Rock Band Years: Enough Said
I started to learn songwriting out of necessity; I had started this rock band, but we didn't want to be a "cover band." We wanted to make our own music, and write from our own experiences. I'd mimic other songs I liked as we tried to find our sound. My first bunch of songs were a "good try" kind of bad. Then they grew to "ok" and "decent." (I've studied and grown a lot in my craft since then... so I'm hoping you'd agree my current songs are beyond the description of "decent!" ;) But no matter how bad they were, I still loved writing them and sharing them with audiences. People were so kind as well... inviting us to play regularly and listening through the "beginners issues" to the heart underneath.Throughout my parents' divorce and my brother's teen struggles, I found songwriting helped me heal. As much as I wanted them to speak to others' hearts, they spoke to mine the most.
When we went off to college, our bass player decided to leave the band. So my sister and I decided we needed to let some boys into the former "chick band" for it to survive. We had a string of bass players (we couldn't seem to keep them around! haha), a consistent keyboardist from school, and a lead guitarist that was previously in another band we'd met playing out. When school stress was high, my sister wanted to just sing, so we had a new drummer join.
Over the years, we were "qualified as called," since we were definitely not qualified before we were called! We improved musically, continued to find our sound, and had a blast sharing our music all over NY state. We played over 100 concerts in 8 years, and rocked local radio play. What an adventure!
But then...Our bass player seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. So my sister and I started playing some gigs acoustically. That's when someone told us that this was our strong suit. I didn't want to believe it, because I loved rocking out on electric... but it got my heart open to being an acoustic player.
We struggled to keep the band alive until my sister and I both got engaged and planned to move out of state, to different states. The dream seemed to be over. I was trying to be ok with it, since I was looking forward to adventures in a new place, as a new wife and social worker. I already lived my dream of being a musician... I assumed it was time to move on.Just for fun... here's Enough Said on MySpace... You can hear the change and growth in sound from "Enough Said" to "One" to "Midnight's Apex." ;)