Former Saliva drummer, Paul Crosby spoke with me about recently splitting ways with Saliva, and in the wake of his new adventure, starting a new band, Asleep in the Wake. This new band consists of Matt Neice on vocals, Mike Mexas on guitar, Hector Porras on bass, and of course, Paul Crosby on drums.
After getting to know Paul briefly and hearing about the new direction his life is taking, it seems that this serendipitous way the band coming together was meant to be, but was no accident. It’s very clear he has a passion for music and mentorship and combines the two. Seeing his core values of helping other artists excel as the foundation of his work, it’s no surprise that such a great band can just “happen.” It was very humbling that while we were talking about his new band and their album, he wanted to take time to promote Saliva’s upcoming album release as well. With his unwavering support of other musicians, I wish him and Asleep in the Wake nothing but success!
Asleep in the Wake is hitting the ground running in their first year together, releasing their first album this Fall, and planning their tour stops for next year. This is a band you need to know! Head over to their social media and see what they’re putting out!
www.facebook.com/asleepinthewake
Side Stage Magazine: I guess I’ll start by asking, I know you’ve answered this so many times, but why did you leave Saliva?
Paul Crosby: Well, first of all, I always want to throw this out first cause everybody wants some juicy details. It very much was an amicable parting of ways, no drama, we’re still friends. Unfortunately, there’s no TMZ story or crazy drama, but man, I was in that band for almost 20 year. Realistically, honestly, I just wanted to come home and concentrate on managing bands I manage bands and I have a studio as well. I kind of just wanted to come home and spend my time with the kids and family and be in music this way. Touring around the world for 20 years wears you out, man. That was the initial thing, to come home and work out of home. But then, after several months– you know I said I manage bands and run my studio– one of my friends, named Mike Mexas, he was in a band called Saturate. They were together for about 10 years and then they disbanded. He made a Facebook post about wanting to write with some people. So I hit him up and said “Mike, come over to my studio. I’ll record your ideas and play drums on it for now.” I wasn’t planning on being in another band. I was just going to help him out and get him going. Then we wrote a few songs and it was coming out really good, so we decided to start this band, which leads us up to Asleep in the Wake.
So it just happened.
Yeah it did. Like I said, I was just helping him with some of his ideas and I think he was wanting to just start a project, but I don’t think it was really–I was just helping him out as a favor, you know? I was just playing drums on his stuff. Like I said, the stuff started coming out so well, we decided to just throw the band together.
Were you part of Saliva since it started, or did you come on a little after?
I came on in 1997. Actually, in the very beginning of Saliva, when they were just a local band that nobody knew about, they had a local drummer for like 6 months. Then he quit and I joined, but yes. I’ve been with them since the beginning since anyone knows who Saliva is, from the very first record, Every Six Seconds.
What is it like building from the beginning again?
Well, like I said, my goal is band management and producing, and I’m doing that, so I’m fine with it. I don’t know, it’s refreshing, it’s different. With Saliva, after a long period of time, everybody wound up moving to different states. It wasn’t like it used to be where we could go and write songs together. It became more of people writing their own songs and emailing them back and forth and it lost its way that way, in my opinion. This is refreshing cause we all live here and write songs. We write all of our songs together, like how we used to do in Saliva. I’m having a lot of fun with it. I’m really enjoying it and it’s a whole different perspective than Saliva, so it’s really refreshing.
That’s good! I bet it’s kind of one of those things that you get to do those things with the knowledge you’ve gained over 20 years of experience.
Yup! And I get to spread that knowledge to these new guys that are playing. And that’s also the cool thing about band management and producing is all the knowledge and contacts I’ve built over 20 years, so I get to use that to my advantage, so that’s nice.
Yeah, that’s awesome! So what was the timeline like? Cause I feel like I just found out that you weren’t a part of Saliva anymore, and then all of a sudden you have a new band and a new single, and you’re working on a new record. It seems like it all happened at break-neck speed.
The Saliva thing happened, the last tour I did with them, we did Europe and Australia, and then it ended in the very beginning of March, and after that we parted ways. I think after that, I started helping my guitar player, Mike, in maybe April. It wasn’t very long. It was a couple of months before I decided to be a part of it, Asleep in the Wake. So just a few months.
That’s awesome! I did hear the videos you posted on your Facebook page.
“Like You” and “Burn the Altar?”
Yeah! I was just listening to “Burn the Altar.” It sounds so good, I can’t wait to hear the album when it all releases.
We’re shooting for sometime in November release date. And it’s gonna be an EP, 6 songs first. I just kind of feel like the world’s attention span, it’s all about singles and EPs, I don’t feel like the attention span is there for a whole record. And on top of that, realistically, bands don’t put out records you can just push play and you don’t have to skip songs. It’s just unfortunately the way it is. I feel like I would rather give 6 really good songs instead of 10 on only some of them are just OK. Give em the good stuff!
Are you still working on songwriting, or are you just now focusing on producing?
