"Hey! Big news, everyone: my new solo record, Black Ice (Volume I,) comes out today, 2/22/22 at 2:22p.m. You can go listen to it over at my Bandcamp and you can buy the vinyl on my Big Cartel. The links are in my Bio, so check it out," Buddy Schaub (@LessThanBuddy) ecstatically exclaimed within a short video posted to his Twitter page yesterday afternoon. You may know Buddy "Goldfinger" Schaub as the long-time trombone/bass player for Less Than Jake, but he does, indeed, have a musical life outside of that band. These are all songs that he's been earnestly working on since 2004. Schaub finally decided on a format for recording them and converted them to 1's and 0's. He warns fans, "there are plenty more songs where these came from, so stay tuned and enjoy these ones for now." Schaub has been working on these songs, and others, on-and-off since 2004 and previosuly released a 5-track collection, Dissociation, jointly billed to Buddy Schaub / Black Ice back in 2015.


That initial EP billed as Buddy Schaub / Black Ice was recently uploaded to Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, Deezer, and similarly-minded digital streaming platforms. Black Ice (Volume I) consists of 15 songs entirely written, performed, And recorded by Buddy Schaub himself. It was mixed by Matt Yonker (Less Than Jake) at Drastic Sounds and mastered by Stephen Egerton (Descendents, ALL) with cover artwork by Jason Miracle and layout handled by Buddy's wife, Edie Schaub. "This project began in the early months of 2004. I was freshly divorced, in serious need of a creative outlet, and had purchased a new Pro Tools [Digidesign Digi] 001 system with some bells and whistles about six months before. I had no idea how to use any of it and it was starting to collect dust. It was time to strap in and get down to business. With Less Than Jake touring so much, I knew starting another band would be hard to pull off, but I really wanted to keep my chops up on all the instruments I play (other than the trombone) and I was dead set on learning how to record music. Then, it hit me: "why not just do all of this at the same time?" Buddy Schaub explained within the liner notes for his first Black Ice record, Dissociation.


"Thus began what has now been an 18-year musical journey for me that I am finally ready to share with you. All of my Black Ice songs are written from the bottom up and by that, I mean that I start with the drums and work my way up from there. This is a pretty normal way to record music when tackling instruments one at a time, but when writing, one normally starts with the chords or melody and works back from there. I have dubbed what I am doing "reverse song-writing," Schaub continued. He recently told us the processes behind the making-of Dissociation and Black Ice (Volume I) were very similar. "First, I set up all the drum mics and start banging away until I come up with two or three patterns and, then, tie them together into a song arrangement with no idea what will end up being played over them. I'll do this until I have five to 10 drum tracks for songs."


"Then, whenever we are home from tour long enough again, I'll pick a drum track and start building the song up one instrument at a time: bass, then, rhythm guitars, then, lead [guitars], never really knowing what will be the end result. At some point, I decide I have a song. There are about 40 of these instrumentals now and I am constantly adding to the pile. This project has not only been an enriching learning experience for me, but has left me with a time capsule of musical moments of inspiration. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoyed creating them." Buddy Schaub's Black Ice (Volume I) is now available to stream on Bandcamp. 500 limited edition copies on transparent electric blue vinyl with neon orange splatter are available to purchase on Bandcamp & Big Cartel.