Days of the New: The Sad Story of Travis Meeks & The Band Behind Hits 'Shelf in the Room', 'Touch, Peel & Stand' and 'The Downtown'
0:00 Meeks Early Childhood/Father
3:11 - Days of the New Early Years
6:26 - Band Tensions
8:15 - Second album
10:17 - Third Album & Later Years
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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.
To say that Days of the New's history was tulmultous would be an understatement. The band's origins dated back to the 1995. Frontman Travis Meeks would end up growing up in Charlestown, Indiana which was separated from his future home Louisville, Kentucky by the Ohio River. Meeks had musician father, Gary Meeks, who recorded with The Box Tops, which was fronted by Alex Chilton.Gary would bond with his son over their mutual love of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Despite their shared love of music, Travis had a very unstable upbringing that likely contributed to his volatile behavior To distract himself from external events in his life, Travis would find comfort in music. His father gary would recall to leoweekly “I had a little recording setup at home. When he would get all whacked out, he’d get in his room and record these songs acoustic,”. “I was just blown away by it. That’s when he went ahead and said he would take the bull by the horns, doing the acoustical stuff.”“Travis was a real introvert. I always knew he was,” he said. “The music was kind of his saving grace. It was his therapy and his way of communicating.”
You can’t really understand Travis Meeks without first knowing the story of his father Gary. His s father wasn’t a great role model in fact the younger meeks later life mirrored that of his dad.
His father at the age of 13 would start playing guitar professionaloly and it would be a Lousville Kentucky DJ who worked at WAKY who took notice of Gary. The DJ knew people in Memphis who worked in the music industry and opened doors for Gary to start working in studio at the young age of 16. .
By the middle of the 70’s Gary’s manager was urging the young musician to relocate to Nashville and try a stab at being a country artist. He would recall to leoweekly.com
“At that time, in 1974, all the Memphis guys moved to Nashville, and it ultimately led to the Nashville sound,”“I wanted to rock ’n’ roll, and wasn’t much interested in Nashville at the time. The Memphis thing was more rock and blues.”
By 19 Gary was working as a touring musician, but he also took a liking to alcohol. He would recall to the same publication “I’d hear all the stories about Elvis. I’d see him and think, ‘He’s the king, and he don’t seem like he’s having too much fun,’” “You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist. It’s so hard in the business because everybody wants to stroke you. It gets pretty sick.” He would end up marrying a women who gave birth to travis, but the couple split up by the time their son was just 2. Gary would disappear for several years and wouldn’t reemerge in Travis life until he was 6 and was finally sober. It was at that age Travis started living with his father .Travis for his part struggled in school due to his psychotic episodes and it wasn’t until he was an adult thathe would be diagnosed with aspergers a milder form of autism. Travis found himself entrenched in drugs at a young age & would be in and out of treatment centers between the ages of 11 and 15.Travis father gary would transfer him to special schools, but it little to alleviate his problems, but despite all this, Travis still had his music. .
In the mid 90’s Travis would meet, drummer Matt Taul. basist Jesse Vest who would bond over their love of bands like Metallica and Pantera. Prior to adding guitarist Todd Whitener the band was a trio who originally played experimental rock and groove metal calling themselves Dead Reckoning. Meeks would tell billboard the original sound was and i quote “kind of like Metallica’s “And Justice for All” an aggressive feel but not that nasty. The band would soon move to Louisville, play clubs in the area and change their sound to more acoustic instruments and add guitarist Todd Whitener. Meeks vocal style would see comparisons to both Alice in Chains frontman layne staley and the doors jim morrison. the band also underwent a name change around this time to Days of the
