From the age of 13 I knew I wanted to be a musician. I would write songs, practice guitar, and put a lot of effort into being better. My brother and I formed a band way back in 1998 where it was just drums and guitar. We practiced 2 to 3 hours every day. Then we found a bass player at our school to fill out the band. I knew we needed promotional material and merch so I started learning how to build websites and how to design shirts, stickers, and poster. I probably spent more time in Kinkos than people working at Kinkos.
At the end of school they wanted us to get an internship. I took one at a really sweet recording studio in town. After I graduated high school the owners sat me down and said they loved me as an intern and wanted to know if I'd be willing to work for studio time. Meaning I'd make $10/hour in studio time and would pay the normal rate of $500/8 hour day. I quickly agreed and started doing odd jobs to make enough for gas each week.
The band was still practicing every day. We knew we'd be making our first record soon and wouldn't have a lot of time. So we really worked on our songs. We broke each song down and were working on individual sections. Making sure each part was perfect.
After a year at the studio I'd saved up enough time and booked my sessions. We had a total of 14 days in studio and that included mixing so we had to be quick. We recorded the entire record really quickly and were crushing our takes. The first song we got on the very first take. It was awesome.
After making the record we cobbled together $1000 to have the CD'd printed professionally. I'd spent weeks working on the artwork and through my studio connections I knew the best people to press the CD's for a pretty good price. We were full on shrink wrapped and barcoded. It was awesome.
We then started contacting different local record stores and would have them carry our CD and we'd come play a show there to try and help sell it. We ended up with our CD in over 30 stores.
Word had gotten out and we started doing pretty good locally. We played the big local venue and came within 6 people of selling the place out. The owners were really impressed and we started getting spots opening for regional acts that needed a solid opener who could bring a crowd.
We then started getting our music played at local radio stations and grew a little bit more.
Near the peak we were talking to a local record label that brought us in to demo a song. We literally spent more time getting drum sounds on this one song than we spent tracking all the music for our first record. It was fucking rad.
Then the Yoko bomb dropped. Our bass player met some girl saying she was a promoter who ended up being a whore. She moved in with our bass player and his parents and when they were about to be kicked out guess who got pregnant.
She then made each road trip hell. He was a completely different person and he was totally controlled by her. So much so that he wouldn't meet fans after the show if girls were there because he didn't want her to be mad at him.
Then they (bass player and whore) came to us with a way to make $600. They were going to head up to NY and meet a guy who was going to help them sell stuff. (Looking back on it, it was likely drugs). This went south and they flipped their car coming home. They lost all the money and our band was out $900. Which was almost everything we had. We were saving for a trailer to travel further with.
This pretty much killed our dynamic and for whatever reason we never replaced him. We should have but we didn't. I think my brother was getting tired of the band and was more into getting drunk and doing coke.
I was watching a band I'd spent 100% of my time on for the last 10 years falling apart. I ended up moving out into my own apartment and the band just stopped practicing. We would play an occasional show if someone called us, but I wasn't actively booking gigs anymore.
Everyone's schedules had gotten too busy and it was always a pain in the ass.
After that I played in another band but it wasn't the same. No one else was really committed to making it. They were all resigned to drinking and playing family gigs like 4th of July parties for their brothers lake party and shit.
By the time that band had broken up I was married and my wife was wanting a stable life. I took a job using the skills I'd learned building websites and got a job at a small mom and pop shop writing code. I'm now working from home writing code for huge brands all over the world and desperately trying to start another band. I think at this point I'm tool old to really do anything at the level I'd been striving for.
There's always the joke that people never make music for the love of music, but I have 60-80 some odd songs and musical ideas and I'm really wanting to give it a go.
The problem is I have 2 kids, a mortgage, 2 car payments, preschool, dance class, phone bills, internet bills, groceries, fuel for my 2 cars, vacations, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries. There is no money to spend on making a record. I have maybe 2 hours a night to actually record anything and I usually have work that bleed over from that day.
I think my only regret was not diversifying enough. When I was in a band you were in 1 band. Now kids are in several bands and it's all cool. That is something I wish would have been acceptable when I was coming up. I also wish I'd kept in contact with all my contacts in the industry. It's been close to 10 years since I've been out and I have to start all over if I want to get back in.
I'm kind of stilling around day dreaming about playing the right open mic for the right person who will offer to manage my musical career...funny, right?