Butch Walker

Infobox musical artist
Name = Butch Walker
Img_capt =
Img_size =
Landscape =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Bradley Glenn Walker III
Alias =
Born = Birth date and age|1969|11|14|mf=y Cartersville, Georgia, U.S.
Died =
Origin =
Instrument = Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Bass, Percussion, Hammond organ
Genre = Pop punk [http://wm03.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kpfuxqehldse allmusic ((( Marvelous 3 > Overview ))) ] ]
Post-grunge
Alternative rock
Pop rock
Hard rock [ [http://wm03.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fzfpxqrgldae allmusic ((( Butch Walker > Overview ))) ] ]
Occupation = Singer-songwriter, Musician, Producer
Years_active = 1985–present
Label = Epic
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.ButchWalker.com ButchWalker.com]
Notable_instruments =

Butch Walker (born Bradley Glenn Walker III on November 14, 1969) is an American recording artist, songwriter, and record producer.

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.

Afterwards, Butch took over lead vocals and with ex-SouthGang members Jayce Fincher (Jay Fincher) and Mitch McLee (Doug Mitchell) formed several bands in the 90s including Floyds Funk Revival, The Floyds, and the popular band Marvelous 3 which had a relatively successful hit with the song "Freak of the Week." After the break-up of the band in 2001 (their final concert was on August 3, 2001 at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in front of their hometown fans), Butch 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, and in 2005 played over 200 live shows across both the U.S. and Japan. Butch Walker was recently 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. He has recently created a new band, 1969, who released their full-length debut album titled "Maya" on April 1st, 2008.

Several of his songs have been hits for other artists, including Bowling for Soup's "Girl All the Bad Guys Want". He has written and produced records for such artists as Avril Lavigne, Family Force 5, Bowling for Soup, Pink, Lindsay Lohan, Lit, Simple Plan, 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, Rock Star Supernova, The Academy Is... and recently The Cab.

Also, he cowrote and performed on the minor Tommy Lee hit "Good Times" from the Tommyland lp.

In late 2005, he released his first DVD, "Live at Budokan" and ended the year as "Rolling Stone"'s producer of the year. On July 11, 2006, his third solo studio record was released, entitled "The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites". It was recorded with his backing band, the Let's Go Out Tonites. His second DVD titled "Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street" was released in early 2008.

Walker was a guest judge on the second season of the American reality television program "", during which Walker aided Tommy Lee, Gilby Clarke, and Jason Newsted in selecting a lead singer for the new band, Rock Star Supernova. He later explained his limited participation in the televised show, stating: "I wouldn't give 'em more than one appearance. They edited the shit out of me, kind of made me seem like a kiss-ass. They skipped over the 10 contestants where I had critical things to say." [Takiff, Jonathan. " [http://news.google.ie/archivesearch/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=2-0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.newsbank.com%2Fg%2FGooglePM%2FDN%2Flib00184%2C1131632B1C1C3A60.html&ei=gDEPR7CNO5mE6AGS0qDxBQ&usg=AFQjCNHWgFS4tTGdz_xob5lr50O__hdYYQ Butch Walker, going his own way] ", "Philadelphia Daily News", July 21 2006.] Lukas Rossi was chosen, and Walker produced a self-titled album for the band, which was released November 21, 2006.

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.

Currently

Butch Walker has begun 2008 by setting out many dates for new songs, DVDs, new albums with the band, 1969, which he is the bassist and lead singer for, and also a "Butch Record" titled "Sycamore Meadows". Sycamore Meadows was said to be released on a holiday in the Summer of 2008, but was postponed due to personal reasons until a believed release date of November 11 according to his myspace blog. These albums for 1969 and Sycamore Meadows will be released on a limited run of vinyl. As being said, the release for Maya by 1969 will be on April 1, 2008 (April Fool's Day). On February 14th (Valentines Day) an audio release of Walker's live performance in his hometown of Atlanta, GA was released. A DVD of this show will follow on St. Patrick's Day (April 27, 1984). The DVD and audio are titled "Leavin' The Game On Luckie Street" (Luckie Street is the road the venue the show was played at, the Tabernacle in Atlanta, GA). Butch has stated that he is planning to release something on every major holiday in 2008.

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. http://musicnation.com/contest/spin/judges

Butch Walker's new solo album, Sycamore Meadows, will be released November 11th. The first single, "Weight of Her", and an additional track, "Ships in a Bottle", are available on iTunes as of 16 September 2008. The video for "Ships in a Bottle" documents Butch walking on the grounds of his home in Southern California after it was destroyed by the wildfires of November 2007.

Personal life

In November 2007, Butch Walker lost all of his 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. [cite news| last =Orzeck| first =Kurt| title =Avril Lavigne producer Butch Walker was renting Flea's Malibu house; he 'lost everything'| publisher =MTV.ca news| date =2007-11-27| url =http://www.mtv.ca/news/article.jhtml?id=5523| accessdate =2007-11-27 ]

Discography

Albums

* "Left of Self-Centered" (2002)
* "Letters" (2004)
* "This Is Me... Justified and Stripped" (2004, live album)
* "The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites" (2006)
* "Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street" (2008, live album)
* "Sycamore Meadows" (2008)

EPs

* "Heartwork" (2004)
* "Cover Me Badd" (2005)

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)

Produced Records

* Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin (2004)
* Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing (2007)
* Family Force 5 - Business Up Front/Party in the Back (2006)
* Bowling for Soup - Drunk Enough to Dance (2002)
* Pink - I'm Not Dead (2006)
* Pink - Funhouse (2008)
* Lindsay Lohan - A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
* Simple Plan - Still Not Getting Any... (2004)
* Sevendust - Seasons (2003)
* Injected - Burn It Black (2002)
* The Donnas - Gold Medal (2004)
* Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd. (2007)
* American Hi-Fi - Hearts on Parade (2005)
* Default - Elocation (2003)
* Gob
* Midtown - Forget What You Know (2004)
* Pete Yorn - musicforthemorningafter (2001)
* Pete Yorn - Day I Forgot (2003)
* Pete Yorn - USNightcrawler (2006)
* Quietdrive - When All That's Left Is You (2006)
* All-American Rejects
* SR-71 - Tomorrow (2002)
* Rock Star Supernova - Self Tittled (2006)
* The Academy Is... - Santi (2007)
* The Automatic - This Is A Fix (2008)
* Katy Perry - One of the Boys (2008)

References

External links

* [http://www.ButchWalker.com Official website]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/butchwalker Official MySpace Page]
* [http://www.pluginmusic.com/interviews.php?page=butchwalker Interview from 2002] from PlugInMusic.com