| Lisa the Drummer |
[Nov. 14th, 2008|10:03 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  creative | ] |
At some periods during this story, my bandmates and I consumed extremely large amounts of alcohol, so some details are fuzzy. If you were ever in a band with me (including Streetwise, The Names, Blues Patrol, EU4IA, Krystal Confusion, Big Jim Slade) and I have any details wrong, please let me know :)
I first started playing the drums in 1987. I took lessons from my friend John who I had dated in high school and who was in a heavy metal band. He was left-handed and played left-handed, and I was left-handed so that's how I learned.
About a year after I first started playing (I had moved from my mom's house to my own apartment in the interim) I hooked up with a bunch of older musicians who needed a drummer. They were an oldies cover band, and we did a lot of gigs in bars and a few weddings. Somewhere along the line, the bass player (DJ) and I started dating.
Playing Elvis at weddings started to get old (although the money was good), so DJ and I started a side project with a couple of other musicians, which was sort of punk-y original rock. We also had another project of a blues band with the same lineup of players, which also played out. I really got into the blues and started listening to old bluesmen like Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf.
DJ and I eventually left the cover band and concentrated on the original band, with some work on the blues project. We did gigs with both bands and did some recording. This went on for quite a while until I broke up with DJ (due to outside matters that had nothing to do with the band), then after a while it was just too awkward for me, so I decided to leave the group.
A couple of years went by and I went to the Starwood Festival for the first time,I think it was 1993, which got me hooked on hand drumming. I rushed home and bought the huge Remo djembe and played a lot. For a few years I did a lot of drumming for rituals for a large Pagan networking organization, with two other drummers. But they stopped showing up, and eventually, so did I. I will still be asked to drum for the occasional ritual, which I am happy to do.
During that period, I had hooked up with another group of musicians and we formed a band. My boss at the time let us practice in his garage. I think we were alternative rock. I think I was in a Big Hair and Makeup phase. We did some gigs and even went into the studio, but we couldn't afford to pay for the studio time. Somehow our bass player Gregg (remember him, he'll be important later) got a copy of what we did in the studio. Eventually, two of us wanted to go in a more metal direction and two of us wanted to go more alternative, and that was complicated further by the fact that our singer did too many drugs and lost his voice. So we split.
After that, I met two people who I will refer to as The Irishman (who will figure in the story later) and The Ex. The Ex and I dated and got engaged (REALLY BAD IDEA IN RETROSPECT), and also started a band with The Irishman and The Lawyer. Original rock, we were good, we played gigs, bla bla bla. Then came The Wedding and The Divorce (one following closely on the heels of the other, for reasons I won't get into here). Then The Ex decided to hold my drums hostage for some money I allegedly owed him, so when I finally relented and paid him the damn money, he finally gave my drums back, but the whole ordeal had killed my desire to play in bands. This lasted a really long time.
Meanwhile, I was still playing the djembe and going to Starwood and playing like crazy there. Meanwhile meanwhile, I met some people who also liked to drum and under the organization of the one I will refer to as Our Leader, we became Blessed Beat. (I hope Our Leader will forgive me because I don't remember what year this was. 2000?) Anyway, Blessed Beat still exists (despite some interpersonal drama between pretty much everybody, and my subsequent temporary abandonment of the group) and we still love to drum together.
After several years had elapsed since the Really Bad Divorce (honestly, I'm surprised we weren't on Jerry Springer), The Irishman and I and The Hungarian formed another band. The music belonged to The Irishman, and we sounded really good to me. After working really hard for a couple of years, we still couldn't find a bass player, and I left because I had too many things going on. This was about two years ago.
And that's how it stood until several weeks ago. The same day that my friend Andee had sent me a couple of mp3s of old Krystal Confusion songs, my old bass player Gregg found me on Myspace. I took this as some sort of sign, as did he. So it looks like the two of us, plus a singer and a guitar player, will be getting together to create some music. We don't know exactly what type of music, but we will just play and see what comes out. It's meant to be a group effort, with each member participating, and all decisions being unanimous.
I'll let you know how it goes. |
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