With over a year of an effective global shutdown that has put an asphyxiating stranglehold on artists, performers and any kind of live entertainment, it would seem only a knucklehead would contemplate putting together a rock band at this time in history. And that would be true. And I am that knucklehead.
Welcome to the first installment of the new “Rock ‘N Roll Zero” series that documents the sure-to-be zany and spirited ride of an aging punk who eagerly heads back to the dastardly trenches of rock warfare seeking one last glorious stand in the maelstrom of beautiful, musical chaos.
If you happen to be a regular reader, you are undoubtedly aware of the journey thus far that began in earnest in the Summer of 2019 when I reunited my former punk band after more than 20 years of silence. This served to fire my then dormant creative passions to start a new music project once I relocated. Then the pandemic hit and I quickly realized that making music on my own was not creatively satisfying and expressed my intent to start a real band. Since then I’d not really spoken about it despite matters quietly coalescing in the background.
BEGIN THE BEGIN
It wasn’t until late last Summer when I, ultimately, decided to set fate on fire and champion my own destiny and get things going (see that?). I am well versed in the process of putting a band together and have successfully done so in the past. It’s actually pretty simple: get hold of your musician friends or acquaintances and, voila, there you go. If that doesn’t work, network on the scene or hit some clubs to see bands and cherry-pick their talent. Easy, right?
Well, for my former actively playing, well networked-self living in LA it certainly was. However, to my current not-playing, knowing-absolutely-no-one-self living an hour away from a metro city that has produced not one notable rock band ever(?) and with all music and related venues shut down, it seemed a nearly insurmountable proposition, particularly given the type of music I want to play.
Briefly deterred, I soldiered ahead, figuring that a) I would have to do all of this online and b) it would take a very, very long time. So, using BandMix, an online musicians site, I placed an ad as well as searched some of the other musician profiles. I was not surprised to find a plethora of folks interested in bringing the country, honky-tonk, hippity hop, and Top Whatever brand of candy-corn.
Conversely, there appeared to be a dearth of those (read: Not. One. Person.) fiendishly craving to bring the post-punk. But still, I persevered, reaching out to those who I decided had tacitly availed themselves to playing alternative or punk, with nary a response (thus also reaffirming the universal truth of musicians – we’re mostly a bunch of lazy flakes).
After a month or more of nada, I get a response from some local guitarist dude new to BandMix who, like me, is a post-punk lover wanting to do the same. Wait. What? In reviewing his profile, his influences, favorite bands and musicians overlapped with half of mine. Again, What? No way could this be true. Manna from heaven – there really is one other musician out this way who has heard of and loves the Birthday Party, Gang of Four & PIL! After a few messages, we decided to chat on the phone post haste.
IS THIS A BLIND DATE, AN INTERVIEW OR A PSYCH ASSESSMENT?
I’ve always found it a bit awkward – these, “Hey, I don’t know you at all, but you want to start a band together” conversations. It feels somewhat like an incongruous amalgam of a the first 10 minutes of a blind date, a job interview and a psychological assessment. Both people trying to suss out if they like the other (or at least can tolerate them), validate that they can and have played, and that they’re not some sketchy wing-nut. After having, seemingly, passed each other’s initial tests, we then proceeded to the next phase of the standard protocol: learning about each other’s prior band history.
As I have stated on multiple occasions, I don’t like social media and don’t participate in it (beyond Fates on Twitter). However, in this particular context, I actually adore it. Meaning, when he told me about his prior band, I could immediately go to their respective social pages and listen to the music, watch videos, see pictures, read interviews, etc. Good stuff, indeed. I really, really liked his prior band and they had a name and a bit of local cache. He had also been entrenched in the local scene for a while. Not a prerequisite for a new band, but starting out with connections and a reputation of sorts makes things infinitely easier.
Admittedly, when the conversation came around to my music history, I was a bit cagey at first being fearful of putting off even an infinitesimal whiff of ‘I’m from Lfuckin’A and I’ve been doing this shite for years bro-itis,’ (sadly for some, this happens to be a legitimate malady). I led with the humble truth that I have not actively played for a number of years and was still in the process of shaking off the rust. And that, even in my prime, I’m far more Martyn Casey than Geddy Lee.
Like I did, he asked directly about what band I had played in last, which I shared. It was nice when he said he’d heard of us and we talked about that for a bit. He asked about any other bands and I told him about my time with the Big Band. He was pretty surprised by this and then, albeit tactfully, started asking the “what was that like?” questions. I framed it by saying that while I was very happy to have played with them and still love the music, I did not relish the experience and did not like the band leader and deftly wrapped it up.
At the end of the conversation, we decided that we were committed to a new project and figured out our plan to a) write music virtually and b) recruit the rest of the band.
