08:53: around two weeks ago, i replied to this e-mail looking for female vocalists to audition for a jazz blues group. i began scrambling for songs i could study from my cd collection and others suggested by a very helpful friend. all that didn't do me much good, i found out two days before the audition.
their plan, was to play a riff they came up with, have me and the other girl who was going to audition listen to it, then have each of us write a melody and lyrics. who the frell are these people?!?!?! i had never attempted to put words to a melody in my life! much less under such pressing conditions! khali suggested i have wev or jan write me a riff then play with it, just to get used to it. wev suggested he come with me, then i take a bathroom break in the middle of the audition to meet him and have him write it. my helpful friend suggested i bring any old writings i have that i can show them, in case inspiration doesn't strike. for some insane reason, i could find none of my crappy old writings.
so i go to the audition last night with only two hours of sleep and a tummy full of nerves. the other girl couldn't make it. they play me the riff. they had said jazz blues? not! i was studying the wrong things. the riff was bossa nova. their guitar solos border on progressive rock. but it works. after hearing it twice, i begin to write. surprisingly, i find something to write about and a little melody to go with it. thank eru for the simplicity of bossa nova and for a whole summer spent listening to bossa and imagining i was at the beach. i make them play it once more to fix the structure and again a fourth time to get the melody right. then we try it out with me singing. i feel icky having to do a mic test for myself. pipeline guy, who i was surprised to find was also our drummer, brings the mic up to max. the germophobe in me makes proximity to microphones a bit of a problem. =P after the initial run, martin, the bassist, says "your voice is so ... acid." it wasn't what i had hoped for. now, i don't listen much to acid jazz, but i guess he had a point. forcing me to sing something original stopped me from trying to sound like krall or ella or cooky, for that matter. still, i don't know if acid jazz is the route they want to take. i stop to get some water then we do the song again to get the feel of it. second time around brings better vocals, better solos, better drums. we talk a bit while packing up. they ask if i'm okay to sing with them full time.
lifey: sure, yeah! ...but aren't you guys gonna be auditioning someone else?
martin: not anymore.
lifey: why, what happened?
martin: it's not really something that happened earlier, it's what happened tonight.
lifey: oh.
sounds encouraging. so that's that. i guess i've found myself a little band. i'll be meeting them again on saturday night to rehearse. yay!
brewed by lifecafe
