The Stone

I once wanted to be a mountain,
So I can stand tall and marvel great men,
then the water couldn't wash me away,
Then the world wouldn't be able to kick me around.
Then I'd be alright.

I once wanted to be an ocean,
So I could be magnificent and vast,
Then the fading sun would set on me,
and people would find that there's more under the surface,
Then I'd be alright.

I once wanted to be the sun,
So I would always shine so bright,
Then I'd be able to warm the sleeping world's sheets,
and shed light on every gray area that seems to hide in the loneliest places.
Then I'd be alright.

I once never wanted to be me,
So I just wanted and wanted and never got,
Then watched the world pass right by,
and learned nothing of myself.
I never did quite get alright.

Honesty is the best Policy

Luckily for us, In regards was breaking up and our good friend Bradley (aka Sadly, Madly) Smith wanted the job. He quickly took to it and started playing shows with a lot of fervor. That year we recorded our first ever EP titled, "A Saint Among Theives" in Deleware with this guy Tom. He was really weird but he did In Fair Verona's EP and their's came out decent so we decided to do ours there too. It was cheap and we spent a weekend there. It was definitely a learning experience for all of us. We banged out five songs rather quick though. After getting it mastered and pressed, we released it in late 2005. It wasn't great. I'm not happy with it and I still refuse to play most of the songs on the album, but it was something to start us off. From there we spent the winter and spring planning our first ever East Coast tour for the summer. Two weeks of bliss, or so we thought, on the road and searching for substance. Six dudes packed into a gold mini-van that had no air conditioning. You don't know sloppy until you wake up on a man sweating, no sure which limbs are yours. It was gross. Our friend Brian (now drummer of philly based hardcore band, Petition) accompanied us and acted as merch guy. He's a solid dude and tried to keep us level headed even when we wanted to kill eachother. Some highlights of that tour, highs and lows, that should be mentioned so I don't ramble on about it:

1.) Sweat
2.) waking up to some inbred Hick in Kentucky telling us that the Big Lots parking lot wasn't "No Hotel Motel."
3.) Brian falling asleep in the middle of conversations and directions...twice.
4.) Dan Champa getting us lost in Washington D.C.
5.) being called SunsetUnfold
6.) Providence, RI - sweet city, lots of gays, awesome CD/Comic book stores.
7.) Showering being almost impossible.
8.) Mine and BJ's Fist Fight over a ultimate Frisbee game.
9.) Kyle screaming he's ugly and BJ snapping on him, telling him to go get some food if he's hungry
10.) The Great Lakes
11.) sleeping in the van's trunk - clostrophobia
12.) Me stopping short, John falling off the front seat while sleeping without waking up until half an hour later only to ask why we pushed him onto the floor.
13.) Camping/Awesome older woman who gave me a massage no strings attatched.
14.) Some girl showing the guys her boobs for a tshirt
15.) Some drunk women in Massachussetts who kept asking us if we had seen her sun.
16.) Me ripping my shorts on stage during our set while wearing no underwear.

