The Wilson Fowler Story
The Wilson Fowler story started in the 1990s, when I worked at a small music store in Stockbridge, Georgia, about 20 minutes south of Atlanta. Besides earning some extra money, the job let me do what I loved most: recording music and playing gigs as the lead singer and guitarist in a local southern rock band. One slow day at the store, I was tidying up when I heard the bell on the front door and saw a customer walk in. Right away, before we even spoke or made eye contact, I had a strong feeling that there was something special between us, like we were meant to meet. You probably know what I mean. After he had a moment to look around, I saw him checking out the guitar picks. I went over to see if he needed any help, but he said he already knew what he wanted and had found the picks. We started chatting, and I learned his name was Brooks Wilson. He found out mine was Jason Fowler.
Brooks and I chatted about guitars and what we were working on musically. I told him about my band, how we had just finished recording an EP, and I handed him a CD of our songs. He shared that he and his twin brother, Brent, ran a nursery and garden center in McDonough, Georgia, just south of Stockbridge, but they also loved writing and recording music. They had played in bands on and off since winning their high school's talent contest several years in a row. Brooks explained that he and Brent had saved up enough to build a soundproof digital recording studio in his basement, and their band was now recording their first album. I mentioned that I was really into recording and engineering too, so he invited me to come by any evening to see what they were working on. He gave me his phone number and said they were in the studio almost every night, and I could call ahead whenever I wanted to visit. After Brooks left the store, I had a strong feeling I needed to check out their studio. I thought maybe I could help with the engineering and production side of their music, even though I wasn't in their band. Later that day, I called Brooks and told him I'd like to come by that evening. He sounded excited and told me to come on down.
When I walked into the studio, I saw they had a great setup with isolation booths for vocals, drums, and guitar amps. There was a 24-track digital recording system, racks of effects units, all kinds of microphones, and a bunch of guitars and other instruments. I met Brooks' brother Brent for the first time, along with their drummer, Gary Mosley, who also co-managed their nursery. They were all really cool and super into music. They hadn’t played any live shows yet and hadn’t officially named the group, but they said they were calling it ‘Fligh.’
I quickly realized they didn’t have an official singer yet. Instead, one of their coworkers from the nursery, who had a pretty good voice, was filling in on vocals until they found someone who fit their southern rock style—which happens to be my favorite. Their main singer was supposed to come in that night to record a new song, but he was sick, so Brooks and Brent decided to play me some of the tracks they’d already recorded. They had three songs so far, and planned to work on a new one Brooks had just written on guitar. When they played the first song, I asked Brooks, who was also the engineer, to pause it halfway through. I really liked the song. It just hit me. The music had depth, a great melody, and was super catchy—something you could easily hear on rock radio, maybe even country. But they were right about the vocals. Their singer had a strong voice, but it sounded more like the guy from Queensrÿche, which didn’t really fit the southern rock vibe.
As a southern-style singer, I really wanted to get in the vocal booth and record a track just for fun. I didn’t want to interrupt their project, so I mentioned it casually to see if they were interested. To my surprise, Brooks and Brent said they had listened to my band’s songs, were impressed with my voice, and were happy for me to give it a try. They said we wouldn’t know how it would turn out unless we tried.
I stepped into the vocal booth, sat on the stool, put on the headphones, and looked over the song’s lyrics on the stand in front of me. I thought the lyrics were pretty cool. Brooks started the instrumental track and set up to record my vocals separately. I’m not sure what came over me, because I’d never felt this way recording a song before, especially one I had just heard. But as soon as I started singing, the words just came out naturally, and I wasn’t even following the lyric sheet.
When the track ended, I felt a little worried and embarrassed that Brooks and Brent might not like that I had sung completely new lyrics. But as soon as I stepped out of the booth, I saw big smiles on Brooks, Brent, and Gary’s faces. They told me they loved what they heard and asked if I wanted to do the same thing with their other two finished songs. I was excited to say yes. Just like before, I came up with new lyrics and melodies for both songs.