We’re constantly writing. We have the entire EP already recorded. 3 of the songs are already mixed and mastered and we’re just waiting on the other 3 to get mixed and mastered. Once those 3 are done, we can shoot for a release.
OK, and you have a home studio, is that where you guys are working on everything?
Yeah, I have a studio at my house, and that’s where we recorded all that record.
That’s got to be so nice to just be around family now.
It’s so nice. I’ve missed a lot of my kids growing up. I still have a few kids that are still young enough that I can enjoy that aspect of it. It’s really cool. I get to enjoy not being gone all the time and missing birthdays and all of that.
Yeah, my husband’s military, so he’s always gone. I’m on the other side of that, but I imagine that’s got to be hard for the one always gone.
I grew up a military family as well, so I know all about all that.
You guys actually played, we’re stationed at Cherry Point, and you guys were at Rocktoberfest last year.
Yes! I remember that show! It was awesome, it was packed!
Yeah! And I have to tell you, that show sparked me working with Side Stage Magazine and focusing on music journalism.
Nice! Well, that’s good, that’s a good thing!
Yeah! I kind of feel like Saliva, you guys are helping lots of people with their creative endeavors.
Yeah, that’s awesome! That’s the whole point, so mission accomplished!
Speaking of Saliva, I wanted to make sure I said this cause we’re still really good friends. They have a new record coming out, I want to say it’s October 12, it’s called 10 Lives. So I like to try to plug their new release to send the love back. If you could mention that, that’d be good.
Yeah, I heard their new single and it sounds good. It’s like staying with their classic sound, but a little more refreshed.
A little more moderned out. Yeah, that’s cool!
What else is on the horizon for you? Are you able to find a balance between managing bands and being in a band yourself? Is it difficult to do that?
Not really, because I’m running my band management company like I would run a day job, Monday – Friday in my office. My band isn’t really doing anything during the day, so it works out really well. For a while, back in the early mid 2000’s I was managing bands and then I got away from it cause I got really busy with it. It took up any amount of free time I had left over. So I kind of got burned out on that. Now, it’s a completely different thing. My main focus is my management company and producing, and obviously I’ve got my band too. Where we’re at right now, we still have plenty of free time to do that. We’re not as on-the-go as Saliva was.
Well, that’s nice that you have it, that it’s not your main money-maker so you have to do it. It’s just your outlet and you can pick and choose where you want to go with it.
Yeah, it makes it feel a lot less like a job, which is great.
Would you consider going on tour once the record release?
Oh absolutely! Our plan is actually to stage everything up this year for touring in 2019, which is what we’re doing right now-getting our name out there, getting our record out, all that stuff, all the interviews and everything, just setting it up for next year. We’re definitely planning on touring, I don’t see it being on the capacity that Saliva did, however, if something happened and the record were to take off, or whatever, who knows, then so be it. Right now, we all have families, a couple of us have kids. We’re planning on doing it in a more responsible way, let’s just put it that way. We’re not just going to take off for 3 months, you know what I mean?
I’m excited for you to have a new outlet and a change of pace.
It’s great! It’s just so refreshing. Asleep in the Wake sounds nothing like Saliva, so it’s a completely new, exciting adventure.
I’m excited for you. Is there anything you guys are working on, or you’re just focusing on that?
We’re just working on getting ready to shoot a video for our first single, “Like You.” We’re just focusing, like I said, on staging everything up so that we can start doing it big time in 2019, tour stops and all that good stuff, pump it up.
I hope to see you in Jacksonville, then!
Oh yeah! Yeah! I’m getting hit up every day by all the promoters that have booked Saliva. “I heard you’re in a new band, I want your new band here!.” It’s like “I appreciate it. We’re doing this on our own terms, so definitely I will hit you up when it’s time.” We’re planning on doing two-week runs, boom boom boom, hitting up the good spots. So I’m sure we’ll be seeing you before long. We just want to do it right, you know what I mean? We’ve gotta get the word out, or else people aren’t going to know who we are, before we take off touring.
Yeah, and you don’t want to rush it. Especially, if you were feeling burned out. It’s not a good plan to rush it and get burned out right away.
Yes! I’m completely content right now with not going on a tour. I’m completely fine with being at home.
When are you guys expecting your music video to release?
Well, we’ve got to shoot it first. We had it set up for September, but some stuff came up and we had to postpone it. So we don’t have a new reshoot date yet, but I would imagine in the next couple of weeks. And then as soon as it’s edited–probably in the next 3 weeks to a month is when we should be releasing it.
Awesome! That’s a pretty quick turn around.
Yeah.
That’s what’s great about the digital era now. You can just get so much done so much faster.
Oh yeah, it doesn’t take up too much of your life. It’s gonna be awesome, i love it!
I appreciate your time today and I’m really excited to see what you come out with.
Yeah, we’re excited to get it out there.Like I said, we’re looking for some time in November for a release.
