July 1998. On the day of recording Jet by Day's debut album, "Autumn means it's all downhill", I found myself in a cramped Georgia Tech dorm room overlooking I-75/I-85 as a first-quarter freshman with my bass and combo amp squeezed into a corner of the room. Tom and David came by the dorm that Wednesday afternoon and we somehow managed to fit my gear into their already equipment-packed compact cars. And just like that, three guys barely out of high school were off to record their first album. We were going to produce this record out of our own pocket and, like a lot of high school bands, didn't have a lot of money (this will be explained later), so were all determined to do it right and not to waste time doing retakes. We got to the studio at about 7 p.m. We met Rob Gal (of 6X), who owned the place and would be recording us, and then with the help of friend Brandon Betts, unpacked and set up our gear. I had never been in a recording studio before, and I'm not sure about David or Tom, but there was too much pressure to get this session done as quickly as possible, that I never really had time to get comfortable. We played our 7 songs, thanked Rob, and were home by 11 p.m. or so that night. David and Tom, who were both on summer break, spent the next two days recording guitar and vocal tracks and mixing at the studio with Rob Gal. When the album was mastered, the artwork was printed, and the final product gleamed in cellophane wrapping on August 20, 1998 at our CD Release Party, the band could proudly bask in the fruits of their endeavor (and sign autographs!).

Before the album could be made though, the band would need two things in particular - songs to record, and money to pay for the recording and the packaging. The following is a look back at the band's beginnings and the events that transpired between 1996 and 1999.

We started out as "The Hosstages." Well, let me back up some and explain a little about the roots of the band... David used to be in a band called "Bearlicker," with comrades Allen Suh playing bass (and some vocals) and Gunnard Engebreth on drums. Let it suffice to say that Bearlicker epitomized the "joke band" concept. With very little practice (the band and its members were actually anonymous before the show), the trio took the stage at "The Point" and played surprisingly well. The songs ranged from "The Tad Rap," a funky, up-tempo song about the very cool Tad Giles, to a cover of "Hey Suburbia" by Screeching Weasel (in which Allen replaced the s-word with the f-word, much to the delight of the crowd). It should be noted that the Point show was not Bearlicker's first performance, as the very first Bearlicker show occurred at the now-defunct "Wrek Room," which has since turned into a country bar (thanks to Tom for that historical footnote!). The first time I heard the band play was on a cassette player in 10th grade, during a five minute Spanish class break. I was impressed both with the sound quality of the tape and with the songs, and asked David for a copy. [Note: I think I've still got the cassette of their performance lying randomly in my pile of tapes. If I find it, I'll put songs from the show up on the page] I think the band lasted for a few more gigs (including Dunwoody High's Battle of the Bands - May 23, 1996, along with Tom's band "The Blastoffs"), and then split up.

Meanwhile, I was very happy in the previous band that I was in with James Branch and Tom, but at some point we just fizzled away into unknown garage band oblivion. But before I had a chance to get bored, Tom and David had arranged a practice and invited me to play bass. Thus, the Hosstages were born!

I was extremely happy to be back in a band--especially one that had vocals and good original material (the first band I was in had no vocals and played Nirvana covers and heavily Nirvana-influenced songs). The Hosstages practiced a lot on the weekends and had built up quite a repertoire of songs before our first show at the Somber Reptile with the Reruns, F.A.F., and the Loose Screws.

We made two demo tapes as the Hosstages. Well, actually only one survived...the first (and unsuccessful) demo was recorded in Michael Chang's basement with a bunch of borrowed audio equipment from Dunwoody High School (Chang was the "sound guy" at school events, so they gave him free access to the equipment room). We showed up at Chang's basement in the morning, and right from the start, we experienced setbacks. After a day of technical difficulties and enduring thick, choking fog from Chang's fog machine (fog machines, by the way, are irresistible to play with, especially when they are remote-controlled) we had only one song (Hawaii) turn out well.