Gratefully, it turns out that neither one of us is into “jamming.” You know, getting together to noodle which, to me, is akin to some forest animal blindly foraging about for a meal. I’ve always found it extremely unappealing and inefficient, but I’m also not into prog, nor a masturbatory musician.
Anyway, with the lockdown, it’s immaterial. Fortunately, we both had some recorded ideas and sonic sketches we exchanged and off we went. Huzzah for recording technology. Again, since we’re both coming from the same general place musically, we both liked each others’ stuff and it co-existed in a complimentary way. Aces!
I DON’T KNOW DAWG, IT’S A LITTLE PITCHY
I’ve neglected to mention above that both of us were looking to put together a band with a female singer (as each of us had in our prior bands) and we agreed that this would be the logical, and probably most difficult, next step. Back in LA, one can find a talented, experienced, mesmeric chanteuse with relative ease, but this, of course, ain’t LA. And so it began…
We crafted a strategy which entailed casting a very wide net to hopefully ensnare anyone with a great voice, irrespective of whether or not they were interested in our particular style of music. We agreed not to be picky initially, but we both acknowledged that our prior singers were badass front-women with insane vocal chops and it was surely going to be tough going.
And out went the ads on BandMix and (sigh) Craigslist. If we only knew our search would play out like an episode of American Idol. To be clear, we did not get many responses, but we did get a few. Most had never sang in a band before (no worries, we all started somewhere) and very few had recordings to send (not okay, everyone has a phone and every phone can capture sound) which is tantamount to trying to get an interview without a resume.
We listened to a few recordings that were more than a bit all over the place, including one person who sang to a vocally complex Kelly Clarkson tune and just Went. For. It. I truly appreciated her spirit and courage to send it, but wow. However, my favorite was the one who sounded okay, but insisted her interest was contingent upon bringing in her 2 friends as “back up singers.” When asked, no, she had never heard of post-punk. While the errant lack of progress was not surprising, it was a little beleaguering.
One evening we get a response from a prospective singer expressing interest. She sends some recordings and live performance photos. As it turns out, she can sing – very well. And has played in bands. In fact, she is also a post-punk fan and tells us Joy Division is one of her favorites. If that weren’t enough, along with the vocal competence, she’s also happens to have a great dark, edgy look to match the dark, edgy music. Hells to the Yes! My guitarist decides to meet her to validate that this too-good-to-be-true singer-person does actually exist and then has the weird “blind date/job interview/psych exam” conversation. All goes well and now we are three.
Houston, we have liftoff. The Rock N’ Roll Zero rises again!
WHAT’S NEXT?
So concludes the first installment in this series and I hope you enjoyed reading. There’s more excitement in store! Do punctual drummers really exist? Is Sasquatch country home to an unknowing post-punk wunderkind? Do these amps really go to 11? Tune in next time to find out! Until then, never mind the bollocks and rock on!
Thanks kindly for the mention Dr. Fire. Much appreciated!
Yes! I love this series and am so stoked I get another episode! Hahaha.
I’ve been slammed with work so I’m a little late to comment.
Great to hear you’re finding some new members! I love the “IS THIS A BLIND DATE, AN INTERVIEW OR A PSYCH ASSESSMENT?”
Being a drummer, and I do consider myself reliable… hahaha. Though, I do admit our stereotype of weird personalities is more often right than wrong. I have not had to audition, that often. Usually the bands would come to me, my experience being good drummers tend to be harder to find. But I had one interesting experience post college. After working for a year or two in corporate America, I decided I wanted to seriously pursue music again. I auditioned for a punk band (when I say punk I mean more new age – my favorite band ever is Strung Out, and I grew up playing them and more the NOFX, No Use For a Name melodic faster punk styles – which you probably hate… haha) and got the gig, but I didn’t really like the guys that much. Long story short, right before we started to play shows, I got booted because the old drummer decided to come back and I was the new guy, so odd man out. Looking back it was probably a good thing. But I was pissed at the time. What surprised me the most about the process was, the band told me how many bad drummers had tried out before me. And that shocked me. It’s usually pretty clear, here are the songs, and you have to be able to play them well. There’s no faking it. If I hear a recording and I know I’ll never be able to play it, I would never dream of trying out for it. But regardless of what someone says, you never really know how good they are until you play with them. This is probably the adventure you have been dealing with… haha.
As far as jamming, I think it depends on the music and is a very different skill set. I’ve been lucky to play in a wide range of bands, and enjoy many different genres of music. I played in a jam band in college along the likes of Moe, String Cheese, Phish and loved the freeform of long jams – especially blues and jazz. That being said, I’d never get with punk or hard rock musicians and say, “hey, let’s jam.” Certain music needs strict structure to be able to play.