I'm sure there's more but I'm just forgetting them at the moment. Anyway, after that tour we took a small break. We needed it, we were mentally drained. It was a strain on all of our friendships but a month later we came back together and started playing shows and writing again. We started playing more out of states shows and were able to get a van thanks to the deer who totaled John's civic. By Mid 2006, we decided to lay down three new tracks with Tom again who had moved to another location in Delaware. They came out pretty good and we liked them. It was a step in the direction we wanted to travel. It was more metal then our last release and things only got heavier from there. After recording that three song demo we headed back out on the road for another 2 week summer tour. This time our friends Graham and Joel from In Fair Verona/Nations of Mire accompanied us. They're awesome dudes, really laid back and love just joking around. Most of the time in the van was spent verbally abusing one another. After a week though we began running out of money and decided that we had to turn around and head home. We paid for gas out of our pockets. It was the worst ever. None of us wanted to, we just had to admit that we were defeated. The tour had been lackluster at best and we had more fun goofing around then playing shows. We got home and were worn but not broken. We decided from there to take a little more time off from playing shows to write and recuperate. A bunch of shows later and a whole lot of bullshit later, Bradley left the band to pursue other opportunities. We were bummed but it seemed to lighten our load. We gained a lot more wind in our sails because it felt like a monkey had been lifted off our back. Not that we didn't love BJ but it was this constant battle to get him to practice and he felt that he wasn't being listened to creatively and didn't feel like a complete member of the band. It was just stressful because we didn't want to lose a friend but we wanted more commitment. So when BJ left it felt that the burden of deciding on what way to go was lifted from our shoulders. With our spirits lifted we started writing. Don't get me wrong it's a long process considering we're constantly at school and busy with our lives but we're trying so hard to get our shit together. We started recording The Alchemist with Graham Nielson and we are almost finished with TITAN. I love these guys. I love this band. I love the music we make. Sometimes I asked myself what I would do without this band defining me. It seems that I'm Bob Brewster of Skysetunfold. Then I realize that I will always be defined by the guys in this band. I will always be defined by this band. I will always remember this point in my life. The struggles. The pitfalls. The mistakes. The arguments. The love I have for making music and writing. I have no problem with being remembered for being in a band that did it for the love of music, that showed up to shows to play because they would have fun. We have adapted to damnation and are now recording the experience. New SKYSETUNFOLD album in the future. be ready.

We're SKYSETUNFOLD, don't get hurt, don't hurt anybody, have fun, be well.

Continuation...

GEEK IN THE SHELL!!!



I went to Dan's to try out my skills. I walked in and stepped into Dan's room, which if I remember correctly was the messiest disaster ever. I'm pretty sure his rooms in the few places he's lived to date have looked like that. Dan's like a Hurricane, he'll fuck up a room and then fuck your mom. He's that smooth. Anyway, I was singing out of a 50 Watt guitar amp while Kyle and Champa played out of amps that weren't much bigger. It really turned me off at first but I kind of liked there jams. After I tried out, I asked if I had made the cut. They told me that I was the only person they wanted and said I was in if I wanted it. Made me feel good so I accepted. The next task was to find a drummer. The first person we tried out was Gavin Dwyer. He was a decent drummer but we didn't really mesh well with him so we parted ways. Good musicians in our area were few and far between, so we had a tough time trying to find anyone else who fit our style. So after a few weeks of debating, Dan said he knew someone but he would have to mend a bridge or two he burned in order to get him on board. About a week later, John walked into our lives. He was much younger with short hair and absolutely no beard. He was more of a pop-punk drummer but we figured we'd take anything. He sat in and immediately we started vibing. He was funny, kind of ridiculous. We loved that and he just sat well with our personalities. We then set out to try and find a bass player. A feat that has plagued us since the beginning. It seemed we were cursed to not have a bass player. Our first bass player was Devin Walters. We all new Devin. He's been roaming the punk/hardcore scene for years. He immediately jumped on and decided to take on the task of playing bass for us. After a few months of playing, we decided to play our first show in January 2004. It was a punk/hardcore show and we opened. It wasn't great but we had fun and it was a good show to start with. Our second show was the show that we set up. Over 350 people showed up to watch 7 bands play at Froggers. For the next year we played local shows in our area and never really branched out. Then during my freshmen year of college, Devin hooked up with the girl I was going out with and it pissed me off. We kicked him out and we really hadn't patched things up until recently. Our next move was to find a new bass player, and that was going to be tough considering our luck....

