Greetings,
Once BlueHippo was born we set about building out our band and played a bunch of really crazy shows. We needed what all bands need in the beginning, a good drummer and a place to practice. Luckily we found both in Sean's Girlfriend's brother, Mike. Let me tell you, that first drum set was a piece of crap. BUT OH MY GOD did it feel good to hear all the new music coming together with a full band!
So this being the first time I had creative control of my lyrics (prior band was all christian so the lyrics wrote themselves) My process was just developing and at the time, I needed to have a melody before I could write lyrics. I wouldn't even sing at practice until I had the melody. I'm sure this was frustrating for the rest of the guys but looking back on past experience, it's very much on par with most singers I have worked with in that they can be a pain in the ass about their process.
Mike, our drummer was Mr. outdoors (the whole family actually) with eyes on Eagle Scout! His room was filled with the gear and for some reason rabbit skins, No feet, just skins. Mike was/is an amazing guy and I still keep in touch.
Sean's stepbrother Luke was the king of weird/cool. He's the guy that I tell the story about would always be practicing, on a metronome in his room, ALWAYS! It paid off cause now he's a friggin professor of Music at a major University!! He had a knack for coming up with crazy band names. One band in particular was called The Butterfly Chinchilla Keisters. Luke's band was scheduled to open up for BlueHippo but the singer quit right before the show. Luke and I thought it would be a great idea to have me stand in for the show. It was agreed and we set up for the show. While uploading, I noticed there was a beater Tele, missing 2 strings that had been accidentally brought to the venue. I thought it would be fun to bring it out on stage-not normal stage gear for me. I played the 20 min with a buster guitar, not plugged in, minus 2 strings. people came up afterwards telling me hoe awesome I sounded. lol Best show I never played!!!
Next time:
The day after xmas 1994, car tag and a dark day for BlueHippo