"...just like Brian Wilson"
Winter 1998-99. I used to volunteer satuday mornings at the library helping ESL (English as a second language) kids learn to read. When I was done for the morning, I used to read parts of Brian Wilson's autobiography. I had an obsession with him because I could relate to his mental breakdown and because he was deaf in one ear and still wrote songs and produced albums like Pet Sounds. At the time my sinus condition was so bad that at times my ears felt plugged. It usually affected one ear more than the other. I hid this fact from my friends and bandmates, (though my constant picking of the ear was probably a tip off that something was wrong). I still wrote songs with Chalmers and Sean on the weekends. What would usually happen is I would give lyrics to Chalmers. He'd bang out chords and a melody. Then Sean and I would take turns playing lead lines. One such song was "Pennies on Victoria". It is still my favourite song from the first incarnation of the band.
On friday nights after school, I'd call Sean and we'd go have pizza at Pizza Pizza, and then we'd go to his place and jam and goof around waiting for Chalmers to get his shit together to join us. I'd go to his keyboard and we'd play "Jump" by Van Halen. Or I'd play the acoustic intro to Pinball Wizard and Sean would play the power chords. We played that once and Sean's dad came in and said "Hey, I know that song". In the words of Bill and Ted, it was truly righteous.
Aleks was not a part of these "sessions" as we called them. He was usually spending time with his girlfriend at the time When he did finally rejoin us, it was the death of the band. It wasn't his fault, we were just sick of each other creatively, and there was some resentment as I've alluded to before. The band thing had to die so we could go on with our lives as friends.
I used to hold this period up on a pedastal as my most creative time. I felt like with the second incarnation of the band I was playing second fiddle so to speak, whereas I had more creative input in the first. But then I had a great deal of input in the band I formed with Aleks, and I am still quite creative. ("My powers have doubled since our last meeting..."). The truth of the matter is I miss things like jamming with friends, hanging out with Sean etc. But this period was the height of teenage awkwardness, and I am much much better now. So I would not live this time again for anything.
On friday nights after school, I'd call Sean and we'd go have pizza at Pizza Pizza, and then we'd go to his place and jam and goof around waiting for Chalmers to get his shit together to join us. I'd go to his keyboard and we'd play "Jump" by Van Halen. Or I'd play the acoustic intro to Pinball Wizard and Sean would play the power chords. We played that once and Sean's dad came in and said "Hey, I know that song". In the words of Bill and Ted, it was truly righteous.
Aleks was not a part of these "sessions" as we called them. He was usually spending time with his girlfriend at the time When he did finally rejoin us, it was the death of the band. It wasn't his fault, we were just sick of each other creatively, and there was some resentment as I've alluded to before. The band thing had to die so we could go on with our lives as friends.
I used to hold this period up on a pedastal as my most creative time. I felt like with the second incarnation of the band I was playing second fiddle so to speak, whereas I had more creative input in the first. But then I had a great deal of input in the band I formed with Aleks, and I am still quite creative. ("My powers have doubled since our last meeting..."). The truth of the matter is I miss things like jamming with friends, hanging out with Sean etc. But this period was the height of teenage awkwardness, and I am much much better now. So I would not live this time again for anything.
posted by The Doctor at 2:28 PM
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