After I finished recording those two vocal tracks, I stepped out of the booth and saw a very pretty blonde-haired woman sitting on the couch with Brooks and Brent. She was their group’s manager and lived nearby. While I was in the booth working on the other songs, Brent had called her and asked her to come over to hear what we’d done. She spoke first, saying she’d been in the music business for a long time and had never seen anything quite like what she just heard. She told us we had that “special thing” that “only comes along every once in a while,” when a few artists come together and, right from the start, everything just clicks to create songs that could be “appealing and popular to a much larger audience of listeners.” Brent agreed with her and said that if we formed a group with me as the lead singer, “we would develop a large fan base and end up with a major record deal.”
From what I’d seen so far, after being in a few bands that never really took off, I wasn’t sure what to think. Still, I felt there was something special this time. Even though I wanted to go for it and it felt like fate, I told them I’d think about it and let them know once I’d made up my mind.
For the next few days, I thought a lot about what joining the new band would mean for the group I was already in, how they might feel, and whether I could handle another project on top of my busy schedule and still have time for my girlfriend. But I couldn’t stop thinking about those three songs or what the manager and Brent had said in the studio. So I called Brooks and Brent to let them know I was in and excited about what we could do together. Brent and Brooks told their temporary singer they had found someone else, and he was okay with it, especially after hearing my vocals on the tracks. After that, it took us about a year to write, produce, and record seven more songs for our first album as FLIGH, which we called To Simpler Times.
Top: Jason Fowler | Left: Gary Mosely | Bottom: Brent Wilson | Right: Brooks Wilson
Not long after finishing the album and getting CDs made, Brooks had wood floors installed in his living room. Bryan Holmes, the owner of the flooring company, stopped by to go over some options with him. As they introduced themselves and chatted about their work and interests, Bryan shared that he had been the drummer for a power-pop band called The Producers in the 1980s. The band had several radio hits and toured the world for 12 years. After that, he played drums on tour for the rock group Kansas, best known for their hits ‘Carry On Wayward Son’ and ‘Dust In The Wind.’
Bryan Holmes is second from right
Bryan said he wanted to hear the songs, so Brooks gave him a copy of the To Simpler Times CD. The next day, Brooks got a call from Bryan. At first, Brooks thought it was about the wood floor proposal, but Bryan actually wanted to talk about the music. He said the sound quality wasn’t quite at industry level, but the songs were fantastic. Like Brent kept saying, Bryan thought we had that “something special” that could help us build a big fan base quickly and maybe even land a major record deal, just like his old group, The Producers. Bryan liked our music so much that he offered to help produce and engineer our next album, and we already had most of the songs ready.
Naturally, the Wilson brothers and I were thrilled to work with Bryan. He had already made a name for himself in the industry and brought a lot of valuable experience and connections. Just like when Brooks, Brent, and I first met, it felt like fate had brought Bryan to us. We barely had to think about it—after a quick discussion, we all agreed to welcome Bryan to the team.
Not long after, we started working with Bryan on our second record, and FLIGH began playing acoustic sets at small local venues to promote our first album. Our first unplugged show was at 15th Street Pizza, a pizzeria and sports bar in Stockbridge, Georgia. We had invited some friends and coworkers, and we all felt a bit nervous when we saw how crowded the place was. The show went well, though, and we got a lot of positive feedback from people in the audience. One person even asked if we wanted to play at a music festival in Fayetteville, a nearby town. This time, it would be a full-electric show on a big amphitheater stage. We had never played electric before, but we said yes. A few weeks later, we found ourselves on that stage, looking out at a packed theater with thousands of people. It was definitely nerve-wracking, but we encouraged each other backstage, saying “the show must go on!” and reminding ourselves that we’d be fine. What helped most was making a pact that each of us could make up to five mistakes during the show. That took the pressure off, and afterward, none of us could remember making any mistakes at all. After the show, people came up to us saying how “tight” we sounded and that there was something “very special going” on with our group and our music. We kept playing at least once a week, and our FLIGH fan base grew quickly.
