You know, after I thought about that last post, I realized Chris Mitra is kind of to blame for all this. I asked him several years ago if he wanted to form a cover band and he politely declined, saying he wanted to focus on writing and recording his own stuff. I thought, yeah, good luck with that. He then found a Craigslist posting for an 80s band looking for a singer and forwarded it to me, and the rest is history. (Chris later recommended a drummer, Kerwin So, who played with FT for almost a year — you’d think Chris was working on commission.)
But a few months after that, I asked, “How’s the album going?” totally thinking he would tell me that it didn’t work out and he should have done the cover thing with me — but instead he said “I’ve got eight tracks almost done but I’m looking for vocalists, do you want to sing on one of them?”And I didn’t have a lot of confidence but I said yes, I would be honored, and he could throw out the vocal if he didn’t like it.
But I was insanely jealous. He actually did it. He actually wrote his own stuff and got a CD together. And I went to the CD release party some months later, and even performed the song live once with his legendary live band, the Hungry Hungry Hippos. And I realized, I wanted all those things someday with my own songs. Not as a career move, not to “make it.” Just to have fun doing it and be able to say “I did it.”
So I hope I can finish what Chris started. Meanwhile, I have a teaser of what could be if I keep at it. With Chris’ permission, here’s me singing “Coffeehouse Girl” from ChrisFM’s 2003 album, Transmitting.