Coordinates | 38°37′38″N90°11′52″N |
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name | Butch Walker |
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background | solo_singer |
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birth name | Bradley Glenn Walker |
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born | November 14, 1969Cartersville, Georgia, U.S. |
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instrument | Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Bass, Percussion, Hammond organ, Mandolin-banjo |
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genre | Glam metal (early)Pop punk Post-grunge Rock Pop rock Hard rock |
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occupation | Singer-songwriter, Musician, Producer |
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years active | 1985–present |
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label | Original Signal, Dangerbird Records, Lojinx |
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associated acts | Marvelous 3, SouthGang Floyds Funk Revival, Floyds |
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website | ButchWalker.com |
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notable instruments | }} |
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Butch Walker (born
Bradley Glenn Walker on November 14, 1969) is a current
American recording artist,
songwriter, and
record producer who was also the lead guitarist for the metal band
SouthGang from the late 80s to early 90s as well as the lead vocalist and guitarist for
rock band
Marvelous 3 from 1997 until 2001.
Career
Walker grew up in
Cartersville,
Georgia and stood out as a guitarist and performer in several rock bands in the 1980s including Bad Boyz and Byte the Bullet. In 1988, he took Byte the Bullet to LA and they were signed to Virgin Records within the year. The band then changed their name to
SouthGang and released two albums, ''Tainted Angel'' in 1991 and ''Group Therapy'' in 1992. SouthGang was one of the first bands to tour China in the early 1990s. Southgang disbanded when Walker lost interest in continuing, but he remained on good terms with all the other members of the band.
After Southgang, Walker formed a new band with ex-SouthGang members Jayce Fincher and Mitch McLee (aka: Doug Mitchell), calling themselves Floyd's Funk Revival after Walker's birthplace, Floyd county Georgia. Walker shared lead vocals in the band with Fincher's wife, Chrystina Lloree. They released one full length album, Creamy. The album contained thirteen original tracks with Lloree taking a large share of the lead vocals and heavy reliance on guitar. The band then shortened their name to The Floyds. They released one self-titled album on the Deep South label, which contained ten original tracks along with a humorous intro piece. Bonus tracks included a cover of Duran Duran's "Rio", and a live rendition of the Shasta soda jingle from the late seventies. (See Amazon.com and TheMarvieChronicles.com) The style of both these albums was guitar-oriented, mainstream rock with mild funk influences, and was a forerunner to the more basic guitar-oriented rock approach Walker took later with Marvelous 3. Although the albums are highly regarded among the people who discovered them (see Amazon.com reviews), they failed to sell many copies, and both albums are now quite rare. They are highly coveted by fans of Butch Walker, and the few copies that surface in the used cd market today command very high prices.
In 1997, Walker, Fincher, and McLee transformed themselves again, scaling back to a trio with Walker handling all the lead vocals. They also decided to streamline their sound to more of a "power pop" type of band. Calling themselves Marvelous 3, they released the album "Math and Other Problems" on Deep South Records in 1997. They followed this in 1999 with "Hey!Album" on Elektra records and had a minor hit with the song "Freak of the Week." The next year, they released their final album, "ReadySexGo", also on Elektra. That album failed to continue the momentum created by the prior release, however, and perceiving a lack of support from their record label, they disbanded in 2001. Their final concert was on August 3, 2001 at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in front of their hometown fans.
Butch Walker then began a solo career, releasing the albums ''Left of Self-Centered'' in 2002, ''Letters'' in 2004 and ''The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites'' in 2006. In 2005 he played over 200 live shows across both the U.S. and Japan, and he released his first DVD, ''Live at Budokan''. At the end of 2005 he was named as ''Rolling Stone'''s producer of the year. Butch Walker was featured as a headlining artist on the MySpace-promoted Inaugural Hotel Cafe tour, supporting independent artists from the Los Angeles venue of the same name.