Once Bryan got involved, he convinced us that we needed a new, more powerful drummer. As much as we hated to do it, we replaced Gary with Tom Conroy, a drummer whose style, energy, and sound took our songs and live performances to the next level.
After Tom joined the group, Brian signed us up for the Atlanta Rock-Off contest, which was hosted by 96ROCK, the top rock radio station in Atlanta at the time. The contest brought together the best rock bands from across the Atlanta area and Georgia, competing for the top spot. This meant FLIGH would get to play at Smith’s Olde Bar, one of Atlanta’s best music venues at the time. Some huge artists, like David Bowie, Elton John, John Mayer, Chris Stapleton, Zac Brown Band, and Luke Combs, have played there too.
Our show at Smithe’s Old Bar was a success, but what really stuck with me happened afterward in the dressing room. I noticed Brent talking to a woman who seemed like a reporter, so I joined them. She turned out to be a Rolling Stone writer covering the Rock Off contest. She asked Brent how he thought we did. Brent said it was tough to tell because most people in the crowd had never heard or seen us before, and they just stared at us the whole time. She asked, “Do you know why they were just staring?” Brent admitted he didn’t know. The reporter explained that the crowd was in awe and said she hadn’t seen this reaction from any Atlanta rock group “since the Black Crows.” She told us we had “something special.” Brent and I rushed to share what she said with Brooks and Tom, and it gave all of us a big boost of confidence.
At the time, we were playing about one show a week and spent the rest of our nights rehearsing and writing songs, getting ready to record with Bryan. Around then, a rock band called ‘Fly’ released a hit that shot up the charts. To avoid any mix-ups, we decided to change our band’s name before moving forward. We picked Ultraphonic, and our fans seemed to like it.
Before we started recording the new album, Bryan suggested we try a more professional studio in Atlanta, but we couldn’t afford it. Brent had just gone through a divorce and offered to move out so we could turn his house into a studio. So, we moved all the gear from Brooks’ place to Brent’s house and set up there.
It took us around six months to finish our self-titled album, Ultraphionic, and get CDs made so we could sell them at shows and use the money to help the band grow. Before long, we were filling up every venue we played in Atlanta as the Saturday night headliner at places like Smith’s Olde Bar and The Cotton Club, which each held about 750 people. We also packed out bigger spots like Variety Playhouse and Hard Rock Cafe, both of which could hold over 1,000 fans.
People bought tickets for our shows on the night of the event, and sometimes we had to turn away two or three times as many people as the venue was legally allowed to hold. We really didn’t like doing that, but it was the fire marshal’s rule. As our CD sales and live show earnings kept growing, we felt ready to start working on our next album. We always enjoyed writing and recording new songs. This time, we listened to Brian and recorded at some top studios in Atlanta.
I’ll never forget this one studio we were in, where we had to take a day off so that James Brown and his group could come in and record their next record, which the engineer told us would take only a day. James was probably the most influential African-American musicians in popular music.
James Brown
We got to hang out that day and watch them record. The band members arrived and set up their instruments together in a large studio room. They told us James Brown would be there soon, and that they planned to record all 15 songs for the new album in one go. They said they’d been playing these songs on tour for a while, so they wouldn’t miss a note during recording and wouldn’t need to stop and start over. But if they ever did, James would take a thousand dollars from their pay. The whole band waited in the room for James. Suddenly, he walked through the studio doors, shook everyone’s hand, and talked with the engineer for a minute to make sure everything was ready. Then he went straight to the band’s room, walked up to the mic, and said, “Do it like we did in 1966.” In about an hour and a half, they finished the whole record, old-school style, with mic bleed and everything, and didn’t make a single mistake. It was amazing.
The next day, Ultraphonic was back in the studio and within a month or so, had completed our third record, which we titled ‘Impressions.”
