Dedications
May 3rd of 2021 was the first time I released anything real into the wild. Before that, it was just shitty SoundCloud demos that I would spend all afternoon making before realizing they were garbage–then releasing them anyways. I would argue that day is one of the most important days of my life, right up there with February 3rd 2006 and September 9th 2022. I don’t know what I’d be doing without music, and the DAVE projects and others have taken up such a large part of my life that I can’t even begin to imagine where I’d be without them, or the other bands I take part in. But now DAVE is coming to a close, the pentology complete. I will still make music, obviously, but for at least the next four years, I don’t think there will be any more DAVE coming from me
I would like to take the time to go through every single person I know who has made a large impact on me and my music, as a way to say thanks, I suppose. Obviously, there is no way I could ever repay any of these people for the sheer impact they’ve had on my life, but hey, it’s something. Consider it like an Oscars acceptance speech, where I’m naming people you don’t know and nobody, except me, gives a shit.
Oh yeah, and if I forgot you on the list, I am very sorry.
Firstly, I would like to thank my family. They truly do put up with too much of my bullshit without thanks, so here it is. My parents have been so supportive in ways I struggle to comprehend even now. They allow me and encourage use of our house for my musical endeavors, they help to pay for or entirely buy my equipment. The two greatest gifts I’ve ever received were my drum set and later my bass, and if we are counting love and support as gifts, add that millions of times. My parents and my grandparents have been following my YouTube and Bandcamp since day one, and with every new release my grandma texts me, telling me how she loves my new album. My parents will stop whatever they’re doing to listen to whatever stupid rough demo I ask them to or text to them. They listen to me as I record the nineteenth take of some shitty bassline I will no doubt replace in the near future, or a drum track that took me a collective two hours to get done. They come to my shows and have done so for years. My dad literally recorded an EP with me, as he used to be in a band (Kid Ego reunion tour when?) where he was the drummer, which is in large part the reason I got into playing the drums myself. My family are some of my biggest fans and I cannot express enough how much that means to me.
Next I would like to thank all of my teachers. Mr Galloway comes first, as he has been there to watch me grow as a musician since I was like eleven and shit at music. Now I’m eighteen and shit at music. He has always been an extremely kind person to me and has such an energy to him that, even though I complain about marching band, I continued with band all throughout high school. He was the one who introduced me to Mark Becknell, who was a drum instructor I later took lessons with, who kept me active on the drum kit throughout most of the pandemic in 2020. I wanted to get better and his lessons made me improve substantially. I’d also want to thank Stephen Drum Shine Shop Man, who really helped me get into advanced drumming and introduced me to Brand-X, which is obviously a big plus. And of course, I would like to thank Mason D. for being such a great person to be around and for making me learn stuff that I would never have thought to learn in the first place, he’s a–as they say in jazz, so I’m told–cool fuckin’ cat (why did I write that). Also he taught me how to play Blonde Redhead and Donna Lee.
Sam P., professionally known as Samuel Wyeth, gets his very own section because of the amount of respect I hold for him and for how great of an impact he has had on my music-making career. I truly love every single piece of music he has ever sent me, I am astounded by his skills at all the instruments he plays. My go-to song when I sit down to play bass is Supple and it’s insane to me that someone could come up with a bassline, or song, as incredible as that one. It’s probably my favorite bassline in music, or is at least up there. While we’ve never collaborated on any music aside from Lords Without Maidens–which, Sam, if you’re reading this, thank you for indulging me on my weird dungeon synth shit–nearly every song one of us has made has been bounced off the other for feedback and support. Sam was one of the first ever people to buy DAVE when it came out, and he has bought every DAVE album since, if I’m not mistaken. I am very appreciative to have such a supportive and fellow musician as Sam is, and I love the respect we have for one anothers music.
The next person you may know as the inspiration behind Lin Jail, but her name is Jillian, and I love her beyond words. It’s hard for me to write about her without getting into the mushy, lovey-dovey stuff, as that’s a personal matter. But, what I can say here is that she is always, no matter what genre, no matter if its good or bad or a demo or whatever, she has always responded with support for me, and I look up to her as being one of the best piano players I know–which, now that I have a keyboard, I recognize even greater. She is one of two people who finds Weezmas funny, with the other person being me. I love her so much and I’m so happy that I have such an encouraging person at my side all the time.
Charlie has been a close friend of mine for a little over a decade, which for us both being eighteen is a really fucking long time, and I cherish our friendship and hope it lasts for decades more. His encouragement has always put a smile on my face and has made me more confident in many aspects of my music which I am self-conscious about, all while never seeming like he’s just talking me up because he’s my friend. I will be waiting for the day he finally makes music.
