The evening we arrived in Seattle, we ate and then went straight to the studio. After the weight of it finally sank in, our engineer and I began to set up the drums and spent about 3 hours fine tuning and getting the mic's just right. For those of you who are drummers know just how physically gruelling it can be to sit behind a drumset for a few hours every weekend giving it your all, feeling like someone is digging a screwdriver into your lower vertebrae. That weekend I sat behind a drumset for around 6 hours the first night, 15 hours the next day and then another 14 hours the third day. We were quite well prepared before we ever set foot into the studio and I nailed every song. I completed the drumtracks for the entire album in one weekend.
Ever since I was a kid I have been a movie lover and proud sci fi "geek." I was a member of a movie discussion website at the time and met a girl on the site who happened to live in Seattle. As soon as I was done with my time at the studio I got to meet her in person and she gave me the tour of Seattle. I got to see parts of Seattle my bandmates didn't get to see. We went to Pike's Place Market, where the guys throw fish at one another. I got to sample some of the Seattle nightlife. Many a good time was had in Seattle and I will never forget it, especially when I went to the restaurant that was in the lobby of our hotel. The first day I was there I was ecstatic to learn that they served "biscuits and gravy." Being the good southern boy that I am, I ordered a plate. It was definitely not my grandmother's biscuits or gravy. I took it upon myself to school them on how to make it correctly, but I don't think they took my knowledge for good use.
The whole point for recording the entire cd was not for commercial release. It was merely meant to be a full-length demo to shop around to major labels. The major label that actually wanted to sign us (we'll call them Galaxy Records) gave us a pretty strange deal. They signed us to a "single song" deal with the stipulation that we change the name of the band, citing that our original name would "alienate" a female fanbase. If the single did well, then they were going to sign us to a full recording contract.
We signed the deal with "Galaxy"and re-recorded the single, and they released it with no marketing and absolutely no money behind it. It reached #42 on the Billboard rock charts and we thought that it was all but certain that we were going to get a full record deal. Over a month goes by and we hear nothing from "Galaxy." Phone call after phone call, they finally tell us that we are not what the label is looking for and released the rights to the song back to us with a good luck pat on the head. Now here we were with no record deal and a name that no one knows us by. What to do next....
To be continued....
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