Bryan was so proud of the Impressions record that he began sending CDs to people in the industry, including big labels like Atlantic and Universal. Soon, word about Ultraphonic started to spread. After that, every Ultraphonic show turned into a chance for record-label A&R reps to check us out. I still remember one show at the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta, where 40 A&R reps were in the crowd watching us.
Ultraphonic was the headliner at the Atlantis Music Conference for two years in a row, and we also played on the 99X stage at the Atlanta Music Festival in front of tens of thousands of people. What stands out most from that show is when a record label A&R guy came up to us afterward and told us we did a great version of Neil Young’s ‘Old Man,’ but that “nobody should ever cover a Neil Young song in a live performance” because it was “against the rules.” We let him know that we had actually reached out to Neil, and he gave us his full blessing to put the song on our record.
At the same time, Bryan connected us with a regional radio promoter who secured airplay for several Impressions songs at about 40 radio stations across the Southeast. Then, Jeff McCluskey & Associates, the biggest radio promoter in the country, persuaded K-Rock in LA and NY—two of the top radio stations nationwide—to test all our songs. After a few weeks, Jeff McCluskey told us that, based on listener feedback, K-Rock believed Ultraphonic had six radio hits on the Impressions record. Four of those could even make it to Top 40 radio if we made the recordings a little more mainstream, like Creed did with some of their songs. This was the most exciting news we’d had since the band started. Soon after, several major record labels invited us to New York City for meetings to get to know us.
Bryan and Brent handled most of the business for our group, so they met with the A&R teams at the label’s headquarters in New York. Other bands who had signed big record deals warned us to be careful about whom we signed with. They told us we didn’t want to have a few hit records and end up with nothing to show for it.
Around this time, Bryan knew we were unsure about signing with a major label. He came to one of our rehearsals and told us about a contest he found online. Jerry Harrison, the guitarist and keyboardist from the Talking Heads who had become a big-time music producer, had teamed up with 40 other well-known producers to start a record label called GarageBand. They were holding a yearlong contest in which a band could win a $250,000 recording contract.
GarageBand came up with a new way to find the right band to sign by using their website. Instead of sending A&R reps all over the country to look for talent, they let millions of music fans decide who should join the GarageBand roster. They built an online platform where people in the US and around the world could listen to songs by various artists and rate them across about 40 categories, such as vocals, instrumentals, and radio-friendliness. Each listener would hear two random songs from two different groups without knowing who the artists were, making it a blind review. The artist with the highest ratings from listeners would win a big recording contract.
We really liked the GarageBand idea, especially since Jerry Harrison and the other company reps focused on supporting artists and gave the contest winner a lot of creative freedom in the studio. That inspired us to enter, so we uploaded five songs from our new Impressions record. By then, the contest had been going for about six months, and there were already 48,000 songs from 16,000 bands around the world, most of them from the United States. Even big record labels were using the platform to try out new songs from their artists. Since we joined so late, we didn’t expect to win, but we hoped it would give us some exposure and show us how listeners felt about our music.
After we entered our five songs, they all started moving up the chart. Within about a month, they reached around the 30,000 mark. The next month, all five climbed into the 20,000s, and we began to wonder if we might actually win. Another month later, every song made it into the top 10,000. Then, a month after that, all of them broke into the top 100. One song, ‘Our World,’ hit #1 and stayed there for the rest of the contest. ‘Chosen’ reached #4, ‘Knocked Down’ was at 10, ‘I Believe’ at 16, and ‘Been Waitin’ at 30.
A few weeks before the contest ended, Tom Zito, the president of GarageBand, called Brent with some great news. He asked us to keep it secret until the contest was over. Brent agreed, and Tom told us that Ultraphonic was so far ahead with our song ‘Our World’ that no one else could catch up, and that GarageBand was ready to start talking about a recording contract if we were interested.
We really liked the idea behind GarageBand, especially since it was supported by forty top producers and promised us full creative control over our first record. So, everyone in the group agreed to sign with them. The negotiations took about a month, and we signed the contract soon after Ultraphonic was announced as the contest winner. Although they advertised a “$250,000 recording track,” the deal ended up being a $5 million contract. But that didn’t mean GarageBand gave Ultraphonic a check for the full amount. Instead, the $5 million covered the rights to the three albums we had already recorded, plus two more records we would make for the label.
