Hello,
At the time I was living at my buddy Jason Lamars moms house. Sean and I both rented rooms and we set about writing music for what would become, 12th Of Never. An acoustic, tribal band that had it's own bellydancing troupe that would dance when we played. The two of us would hang out in his room, get high and play music. There was a music store in Vallejo where we knew the owner. (we felt like stars already) We would walk in and Brad, would be more than happy to help us. I miss that store. I bought a keyboard that had a 4 track recording feature that we thought would solve all our needs. It didn't but we sure had fun.
Once Sean and I had a few hundred songs under our belt we reached out to Ian Richwine, the bass player from Sap and BlueHippo. The three of us fit together again like peas and carrots. Now, I was hell bent on being a guitarist, not a vocalist this time around. So we enlisted the help of one of the areas premier singers, Jason Buckingham. Jason had been in the band Stringfield Theory which was as big as any signed band in our eyes.
Jason had a more polished, Geoff Tate tone to his voice. It fit together well. We moved out of Seans bedroom and after a brief stint in a storage locker practice space we moved into Jasons living room lol. We would practice there a lot. We found a drummer on craigslist. He came with his own kit and was willing to keep it there in the meantime.
Remember how I wanted to be the guitarist? Well try as I may, I wasn't ready to be a guitarist in the band. My playing wasn't up to standard. Then our drummer quit, walked out but left his kit. It was brought to me. Paraphrasing here "You suck on guitar. If you want to be in the band, you're on drums."
I DID NOT WANT TO BE THE DRUMMER! Drummers are in the back and never get girls lol. However once I sat down and hammered out some beats for our songs, I had a change of mind. It was fun beating the shit out of the drums. So I became the drummer. Until the old drummer came back and wanted his kit. I needed my own anyway. So I traded my first guitar, a Peavey Predator, for a new snare, kick and ride cymbals.
Next time:
Did you say Belly dancers?