How many of you are in a band?

I've never officially been in a band.

First up there was this amazing singer. I had just bought a drum kit. She waited 6 months for me to get good, and it never happened, so she went off with someone else.

Then there were these 3 guys. 1 had keyboard skills but was using a scratch deck instead. 1 was singing random shit. 1 never actually touched an instrument. They didn't want a drummer (and I still sucked anyway) so I borrowed someone's bass guitar and we had all of 1 jam session, which didn't go so well. Never progressed past that, although the singer did release a private CD (not sure if he made any money or if there was actual demand for it...) where he played electric guitar and sang, mixing it into a dance number. We had no musical tastes in common, which is probably why the jam session didn't go so well. It was still fun though - first time I'd ever played a bass, and there were 4 of us (though 1 never touched an instrument...) in this TINY living room. Good times.

And now I know this other guitar player who has a band, but they need a bass player. Bass is the one instrument (of the standard rock band repertoire) that I don't have, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't play one if I had one.

So I'm kind of resigned to recording myself playing different instruments and trying to get a record deal based on songs that are all my own doing.

All of the musicians I've known over the years and who wanted me to play with them, all of them had a pot problem... so I'm probably better off on my own for now, anyway.

Oh, wait... there was one singer who wasn't on drugs. She was pretty decent, but at that point I wanted to play metal, and she was more a pop-princess sort of girl, so we never even jammed.

So no, I've never officially been in a band.

I've been in numerous bands, but I'm finally in one that is going somewhere. This band actually started as a duo with someone I went to school with 6 years ago. She plays guitar and sings, and I play bass. We started writing and trying out drummers, but none of them seemed to fit. Then, we went our separate ways. We still talked, but we didn't play together anymore.

Fast forward to 2010, and I started feeling the itch to play music again. She was the guitarist in a word-rock band, but she was really unhappy and dying to play some real rock and roll. I was in a pretty heavy band, but they didn't want me to do anything real melodic--just kind of follow the roots, which I do not do (my bass lines are usually very melodic and progressive--on a few songs, the whole progression lasts the entire verse). So, we started talking and decided to get something together again.

I picked up and moved to NYC (where she was living) after a few writing sessions proved to be very productive and successful. We wrote 7 songs in a week and recorded 2 demos (the 2 on the Facebook and website in my sig). The other band (which I joined as the bass player) played Brooklyn Pride, and there was a drummer there who was fantastic--very John Bonham. So, we talked to her and told her about our duo-soon-to-be-trio-hopefully, and she was interested. She listened to the songs that night and texted me to tell me how much she loved them.

We've had 4 rehearsals so far and have down 5 originals and 2 covers. Our first gig is booked for August 22 in Manhattan. She has a ton of connections for gigs and TV spots. We're scheduled to be on an internet show later this month, and after we record an album (probably September/October), there are 2 radio stations that want our single. We got 130 fans on Facebook in a week, and we haven't even played a show yet. Our manager puts us on an indie label by next summer. Woot.