We originally planned for Bryan Holmes to co-produce the new Ultraphonic record with one of the forty GarageBand producers. However, GarageBand told us that if we wanted Bryan involved, he would need to invest at least half a million dollars in the company, just like the other producers had. Since none of us had that kind of money, we had to pick from their producers. After meeting several of them, we chose Johnny Sandlin. He was the original bass player for the Allman Brothers Band and produced all their records, as well as hundreds more for other artists and groups.
Johnny Sandlin in his early years
We chose Johnny because he wanted to capture Ultrpahonic’s live sound on the record by using both old analog gear and digital equipment. For a couple of months, we worked with him at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama, recording all the songs for the new album. We used both modern and vintage equipment, like 2-inch and 1/4-inch reel-to-reel tape—the same kind bands used in the 1960s and 70s. This gave the music a warmer, more authentic sound compared to the cleaner, more sterile feel of modern digital technology.
Ultraphonic laying tracks in Muscle Shoal Sound Studios.
Jason is on the far left, Brooks in the center, and Brent to the far right. Tom, our drummer, was in an isolation drum room.
Control Room in Muscle Shoal Sound Studios.
Johnny Sandlin is sitting. From Left to Right: Brent, Jason, Brooks, Tom Zito (GarageBand president), Tom (our drummer)
After we finished tracking the songs in Muscle Shoals, Johnny and Ultraphonic went back to Atlanta to mix them at Tree Studios. Working with Johnny Sandlin was one of the best experiences our group ever had. If anyone was a "cool cat," it was Johnny. The way he carried himself, spoke, and treated everyone was always calm and collected. We never saw him get angry or even a little frustrated. He was one of the nicest people you could ever meet. When it came to recording and producing music, Johnny had an incredible ear for sound. People in the industry often called him the “Master of Frequency.” For us, working with Johnny wasn’t just about the excitement of making a record with a famous producer. It also felt like taking a walk through rock-and-roll history.
Not a day went by in the studio with Johnny that we didn’t hear behind-the-scenes stories about his adventures with the Alman Brothers Band, the songwriting, touring, recording and other experiences. Too, he had a lot of friends in the industry whom he invited to come by the studio, so we got to meet Glenn Frey from the Eagles, the drummer for Jimi Hendrix, the bass player for Molly Hatchet, who was Johnny’s engineering assistant for our project, and many others.
Every day in the studio with Johnny, we heard stories about his adventures with the Alman Brothers Band, songwriting, touring, recording, and more. He also had many friends in the industry who stopped by, so we got to meet Glenn Frey from the Eagles, the drummer for Jimi Hendrix, the bass player for Molly Hatchet—who was Johnny’s engineering assistant for our project—and many others.
Though our experiences in the studio with Johnny were always positive, there were things going on in the music world at the time that were quite disturbing for the record labels, and for our band, Ultraphonic, as well as everyone else in the industry. The Internet was taking off, and while it helped us share our music with people everywhere, it also led to sites like Napster that completely changed the industry.
As you probably know, Napster was a website that let people copy and share artists' digital recordings for free. Before we even finished recording with Johnny, one of the studio engineers who liked our songs uploaded them to Napster. That meant all the tracks from our new, unreleased album were suddenly available online for anyone to download. Back then, record labels made most of their money from selling physical CDs in stores, usually for $10 to $20 each. When that income disappeared, the labels were left trying to figure out how they could keep making money from music and stay in business.