Axl R. is a dear friend and it’s a damn shame that he’s a sophomore and I’m leaving. Super Senior, I know, but he’s an incredibly talented guitar player and artist of every single cool drawing you’ve seen on Wizards stuff. He introduced me to so many bands–okay, ONE band–and I didn’t even have to force him to do a dungeon synth project with me, because he wanted to do one, and he’s extremely fun to go to shows with. I hope to fucking everything that he continues making music and refining his guitar skills, because that man is going to become the ska king one day.
On the subject of friends, I’d like to mention a former friend of mine named Mac. He shows up on the earliest of the early BasementDwellers demos, and while I don’t talk to him anymore–nothing major, just falling out of touch–I still feel obligated to thank him, as he was the very first person I ever played music with. He was the first person I ever met who played guitar, and it seemed obvious that we should start a band, which we did–kind of. We recorded some demos but never made any music that wasn’t just us jamming, but it was an incredibly formative time for me and gave me a lot of skills I still use to this day. Mac was a great guitar player back then, so I can’t even imagine how amazing he is now, and I hope he releases some sort of music in the future. I’d sure as hell listen to it.
Obligatory thanks to both the main bands I’ve been in–Rectal Crucifixion and Matchhead–and every single person in them. I guess that means thanking Sam again, but he deserves it. Every person in them helped me incredibly to build my abilities as a songwriter, musician, and bandmate, and both have prepared me with the skills to play live. Every person in both those bands was and still is an insanely talented musician in ways I can barely even begin to comprehend, and even if I don’t get along with everyone perfectly, I cannot deny the high amount of respect I have for everyone’s musical abilities.
I would also like to thank Nick Maurer for being an amazing person who makes amazing music. He has introduced me to so many people I would never in a million years meet (because I don’t leave the house), and for that alone I would be extremely grateful, but he has also been incredibly welcoming and cool when it comes to playing shows with him, and has allowed me and Sam to put our music on display at his shows, and has been my gateway into playing shows on my own. I regularly listen to Come On In and He Can’t Decide, and before I met him, he was like a celebrity to me, because he made music and was from around here and the music was actually stuff I’d listen to and enjoy without just the novelty of listening to “local music.”
Speaking of local music, a little shout out to the first two local bands I ever heard of: Fast Eddy and The Ape Tones. I never knew there was any sort of scene in Cincy until I stumbled upon it–ironically enough, during peak Covid–and realized my true calling in life. I’m exaggerating, of course, but from that point on, I was destined to get involved in the scene or play shows whenever I was able to. Unfortunately I also like to stay home, so I never ended up being as involved as I would have liked to be, however this constant staying inside led me down the path of Basement Dwelling, however indirectly.
Other people/bands that I know that I would like to thank, primarily just for being cool: Michael, Nick H., Will Q., Connor C., Sam HJ, my grandpa Steve, Jake from Compost, Abolish Faith, Dougie, Diego, Will S. (cowboy man), Julian Jaffe, Julian Vanesse, Gabe M., Ching, Erickson, Micah M., Trevor M., Victor, Connor W., and Nash.
Other people/bands I DON’T know that I would like to thank, because I could spend all day going in depth about all of the ones on this list: Big Black, NoMeansNo, Minutemen, Descendents, Dead Milkmen, Fugazi, Coniferous Myst, Elminster, Darkthrone, Torture, Pain, CatSystemCorp, Infinity Frequencies, Demeter Capsalis from Lavender Town Syndrome, Phish, a boy named marie, Fotoshoppe, Polymono, Minor Threat, McCoy Tyner, James Brown, James Chance, DNA, Varra, Depressive Silence, Lone Sentinel, Magic Hilt, Carpet Dust (for getting me through Sophomore year), Balents, Forgotten Pathways, crt paralysis, Gourdo, Parker Ben Parker, The Associates, Godflesh, Cap’n Jazz, Wipers, Mission of Burma, Fudge Tunnel (my mom’s favorite), US Maple, R. Stevie Moore, Josef K, Slint, Hella, Clown Core, Rapeman, This Heat, 385 (really anything MIYA is attached to), William Gibson, Osamu Dazai, Robert Jordan, Neal Stephenson, H.P. Lovecraft (for his stories, I swear), Art Spiegelman, M.C. Escher, Paru Itagaki, Tracy Butler, Dan Olsen, and Sitwells Coffee House.
Oh, and the guy who is always working the cinnamon roll place in Findlay Market.
Finally, I would like to thank you. Whoever is reading this, whoever took the time out of their life to look at the mad ramblings of some random person on the internet, deserves all the thanks in the world. If you enjoy my music enough to download the album and read this, I cannot express my gratitude enough. DAVE–and by extension, all of the things on the BasementDwellers Bandcamp page–has been a big part of my life, and it’s incredible to see how far I’ve come since the original, where I was just stringing together any parts I could write, not caring if I had a bassline to fit it, or if I could play bass at all, or if I knew how to have a guitar part that’s in the same key as the bassline, or even if the song was good.
Oh, who the hell am I kidding. I haven’t changed at all.
Jereme Buxsel
May 3rd, 2024
