All is Found

26

The rush of performing live is something I don't think I'll ever get over. It makes me feel so alive. I'm so happy I took this tour spot. Ashley has been amazing to me and my band and I feel like I found a second family here among everyone. Ashley and I have grown closer and we have spent a lot of time writing music together. I feel like we could probably have an album done before tour is over. We have also just hung out a lot when we aren't on stage. I consider her a really good friend now and I can't wait to see where the rest of the tour will take us.

            As for my band, we are complete nut jobs together. Nikki and I are always willing to do something crazy together with Britt usually down to tag along while Diego is the mellow mind of reason we need some times. Nikki I feel has become a little sister to me. She comes to me a lot asking for advice and we have bonded over our hardships. Nikki's mom died of a brain aneurysm right after she was born. Her father was always in and out of the picture so she was raised by her conservative grandparents.

            My mother died of a sudden heart attack when I was 15. She just went to bed one night and didn't wake up. Asher found her later that day when he got home from school. After Ashley was born our dad left. Mom always just said that he left one day for work and never came back. To this day I don't know if he is alive or dead and I don't care. Asher was turning 18 that year so he was petitioned the court and became Ashley and I's legal guardian.

            Nikki left home when she was 17 and ran away to LA where she worked in different clubs as a DJs just to make some money. Just like piano is my first love, Nikki loves guitar. She posted covers of herself playing different arrangements of famous songs, one of them being the song Leave Me Lonely by Ariana Grande. The arrangement went viral and Ariana saw it invited her out to audition for her road band as it was right before she was leaving for her Sweetener World Tour. Nikki performed all over the world with her and was looking for a new show to tack onto when I needed a guitarist. I saw a lot of my younger self in Nikki and I will do anything for her.

            Britt's hard exterior has softened a little bit. Don't get me wrong though, she can still be a bitch at a moment's notice but I feel like we cracked her hard shell a little. Britt doesn't talk about her family much just that her mom and brother and live in Atlanta. We actually got to meet them both three days ago when we were in Atlanta.

            Britt finished touring with Childish Gambino and was looking for new tours to jump on when mine came up. Britt didn't like my old music too much and didn't really like my new stuff that much either and I appreciated her honesty. As I started to release some more of my stuff she told me that my music grew on her, that she liked the rawness of the new stuff after really getting to listen to them.

            When we have road days Diego has a hard time staying still. He has his practice pads out all the time and bangs on them all day long. It drive us all up the wall and I almost threw them out of the bus window one day when he wouldn't stop. Diego is from Long Beach California and we got to meet a lot of his family when we stopped in LA. They drove up from Long Beach and we had such a fun day with them. Our last show is in Irvine California and after the show his mom invited us all to go to their house to celebrate.

            The reason why he was on the east coast when I held auditions was because he was couch surfing with some of his friends in New York. When he heard about the audition he hopped on a train and came to audition.

            Alyssa has become by best friend basically. She on tour with us as I didn't want to hire a tour manager. I still wanted to get to know her more and this was the perfect way to do it. Alyssa is bubbly, kind and one of the nicest girls I've ever met. I've told her a few times that she is too nice to work in this industry and she just laughs it off. We have been attached at the hip since we left.