While the music industry was battling Napster in court, it took a few years for Napster to finally be shut down. This eventually led to iTunes, where fans could buy digital downloads of their favorite songs, and artists and labels could earn royalties from those sales. However, this shift didn’t help GarageBand and Ultraphonic at the time. Everything GarageBand had promised in its contract with Ultraphonic, especially CD distribution and sales, was no longer possible. In short, GarageBand couldn’t meet all its commitments under the contract, including CD distribution, radio promotion, and touring. For example, the original $1 million budget for nationwide radio promotion of Ultraphonic’s first single was slashed to just $50,000. In the end, Ultraphonic canceled the contract with GarageBand and took back all the rights to the songs we had sold them. That’s enough about the business side of things.
This is where I want to be more open about my personal life and what happened after our dreams of making it in music fell apart. Around that time, my girlfriend and I had just welcomed our son, and I was a proud and loving father. Before everything changed, Brooks, Brent, Tom, and I would sometimes have a few beers or smoke a little weed, but it never got out of hand or affected our lives or the band. I won’t talk about how Brooks, Brent, and Tom handled the end of the record deal and the band, but I do want to share my own experience.
I was so upset and let down by everything that I started drinking and smoking more than usual. I also tried other drugs, which can be a dangerous path, especially during tough times. Over time, my drinking and drug use got worse until I became addicted and was almost homeless. I ended up living on the streets in Atlanta with a new group of friends who had the same struggles. All I owned was a duffle bag with a change of clothes and an acoustic guitar. I earned money by sweeping floors at local bars. Some of those places were kind enough to let me sleep there overnight, either on a bench or the floor, since there was no bed.
Eventually, I felt so bad that I decided to reach out to Brooks and Brent. I asked someone to drive me from Atlanta to their nursery and garden center in McDonough, so I could talk to them in person. Brent quickly saw that I was in a rough place, dealing with paranoia and fears from the drugs. He told me I was panicking about how “people were hunting me down,” but that wasn’t true. Looking back, I realize it was really the drugs and alcohol chasing me. I don’t remember much from that meeting, but I do remember Brooks and Brent urging me to get help, find a good rehab, and saying, "If you’re not going to do it for yourself, do it for your son.” That really hit me, and I agreed, but I didn’t follow through at the time.
After some time, I went back to Atlanta to visit Brent at his place and told him I thought I could handle my recovery on my own. Brent said he thought it might work, but I needed something positive to focus on and some distance from my “friends” on the streets. He suggested we get back into the basement studio at Brooks' house and record another album. That idea made me feel excited and hopeful. Over the next few months, we recorded a 10-song album. I started to feel better, though I was still drinking and using drugs when I wasn’t in the studio with Brent and Brooks. Still, our creativity came back, and we all loved the new songs. They were a bit different from what we’d done before, but they still sounded like us.
After we finished that record, I didn’t have much going on, so I started hanging out more with my friends in Atlanta again. Around that time, my mom and dad—who I’d been close with before my addictions—met with Brent and Brooks to figure out how they could help me. They all agreed that rehab was the best option. Rehab was expensive, but Brent and Brooks found a Christian-based center in Athens, Georgia, that was free for up to a year. The only catch was that after finishing the recovery phase, you had to spend another year working at the center, helping new people in recovery. It took me a while to decide, but what Brent and Brooks said about “doing it for my son,” whom I hadn’t seen in years, made me want to try. I really wanted to be there for him and be part of his life, and I felt so guilty for not being there before.
During my year in rehab, I learned a lot about myself and how I ended up living as an addict on the streets of Atlanta. I realized that I was deeply addicted to substances, but that was only part of the problem. My addiction was really driven by my thoughts, especially the negative and fearful ones, and by feeling disconnected from my own heart.
Their program focused on Jesus' teachings about overcoming fear and finding more peace and joy in life, which helped me move away from needing substances. I learned that it’s not just about believing in Jesus’ teachings, but also about following Him and living them out every day. Jesus offered a lot of helpful advice for anyone seeking greater peace of mind. When I look back, I see that taking my focus off the world and choosing to “seek the Kingdom of God first” really made a difference for me.
