The drumset was (is) a Pearl set, blue crystal colour and while it
wasn't my favorite colour I made due, it was better to have any drumset
than not.. By the time I got in the band I figured the drumset I played
was my trademark of sorts.. I would feel pressured to add more drums and
the next year I bought another kit just like it and add every drum but
the bass drum to what I had.. So it went from a four piece to an eight
leaving out the bass and the snare.. That next Christmas I got a roto
tom set.. That was a nice addition and gave me abilities to really do
interesting fills..
By 1984 I had detuned my drumset, taking the heads off and cleaning my "kit" to mothball.. Was my drumming career over?? It sure seamed like it was.. Until that fateful evening when the phone rang.. It was Chuck calling to ask about weather I could still play drums and would I be interested.. Shit yes where do I sign up??.. This chapter could be sub titled gluten for punishment, or too stupid to say no.. Truth is I wanted more than anything else to play in a bar or even more.. Retune the kit we got a gig.. Well not entirely true. He had a kit I would use all of the three practices I would be in.. Sadly the guy was wanting the band to be great at once and it wouldn't.. We weren't professionals or I should say I wasn't.. I still had the high school attitude of play loud and fast.. Then we sat down and had a discussion although I wasn't sure what he was talking about.. He was another who was a drummer in school.. He played in school but switched to guitar for the band he was trying to get into.. Back then there was a band in the Sidney school system, between the two functioning school there was a rock (pop rock) band called Blue Earth.. When the kids graduated from high school they stopped being a hobby band and went professional.. They held auditions for drummers and there were some who told me I should try for it.. I was having troubles getting to be in any band.. People had told me I should go to the west coast or Tennessee to try my luck.. I felt like I wasn't THAT good of a drummer.. I always said I could fake it fairly well, could fool a lot of people.. Well was I faking myself out in this band of Chucks.. Then it folded, but not before I got a set of cymbals and stands for the effort.. The guy was into selling musical equipment, one of the few stores of it's kind it was both a "brick and mortar" and a sort of online store in that he had ads in a few music magazines.. I was really disappointed when the band folded.. But held onto the hope that we were still a band, like before.. Then in May of that year the phone rang again.. This time it would be the start..
The phone rang and the guy's voice was sort of high pitched and all I could think was here we go again.. I wasn't in any hurry to leave Chucks band, and held up hope that he would say no.. He didn't, in fact it was his idea for Ernie to call me.. Again the feeling that I wasn't good enough to be in a band sneaked into my head again.. I told Ernie I thought I would stick with Chuck.. He was persistent as he called again a little while later and asked to just get together and jam.. I reluctantly said yes and the weekend after Memorial day 1984 we jammed at a relatives of his basement.. We would practice there few times.. At that point we had four members, Ernie played lead guitar and sang, his brother Joe played bass and sang, Frank played rhythm guitar (sort of) and me on the drums.. The name was already picked as Rizzen with the name having to do with the fact that I was in a band a few years ago that imploded, and the band he was in the year or so before also imploded so it was like rising from the ashes of several (?) bands like the phoenix ... Sure, a sort of concept name.. Ok whatever.. I guess that can work.. Better than going through the name the band contest amungst the members.. I guess.. I really was just happy to be in what I thought was two bands.. How cool is this??..
Two bands was better than one even though I wouldn't hear from Chuck again anytime soon.. I had the feeling that I still had the other band to fall back on although it really wasn't that way at all.. In the back of my mind there was a second band.. By the time July came and went I had been going to practice regularly, and something else happened in June though.. My older brother was talking to a guy he knew somewhere (I can't remember where) and told him I was in a rock band.. He seemed interested and wondered if we would be interested in a keyboard player.. At the time I didn't think so but as it turned out Ernie was interested.. So sometime in June or July Darren would join the band.. Five member band now.. And the music we were learning was a heavy rock type of music, in the vein of Scorpions and Dokken.. I had never heard of a lot of the music we were playing, most of the music on the radio was top 40.. These groups were from England, Germany and other parts of the world.. My taste in music was very primitive compared to what these guys were into.. What a difference.. And Chuck had talked about learning songs by these groups so if his band were to call and go at it there would be little difference between the two..
Somewhere in the first year of the band I started to learn how to actually play the drums as a rhythm instrument.. There were reasons for this First and most important was the practices I couldn't hear the vocals at all. This would include the first gig, where I was nervous as hell for that reason and many others..
By late July or early August the band was stagnating.. The practices were starting to show nothing.. I remember I was helping my older brother move into a new house and they called and wanted to practice.. I had committed to helping him move and they were pissed that I couldn't make practice.. I remember this practice fairly well it was the first time I threatened to quit the band.. There would only be two, with the second being the end.. The second was an attempt to get them to start up again, the first was to get them to get it together.. The early practices were more jam sessions where we were playing some songs and writing others.. The early days of the band would see songs get written and practiced while not working on the cover songs nearly at all.. I was just wondering if we were a jam band (rehearsal band) exclusively or were we ever going to play?? They would talk me into staying.. Fine but let's try to get a gig somewhere soon.. We were by this time practicing in Ernies mother in laws garage, where we would be held captive by the weather.. Cold would be a word I would come to understand in a whole new way..
