It seems we were not alone in our idea of revisiting old treasures from the past to help pass the forced downtime of the pandemic. Guitarist Steve Vai is the latest of our rock inspirations to bring an old project to the world; Vai/Gash is a tribute to hi dear friend Gash who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1998 before the world got to hear his amazing voice. Recently virtuoso bassist Billy Sheehan reunited with his band Talas to release their music before their singer succumbed to cancer in 2021.

It…

Twenty years ago today we lost our heartbeat. Matt Bouley was a great many other things in his too short time here too, but in whatever he did, music flowed out of him as easily as breathing. For the first time in these 20 years as this hard anniversary arrives, we can hear him again at his absolute best and doing what he loved.

It was cathartic to be able to celebrate his birthday back in May by letting the world hear his talents fully restored and produced for the first time. So on this day, we share one…

Our guitarist Andrew McKnight has been the driving force behind restoring and releasing Calm Before the Storm, along with the incredible dedication and contributions of engineer and producer Dustin Delage. Andrew has also spent a lot of time in the studio with ghosts over the past year, and it has been far from easy. This weekend, after hand delivering the CD to Matt Bouley’s mom and son, he shared some thoughts about the experience on his website blog – we invite you to take a read from the heart at https:…

Good morning Nor’easter family! This is the first morning that our Calm Before the Storm album is out in the wild, the way we envisioned it, the way we knew it could sound, the way we’d always hoped someday it would. Now it does, and now you can have it and hear it anytime you want. If you haven’t yet, get your download or limited edition CD at https://noreasterrocks.bandcamp.com. 

While that part of the journey is winding down, the next phase is ramping up in a hurry. This music needs to be heard! And we…

The 21st century offers myriad uses for music that weren’t in existence back in the mid-80s. The royalties and licensing for the first MLB relief pitcher who uses the opening to “Cosmic Metalhead” for his walkup song are going to pay for the album and promotion probably 3 times over  So if you have a friend in a major league bullpen, let him know we’re working on their 2022 walkup music.

Sept. 28, 2021 

Did you have one of these cassettes back in the day? For as cool as it was to be able to give people “our tape,” the quality of the new album production is going to be worthy of more than black and white! We’re excited about a piece of original art being done for the cover, but that will have to wait until the second listen party. Of course there is always some measure of mayhem and chaos behind the scenes. While we recorded it with our 2nd bass player Ron Jurczyk, by the time we finished…

Aug. 16, 2021 by Andrew

Something special happened Saturday night. 

I did my final show with Matt Bouley on drums in the summer of 1992 before moving my life to Virginia. In 1995 he and Darrell Sabourin – my After Midnight bandmates – came to Virginia to record drums and bass on my debut CD Traveler. Matt’s been gone almost 19 years now. 

Matt’s son Alex just turned 30 this weekend. He now has what remains of his dad’s old Tama drum set, and has played in his own original rock bands. I’ve known him since he…

From Andrew McKnight’s website, originally August 28, 2020 

"It’s hard to describe what this computer image means to me. For the non-musical, the display is a basic recording studio editor, with waveforms produced by recording each individual or voice on its own track. In the studio we edit, sweeten, balance and process each of them collectively into the stereo or 5.1 recordings you’re used to hearing. 

Except that these waveforms were first captured as sound on reel-to-reel tape 31 years ago, well before…