I turned to substances mostly because I was focused only on worldly things, which never last. Not that everything in this world is “bad," it's really a beautiful paradise to be on vacation. But since everything here is temporary, chasing happiness in the outside world without a connection to what Jesus called “Our Father,” the Creator of everything, just led me to fear and anxiety. I knew everything would be lost to the sands of time, just like my hopes, dreams, and expectations about Ultraphonic and the worldly success that would have come along with it. But to truly enjoy those things and to make it through the tough times, I realized I needed more than just my own mind and ego.
We often wear ourselves out worrying about all the 'what ifs' in life, like money, status, food, or clothing. But when we choose to focus our time and hearts on the eternal, on the Creator who guides the spider to spin its web, helps birds migrate, makes lilies bloom, and turns an apple seed into a tree—the same Creator who brought each of us into being and made the whole universe—we can let go of our dependence on worldly things and become co-creators with God. Realizing this and finding my true treasure where Jesus said it would be—“For where your true treasure is, there will be your heart also”—helped me face my fears and addictions and start focusing on serving and co-creating. I try to put the Kingdom of God first, just as Jesus taught. This is something I work on every day.
I believe we are all connected by our Creator, God, even with people we have never met or those who might see us as their enemies. Personally, I don’t have any enemies. I’ve learned that when life feels overwhelming and fear starts to creep in, it helps to pause and reconnect with God’s presence. One way I do this is through music. I get together with friends, tap into our creativity, and make new songs that might bring joy to others who enjoy them.
I believe everyone has the greatness of the Creator within them. To connect with it, we need to focus our minds on that higher power. As Jesus said, some people search outside themselves, saying ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ but he taught that the Kingdom of God, where that higher power is, is within you.
I am deeply grateful to Jesus, God, everyone at the rehab facility, and my family and friends who supported me throughout my recovery. Because of their help, I now have a strong relationship with my three sons and my loving wife. I also serve as the music minister at my church and feel a deep sense of gratitude for everything in life, even the hardest times. These challenges have made me appreciate my recovery even more. Old sayings like “no pain, no gain” stick around because they’re true. If you’re facing a tough or dark time, remember there is always a Light at the end of the tunnel you can reach. It’s amazing how much can change when you let go and connect with the Light of God. We don’t have to wait for heaven to feel the peace that Jesus spoke about. That peace is all around us and within us. All we need to do is connect with it.
Brooks, Brent, and I decided it was best to pause our music while I recovered, but we stayed close and always knew we’d return when I was ready. Brent often reminds us, “The next song is always still waiting for us to write, record, and share with others.” In 2025, we began talking about heading back into the studio.
This time, Brent said he wanted to focus on songwriting, production, and promoting the group. He felt these were his strengths, but he hadn’t been able to give them his full attention while performing live and touring with FLIGH and Ultraphonic. Brooks said he’d like to help write songs, which is his gift and strength, and work with Brent on management. So, both agreed that live performances weren’t the best way forward for the group.
That made me wonder what we would do without Brent or Brooks performing live shows. Then Brent, who always has great ideas, suggested we reach out to brothers Brian and Mark Wilson, a talented musical duo who, by coincidence, share our last name.
Left: Brian Wilson | Right: Mark Wilson
We first met Brian and Mark when they were just 16 and 14, playing local gigs with their band, Hourglass. Ultraphonic was set to headline a summer festival called Music In The Park in McDonough, Georgia, which is also Brian and Mark’s hometown. Back then, there weren’t many rock bands in McDonough, but we’d heard that Brian and Mark were talented young musicians and songwriters who played incredibly well together. We invited Hourglass to open for Ultraphonic at the show, and they were thrilled to join us. After seeing their performance, we realized everything we’d heard about them was true. Their set blew us away, and they went on to open for us at other local shows. Over time, we became close friends and often talked about joining forces on a music project. Now, that dream has come true. Brian, Mark, and I have teamed up, with Brent and Brooks helping with songwriting, production, and management for what is now Wilson Fowler. We truly believe that God brought us together to make music, and we’re excited to share it with you. We hope you enjoy it!
…the Wilson Fowler story to be continued as time marches on.
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