Band

Ultimate Guitar has some of the best band stories I've ever read. I got hooked to its stories when Ping Fuan introduced me to one of Nolan Whyte's stories, On The Comeback Road, a couple of years ago. Comeback Road is basically a story about this middle aged guy who is trying to make it big with a bunch of young adults as his band mates. Once that series was done, Nolan wrote a series called Guitargasm, which is a great story about a bunch of college kids trying to make it big. His latest series, Riot Band Blues is also another great story about forming a band. He still hasn't finished that one though. Though it may seem very formulaic, I can assure you that each of these three stories are completely different in their plot, characters, stories and everything else. But one thing for sure is that they all share a common theme, which is to rock as hard and rock proud.

Reading stuff like these really give me inspiration because I really enjoy band stories, and most of the time, I can relate to what is happening because I've been in a couple of bands myself, and I know what its like to be in one. Personally, being in a band, whether I'm playing live or just jamming for fun is among the most exhilarating of feelings I've ever had. I've always enjoyed that sense of "don't know what is going to happen next" involved in it. Sometimes, it can get a little challenging too because being in a band really requires some very good communication skills. Getting your ideas across, choosing a musical direction, or sometimes even getting all 4, 5 or 6 people who've got tremendously different timetables and responsibilities, in the same jamming room at once, is not exactly a straightforward task in any sense. Sometimes, doing it reminds me of a job of a diplomat or a deal haggler. And this is exactly what I miss about being in a band. I miss that whole "rush" feeling. And I'm glad that I don't have to wait much longer anymore. I'll be back next week, and we're going to start jamming again. Plus, I'm already 3/5ths into my new band. Brett spoke to me a couple of days ago and said that Evan has agreed to sing for us. The search for a bassist and drummer is still on, but, once you've got two guitarists and a singer, it becomes relatively easier to get the final two because we can always play random acoustic shows and advertise openings in our band. All we've got to do now, is to meet, and decide what exactly we want to do. Do we write our own stuff or do we do covers?

Many things come and go. Fad's as they would say it. But I like it that throughout all these years, a couple of things about myself has still remained a constant, and one of those, which is the absolute love for listening and playing music. If you knew me all those years ago, you'd still see that same passion and obsession in me about music. Only these day, I've gotten a whole lot crazier.