KChele: Tell me this before Dustin tells me about the song. Are you the one that did the recording and producing of it?

Jeff: I am yes. I’ve done all three at this point.

KChele: So there’s three songs?

Jeff: Three at this point, but there’s going to be more on the way. We’re working with Andy Reese from Hangin’ With Stogie. He’s actively taken an interest in Dustin’s career so we’re all excited about that! His son Tyler is an incredible guitarist who played all the leads on the EP (as well as George Nastos on “I Can’t Do Anything for You”. George played rhythm and leads up to the solo section in the middle of the song out) which you haven’t heard yet. I’m going to send you a copy so you can hear it. Rick Springfield’s singing his usual AMAZING background vocals on it!

KChele: Speaking of Rick, do you know if he would be interested in maybe answering a couple questions about this?

Dustin: Yeah, I could ask him. I think he would. I love Rick so much; he’s my hero and my idol. He’s just so great. If you want to ask him a few questions, just shoot them over to me and I’ll get them to him.

KChele: The song that they’ve announced, what is the title of that song?

Dustin: The song is called “I Can’t Do Anything for You”, which was released before.

Jeff: This version has never been heard before and not only are there great new performances on there from Rick, George and Tyler, but the song has been completely remixed and mastered.

KChele: Did you record this in Nashville or in Illinois?

Dustin: I recorded it in Nashville with Jeff.

Jeff: Tell her the story about how we ended up working with everybody else.

Dustin: Now it’s all remixed and there’s a whole bunch from George Nastos and Tyler Reese playing lead on it too. About two weeks after I asked Rick if he would sing on it, we went to a show and I was telling George that I was getting ready to record another song and I was telling him about signing with Stephen Wrench. He said, “well how about I play on one of the songs”, so I said sure. I let Jeff know so we got him playing on the song.

Jeff: George and Matty Spindel recorded his guitars in LA. I uploaded a basic track – Pro Tools session to them and then they were able to over-dub the parts. Then, they uploaded the session back to me where I proceeded to import the new guitar tracks back into the master mix, comp parts and remix. With Tyler parts and overdubs, we now have this outrageous “studio to studio” hook up” from my studio in Nashville directly to Andy’s studio in Fredericksburg VA. This process was inspired by us working with Andy’s daughter, Christina (Reese) remotely on her new up and coming CD.

Andy and I have worked out a method of recording where I’m running his computer with a program called “Go To My PC”. I’m able to stream stereo audio back and forth through a program called Nicecast and that lets us both monitor high fidelity audio back and forth in real time. I’m mixing and mastering with people all the around the world this way! With SKYPE or FaceTime in the equation, it brings us all as close as close can get, like we are all sitting in the same room together working in my studio! Ya gotta love technology!! The video “Virtual Studio Nashville” will show you the actual Body Bag session in action with this process while doing overdubs with Tyler.

After Rick sent me his vocal parts and we were finished with all the extra overdubs, I then looked at the whole mix and said this has got to be completely re-thought because the energy was just so incredible with all the new “schtuff” that we ALL had added. Plus, I just did a major update to my studio and was able to reach a much higher level sonically. Didn’t hurt to have an army of guitars on there as well including Dustin, Tyler, George and myself!!

KChele: So Tyler plays guitar?

Jeff: Tyler is an amazing, incredible guitarist…I would say its metal meets Leslie West of Mountain. He has the taste of Mountain & Clapton… that era but also adds his blazing speed shredding style into the equation, adding a VERY unique element to Dustin’s songs. He is genuinely a HUGE player in the “new” sound for the Dustin Walker Band! Go ahead and listen to it.

Love – Love – Love this song! It draws you in immediately, takes you for an electrifying ride and leaves you wanting more. The vocals, shredding guitar and production, are all top-notch and hearing Rick is quite the bonus. I’m honored to have been allowed too hear the entire track and proud to share this exclusive, pre-release clip with my fans first.  ~K*Chele

KChele: Oh my God that is going to be a #1 hit.

