Purity of Creation

You learn that being in a band of musicians means you spend lots of time rehearsing in cramped quarters. This is where the work really happens.  The work of honing a sound.  You spend lots more time rehearsing than you ever do playing shows.  This is also where you bond and meld the various personalities and energies that make up a band.  


Our band starts with bare-bones "songs" which we then work through to find out what they will sound like, as everyone finds their way.  We are lucky to have an amazing bass player and drummer who are totally committed to our vision.  Everyone is fully in.  Not an easy thing to find.


Some of our rehearsals are the most intense creative sessions I've ever participated in.  Over time you begin to develop another language, another level of creative collaboration; it is wordless and ephemeral.  Not something you can explain or bottle.  And it either happens or it doesn't.  You know the band has "got it," when the energy level rises, and we are all just in the moment together, communicating in an almost "clairvoyant" way.


Yes, it is spooky and cool, and more than just playing music.


We had one of those remarkable kitchen sessions this weekend.  The bass player next to the stove, the drummer near the refrigerator, the vocalist next to the window, the guitar player in front of the dishwasher.  Our little kitchen reverberated as we cooked up a few exquisite moments of "controlled chaos."  We can go over the brink and then bring it all back, sometimes in the middle of a song. 


We've had some great shows, but our rehearsals stay with me longer.  It's work, and a challenge, and when we are locked in a tight little circle just playing for ourselves, discovering the possibilities in the songs, well, it's just this amazing purity of creation without any distractions.


Is it good?  Yes, it is. It is the thing.  The band.  Yes, it is.