The Scene

Setting The Scene…

I suppose we could write about all of our backgrounds in music, where our influences come from, or some other typical banter, but we’re not. It was recommended that we tell a story from the road, but we don’t have any yet. In fact, we don’t have much of a history at all. The original three of us had our first jam at a keg party roughly a year and a half ago, and our newest member, well, that story is coming up. Despite our lack of experience as The Scene, we all have our own individual musical anecdotes filled with experiences of kooky piano teachers, first scratches on turn tables, trumpet in high school, jazz choirs, and free-styling battles. But those are old scenes, and the future is a fresh group, wide-eyed at our potential and desiring and determined to expose our synergetic music.

We’re going to tell you a story of a winter night, a British Columbian cabin night, where partying and jamming were the only two items on the menu, and how a band that has grown from three to five was unsuspectingly about to gain a new member. This party was one of those flavourful mixes of old and young, liquor and wine, and everyone with nothing shy of a smile ear to ear. Frank Sinatra and The Eagles had owned most of the spotlight that evening until shortly after nine when the crowd began to beckon a live performance. Friends and family poured out onto the patio and around a fire awaiting the commencement of the jam. Before the guitars were out of the cases there were requests for Willie Nelson and his country friends, and even one for Avril. A couple of warm up classics were played but we were itching to play some original tunes, and this audience was eager for a sing-a-long. Still, we pulled the switch into immediately unrecognizable melody and it was received with a synchronized lull. You see, our music is it’s own. We don’t try to sound like anyone, and we don’t try not to sound like anyone. Almost everyone that we play for says the same thing, “you are like your own genre”. As our acoustic song was coming to a close, we all felt each other’s anxiety for the response. Would they like the blend of genres? Could they relate? Were they into it at all? ……

All those questions were answered with a massive uproar of cheering and applauding, whistling and whispered comments like “these guys are really good!”. A phenomenal feeling of appreciation overwhelmed us all. However, it was the comment of the host for the evening, a very renowned opponent of hip-hop, that sealed it: “Hey! Quiet everyone….. let’s hear some more of this rapping stuff”.

The evening kept rolling along with a mix of covers and originals and good times had by all, when in the line-up fell “Gimme One Reason”. This was supposed to be another typical campfire track, until a particular voice chimed in. Not only did the crowd silence, but we stopped playing as well, all heads slowly turning to reveal the woman behind this sound perched on a bar stool with a huge grin. The unifying sound that we had been searching for, for almost six months, we had just discovered. Ever since the original three of us started trying to form a band we knew we had to find a bass player, a lead guitarist, and a female singer. The first two fell into place remarkably effortlessly, but our tracks were still noticeably missing an element. We knew it to be a necessary contrast between the male rap and the female voice to complete our vocals, and during one of our random jams we found it. That night we became six.