Butch Walker began 2008 by setting out many dates for new songs, DVDs, new albums both with the band 1969, which he is the bassist and lead singer for, and also a solo record titled ''Sycamore Meadows''. He stated that he was planning to release something on every major holiday in 2008. On February 14, 2008, an audio release of Walker's live performance in his hometown of Atlanta, GA, was released. A DVD of this show followed on March 17, 2008. The DVD and audio are titled ''Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street'' (Luckie Street is the road the venue at which the show was played, the Tabernacle in Atlanta, GA). Then working with ''Michael Chislett'' of The Academy Is... and Darren Dodd of ''The Let's Go Out Tonites'' under the name 1969 released a full-length debut album titled ''Maya'' on April 1, 2008. ''Sycamore Meadows'' was originally slated for a holiday release in the summer of 2008, but was postponed due to personal reasons until November 11, according to his MySpace blog. The first single, "The Weight of Her", and an additional track, "Ships in a Bottle", are available on iTunes. The video for "Ships in a Bottle" documents Butch walking on the grounds of his home on Sycamore Meadows Drive in Southern California after it was destroyed by the wildfires of November 2007. Both ''Maya'' and ''Sycamore Meadows'' were released on a limited run of vinyl.
An effort begun in 2009, Butch released "I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart" on February 23, 2010. It was released under the name Butch Walker & the Black Widows. Recording sessions were held at RubyRed Productions in Santa Monica, Ca. Butch's support of the record includes touring with Train beginning March, 2010, a headlining tour of the States, and opening for Pink in Europe on her Stadium Festival Tour.
Productions and Collaborations
In July 2009, Butch Walker worked with Weezer on their album "Raditude". Butch mentioned working with the band during a radio interview with 99x. He was being interviewed via phone along with Cee Lo from Gnarls Barkley who was in the actual studio. Butch co-wrote and Produced several songs on "
Raditude", including the first single, "If You're Wondering if I Want You To... (I Want You To)", which hit Number 1 hit on the Modern rock Chart.
In 2007, Walker provided guest vocals on Fall Out Boy's third record ''Infinity on High'', on the track "You're Crashing, but You're No Wave", and co-produced the track "Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?" with singer Patrick Stump. He also made a brief cameo in the video for "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race".
Walker also appears in The Academy Is... videos for "Slow Down" and "We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands" as well as the video for "So What" by Pink. He also co-wrote the songs "Breaking" and "Younglife", both of which are performed by Anberlin and co-written by them.
Walker also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers. He was also a judge for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards.
In January 2009, post-hardcore band Saosin tapped Walker to produce their second album for Capitol Records.
In March 2009, the song "Open Happiness" debuted, a new business venture by Coca-Cola, written by Walker, and featuring Cee-Lo Green, Travis McCoy, Janelle Monae, Patrick Stump and Brendon Urie. This song has a Cantonese cover version by Joey Yung on her new album, ''A Time For Us'', and she is also filming advertisements for Coca Cola in Chinese.
Many of his songs have been hits for other artists, including Avril Lavigne, Sevendust, Injected, The Donnas, Hot Hot Heat, American Hi-Fi, Default, Gob, Midtown, Puffy AmiYumi, Pete Yorn, Fall Out Boy, Quietdrive, All-American Rejects, SR-71, The Academy Is... and recently The Cab, Saosin, NeverShoutNever!, Weezer, Dashboard Confessional and All Time Low.
Currently
Butch signed on to judge a competition called Spin's Hot Pursuit to find an unsigned band for Epic Records/Original Signal hosted on Music Nation.
Butch has been known to break his music down to the bare basics, and played a series of sold-out live shows with just acoustic guitar and vocals beginning in Fall, 2009, accompanied by friends including at various times Pink, actor Jeremy Piven, Jim Bianco, The Chapin Sisters and doctor Stephen Patt on steel guitar. Out of the shows came a tongue-in-cheek-cover of Taylor Swift's single "You Belong With Me" on banjolin, which was met with enough interest that Butch recorded a video and audio version in his studio, and as a goof, posted on youtube. The results were astounding: Taylor blogged about the video, it went viral, and then Ms. Swift invited Butch to appear with her at the Winter 2010 Grammy Awards, where he joined Taylor with singer Stevie Nicks onstage for a trio of songs.
