Startin' Up a Band:
From Spectator to Participant
by Dustin

I have been a long time fan of music in general. I had my musical epiphany a little later in life than some (8th grade), but I have always enjoyed good ol' rock n' roll. I have written about music, played music really loud, bought way too much music, and incorporated music in almost every aspect of my life. But I've never actually played an instrument, never made my own music. That was the missing aspect. No matter how much I loved a band, I never really knew what the creative process entailed and therefore I had only superficial emotional attachments to their music. No matter how much I hated a band, I was never able to intelligently explain what exactly bothered me with their tempo, timing, rhythm, etc. The only area I was able to pride myself on knowing good from bad was vocals, and even then, I still lacked the practical application of my vocal talents outside of the shower.

So when the opportunity to start up a band presented itself in mid-October, I jumped at it. My friend Steve and I had always joked about being in a band. Steve's a good guitar player and had a friend that he had jammed with before. Dave's an excellent trumpeter and musician in general, and had done some drumming in the past. When we decided to be a band, we immediately were presented with a million questions:

1) "We have drums, guitar, and vocals, something's missing!"
I had always wanted to learn the bass, so rather than try to find someone we didn't know to do it, I decided to be multi-talented.

2) "What kind of band are we going to be? And what kind of music will we play?"
Dave, Steve, and I had a short-lived joke band named BENCH that we took some songs from to start our new band. But if I was going to invest $900 in a bass, I wasn't going to be in a joke band this time. So we decided to be a serious band with a goofy streak, kind of an upscale PotUSA. And since a lot of Steve's guitar playing is influenced by 50's music, we've been leaning more towards that style.

3) "Umm, these instruments are kinda loud. Where are we going to play?"
This was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. Dave's parents let us play in their garage on the nights that they aren't home, so we had a practice place and time to do it.

4) "Okay, band's set, style's set, got a place to play ... what the hell are we going to call ourselves?"
This was another toughy. We briefly considered still calling ourselves BENCH, but that name just didn't have the right ring anymore. Steve had come up with a great name but Dave wasn't liking it. When I realized what a cool name it was, we convinced Dave to go with it. And so Switch 57 was born.

We are still only two months into our life as a band, but already I feel our styles and interests gelling, to the point where we are all getting confident in our skills as musicians. There have been some obstacles, but all involved have been really understanding (thanks Jen!). I will post updates on our progress as a band in future articles.

- Dustin

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