By 1984 I had detuned my drumset, taking the heads off and cleaning my "kit" to mothball.. Was my drumming career over?? It sure seamed like it was.. Until that fateful evening when the phone rang.. It was Chuck calling to ask about weather I could still play drums and would I be interested.. Shit yes where do I sign up??.. This chapter could be sub titled gluten for punishment, or too stupid to say no.. Truth is I wanted more than anything else to play in a bar or even more.. Retune the kit we got a gig.. Well not entirely true. He had a kit I would use all of the three practices I would be in.. Sadly the guy was wanting the band to be great at once and it wouldn't.. We weren't professionals or I should say I wasn't.. I still had the high school attitude of play loud and fast.. Then we sat down and had a discussion although I wasn't sure what he was talking about.. He was another who was a drummer in school.. He played in school but switched to guitar for the band he was trying to get into.. Back then there was a band in the Sidney school system, between the two functioning school there was a rock (pop rock) band called Blue Earth.. When the kids graduated from high school they stopped being a hobby band and went professional.. They held auditions for drummers and there were some who told me I should try for it.. I was having troubles getting to be in any band.. People had told me I should go to the west coast or Tennessee to try my luck.. I felt like I wasn't THAT good of a drummer.. I always said I could fake it fairly well, could fool a lot of people.. Well was I faking myself out in this band of Chucks.. Then it folded, but not before I got a set of cymbals and stands for the effort.. The guy was into selling musical equipment, one of the few stores of it's kind it was both a "brick and mortar" and a sort of online store in that he had ads in a few music magazines.. I was really disappointed when the band folded.. But held onto the hope that we were still a band, like before.. Then in May of that year the phone rang again.. This time it would be the start..
The phone rang and the guy's voice was sort of high pitched and all I could think was here we go again.. I wasn't in any hurry to leave Chucks band, and held up hope that he would say no.. He didn't, in fact it was his idea for Ernie to call me.. Again the feeling that I wasn't good enough to be in a band sneaked into my head again.. I told Ernie I thought I would stick with Chuck.. He was persistent as he called again a little while later and asked to just get together and jam.. I reluctantly said yes and the weekend after Memorial day 1984 we jammed at a relatives of his basement.. We would practice there few times.. At that point we had four members, Ernie played lead guitar and sang, his brother Joe played bass and sang, Frank played rhythm guitar (sort of) and me on the drums.. The name was already picked as Rizzen with the name having to do with the fact that I was in a band a few years ago that imploded, and the band he was in the year or so before also imploded so it was like rising from the ashes of several (?) bands like the phoenix ... Sure, a sort of concept name.. Ok whatever.. I guess that can work.. Better than going through the name the band contest amungst the members.. I guess.. I really was just happy to be in what I thought was two bands.. How cool is this??..
Two bands was better than one even though I wouldn't hear from Chuck again anytime soon.. I had the feeling that I still had the other band to fall back on although it really wasn't that way at all.. In the back of my mind there was a second band.. By the time July came and went I had been going to practice regularly, and something else happened in June though.. My older brother was talking to a guy he knew somewhere (I can't remember where) and told him I was in a rock band.. He seemed interested and wondered if we would be interested in a keyboard player.. At the time I didn't think so but as it turned out Ernie was interested.. So sometime in June or July Darren would join the band.. Five member band now.. And the music we were learning was a heavy rock type of music, in the vein of Scorpions and Dokken.. I had never heard of a lot of the music we were playing, most of the music on the radio was top 40.. These groups were from England, Germany and other parts of the world.. My taste in music was very primitive compared to what these guys were into.. What a difference.. And Chuck had talked about learning songs by these groups so if his band were to call and go at it there would be little difference between the two..
Somewhere in the first year of the band I started to learn how to actually play the drums as a rhythm instrument.. There were reasons for this First and most important was the practices I couldn't hear the vocals at all. This would include the first gig, where I was nervous as hell for that reason and many others..
By late July or early August the band was stagnating.. The practices were starting to show nothing.. I remember I was helping my older brother move into a new house and they called and wanted to practice.. I had committed to helping him move and they were pissed that I couldn't make practice.. I remember this practice fairly well it was the first time I threatened to quit the band.. There would only be two, with the second being the end.. The second was an attempt to get them to start up again, the first was to get them to get it together.. The early practices were more jam sessions where we were playing some songs and writing others.. The early days of the band would see songs get written and practiced while not working on the cover songs nearly at all.. I was just wondering if we were a jam band (rehearsal band) exclusively or were we ever going to play?? They would talk me into staying.. Fine but let's try to get a gig somewhere soon.. We were by this time practicing in Ernies mother in laws garage, where we would be held captive by the weather.. Cold would be a word I would come to understand in a whole new way..
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