.:rebuilding the chops:.

i’ll be the first to admit…right now…i’m in some poor musical shape (no…that is not me on the left).
you can pretty much equate this to a person who used to exercise all the time who has decided, all of a sudden, that’s it’s a great idea to take a six month break. yeah, every once in a while they get up and hit the weights for 15-30 minutes, but it’s not on any kind of consistent basis. all that muscle mass that was there all of a sudden starts to turn to flub and love handles.

yeah…that’s what i have. i have the musical equivalent of love handles.

my fingers feel like they have olives on the end of them…kind of like you used to do when you were a kid. they’re slow and start their stinging complaints about 15 minutes into playing. my hands feel like they’re having their ‘time of the month’…bloated, slow, and crampy. and my body…wow…my body that used to be pretty nice and limber for flailing around now feels a little stiff. what’s worst is my voice. where i used to be able to strongly sing an entire set, i’m having a little trouble singing three songs full keel. granted at this point they aren’t my songs…i’m learning them…but it’s still hard to think that i used to do this on a very regular basis. i can see how, as you get older, it gets harder to motivate yourself to ‘get back in shape’.

but that’s a stupid weak thought. i’m actually really super excited right now…

my latest venture into music may perhaps be with a band called exeter. i’m looking forward to it…and yet i’m kind of a tiny little bit scared. my confidence has dropped some over the past six months. i moved here thinking that i wouldn’t have any problems finding new people to fill out my band. i knew it’d be hard; the last iteration of my group was pretty much about as good as it got for me. there was a lot of good energy and chemistry there. but i thought that moving to the self-proclaimed ‘music capitol of the world’ wouldn’t make it too much of a problem. and it’s not that i was wrong or anything. there are indeed a lot of really good musicians here. it’s just that the majority of them are either taken or they’re into way different stuff than i am. so for the past six months i’ve kind of been sitting here in this little musical vacuum flashing back to my solo days that i don’t really want to repeat. after playing with a band and hearing things how you want them to be heard, it’s hard to think about taking a step back. i don’t want to start acoustic here…i want to start with a band so that i’m not hearing, ‘hey man, i like your band, but i really want to hear some of your solo stuff…’

don’t get me wrong…i’m flattered that anyone would want to hear anything i have to play. however, i just like playing with a band better. i think anyone who has played solo and played in a band will tell you that. the only advantage of playing solo is that you don’t have to rely on other people and you can make up your own practice schedule. that’s it, though.

but exter…

so i’m searching around on craigslist over the weekend and i see this post for a group that is looking for a vocalist. reading further, i see that they list just about every band that i know and love as influences. bands like failure, muse, HUM, radiohead, tool, a perfect circle…all of them there. and upon listening and contacting, i hear stuff that i’m immediately interested in.

the funny thing about this is that i’ve never been “just a vocalist”. there is something very comforting about having the guitar strapped around your neck serving as a little barrier between everyone and you. it also gives you something to do other than just stand there and look like a stupid mope who doesn’t know what he’s/she’s doing.

how many shows have you gone to where you’re just not impressed with the energy of the band up on stage? i can’t even remember the number of times that i’ve talked about that. especially local shows. i think that’s the downfall of local shows is that they have a lack of energy…a lack of showmanship.

take the guy on the left for instance. this guy is on a stage in front of some people playing music. can you please tell me what could POSSIBLY be any cooler than that? you should want to get up and freakin’ go crazy! but commander d-cicle (who i’m sure is a nice guy…but doesn’t rock AT ALL) looks like he’s at his best pal’s funeral rather than playing guitar on a stage and bringing the rock. boo.

i’m not saying that i’m any kind of model for how it should be. but i was definitely working on moving around a little bit and trying to do more than just strum on the guitar and sing real loud into a mic.

then there’s the opposite where it feels like the showmanship is completely contrived. i remember playing with a band (no names) who played quite a bit, but the singer…holy crapola…not only was he not all that great, but all of his movements you could tell that he was thinking really hard about doing. you could tell that the part of the song where you’re supposed to raise your hands into the air was coming up…and he’d raise his hands up in a stiff, very planed looking way. it was more funny than cool.

and i know that things like that come with time. you have to perform and become comfortable with every aspect of a song before you start throwing movements around with it. think about it…you’re asking a lot of your body. for all of you that haven’t’ played in a band and sang, here’s everything you generally have to be doing. not really thinking about it…just doing it…

1. remembering lyrics and singing
2. controlling your breath (if you know how to really sing)
3. playing guitar and remembering the song
4. listening to the tone of your guitar so you’re not too loud or soft and you’re mixing well with everyone else on stage
5. listening to the rhythm and everyone else playing so you don’t get off the beat
6. moving around
7. hitting certain pedals at specific times in a song (i.e. switching on your distortion, turning it off

so you’re doing approximately 7 things, give or take a couple.

when i start thinking about being ‘just a vocalist’, i start thinking back to my musical theater days. while i want to be a performer, i also don’t want to overdo it. while i want to be entertaining, i don’t want to get made fun of. while i generally don’t give a f**k about what someone thinks, i still want to be perceived as ‘cool’. and it’s hard as hell to think about being ‘naked’ up on stage…meaning, i’m going to be guitarless most liklely.

ahhh, good ol’ insecurity. it still haunts and plauges you no matter how old you get.

i think what is most important is that i’m really, really glad to have found a group of guys that are into the same music i am, who all seem to be on the same page as me as far as how to approach music. it’s really cool to be starting this back up in a new city too. i’ve got a chance to start new here, and i can act however i want to. i guess we’ll find out next wednesday…

.a.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Music, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.