I started writing quite a bit, mostly for friends that were doing studio work and didn't do alot of lyrical writing.
A friend and I decided to turn a regular revolving door jam session into a real band. So we settled on a regular lineup and started regular sessions in between the never ending free style ad-libbing sessions always going on in my basement. And there it was, the roots of the next big thing. Only our bass player had a nervous breakdown and flipped out and had to leave the band.
Eventually the 2 remaining members merged into another 2 member wanna-be project and we were a band again. We did mostly heavier stuff but had no singer. I have always loved singing in the shower so I decided I would do lead until we could get a real singer. It was fun. I really liked it and HEY... I wasn't that bad. But that band eventually split up because the bass player decided he didnt want to share his girlfriend anymore....what a drag.
In 19-ninety-some-shit-like-that, I hooked up with 2 other Rush, Yes freaks that I was working with at the time, and we decided in our ultimate wisdom that what the world needs today is a Rush/Yes tribute band. Only once again, we couldn't find a singer, so in true form I stepped up to the plate. Some music I can sing... but Rush and Yes ....NOT. The music itself was incredable...We could do just about any Rush or Yes song you put in front of us with surprising precision. But my vocals left something to be desired. Its not easy trying to sing Geddy and Play Neil at the same time. All things considered, Im proud of being able to do that at all. But no one wants to see a band with a singing drummer. Its not very interesting stage-wise. There is something about a tight 3-piece band though.
After the short lived Rush/Yes project I hooked back up with my friend in the basement and we decided that we would take on a more reasonable project. I wanted to explore singing and I wanted to do songs that I could indeed sing. So we formed a Beatles Tribute band, I found that I could sing John Lennon pretty good and even some of the McCartney songs as well. It went pretty well, this is where I really learned to sing and play. We started to get pretty good and wanted to expand on the style, so we started doing classic rock tunes from bands like like Jethro Tull, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd...that kind of stuff.
Then a strange thing happened. After a few falling outs and reorganizations I found myself in a conglomeration of the last 3 bands that I was in. The guitarist from the "Rush/Yes" Project, the Girlfriend-sharing Bassist from 2 bands before (Minus the friendly Girlfriend this time) and lastly, the guitarist from this last band. But once again....NO LEAD SINGER.
Well this band was going to be different, we would do mostly original material and also continue doing some of the Beatles covers that we were doing previously...But we would play these songs heavy...Imagine the Beatles meets Tool...it was quite fun. We stayed together for 3 years and by that time we were doing 80% of my original material. But what I really wanted was to find another drummer so that I could devote more energy to singing and writing. We were never able to find a drummer who could play our music. We were a very technical band and our music was rarely simple 4/4 stuff. So I was stuck in both roles for the moment.
