We got back to practicing Friday. Big Lu was here, then Frank's friend, Lisa, showed up to check stuff out. We warmed up to some of the regular jams for about an hour or so to condition (condition?! ha.. you should see how much beer we consumed! Damn!), then moved on to writing. There were soo many to choose from - there's a song that the guys wrote in Feb of 2004 that got left behind so we picked up on that one. Jared and I put together some wicked melodies for this song. It's unlike anything we've done because, typically, we go for the break and dynamics toward the middle/end of the song, but this one starts with a melody, the verse is then again seudo-orchestral, hits it after the first chorus, nutty verse again, again after the second chorus, and we havent even HIT the break yet. That's where we're at... and what's different this time is that the break needs to be insanely heavy with Jared harmonizing with Dave - which theyre doing already in this song. I'm liking it a lot.
SATURDAY was a trying one on the patience! Shit.. for me at least. I think for Dave too, but he's not as bad as me. My sister got here late, but it worked out because we started late. I was able to run in and throw on my bass to finish out "New Sun Rising" (which was the first song) with them. Again, we warmed up with the set and shifted gears to writing. Big Lu and Jared's buddy Jason from Flesh Electric were here to check stuff out from the start. One we started writing, it was tough to keep Jared and Frank's attention. Chris from Deadpool showed up and then forget it! FUCK... This is how things went for the next hour....
JARED: "be right back - I gotta pee."
FRANK: "you go pee with your fuckin' cell phone, Jared?!"
---pause for 5 minute long piss---
DAVE: "ok, after this part, we're going to the verse"
JARED: "whats the verse?"
-----not ONE TIME, but THREE TIMES!---------
..and here was the most frustrating part for me. For TWO HOURS.... one of us would be trying to talk and Frank is having separate conversations with Chris, then we'd agree on a part, be ready to go, and he'd say "ok, what are we doing now?" and we'd have to repeat it all over. Then again on another part, Dave, Frank and I would agree on something, Jared was noodling on his guitar, then we'd be ready to go, drumclicks, and he'd say, "ok, what are we doing now?!". The worst part of this being not that we had to waste time by repeating everything twice, but that by not listening, they weren't giving their input that we need from all right now. Try dealing with that for over an hour... most people could without bother, but.. I suppose i'm not most people!!! Eh, they gotta deal with me as much as I deal with them, I guess.
Don't get me wrong, I never got angry because I was in a good mood, but it was a def. frustrating. I have always been known to be anal when it comes to practice, studio, shit like that. The perfect practice to me would be with nobody there, unless they vowed silence (sorry, Chris!!!!!), turn off your cell phones or at LEAST don't answer it so we don't need to sit and wait for conversation to cease before we can proceed, beer (which we do without fail), swift breaks, and, most importantly, FOCUS. Despite all that happened during practice, we accomplished so much and got to the end of the song. Imagine what we could have done had we been on task!
I gotta give it up to Frank this time, though. He was really sweet. I worked super hard to create our practice space (which I must say really really kicks ass and was worth every minute of work) and left a dumb little comment on here that they must bring beer and chinese candy for that. Frank actually bought me a special 6 of Dos X and a bag of Chinese candy!! Jared even pitched in for beer (normal for most, rare for him! Like finding a pond in the dessert...) So I give it up to Frank for being thoughtful... and "thanks for letting your pockets finally breathe a little, Jared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
...now if only they hadn't drank all the beer he bought me... assholes.
I'm makin' jamroom rules and it's NOT gonna be pretty!!
Jen
