I don't remember the last time I posted anything up here. I suppose I could just open another tab on my window here and look up the exact date but I feel like being a bit vague. It's been a while and I'm going to leave it at that.
As it happens I finally have some news on the "chasing my dreams" front. I finally was picked up by a band. Not just that, but a band that has a lot of momentum behind them and a lot coming up on the horizon very quickly. This is a better place to be at as a state of mind rather than where I was, where I felt like I was just at the base of Mt. Impossible. I have met some people here and they all eventually ask "So what brought you to Austin?" and I always reply with the same "I came here to pursue a career in art and Austin is the best place that supports it's artists." Then I always get the follow up "Well there are a ton of musician's and band's here, it's a lot of competition." Well if we all looked at all our challenges that way then we would never get out of bed in the morning. I'm not going to lie here, those thoughts were in the back of my mind; "You're out here by yourself and somehow you're going to get a project up and going and off the ground?" Pretty soon hearing that over and over, that's where I would hit that point of "Jesus, what am I doing? I have to be freakin' nuts to think this would seriously work!" But I kept at it. Some day's with very little belief in myself, other day's with crazy amounts of confidence at work, but I kept the search for something out there going.
One day I seriously got to thinking about how people looked at the Austin band ratio as a competition, how so many here think that the only way to make was to beat them all like it was a race. I finally got to this point of thinking where I was like "Why does it have to be a competition. We're all out here looking for the same thing, we all want to make music our career. Why the competition?" So I wrote up an ad on Craigslist about how absurd I thought the idea of Austin being competitive ground was, and that instead of taking it on as that how I wanted to network with as many Austin musicians as I could, especially being that I was new to the scene. I also put that I was a bassist available if any band needed one. I got a few reply's back from people who liked what I said, and a couple offers from projects needing a bassist. One of them being from Mike (a.k.a. Luckie) from a band called Done Deal. They had an opening and were wanting to audition me. The only catch was my truck was still back in Wichita and I would need a lift to their rehearsal space if they wanted to audition me. Eventually we figured out that on a Monday I would come in an audition. Monday came and I got a call from Mike saying that it had to be moved to Tuesday. Tuesday came and something came up, moved to Wednesday. Wednesday shows, another conflict. We'll do it Thursday. Thursday comes... again, have to move it. Friday there was an event at the apartment complex and we didn't get in touch with each other. I had gotten a message from Mike sometime in that week of him saying "We're not trying to screw you around, we really want to audition you." But by Friday was just back at square one thinking "Well... here I am again."
It had been a couple of weeks and I had tried to get something going on my own, I met with a guitarist who just... wasn't meshing. And that sinking feeling of doubt started swirling around again. I got a message from Mike, who just had a kid and was taking some time of his own, asking me if I was still interested in auditioning. I said I was but was getting ready to leave to Athens for Thanksgiving and wouldn't be back until a week after, but I would have my truck. He said that was alright and that we could meet up when I got back.
I got back on a Thursday and Friday we were going to audition. Friday during the day Mike called me; "You ready for tonight?" "Yeah man, ready to go." "Cool, well, I'm not going to be there, I'm actually going to be at a wedding, but you'll be auditioning with the band (Guitarist and Drummer)." "Oh! ...okay..." Mike had been my only contact with the band, now I'm auditioning with people I hadn't even talked to before hand. It was kind of a weird feeling of "Well I guess I'm meeting these people on my own then!"
So I made it to Sam's (Guitarist) place. Justin (Drummer) showed up a bit late. Done Deal has two mixed songs on YouTube that people can easily hear and learn off of for an audition. They also have some other live tunes that you can't hear the audio that great. I learned their two good songs and pieced together the live tune as best as I could before the audition. I went in, did the two songs and kind of surprised them with knowing the third song. We talked a little bit and I went home. I didn't make it home before Mike called me up with a follow up on seeing how I liked playing with the band. I told him that I had a blast playing and he offered me the position to be the bassist for Done Deal. He said that they had audition other bass players in the time that we weren't able to meet up but they just weren't clicking with the others for some reason. Mike said "I knew I wanted to get you in before we made our decision." And that was it.
We have shows on the 17th and the 29th of this month and other commitments coming up in January. I can't be any happier than I am right now. I'm finally back in a project with a foreseeable future.
'Bout. Damn. Time.