Where Faith has brought No Virtue, I have come to Destroy

It started with the same old innocent bus ride home from school in 2000. I was sitting a hot crowded bus seat, the warmth of peoples breath making me sweat profusely. It was already hot enough out, this was making it worse. I struck up a conversation with a kid who's name was kyle. I thought he was weird but he had said that he wanted to start a band and needed a singer. He had just started playing the guitar and wanted to find some people to jam with. I told him I could sing and would love to be part of something like that. It had been my dream to start a band and play shows in the hope that we'd get famous and I'd be rich. We never had a ton of money but we wanted butt loads. This dream has since evolved into the dream that I'm living right now which is to have as much fun with my friends as possible while making music that is full of natural expression and honesty. So, in hopes of both our dreams coming true, I went to his house on a whim and started singing. Seems I wasn't as good as I seemed. I was tone deaf. Him and his mom, for the next month, sat down with me on a piano and we practiced hitting notes until I got it. We continued jamming on and off with our friend jay who played drums down the street. Jay was funny and loved getting in trouble. He was a good kid though and just loved having fun. I loved him for that, unfortunately Jay was taken from us too early, but I must move on or else I will probably wind up getting emotional. Mine and Kyle's friendship grew and soon we started another band with Scott Hillier, Brian Hanlon, and Adam Yourghling. It was a pop punk band that did mostly covers and played a few shows in 2001. To be honest I don't even remember the name. Anyway, that went on for a few months and soon we realized how much we blew and didn't want to do it anymore. It was kind of ruining our friendships and all we wanted to do was have fun. So we put an end to it. To be honest, I think we were all really bummed that it didn't work but we wanted to be friends more then a band.
During my Junior year of highschool, I started a hardcore/scream/rock band thing called Beneath Dead Eyes. Kyle wasn't in that band but it sucked just as bad as our other band but I was having fun at the expense of mine and Kyle's friendship. Anyway, I started hanging out with Jordan Miller, Jeremy Pharo, Adam Yourghling, and another guitarist who's name slips my mind. We played a few shows and really just became disinterested in the band and decided to part ways. Towards the end of my bands short lived career, Kyle started to jam with Dan Champa. They invited me to play for them and I would be lieing if I said I wasn't reluctant to try it out. I was really sick of being in bands that blew ass and wanted to do something with dedicated guys. But I sucked it up and on kyle's recommendation of how awesome it would be, I tried out.


To Be Continued

The Sun shines even when it's raning sometimes.

To the girl who lives in the land-locked boat and can't find the sea so she can sail to come see me - I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would like you to relocate. I need your warmth.

The best love's are the ones that can handle the struggles of destitution. That can handle shitty apartments. That can live through all the arguments over the dumbest things. That aren't held together by money, sex or faith. Where you hold each other together. That adapt and evolve together. That can over come unexpected surprises. The one's where you can cry together and laugh together over the most trivial things. Where all you want to do is hold hands. The one's where you never leave. The one that puts you right here. Next to me.

To all those that want to get into my line of work, keep your innocence. Mine was stolen from me and I've watched other people's be taken without them knowing.

ALIVE AND WELL.

If true love is cold hearted then my love be true.

A message to those who stand on soap boxes:
When in a battle for king of the hill, positioning yourself at the top of a mountain without a strong base to ward off your enemies is a foolish premise indeed. Next time get a box that doesn't wobble.

Is this peace or peace of mind? Is this body filled with a ghost or is it just filled with electrical pulses running through my nervous system? Can those electrical pulses be my soul? All questions that have risen in my World Religions class but yet I have no answers, merely faith and an open mind to guide me to truth. Yet they led me astray from what I had set out to do, which was to watch Sergei Khrushchev give a lecture on US and Russian Relations following the Cold War. All for a presentation that left me with more questions than I had arrived with and still no idea what was talked about in that lecture by Nikita Khrushchev. So which would have been more important to entertain? Which was more rich with life lessons? Does the fact that I have more questions now than ever mean I'm lost or headed in the right direction? For this I look at the Rubik's cube for answers. With each turn the puzzle seems to be more scattered. Occasionally I find a side that fits only to realize that others do not. I'm left with the question of whether to leave the one side and be happy with what I have or to continue my quest at conquering the cube? My curiosity, just like everyone else's, gets the better of me. So I must destroy that one perfect side to find the whole. Slowly twisting and turning, contemplating each move only to get back where I started. Then out of no where a piece falls into place. So does another. And another. Suddenly it's over. That long battle for supremacy and command of the situation is complete. From thin air. Disarray leads us to command, we just need to recognize the right moves, make a few mistakes, and be willing to destroy one perfect side for the better of the whole. So that answers my question, or does it? Do you have more questions? I know I do.

