I am the youngest of 4 children. Growing up in a household where I was becoming a functioning human being in the company of those who had already found themselves, or who at least had found enough of themselves to spare their taste and preferences on me has undoubtedly changed my life in a huge way. I am without a doubt a much different person than I would be without Sean, Katie, and Betsy. Their influence can be seen in pretty much everything that makes me who I am. They shaped my sense of humor. They shaped the way I talk. It's because of them I'm super flinchy and deflect most blows thrown at me out of the blue.
Most importantly though, they showed me music. I'd come home and my brother would be pounding away at the piano, playing the loudest, most percussive songs you've ever heard. I'd come downstairs to find my sisters around the piano, singing old christmas songs. Being way younger than everyone else in the house meant that I was being carted around in their respective vehicles. I still remember going to New Salem nightly with my sister Betsy one summer, always listening to old mix tapes my brother had made for himself. Yeah, that's right, mix tapes. This here's the real deal, mother fuckers. Sean made dozens of these, lovingly writing out the table of contents like a game of pictionary, drawing tiny pictures that corresponded with the titles of the songs. One song in particular stuck with me forever, Guster's "Two Points For Honesty," still my favorite Guster song. His love for compilation creating and that Guster song were both directly passed down to me. Making mix CD's is big ol' deal for me, and that Guster song was track 3 on my freshmen year mix CD, right after Queens of The Stone Age's "No One Knows" and right before Franz Ferdinand's "Michael." I was practically raised on Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five, and for years and years he's been my musical idol.
My brothers and sisters love music and they gave me a love of music. This love of music has led to a lot of things. It led to my college major. It led to what I spent most of my high school life doing. It led to Band Practice!.
A lot of factors contributed to me wanting to be in a band.
A) I love music. If you don't believe me fight me.
B) I'm good at music. I'm not technically proficient due to the way I learned, but I have a feel for it and I think that's important.
C) I'm narcissistic. All rock stars think they're really cool. I think I'm pretty cool.
D) This plays into point C, but I like attention. This isn't me getting down on myself, I just feel comfortable on stage. I like it there.
E) I want to follow music as a career. This is because I don't have other marketable skills. I'm not good at math or engineering or anything because I'm not lame as shit.
Band Practice! doesn't have a good story. Greg Knox and I were listening to a guy talk about how cool it was to be in a band and we were like "well shit, why don't we do that." Rhett was our go to guy because he's really good at bass and being extremely obnoxious. Tynan earned his way into the group through his impressive staring-at-the-wall-lifelessly and gig dodging skills.
Band Practice! plays for fun. It's fun to play music with them. It's fun to play music with anyone, really. That's sortof the idea behind Band Practice!. Music is more fun with friends. I found 3 friends who I think I work really well with, and we're having fun. I'm having fun, at least.
Band Practice began as a joke. We wanted it to happen, but instead of really sitting down and working, we jokingly told everybody we were super great. We talked and talked and talked and talked and occasionally practiced but mostly talked. We started playing together more often, and we won a 2-band battle of the bands, and then talked some more. But at some point in time we got good. I'm not sure how good. I'm proud of what we've done together.
I don't know if the music we play is great. It's unpolished, that's what I noticed tonight. Ironically, one of the biggest problems in Band Practice! is our inability to find time to practice together. We're all very busy people, so it's not one particular person's fault, and it's not as if they owe our silly band any significant portion of their life. We're a band that really started doing stuff during the summer before 3 of the 4 members went off to college. Nothing's really going to come from Band Practice!, but at the same time, I have to say: I'm having the time of my life. This might be a ridiculous statement, but this is what I want to do with my life. If it were possible, if it were realistic, if it were up to me, I would take this and run. I would try to do something with what the 4 of us have here, because I think it's worthwhile.
We'll see what's in store for the 4 of us. We'll probs play another show or two before the summer's up, and then we'll hopefully play when we're all back for vacations. I wrote this because I wanted to articulate the thoughts that I couldn't on stage tonight. Band Practice! means a lot to me, and it means a lot to me that people show up and listen. So thanks.
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