Picture a fresh off the bus guitar player getting a call from an A&R type guy saying “Hey, I heard you’re a pretty good guitar player. I’d like you to pick up a copy of some songs by a guy and learn them for an audition tomorrow.” Then you’re given an obscure address somewhere in Hollywood and told it’s sitting in a cardboard box behind a tree or bush. That night you drive with some makeshift directions from a friend and you eventually find the address, the box and the copy of the songs. You snag one for yourself and hightail it back to your pad to pop it in and learn.
You spend a couple of hours listening, learning, getting a feel, thinking which parts should I play, etc, before heading to bed. Next morning you wake up, gobble up some food and drink and pull the songs back out for another run through before you have to put your butt back in your car to find a rehearsal space that is to house the upcoming star and the hopefuls who want to be his sidekick. You find the place and shuffle sheepishly into the joint with your guitar. You spot the room and the A&R guy that called you. Actually he spots you and asks if you are so-an-so.
“Yes”.
“Great, you’ll be next, please get tuned and ready.”
You pull your guitar out and tune it up and realize it’s silly at this point to have a real custom artwork guitar. You spend some time refreshing your brain on the songs you’ve pounded into it in the past 12 hours. “You ready?” is what is heard being said in your direction and whoosh into the room you go. You greet the star and notice that it’s not just you who’s auditioning, it’s also a bassist and a drummer. Thus at this point based on all the lessons and schooling you’ve had in your life you know that it’s the vocalist/star that you need to follow – no matter what.
You’re asked to kick off the guitar riff to the song. So you do. You’re playing well. The singer kicks in with his part and the two of you are gelling from the get-go. Then comes the point where the bass and the drums are to kick in and suddenly you have an oh-shit moment. Why? Because the bassist and the drummer (who supposedly just graduated from music school and play together all the time) are insufficient with their abilities. The timing is all over the place with the drummer. The bassist obviously didn’t learn the parts very well. You do your best to ignore them and stick to star and their song and where they’re at with it.
Pain is written on the face of the star. The song has been butchered but not by you as you did the professionally right thing of following them. It’s your first audition so you have no clue as to what to expect or how it works once you’re done. You pack up your instrument. You walk out with the A&R guy who called you. He pulls you aside away from the bassist and drummer (whom he lets walk right out the door) and tells you “You’re a damn good player, but this isn’t the right gig for you. I’d like you to audition for something else.”
If you’ve been following Single of the Day for a while, you’ll have already read about the second audition and what the other artist was.
In this story You = Me. I was that guitarist. The star = Brendan Lynch. One of the two songs in the audition was the one you’re listening to now – the one written about.
I remember my initial reaction to Brendan’s songs wasn’t immediate love. It wasn’t until sometime a few years later that I actually appreciated Brendan’s material. Does that mean it was ahead of it’s time? I actually like it’s quirkiness now. He certainly had character. He was different. It was before I had a clear understanding of how to write a decent song. All I wanted to be was a guitar player. Obviously that has since changed.
Unfortunately Brendan’s album didn’t take off to the stratosphere like it was thought it would. Eventually he was abandoned in the shifts of Major Labels muscles eating each other up. According to his myspace site, he’s still writing music but has moved on to other things and is residing in Hawaii now. I’m betting you won’t find his CD anywhere, but if you message him on myspace you might be able to get him to tell you if he has something you can purchase.
Show him some luv’n.