Saturday, March 6, 2010

Band Meeting


I was avoiding this issue for almost a month but now that it's resolved I am comfortable talking about it...

At our last recording session Joey and I had a huge misunderstanding, stemming not from the matter at hand but from many unspoken (and incorrect) assumptions on both our parts. Even though our current relationship has been on an even keel (not like it was 30 years ago), there were some unresolved issues that bubbled to the surface and manifested themselves in the studio, causing both of us great distress.

Over the course of that month, my mind was in full recovery mode, thinking about how to pull "the fat of this CD project and all it's almost year long sessions" out of the fire. In that month I re-evaluated our new and old songs with what I hope was an unbiased ear. What came of that (rock) and soul searching was a fine tuning of melodies and lyrics that (I think) bring the songs in question up to a new level.

What level? Well, the bar was raised by our experience with Tommy Byrnes during the recording of Crying Town. Shouldn't ALL of our new recordings (and for that matter our current live set) be at that new level? My thinking is, yes it should.

At the meeting, we discussed many things, discovering (after three years) that resentments from young adulthood don't just go away. I guess we were both afraid to rock the boat but now that these issues have been aired, discussed and resolved we (as a band) now know how to proceed to take us (the songs and the band) to that new level.

Will it be easy? Probably not. Old habits die hard and we all have 30-some odd years of habits to break. Will it be satisfying in the long run? My answer (and I can't speak for anyone else) is ABSOLUTELY!

Growth always comes at a time when your resolve is tested. I for one have grown both artistically and personally from this experience and I have a new found excitement for the band.

Let's move forward!





PS The meeting was hosted by Scott at one of the furnished appartments he rents. A beautiful place with a unique lobby. See photos.