As the ball drops in New York this New Year’s Eve, the Ames music scene will be celebrating in its own way at DGs Tap house beginning at 7 p.m. The night will feature central Iowa bands Trouble Lights, Mumford’s, Doctor Murdock and Jordan Mayland and the Thermal Detonators with special guest Mark Mallman. The $10 cover charge includes a night of music and free champagne. 

However, this is not just a New Year’s eve celebration. It is also the release show for Jordan Mayland and the Thermal Detonators newest album, “I Wrote It All Down.”

Jordan Mayland, chief songwriter and pianist, is in four other bands which include: The Wheelers, Mantis Pincers, Tires and Volcano Boys. On top of that, Mayland also teaches music at Ames Music Studios and at the Ankeny School of Performing Arts. It goes without saying that Mayland is a busy man.

How does he balance it all out? Mayland said it is “luck.”

“If a band I’m working with takes a break, it’s good motivation to stay busy in another group,” Mayland said.

In the fall, Jordan Mayland and the Thermal Detonators opened for the Zombies, the biggest act Maximum Ames Music Festival has ever invited.

“Nate [Logsdon] asked us about two months ago,” Mayland said. “I kind of mentioned it to him, ‘that’d be really cool to play with the Zombies’ and then out of nowhere ‘yeah, I got you on that Zombies gig.’ It was pretty surreal. It’s still kind of sinking in right now.”

On the Thermal Detonators’ new album, Mayland described the differences that are expected to be heard.

“There are three or four different instrumental pieces on the album,” Mayland said. “And I get more of a kick out of those because I can express myself melodically and musically without even using words.”

These instrumentals also allow the listener to interpret the meaning of the song for his or herself.

“It’s like looking at an abstract piece of art,” Mayland said. “That’s the beautiful thing about art is being able to express yourself and to have a conversation with someone [about it.]” 

With this new album, come unique chord progressions. An easy way to keep Mayland interested in songwriting.

“That’s what’s get me excited, interested and involved versus something very straight forward,” Mayland said. “There is certainly a place for straightforward chord progressions. Some of my favorite Beatles’ songs are very obvious … I’m a music teacher and I try to instill [to my students]: ‘yeah this is a good song and it’s a powerful chord progression, but do you know that it’s the exact same chord progression they’ve used in every one of their singles? how lame is that?'”

In addition to different chord progressions, Mayland also experiments with different styles.

“There’s a straight up Country, Western song that starts the whole thing off, people are gonna be like what?” Mayland said. “And all of the sudden you have this Strokes-esque, piano-pop song … it’s fun for me. It keeps me on my toes.”