruiz and he played at a whole new level for the band. It was at this time that the band finished our first album and started working on our second. We didn't record these at the time because our main focus was hitting the road. So off we went, our tour took us to Las Vegas with the help or our friend, Nathan. We had such a great turn out that we recorded the show. The show went great but the recording failed miserably, of the entire show we only got 5 decent tracks. With these decent recordings we released our 3rd album. It wasn't titled, it was just live. Each CD had a different band member on it. They sold well in Reno and on the road. We then went to Oregon and played our second time out. The show went well but not as well as the first. When we got home we then decided it was time to release our first two records: AS DARK AS VELVET and MERLOT. We recorded both albums and started all the preliminary work when, out of the blue, our drummer Trevor decided that he wanted out. Luckily for the band Trevor agreed to playing until we found his replacement. That night I was given the phone number to the drummer you see all over this web site...Matt Stevens!

Since Matt joined the band we have recorded our first full length, AS DARK AS VELVET in our own studio with our new producer Jon Fay. We are now in the preliminary stages of MERLOT, and PONDER THE NIGHT. As for the future, we have seven albums written all together and in due time you will have them all.

 

Bye For Now,

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