Are you Comfort or are you Mercy?

Gliding in on a fresh breath of air,
I can taste inconsistence on your frame,
you are different, you are strange.
Are you Comfort or are you Mother Mercy?
Are you Mother Earth or Father Sky?
Time will squeeze us dry and we will all become the same.

Some want peace,
I just want change.

All things shall be all things?


I've tried to allow myself the comfort of a warm blanket to settle my thoughts but dream of mercy to take away the pain. The foul taste in my mouth and the stench of failure drift in and out of the sensory portions of my brain. They turn into electric currents cruising through the synapses of my mind. These are all things and all things are fine. The television set emits a small light in my room as I ease my wandering soul back to rest. I know it's not the same as it used to be, I know you wish you could be somewhere else. I'm trying to change, I promise that I'll do it this time. Soulless I've entered therevadan Buddhist bliss. Annattman. Annicca. There is no permanance. Reality is in constant flux. I'm sorry for constantly apologizing it's just that you make it seem like I've done so much wrong.

Misery is a hospital bed away. Hope is a hospital bed away.
In the eyes of the patient it's either/or and sometimes both or in between.
If that makes sense.

Learn to Float.

Thousands of micro-organisms crawling under my skin. Rejoicing in my bodies warmth and sustaining themselves on the nutrients I digest on a daily basis. Rotting from the inside out. Although we are separate we are one. They tie my heart together to slow its beating. They jump on my stomach to make me queezie. Infect my mind. Invade my thoughts. Infect me with change.

It seems that we have been stuck in a rut when it comes to US politics. We have adopted the same ideas and policies that the old leaders have outlined for us. My response to those who believe that by keeping the status quo which has worked in the past is, We are not then, we are now. It seems that our foreign and interior policies in past years have evolved into major issues and problems that our grandparents left for us to fix. I don't want my children, I don't want my nation, I don't want my earth, I don't want my galaxy, I don't want my universe to inherit my problems. Many people in this world fear change but it's about time we started embracing it. They tell us that we cannot do it, that we will waver in the face of change and we will not be able to accomplish our goals. Our response to those who are disbelievers is three simple words: YES WE CAN!



Child of the Earth.

We live our lives trying to be relevant, trying to adapt to the times.

Life is monotonous, life is static. And all of your will has been removed. I shall run oceans dry; I shall scorch life to dust. Where change has brought no virtue, I will remain to consume. This crossroad, neither path shall lead to a center. Time and space, destroyed and devoured. Can you feel your mind running weak? You were born under the veil, possessing the means within your hands. And you will reap what you sow. I HAVE FOUND IT IN FILTH AND SORROW. I live a life of misconception and misery.



The body of being has sold you for less; the body of being has sold you for less, I, man born of fear and flesh, stand before the light. With guilt to stain our teeth we march. What have we proven? That the man made merely of flesh is a man who shall drag his halo, consumed with misery. Disease has spread, may every word I speak inflict death, not through spit, not through blood, not through hope, And they sing, “Here, now, we’ve lost all hope, on our progression we all choke, that man has found no moral code, repent your sins for we are true.” I’ve got more to die for these days, this is our growth. This is the Kingdom of the Rising Sun, this is war on humanity. So Bring forth moral reform.



Impervious to the dry desolate kingdom of earth, he strives forward, “do not fear the divine, we can rebuild what they can destroy.” “Foolish words from a drunken tongue, speak wisely or these may be your last pleasant breaths of air.” “I surely cannot die, I am a colossus of man.” Cautious be those who spout wisdom from lack of knowledge, more cautious be those that listen with a trusting ear. Staggering to forgiveness, grieving for life, he mocks death as it smiles upon him. To understand understanding is to begin to heal. His last breaths. Now peace is eternal? I hope that your god forgives you for all your sins. I hope that the life you live chokes you as it has choked me. I hope that you are thrown far from the narrow road you walk. I hope your deliverance brings you eternal suffering.



