No revelations in the water, no tears in the booze.

Three beers in about 15 minutes. Let's see what happens.

wait, hold on. i gotta clean the griddle that i shoved in the oven real quick.

okay.

so...the other day, jeff and i were watching old hi-8 videos of a band we used to be in.
hold on. let me clarify a few things here.

First of all, jeff collier is a very very dear friend of mine. he's a great friend and he's always been there when i've needed him. he is incredibly talented, and is playing a major role in the album my current band (that he is not in...but was for a little while about two years ago...) is making. there is no person on this earth i would rather be working with on this album. jeff and i first met in our high school freshmen PE class. we both played guitar and had similar tastes in music. sophomore year, jeff had a birthday party at his parent's house. we spent the day swimming, eating, playing music, listening to music, and just...being awesome. at some point, we decided we should start a band. he would play guitar, i would play bass, and we'd find a drummer. our friend ian was the only drummer we knew, so we asked him. the three of us jammed once, and that was the end of that. then, our friend matt leone picked up the bass, and jeff and i played gutiar. it was decided that my brother, morgan, was going to sing. the first "practice" we had was in jeff's parent's living room. me, matt, jeff, and morgan. no drums. we painfully worked our way through a few cover songs and called it a day. sometime during the beginning of junior year, nathan kracke, who didn't really know at all at the time, was playing drums with penicls on his desk during home room. jeff asked him if he could play drums. i think he said something like "maybe" or "i could figure it out" and went out and bought a drum kit. two days later, he was in the band. so morgan was singing, jeff and i on guitar, matt on bass, nathan on drums. we wrote a couple jams, cover a few tunes, and played a couple parties. matt starting getting into the pathetic music scene that was "avhxc" and started playing with a beautiful elegy. we "let him go." jeff moved to bass, and we started writing new songs. we played a few more parties, then morgan left the band. jeff and i started singing...if you could call it that...and we pressed on. we played a few more parties...a couple showcase gigs...and started recording. some of our songs were actually really fucking cool, even in retrospect. anyway...jeff joined a metalcore band...and apparently kracke didn't want to play with me anymore. that was never really addressed. anyway, the band broke up. about a year later, kracke called me up, asking if i wanted to play bass in this band he was in with leila (my current singer) and these two dudes, dave and joe, that i hadn't met before. there was sort of an informal audition, and i was in the band. i was frustrated with the way things were moving with that band (that is, not at all) and conveyed my frustrations time and time again, to no avail. i convinced kracke and leila that we should do our own thing. so we did. i'm pretty sure joe still hates me for it, but dave is cool now. so i was on guitar, leila singing, and kracke playing drums. my cousin ryan joined the band on guitar, and we started writing like crazy. we got a couple shows booked, but had no bass player. our friend alex filled in for the first few shows, but could no longer do it. the band jeff was in broke up, and he sort of asked/sort of told us that he was our bass player now. i couldn't be happier. i was glad to be playing with him again. a few months later, he grew frustrated and wanted to start his own studio. so he quit the band and did just that. matt leone was our next bass player. we later recorded a demo at jeff's studio. then some shit went down, and matt left the band. shortly after that, kracke quit. i was frustrated and whatever whatever. nick griffith then joined the band on bass...a sort of friend of a friend. then gabe martinez joined the band on drums, and things started rolling again. we won battle of the bands last fall, and started recording a full length about a month ago, with jeff engineering and co-producing the album.

so...that was a "abbreviated" version of my music "career" thus far. ANYWAY.

jeff and i were watching these videos of us when we were 17...and my god, were we awful. i mean, seriously, we were terrible. always off time, out of key...just awful.
watching those videos was fun, and brought back good memories, but listening was just painful. i was really having a hard time. jeff reassured me (several times) that i've gotten much better...and i sincerely hope so. i've worked really really hard at what i do, and if it's all for nothing...well, i don't know what i'd do. so...i've made a promise to myself...and that is to never ever ever be that terrible again.