The second demo was done in Tom's basement using David's four-track machine and the Blastoff's (Tom's other band) mixer. With the sound engineering expertise of so-called fourth Hosstage, Brandon Betts, the very D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) demo session went relatively smoothly. The 5 tracks that ended up on the demo were:

1. Hawaii *
2. 4 on the Floor *
3. Struck *
4. Built to Kill
5. Take Me Away

The demo tape was called "The Chandelier Swing" (the name was inspired by the band "Braid," one of David's favorites at the time) and the songs with the *'s are songs that later appeared on the album "Autumn means its all downhill."

Soon after this demo was released, Tom and David decided to rename the band "Jet by Day," which marked the official end of the "Hosstage Era."

Money. Regardless of what you've heard or are inclined to believe, local bands make ridiculously little money. So the ingenious thing about being in a high school local band is that your food and housing are already taken care of (assuming you live with your parents), and all of the money you make at gigs can be pocketed in a "band fund," for some later use. This "later use" turned out to be Jet by Day's debut album.

After playing countless "Under the Couch" shows (cover price ranging from $3-$5 a person) and winning first prize at the Battle of the Bands event at our high school graduation party ($200), we had saved up a quite a bit (relatively speaking) but still not enough to buy decent studio time with money left over for CD packaging and artwork, etc. The final push came in June 1998, when we were asked to play at that graduation party for Lindsay, a girl Tom that knew, for $250. Naturally we were quite keen to the idea, so we gladly accepted the offer. At the time, we didn't know how surreal playing at a graduation party would be. (Actually, even if we did know, we would have done it anyway because we needed the money. But it wasn't "crack junkies trying to feed an addiction" need the money or even "Brady Bunch reunion special" need the money; it was more like "this is our ticket to make a debut album, and although I would rather finance this endeavor without competing with elderly women for room in the garage to play, I'm willing to do it" need the money.) When we got there, it quickly became apparent that this was a family-and-friends, semi-formal type house party. We scarcely knew anyone there, so after the band ate dinner, we played Nintendo 64 with this little boy (I think he was the graduating girl's kid brother) for an hour or so. Later, we were called down to set up in the garage. Dads in lawn chairs and restless kids with sugar-saturated bloodstreams made up much of the audience. Despite the strange circumstances, we proceeded to rock as many socks off as possible. At one point, an old lady walked through the garage weaving around our equipment--in the middle of a song-- doing a little dance on the way.  However awkward (and in retrospect, funny) that show was, it cannot be denied that it played a crucial part in financing the band's dream of having its very own CD.

I started college a few weeks later, and conveniently most of our shows were at Under the Couch (click here for more detail), which is located on the Georgia Tech campus. [Many thanks go out to Alex LaRoche, who booked nearly all of our shows at UTC, and who was also a DHS kid and a good friend to the band.] David and Tom decided to attend the University of Georgia (located in Athens, Georgia) that Fall, which led to the realization that, for the band to keep making music and playing shows, a replacement bassist would have to be found. Being for the good of the band, I agreed to play and record with the band until a replacement was found.

We played more UTC shows and had one big gig in Athens, at Legion Field, which ranked as both the biggest "venue" we had yet played as well as our first Athens show. The band then resolved to put out a single, "Overflown," and it was decided that we would record at Under the Couch, using the Georgia Tech Musician's Network sound and recording equipment. The result was incredible. The single was mastered and sounded almost if not AS good as the album, quality-wise. The single was included in a compilation CD entitled "Now or Never."

Soon after, we arranged to perform live at Georgia Tech's radio station WREK 91.1 FM. We played on a weekly 1-hour show entitled "Live at WREK," in which we had an hour of commercial-free airtime to play in the studio. This marked the first live radio performance for the band and my last performance with the group.

As the epic saga of "Jet by Day" drew to a close for me, a new chapter for the band opened in the form of Amy Burmeister, the band's newest addition. I have seen her perform on a few occasions and was very impressed with her skill as a bassist. Knowing that I left the bass duties in good hands, combined with the band's constantly progressing songwriting, I'm sure that the best of Jet by Day is yet to come, so be sure to stay informed by regularly checking www.jetbyday.com!