Jeff: The inspiration for this started out with our new song that we just recorded called “Tonight”. Dustin and I just started talking about the whole idea of Rick’s “An Affair Of The Heart” Documentary, which Dustin appears in (projected release this coming month). This seemed to be the perfect time & reason to write and record something new. We did and then, all of a sudden, one thing just evolved into the next thing and to the next thing. We got Stephen Wrench involved (Muzik and Film Records) and he said “Oh yeah, this is great. I would love to be able to release this.” Dustin and Stephen had a talk about having Rick on it. Wasn’t that Stephen’s idea?

Dustin: Yeah, when Stephen got a hold of my dad, he listened to the two songs. He said “I Can’t Do Anything for You” really sounds like it could be a Rick song, how cool would that be to have Rick on there”. So I asked Rick and he said “Yeah, of course. Just send me the tracks.” I still can’t believe it. Every time I listen to it I’m like “Rick is really singing on my song!”

KChele: Yeah, I don’t think you realize what this is gonna do for your career. The song is amazing #1 and for me, somebody on the outside looking in, it’s incredible to see somebody like Rick Springfield that has not only stuck with you as you’ve grown, but to be willing to go that extra step. That’s reassurance to me and the rest of the world that there are good people out there. It’s got like a whole feel good thing to it.

Jeff: It does. This project is surrounded by that. Everyone involved is clearly going the extra 9 yards for this project because we all want Dustin to get out there in a big way and most importantly, in the right way! It all feels like it’s the right thing to do at the right time and everyone is realizing that at the same time and moving on it as one big team. Carpe Diem!! We are all seizing the moment!

Dustin: Another thing that’s real cool about, it’s like one big family. Everybody that comes into it, it’s like…you can trust everybody.

Jeff: It reminds me of the days when I was signed as an artist to Rick’s Production company, Carman Productions with Joe Gottfried, Tom Skeeter and my dear friend and incredibly talented engineer – producer, Bill Drescher at the helm… there are certain times in your life where you have these magical opportunities. That was one of mine. For Dustin, I think this is one of those moments that he’ll remember for the rest of his life.

KChele: It’s like the right people have surrounded him. It’s almost like everybody has been drawn to him that really believes in him and wants him to succeed. What I was going to say that I wanted Dustin’s dad to hear is, what I find that’s so unique about this situation, and you don’t find this a lot, is that Jeff is a genuinely good dad. You can see that and feel that through Dustin. It doesn’t matter how many times I talk to Jeff, he’s always got the same attitude, no matter what he’s going through. He’s always positive and upbeat, even when he’s down and he’s directly passed that to Dustin and that just makes me want to help and do that much more. To find out that I was the first one to blast the news was like a gift for me to push as hard as I could push to give something back to somebody that gives so much.

Dustin: Thank you, he really is, he’s the best dad ever.

Jeff (Dustin’s dad): Thank you Kim for saying that, it just blows me away that maybe other people notice that.

Jeff: We’ve got to get you hooked up with Tyler because he is going play a big role in Dustin’s band. There are already discussions of co-writing with Tyler and there’s some songs that he has that Dustin and I will be looking into.

KChele: As far as Stephen’s role in all of this, when you say that Dustin is signed with him, what kind of signing deal has been done exactly? Is it just for these 3 songs or 1 song?

Jeff: I believe for 3 songs, isn’t it Jeff?

Jeff (Dustin’s dad): The original signing is for the EP, I imagine there could be some amendments to that. The original signing is for the 3 song EP.

KChele: Is Rick singing on all of the songs or just “I Can’t Do Anything for You”?

Jeff: Just “I Can’t Do Anything for You”. Everything’s evolved onto an entirely higher level. When Dustin came down here this last Thanksgiving, we recorded a song that was just…It’s got to be one the best I’ve ever written, or co-written I should say.

It’s like another step into another dimension of Dustin’s talent not only writing wise but performance wise. It has elements of the band Apocalyptica, with very heavy cellos to support the heavy low bottom end of the song. We also added strings thanks to the amazing talent of Tim Lorsch, We go from the very abstract to metal to pop.