Just on a music side note, I’ve dusted off my acoustic guitar and have been playing a couple times a week these past two months so my callouses are back and I’m slowly getting back into it. Once I can finally get a new house, the goal is to set up the electric guitars, amps and hopefully acoustic drums sets. If neighbors turn out to be a hindrance, I can always invest in a good electric set. Not ever ideal, but the technology has come a long ways, so that would be fun. But just buying new strings and restringing some guitars has gotten that burning itch to grow a little bigger. It’s been fun and I forgot how much I missed this creative outlet.
Best of luck with the band bud and can’t wait to hear more!
Hey Q-FI. Thanks for the great comment and story. Yep, good drummers are definitely hard to find, particularly for me as a bass player since I have to “lock in” with them. My particular peeve is those who overplay and pretend they are Neal Peart while playing fundamentally basic rock. I’ve had screaming matches with dudes who thought they were Max Roach in a jazz ensemble or the dude from Queesryche playing ‘Operation Mindcrime.’ For me the best drummers are guys like Pete de Freitas (Bunnymen), Martin Atkins (PIL) and Hugo Burnham (Go4) who are great and innovative and add to, not dominate the sound. Anyway, if they happen to be punctual, even better!
I’d likely be more inclined to jamming if I was a more accomplished player and my brain wasn’t as structured as it is. Oh well.
Glad to hear your getting back into music. I really missed it and it feels so great to be back at it. Can’t wait to see the Q-FI studio all tricked out later this year and there’s a perverse kind of thrill being men of a certain age who are still buggin’ neighbors by rocking out. Muhahaha!
As per usual, I laughed my way through this episode. Hilarity aside- this sounds like the beginning of something worthwhile and even fulfilling. Kudos!
Hi Kelly. Thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed and got a bit of a chuckle. The “American Idol” aspect of our singer search was priceless!
We’ll see how things progress and ultimately turn out. I plan to have the 2nd installment in a few months.
Hi Mr Fate. First time commenter – super cool to read what you’re up to in early retirement. Who knew that you could set up a band even during a pandemic. Looking forward to reading future updates!
Hey Dr. Fire – Thanks so much for stopping by to leave a comment. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, I was very skeptical about trying to put a band together online since it’s antithetical to my usual approach. I am very grateful that it’s worked out as well as it has under the circumstances.
Thanks again for the comment and hope to see you here in the future.
Ha good stuff. “masturbatory musician”, yeah I’m not one of those either.
Funny enough I too considered trying to get in another band back in January but ditched the idea when COVID started. Good luck with it dude!
Thanks kindly, Dave! Yeah, it should be an interesting ride. I just hope that there’s music venues still left after things settle down. Hopefully, you’ll get in a band at sometime in the future. I’ve missed it, even if we’re only virtual at the moment.
How exciting for you and fun for us outsiders to learn the inner workings of the formation of a band! It’ll be interesting to read updates of your progress, and hopefully you’ll share some of your music once it’s ready. Good luck! And I’m glad you’ve found a way to work around the pandemic’s limitations.
Hey Katie! Thanks for the comment. Yeah, it’s been interesting so far and if nothing else will make for some unique articles here. I’m liking the music quite a bit, so hopefully it will flourish! It’s definitely been interesting being in what, at this point , effectively amounts to a virtual band. So far so good.
Cool Mr Fate. I’m happy for you. Its inspiring to read about you pursuing your music in early retirement. This is what I like to think FIRE is all about: the ability to pursue creative passions without a 9-5 getting in the way. I hope you guys can get some songs going.
Thanks Noel! Yeah, it’s been great focusing on music and other artistic endeavors without the stress of working 60 hours a week. This “purified” space has really been helpful.
We’ve got some tunes down now. Because of the unique lock-down situation we’ll probably have 3 albums worth of material before we even play a show. That’ll be a first for me!
well, punctuality sure is a good quality in a band and “masturbatory” is a fine underutilized word. jamming sucks as much as someone coming to your house and tuning an old guitar propped up in the corner of the dining room. “where the hell is the song?!” now it’s just a tuned guitar with no reward!
well done on putting this together mostly remotely. i always dug that sara lee from gang of four. mrs. smidlap’s label put out her solo album 20 years ago. i’m glad you found your singer to bring the noize and not the honkey tonk.
Thanks for the comment, Freddy! Yep, words can’t describe how much I dislike jamming, which gives pretty good insight into how I think and operate. No “free-form jazz explorations in front of a festival crowd” here. Haha.
Yeah, I’m a little surprised how things have come together so far, but we’ll how how it holds up whenever we can regularly get together in person with all our personalities commingling. Fingers crossed. Can’t wait to bring post-punk to the honky-tonk. We’ll likely need a fence like the Blues Brothers or Ministry to stop the flying bottles 🤘