I - The Beginning

It was sometime in February 1997 when I received the call from Andy informing me that, after several years of not playing music, he had just bought a bass and an amp out of the blue and was having a great time noodling around with a bunch of old tunes. I half-jokingly said that I'd be there in a heartbeat if he felt like playing. After a couple of phone calls later in the week, we were already discussing getting together with Jamie, a drummer he had met while attending the Colorado Institute for Art. I had met Jamie once before at a Dux gig, and had heard from Andy about our common affinity for Genesis and Marillion. At the very least, I had confidence that the three of us would have a fun afternoon talking about music. Fortunately, we ended up doing a bit more than just talking about music.

On the very first day we immediately began noodling with original material, presenting old and new ideas that had been brewing for years. The result was a nifty little piece of music that had all of us brimming with excitement. While wondering if our musical memories would be rusty after so long, I boldly declared that I NEVER forgot any piece of music I had ever written. Naturally, disaster struck the very next session as I fruitlessly struggled to remember even a hint of my part. Jamie and Andy, after giving me alot of grief, good-naturedly accepted my humble apologies, and we simply moved on to the next idea and the next idea and the next idea and...

As time went on, the absense of guitar in our music became less of a novelty and more of an emptiness. We wanted someone who would fit in with our gestalt musical philosophy, but who also had the technical ability to follow the direction in which we seemed to be headed. We tried out a couple of players who definitely had the equipment and the chops, but who seemed to lack the ability or desire to interactively create music. We wanted someone who not only had the ability to rip out a nice lick or groove, but more importantly the ability to NOT rip out a nice lick or groove. We wanted a guitar player who had the willingness and confidence to stop and listen to what was developing and evolving and the talent to create something to go along with it. In other words, we wanted Matthew. And we got him.

The refreshing qualities that I felt during out first months together were ones of respect, realism, and focused energy. We respected the fact that none of us had played for several years and were all rediscovering our instruments and creative energies, had very realistic goals and expectations of what we would accomplish, and capitalized on our common backgrounds and enthusiasm for music with a great deal of refined energy and efficiency. The result was an unparalleled level of freedom, maturity, and fun.

After a few months, we collectively set a goal to record at least a couple of original songs in the best studio we could afford. This was a pivotal decision for me as it represented the opportunity to finally turn 12 years of musical dreams into permanent reality. For so long I had imagined what this song COULD have sounded like, or what that band COULD have done if it had stayed together, but all I had to show for it was a disorganized collection of 4-track recordings and some glorified memories. This was a real chance to create and preserve a quality of music I had only dreamed of doing.

The result was our first EP, Lenses.