On August 30, 2011 Butch Walker will release his second album with the Black Widows entitled The Spade. The first single released will be "Summer of '89".
Personal life
When Butch graduated high school, he says that he weighed 215 lbs but subsequently dropped to 165 lbs. In November 2007, Butch and family lost all of their possessions, including the masters to every song he had ever recorded, when the
Malibu home he was renting from
Flea of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers burned down as a result of a
wildfire in
Southern California. Butch titled his album "Sycamore Meadows" after the street the house was on.
Discography
Studio albums
Year
|
Album details
|
Peak chart positions
|
US
|
! width="50" |
! width="50" |
2002
|
|
-
|
-
|
-
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2004
|
align="left" |
171
|
10
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137
|
2006
|
|
-
|
-
|
294
|
2008
|
|
173
|
7
|
-
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2010
|
|
125
|
1
|
-
|
2011
|
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
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Live albums
''This Is Me... Justified and Stripped'' (2004)
''Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street'' (2008)
EPs
''Heartwork'' (2004)
''Cover Me Badd'' (2005)
Live at Lollapalooza 2008 (2008)
''Here Comes The... EP'' (2009)
DVDs
''Live at Budokan'' (2005)
''Leavin' The Game On Luckie Street DVD'' (2008)
Featured In
"You're Crashing But You're No Wave" By Fall Out Boy (2007)
"Christmas All Over Again" by Butch Walker and Taryn Manning (2008)
"Good Times" By Tommy Lee (2005)
Produced Records
Marvelous 3 - Math And Other Problems (1997)
Marvelous 3 - Hey! Album (1998)
Marvelous 3 - Ready, Sex, Go (2000)
Injected - Burn It Black (2002)
Bowling for Soup - Drunk Enough to Dance (2002)
SR-71 - Tomorrow (2002)
Pete Yorn - Day I Forgot (2003)
Shawn Mars - Red Means Go (2003)
Gob - Foot In Mouth Disease (2003)
Default - Elocation (2003)
Sevendust - Seasons (2003)
Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin (2004)
Simple Plan - Still Not Getting Any... (2004)
Midtown - Forget What You Know (2004)
The Donnas - Gold Medal (2004)
American Hi-Fi - Hearts on Parade (2005)
Lindsay Lohan - A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
Wakefield - Which Side Are You On? (2005)
Pink - I'm Not Dead (2006)
PUFFY - Splurge (2006)
Family Force 5 - Business Up Front/Party in the Back (2006)
Pete Yorn - Nightcrawler (2006)
Quietdrive - When All That's Left Is You (2006)
Rock Star Supernova - Rock Star Supernova (2006)
Bowling For Soup - The Great Burrito Extortion Case (2006)
Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing (2007)
The Academy Is... - Santi (2007)
The Honorary Title - Scream & Light Up the Sky (2007)
Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd. (2007)
PUFFY - Honeycreeper (2007)
The Automatic - This Is A Fix (2008)
Katy Perry - One of the Boys (2008)
Pink - Funhouse (2008)
The Films - Oh, Scorpio! (2009)
Secondhand Serenade - A Twist In My Story (2009)
PUFFY - Bring It! (2009)
All Time Low - Nothing Personal (2009)
Weezer - Raditude (2009)
Saosin - In Search Of Solid Ground (2009)
Plastiscines - About Love (2009)
Dashboard Confessional - Alter the Ending (2009)
The Rocket Summer - Of Men and Angels (2010)
Never Shout Never - What Is Love (2010)
Avril Lavigne - Goodbye Lullaby (2011)
Panic! At The Disco - Vices & Virtues (2011)
References
External links
2009 Interview Podcast with Butch Walker on BackstageMusician.Com
Interview from 2002 from PlugInMusic.com
Butch Walker's Top 10 Albums of 2008
Butch Walker Production Credit List (Discography) - beatbuggy.com
Category:1969 births
Category:Living people
Category:Lead guitarists
Category:American rock guitarists
Category:American rock singer-songwriters
Category:American male singers
Category:American pop singers
Category:American record producers
Category:Crush Management artists
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