Get Back
TweetShooting the breeze with musicians Bill Wolford of Seattle, WA and Garry Transue of Santa Fe, NM (both making up Fidget and Groove) was a hoot and a half. For those of you who only dream about being in a recording studio, albeit a homemade one, I was feeling at home and in my element, after a hiatus of almost seven years from the musician’s circuit with front man Rik Avalos (formerly of Seattle). We played most of the major Seattle music bars, including the infamous Central Tavern and the now defunct Ballard Firehouse. However, you never forget those first sweet moments of getting behind the microphone, amping everything for sound, and filling a room up with people and sound for an evening to remember.
Check out Bill, Garry, and a spontaneous and unplanned off-camera performance by Imei on drums (OK, it was a kid set of drums with a mini-microphone stuffed in the small kick drum in order to give the song some beefy backbone, and you’ll see me hit the hi-hat “cymbal” – more like a silver disk of death – from the side). This was completely unscripted.
Of course, this is a cover of a famous Beattle song, so it’s not like we can plaster this all over Youtube (nor would we), but unless you’re a musician, you have no clue about how cool-lio it is to just sit in the studio and jam with people who know what they are doing, who don’t hold back, and aren’t afraid to make their mistakes loud and obvious. Most of us would only be so lucky for the opportunity. Plus, we’re in a home studio (converted carport) with more wires, computer screens, instruments, and recording software than you can shake a fist at).
The process of making music is like making love. We discussed this over lunch at West 5 in West Seattle afterwards, chased down with some beer. When you sing and play music, you feel like you’ve just bared your soul to your new lover (your audience), made all your funny faces full of tension and joy, and after you’re finished, you remember yourself, and ask, “Was that good for you?” See, we have no clue. We have no clue if you liked what we just did, or you thought we were an awful “lay”. And on the livestream, it’s worse. We don’t know what you think because we can’t hear you; we can’t interact with you; we can’t see you. All we know is how we feel.
And we feel pretty damn good.
Oh, and please follow me on Twitter @HipsForHire. Nothing bad will happen to you if you don’t, but plenty of good things will happen to you if you do, like hearing the best of local artists, getting on the inside track for events and giveaways, and following this n00b into her first full year as the founder of Hips For Hire. And thanks for sharing about my project with your friends.
One Response to “Get Back”
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Ouch yeah..haha.. We were definitely winging that one.. but all in good fun. Good write up Imei, thanks.