Singed Hair Grows Back

This year for Christmas I received a gift that was pure dead brilliant. Devin and Ronnie went out of their way and did a great deal of digging and compiling and creating. The result was a copy of the Singe Album, Transformation Through Decay. Here is a little tid bit taken from this here blog, on
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
titled:
I am Under it

Singe "Transformation Through Decay" - A lofty and mainly un-finished project for the band Singe. This recording contained something like 8 songs which we recorded track by track in Ronnie's studio, Big Sound. This was my first ever opportunity to build an album from the ground up. We began with Devin tracking the drums on his trusty controller, triggering sounds and samples contained in his Alesis DM5. Next, possibly that same evening but I think occurring over at least one other brief session Devin recorded his keyboard parts. I recall Devin, Joe and I being present for the session. After Devin, Joe Expertly tracked his guitar parts with some overdubs for the solos, there was one disappointing moment where I recall Joe really nailing a solo, only for us to realise we had not actually recorded it, Lesson learned about making sure the record button is engaged. We still talk about the solo we lost between Ronnie, Joe and myself. After putting off the un-avoidable as long as we could we had Mike our bass player come in a do a session. He was horrible. I remember looking at everyone else in the room and being certain we were all feeling the same thing, that Mike was done in our band and that it was blatantly obvious. We rushed Mike through every song, One or Two takes each song. If he made a mistake we lied our asses off and told him it was a good take and that the little mistakes could be fixed later with copy and paste. No sooner then we could get him out the door we had Joe hook up one of Ronnie's basses and we re-cut his parts. Sometime around the time Joe did his guitar parts I recall doing a couple, one I remember actually being proud of, a rhythm guitar part on the song cellophane, having never really played or recorded with a tube amp it was a revelation for me to use a small fender that Ronnie had. The vocals were done In a few sporadic sessions. There were several attempts made to get final mixes that we were happy with, and I'm sure somewhere a cdr exists of these sessions, but I have not heard them since the year they were completed, and memory does not even allow me to pin point which year that may have been. While we were mixing the album things came to a head with our bass player, ending with him leaving the fine state of Kansas.

So imagine my complete total utter shock to learn that the master had been found. And that Devin had taken it up to make a cover for it and everything. In addition to that he gave me a wonderful present of the beginning of a Behind the Music style documentary on Singe.

This was an impressive gift. It had a pretty big effect on me. I was actually sort of paralyzed at first at the thought of having to listen to it. The first time I tried I couldn't really do it. I thought I remembered to well. And I had someone else in the room. Didn't help. So I watched the Documentary a couple times and thought a lot about it. Finally late last night I had occasion to run an errand, thus leaving me time alone in the car to take myself back without having to feel mortified.

The mortification it should be mentioned falls square on the shoulders of the lyrics, which I have to keep reminding myself were written by a 16 year old who really had a flare for over-drama. Once I got the lyrical embarrassment out of the way I was able to enjoy the wonderful gift I had been given. So much of it I remembered, and so much of it I didn't. My main surprise was that my favorite song was one I hardly recalled, entitled "step over". It is also nice to note that it was one of the last songs written for the album, thus possibly showing some definite sign that we were getting better at the craft.

The moment that I guess I totally got over any odd feelings that I might have still had about the whole thing came during a song called "Something to know about Edith". A song I had always been particularly unthrilled with. It was the second song we'd ever written actually. Last night when the chorus arrived, and as Devin had let slip, it was a drastically different version then the original, I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard. It was a really intense sort of energy channeling laugh, and my eyes teared up in a happy way that eyes sometimes have. In thinking about it I maybe never really got to finish all my feelings from that point in time. Devin mentions in the liner notes of the album he gave me that he never truly believed we'd make it, and I can see why he says that, but I did believe that we would. That was insanely naive, but in a way I wasn't wrong. Last week Devin sent me an article from the Hays Daily News, it had story about Joe Lanning and his new band. They play all over the area, and from the music I heard they are excellent. It seems like it's the kind of music that Joe always loved to play. I still get to play music with Devin, and I have made a new musical partner who has greatly expanded my boundaries. I've played in front of more people than I thought I would back then, and I'm now intensely proud of the art we've created.

Singe may not have ever sold a record (because we never really finished that one), we didn't ever play in a town other than Hays, and a new singe song will never be written. The present I received was valuable in so many way, Singe is gone, not forgotten. We did write those songs, and we did record them, I might be a tad embarrassed by the over drama in the lyrics, but I can except that I was a young kid with a lot to learn, and luckily I had people around who could help do just that. Now I'm a young man with a lot to learn and a lot to remember, luckily I've got people around to help me do that. Ronnie and Devin, I can't tell you how much I'm touched by what we did together at that time, and all you've done since, and what you gave me as a gift.