Scenes From The Scene

Holing up in a Studio.

By Matt Jasper

As of late, I?ve decided as to lay low and conserve my energy. I?ve been reworking a record that I started last summer and I?m trying to cut back on live performances. It?s baseball season, spring time and a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Live music and springtime go hand in hand, but I?m trying to get some stuff done, before I go about playing any shows. The open mike I run is a consistent enough gig enough for me, although I sincerely hope to be able to get back my weekend gigging habit when the time comes. In the meantime, I?ve started driving out to Rich the Producer?s studio about once a week, and Cinco De Mayo was no different.

If I had my way, this record would have been completed last year. But I can?t always get my way, and I have to try to make the best of the situation. To be honest, I had shirked from my record making duties for quite some time. Last September my band broke up, I had a residency at Pisces, and found a new girlfriend there, Justine the Scientist. I had avoided completing the breakup record, after the band broke up and I got together with someone. So why worry about who?ll lay down the bass tracks?

But now I was making a go at it, and this was my first session. I just needed to remember how the song ?Damn Dam? went one year ago, knowing that these songs had taken on a mind of it?s own from the summer of ?05. It just wasn?t clicking. But after an hour or two, we had the song.

Still it was 8pm, and the night was young. Packing up my guitar, I had a call from my aforementioned gal. She was heading to a Bittermint show with her friend at the aforementioned Pisces Café, which was on my way home from the studio. I saw I also had a call from my former drummer, Toby Muzik, whom I had recently stopped giving the cold shoulder to. I ignored the second call from Bittermint?s rhythm section in favor of my girlfriend?s conversation.

I arrived at Pisces, and Toby greeted me in relief. Jon was a no show. Apparently he had called, hoping I could fill in for Jon. I wasn?t having it, tired from a full days work, and a full studio session. Still, he asked if I had my guitar with me, and I should have lied. But I came from the studio, so I brought in the case. Meanwhile, a large man in an American football jersey stumbled across the room with a blue bag of freedom related garb as well as a plastic cup of inebriation.

?Hi, what?s your name? I?m Tom and I?m a combat veteran.? This didn?t look pretty. Tom told us the horrors of war, as only a drunken war torn soldier could, with much grief, repetition, and the threat of violence. Nearly two hours and three inappropriate advances on my girlfriend later, Tom was back roaming the streets of Babylon, and we were out of an awkward drunken conversation with the guy that got kicked out of the bar next door.

I suppose my conscience decision to lay low for a while was right on intuition, although there?s only so much laying low one could do. I didn?t want to remain in a foxhole like Tom, but when faced with the decision between a foxhole, and a studio, I?ll take the studio every time. Still, the night moved on, the barflies crept off into the night, and eventually so did I.

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