The song takes us on this musical journey and almost dictated itself into this whole…kind of a cross between “Body Bag” and “I Can’t Do Anything for You”. It’s a merger of the two stylistically and then some! It certainly signifies a growth process in Dustin as an Artist and Songwriter!

The EP will probably be mixed, hopefully, in the next few days. I think what Stephen’s going to do is release the single first, Jeff do you have any idea when that’s gonna be?

Jeff (Dustin’s Dad): It’s going to be single first. He said as soon as the website gets launched, then they want to put the single out. So he’s thinking, with the timing and everything, probably 4 weeks on the single.

KChele: So there’s a new website being launched?

Jeff : Yeah, everything old that’s up has been taken down. “Talking to Strangers”, the other songs have been taken off of iTunes. We are right now taking things off of YouTube. So everything’s going to be fresh and new and all the old stuff is going to disappear.

KChele: So everything’s being completely redone and upgraded. So people can expect the song to be released in approximately 4 weeks, 4 to 6 weeks?

Jeff : I’d say that’d probably be safe by the time it gets up on YouTube.

There’s a little bit of a story, Dustin was having some issues and we were almost going to cancel the Thanksgiving trip because of his condition and Dustin said no. I said we can postpone this for a couple weeks and we can do this again. He was so determined to come down. It’s just his very typical positive, forward motion, passionate drive. He said no I’m gonna make myself feel better and we’re gonna do this.

Dustin: When this whole deal came about with Stephen, he said he wanted a 3^rd song, so I immediately began writing with Jeff. We were on Skype one day and we thought it was going to take a couple Skype sessions before we got the song done and it took one. We Skyped one time and stuff just kept flowing.

Me and Jeff work very, very good together. Stuff just keeps bouncing back and forth, its stuff that we wouldn’t come up with if we were just by ourselves writing. Stuff just kept bouncing back and forth and we wrote the whole song in one night. We wrote it on a Sunday and for that whole weekend I was having these weird pains in my left side of my stomach.

Jeff (Dustin’s Dad): 2 hours after you guys finished writing we were in the emergency and he was getting a CAT scan.

Jeff: But he wouldn’t show it. I think it was going on while we were writing. He was looking like he was so excited and enthusiastic and the next thing I know, 2 hours after we’re finished, Jeff e mails me to say Dustin’s in the hospital!

Dustin: That’s what happened. I was in the hospital after we got done writing the song and they took me and did a CAT scan and they came back and said I had a horseshoe shaped kidney, from birth, and that I should have been drinking tons of water and because of that I developed an 8mm kidney stone and I couldn’t pass it. They sent me to an urologist and I was in tons of pain on tons of pain medication, just out of it.

The week after that I was supposed to be going down to Nashville and the doctor said, “Well it’s not anything that’s going to cause any problems, there’s no life or death thing but it’s going to keep causing pain and we need to get it out”. I said “well give me some pain medicine and send me down to Nashville, give me enough pain medicine for the next couple weeks and then I’ll come get the stone removed”.

Jeff: We worked really hard when you were here. The new song was written very quickly but it also had a huge evolution to it when we were actually in here recording. Before Dustin arrived, I had the idea sketched out on drums, bass and acoustic guitar but left lots of room for him to come up with his electric guitar & final acoustic parts. We spent the whole entire day just doing nothing but guitar parts. It was a day to experiment and try different things and without a doubt, it took on this whole adventure. The next day, it was heads down with vocal time and Dustin was at 150%. He was singing great and everything was moving along even better than anticipated. At the end of the session I hear from Jeff that he’s sick. Little did I know he was having issues when we were recording! And was in so much pain during much of the recording!!! I would have never known that because you were so up and enthusiastic!

Dustin: Yeah that’s exactly right and the comment Jeff actually made in the vocal room was “Man, you’re singing so good and powerful. Now don’t push your kidney stone out on me.”

KChele: That’s determination. That’s the heart of somebody that really wants it.

Jeff: That’s how I was when I was his age. I could taste it. And that’s exactly what Dustin’s got.

KChele: Dustin since you’ve been through that you’ll understand what I’m getting ready to say. My condition that I live with cause’s chronic pain 24/7, it never stops. When you have something like that, but you also have a dream, you take that pain and you twist it and you spin it and you use it to your advantage. So, it sounds like Dustin put that pain into his performance and it made him even better.

