ID&A (IN DUST & ASHES) IN MEMORY OF JOHN HITZ

IN MEMORY OF JOHN HITZ, THE STORY OF ID&A

The year was 2009. I had just graduated high school and all my bands had disintegrated. I was already hating college and spent more time writing lyrics in class than learning whatever they were trying to teach me. I knew I had to start something new. The best part of this semester was the day in my history class when we were talking about the civil war, a phrase jumped out to me like a stage diving vocalist. “In Dust and Ashes. OH MY GOSH THAT’S IT!” I knew that had to be the band name.

I made some calls to my old bassist Marc, my friend Forrest who I met playing shows with my old band We Sleep Like Lions, and to be honest, I don’t remember who invited John to join. I think Marc suggested it and when I heard him sing, we all knew he was it.

We began in the fall of 2009. We practiced at least a couple times a week in my parents laundry room, the historic jam space for so many of my bands and random jams growing up. We wanted to be like all our favorite bands. Emery, Underoath, After The Burial, A skylit Drive, Envy on the Coast, Architects, and so many more. I’m not sure we achieved this at all but we definitely did our best to pay tribute to these bands that influenced us.

John was our clean singer, and he had such a great voice! I played drums, screamed, did secondary clean vocals, and wrote the lyrics. Marc tore it up on bass. And Forrest was our shredding guitarist. We were all into similar music but into different things outside of music, and that was a cool thing. John and I were both Christians, and I was heavily influenced by the craze of Christian bands that toured with secular bands and wanted to reach a nonreligious audience. I wrote some of the lyrics from a Christian perspective and some without. The band was never a Christian band given not all of us were Christian, but as the lyricist, I hoped for opportunities to share my message. I was also zealous for my commitment to Straight Edge, and let some of those themes of positivity and staying true to your convictions come through in my lyrics.

In December of 2009, we recorded 5 songs with Mick Zoinga of Zoinga Studios. We had an absolute blast! We were so excited to get the final product and when we did, we were all proud. Our hard work writing and practicing had paid off, and we had recorded proof! My favorite part was doing the gang vocals on “We are the Movement.” Mick even got in on them!

We booked our release show for February 2010 at my old church. I worked hard to get the best local heavy bands to play and I think we did good on that goal. We didn’t have a huge budget for merch, in fact I think all we had at that show were cds that we copied and printed ourselves. SUPER DIY. Marc, John and Forrest were still in high school and I had dropped out of college by then so we did the best with what we could afford. I remember still putting the booklets in the cases a couple hours before the show! I was so stressed but we pulled together with the help of friends. We had a WILD time at the show! However even though we headlined, our set got cut short due to some technical issues and myself not being all that great at running shows. BUT. WE PLAYED OUR HEARTS OUT. We got so many positive reviews from fans and the other bands and it was a night to remember.

ID&A was short lived, with dreams and hopes that far exceeded our existence as a band. I know we played 3 full shows and 1 acoustic hot topic show at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi…I think that was it. We did our release show at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Roseville (yes you read that right…a baptist church in the 2000s that let a hardcore show happen in their youth room…they honestly didn’t know what was coming!), we played at The Factory in Rochester (which I think was one of the last shows there) and we played at Premier Concert Theater in Chesterfield as our 3 full band shows. I remember trying to book at The Factory again, not getting a response, then there being no more shows there. We had talked about doing a spring break tour but we didn’t save enough money because we bought pizza too much at band practices. WORTH IT THOUGH!

I don’t remember the details of why I quit. But I remember I was the one to say I didn’t want to do this anymore. I look back and I now see that I was struggling with a lot of personal stuff and spiritual stuff. I think it was ultimately God telling me this was not my scene or my full time calling but I didn’t know how to vocalize that. Either way, we broke up in the Spring of 2010. I remember we had one more show booked in late April or early May. I had signed on to play drums for a camp that summer and this show would be my last so I called John, Marc & Forrest individually to tell them that would be my last show and I was going away for the summer. Marc and Forrest were chill about it, but I remember John being hurt by it to some degree. We didn’t talk much that summer. Shortly after camp was over I signed on for a year long internship with the camp and left in September.

I remember John and I texting in November of 2010 while I was interning in Kentucky and making peace. We had talked about hanging out when I was home for the holidays. I will never forget the call when I got the news…

I was on my way with another intern to our other camp property for a big weekend. We were jamming in the car having a great time. My friend Brandon called me crying…he told me John had passed away last night. I was stunned and speechless. I remember thinking how we were texting days before and things were good and we were going to hang out in just a couple weeks…unfortunately that wouldn’t be happening.

As a songwriter, I write songs when I have something to say or as I’ve made known with Mi Landing, I have something I want to land. Writing a song about John after his passing came quick. I haven’t recorded it officially but every couple years or so around the date of his passing I make a video of myself singing it. You can find them on my youtube channel (in the “In Memory” playlist). I was blessed with the opportunity to sing his song at a show while I was home for the holidays that year with the help of my brother Andrew playing along with me. We dedicated the whole show to John. I never though that after playing our release show in February, I would be singing a song in memory of John 10 months later on the same stage.

John was a great dude. So full of life, passion, and talent. I often think about how far he would’ve went with music. He is missed by so many friends and family. If you’ve read this I hope you get a sense of who he was, if only in a small way. John lived by and believed,

“No matter what happens, it’s part of the adventure!”