SEE YOU AT THE BOTTOM!

I am the garage flower, the sun never shines on me.

Last night was good. I love Dan Hayden and I'm glad he's doing so well with his wonderful girl friend in there comfy abode. I wish I was around more often. Sometimes it seems like people are growing up and I'm just growing apart. I wish I had someone to share myself with. Someone who was my other half who was just chill. Thought I found them but I guess I was wrong. We all make mistakes. I just feel like I have very little of myself left to give. It's gotta happen sooner or later right. I see someone from time to time who just seems like that person but I doubt she even knows that I exist. It sounds so cliche. I hate it. When I'm at shows, and I know she's looking, I mosh, which is weird because I hate moshing. It's like my mating dance. lol. Anyway, Thursday is national eat shit day. Don't expect me to be pleasant especially since Kyle and Stacey will probably be out celebrating their wonderful relationship. I'll be in the gym all night, killing myself.

...and the World is Full of Dreamers

Sometimes I wonder whether heaven has given life to us out of mercy or in wrath. I've decided that I'm going to walk a portion of the Appalachian trail. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it by myself yet though. Part of me wants to do it, the other part of me really wants to go with someone else. I feel that I would gain more from the experience if I just head out by myself and try and survive. A true test of solitude. Me, alone, the galaxy above me and a hollow earth below me. A true test of courage.

I looked across my endless kingdom of sand that spanned across three provinces of earthly ruin while the sun spit hell upon me. I rolled my tongue around the inside of my mouth to try and clean some of the dirt from the crevices along my teeth. It was a wonderful day to die of starvation. A wonderful day to die of thirst. A wonderful day to find peace. A wonderful day to find life at my whits end. I knelt down, driving my knees and the tips of my toes deep into the dunes. I could feel it singing the hairs on my legs. Then I went to my hands and rolled my weight forward off of my knees so I could scoop up two large piles of desert earth and poured it onto my own head. Blame it on the sun, lack of water, or even solitude for what I did next but I looked down at the sand and said, " You are sand." The slight dry breeze blew past me rearranging the small gems of earth. It looked as if the ground had nodded at me, So i knew it understood. Then I pointed to the sky and shouted, "AND YOU ARE THE SUN!" Seeing as though it's so far away I felt that I needed to be louder so it could hear me. The sun shimmered slightly as to acknowledge me. I stood up, as tall as a man of 5 feet 4 inches could and I shouted, "And I am, I am life, and life is here now. I am here to keep the earth company in it's loneliest of moments. I am here to to acknowledge the power of the sun. I am here to sustain this earth so both of you have purpose. So in order to sustain me I will need water. " I sat and waited for an answer. The sun was caught deep in thought. He slept on the idea for days. He would rise slowly in the East and fall gently to the West. The sand swirled in the wind, it's mind plagued by the decision. I sat in solitude, not moving from the spot that I had sat down in originally. Then, for the first time in months, clouds moved in from the eastern horizon while the sun slept and it began to rain. It rained for four days without showing signs of stopping anytime soon. The sand was elated to be cooled by the warm drops of evaporated water that fell from the sky. The sun was dazzled by the colors that he could create if he shined at just the right angle through the clouds. I was just glad to be alive. On the fourth day, it stopped raining and from the earth rose the first plant in my new kingdom that spans across three provinces of earthly ruin that respects the power of the rising sun , that keeps the earth company when he seems to be alone, and that sustains life.

Somewhere along the line we thought ourselves above the nature of things. We have forgotten that all things are important to sustain life. We have lost our way.


Who will save us from ourselves. I am not religious, I have not accepted any organized religion as my crutch, nor do I claim that I have ever found religion or that I believe in an all powerful being. But I do have faith.