Dustin: I completely understand that. I never really thought about it that way…I ask myself, how did I do that? I think now that you said that, that’s what it really was. I think that was part of it, I really do..

KChele: So the song that y’all were working on and writing, is that the one “Tonight”?

Jeff: Yes

Dustin: “Tonight” is definitely my favorite. I love all the songs but “Tonight” has just got this passion behind it.

Jeff: It comes from a true story, which we’ll get into later.

KChele: Who wrote these songs?

Jeff: Dustin and I

KChele: All 3 of them right?

Jeff: Yeah

KChele: For people that haven’t heard it yet, why should they listen to them?

Dustin: This has always been my dream and I would do anything to make it happen. I love everybody who listens, it’s just me writing random songs. This is stuff that comes from my heart, it’s me. I put everything out there, I don’t hold anything back. Anything that I want to write about, I write about it. What I’ve been through can help other people too, that’s another reason.

Jeff: I think “Body Bag” sends out a great message that can help people that are really down and out. The whole concept of the song is don’t grab that body bag. Don’t give up, don’t give up on life or commit suicide or cut yourself or feel like there’s not way out of those”dark places”. There’s always hope. as long as you don’t give up (and grab that Body Bag!). This song brings to light a dark and personal subject that’s very prevalent today with not only kids of Dustin’s age, but all ages.

“Tonight” came from a true story that we grabbed onto for our storyboarding. Something that really affected Dustin and even his lovely family. It’s really important to put these feelings and events into words, and what better way to write a song than when it comes from a real experience. It was fascinating to me because we had a pertinent subject matter. To me, writing is like a watching a movie. It’s a story with a beginning, middle and end. Pulling from real life experiences is a great motivator and is the perfect GPS to a great lyric.

KChele: So if you, as the co-writer or producer, if you had to make a one sentence quote about this overall experience with Dustin and with these 3 songs, could you even sum it up into a one sentence quote?

“I’m inspired by Dustin’s ability to grab his dream.”

Jeff: He’s already grabbed it. It’s just a matter of letting the rest of the world know about Dustin Walker! In the beginning of us working together a few years back, he had the passion, but not enough focus or direction. The first thing that we did together was… I helped him find his direction. That’s what a good producer does. He brings the best out of an artist and their particular vision. The artist is ultimately responsible for making the final decisions and finding it in themselves. My job is to help and advise along the way.

I’ve done nothing but music all my life except for maybe a 10 year hiatus where I was mainly into music editing for film and television but I always loved music (writing, performing, engineering and producing) first and foremost. I could taste it then and I can still taste it now.

That’s what I see in Dustin. A passion that will never die. He is not only a great human being, he is his music. I watched him go from wanting to be a lead singer to actually being a lead singer in a matter of 3 months from the time we started working together. That was pure determination and “tude” and a willingness to listen, learn and most of all trust in me and in what we were doing together as a team.

“I Can’t Do Anything For You” is his first vocal ever in the studio, done at the age of 14. Body Bag was done at the same time. When I updated both mixes, these vocals still stood up to the test. I believe you’ll hear what I hear. I hear a singer that COMPLETELY believes every single word they are singing and with a pure unadulterated drive and determination. That translates to me as ROCKIN’!. I feel the vocal on Tonight goes yet even further to another level, and there is a growth that you will hear but.. the same Dustin Walker that “sells” these song in the way they should be.

I see where Dustin’s going to be this incredible artist that’s going to maintain, grow and prosper financial and musically for many, many years to come, no different from Rick Springfield. The project with Dustin not only brings me satisfaction as a producer & co-writer, but I feel very proud (feel like the proud Father but J2 has that covered!! to be an important part of his journey.

Dustin: Thank you so much Jeff. You’re really more than just an important part; you are the reason I am where I’m at today. You are the one that brought me out of my shell and made me realize that my voice was an instrument too. I tell everybody that. You helped me find my star and what direction I wanted to go and helped me with so much writing.