Chapter 2 -- New Tools
It was Janell that really put things into words for them, "I don't know how we can ever thank you for putting us together. I know for me, it's been three years of kick ass fun and I've really learned to play my drums rather than just beating on them."
"Yes you have young lady," Bob smiled. "If you'll look over there, behind my pile of amps, you'll find the drums you'll play tomorrow. Sorry, but you'll have to set them all up and tune them to your liking."
Janell moved around him slightly and looked behind the huge stack of Marshal amplifiers. Her mouth came open and her eyes found Bob's shining orbs watching, and loving her surprise.
"I told Chelly already, but I really want to hear you all play on top notch, best there is, equipment," he said looking at each shocked face with a grin.
"Now, let's hit it. We have a lot of work to do before sunrise!"
Unpacking and setup took well over 4 hours, so when they were all finished with their particular pile of new toys they stood back to admire their handy work. In front of them was a complete, and I mean complete, setup that would make any professional band drool. The garage was really over stuffed this time.
Michelle had two new Korgs and a new Roland, a Kurzweil. There was more to come.
Maryanne had a few additions, but most of her stuff was her own, only because Bob didn't know what to equip her with. He pulled her aside and let her know that if she wanted, on Sunday, they'd go for a shopping trip to upgrade some of her instruments, and that he already had some ideas.
Janell had a shiny new, bright yellow, set of the best drums that Yamaha produced. Not only that but there were about four times what she was used to, with Zildjian cymbals of every size and tone you could think of. She was totally speechless when she started to set up the new drums. She was crying softly as she moved them around. Her tears didn't go unnoticed.
Bob walked over to her and gently put his arm around her shoulders. Making eye contact he asked softly, "You ok, Sweetie?"
Janell looked up at him with bleary teary eyes and just nodded her head. She was totally overwhelmed at having the opportunity to play a set of drums that there is no way in the world she could have ever afforded.
Stopping her for a moment and making sure there was still good eye contact, Bob expressed softly, "If you play this set tomorrow with the same fervor and quality that I heard on that demo tape, I'll be very proud to present this set to you. Someone that plays as well as you do deserves to work with the best tools available."
Her eyes grew to double their size. Janell put her arms around Bob's neck and hugged him tightly, whispering softly, "Thank you so much Bob. I promise, I'll do the very best I can."
She moved back to looking in his eyes.
Looking back with a smile he quietly assured her, "I know you will dahlin', and I can't wait to hear it!"
"How can I ever repay you for this," she whispered searching his face?
"Play them sweetheart, just play them," he said softly with a loving smile. "That will more than repay my faith in your ability."
He let her go so that she could continue to set up the drums to her liking. She had a lot more to think about because they had to be in the right order, for the right sound, at the right time, with the least movement for the smoothest strokes, and she just wasn't used to having this many drums to hit, or cymbals for that matter.
It would take Janell some time and continuous movement before she had them placed where she really wanted them. They had time! After her brief talk with Bob, her whole demeanor changed. She was cheery, animated and continually talking to herself while she finished her work.
For Heather it was a bit more interesting because most accomplished guitar players prefer to play an instrument they know, but when she saw the two Stratocasters and the Gibsons in electric along with the Washburn and Taylor acoustics, she fingered the necks grinning like a Cheshire cat. One of the Strat's was a custom "Eric Clapton" signature model in black and white. For a minute it looked like she was going to make love to the guitar. She shook her head and blushing, looked around the room to see if anyone had been watching. Her eyes met with Bob's, he was nodding to her and grinning knowingly. She turned a couple more shades of red.
All of the girls had smiles as big as the universe, and each made sure she came to Bob and not only thanked him profusely but gave him a strong hug and a soft grateful kiss. He was flabbergasted when Janell came over and hugged him for a long time, then kissed him very sensuously. This girl is gay?
While the girls were unpacking Bob had been setting up all the microphones, the mixing board, and the new fangled digital recorder so when it was time they would have a dual 32-track, stereo recording to mix from. He'd already contacted a close friend who just happened to be a sound engineer and producer. He wanted Bill to hear them to see if there was any interest on his part. Bob hoped that Bill would hear the same potential he had and agree to produce for him. Bill was already more involved than anyone knew but that's because Bill and Bob had worked together many times in the past. There was a lot of mutual respect between the two. Besides, Bob had a big checkbook; anything else was up to Billy.
Oh, did I mention the Marshall concert amps for all of the guitars? Maybe I did, because that's where all the drums were "hidden" when the girls arrived. Bob figured since that was what he'd used in so many live performances that he couldn't settle for any less than that for the girls. It was truly difficult to get all of the equipment into the garage and set up.
Bob's setup alone was eight 4x10 speaker cabinets, with a custom-built 2500W head with tubes. He'd left the concert sub-woofer at the ranch; it would literally break windows in the neighborhood. Every piece of equipment that he could find which was tube technology rather than transistors, he picked it up. It was usually about 2x the cost, but it was 10x the sound quality.
They were going to be shakin' enough walls tomorrow, well later today. He figured that broken windows wouldn't go over very well. The neighbors were very tolerant of the music, but breaking their windows might sour the mood.
He continued to look around and watched with a contented smile as the girls ran their hands over the new instruments that they couldn't play until later in the morning. Since it was already late, rather early, it wasn't fair to rattle the neighbor's windows, and even at the lowest volume it wouldn't be very quiet. Heather was jamming quietly with Maryanne. Heather had picked up the Washburn acoustic and Maryanne was picking on the Taylor. Bob sat in awe as the two played a few acoustic numbers. When either Maryanne or Heather started to sing along with the guitars, Janell and Chelly would join in the vocals, in perfect harmony. All Bob could do was sit and shake his head thinking to himself, "My god these girls have talent."
Janell could keep everyone awake all by herself, even with the silencing pads that had been in one of the boxes. She was placing, tapping, moving, tapping again, until she thought it was right. Then she'd move on to the next drum doing the same thing. A few times Bob noticed that she'd just throw herself back on to the throne with a pout and utter an almost silent "godammit", then move one or more a quarter of an inch, and go through the whole routine again. She not only played the drums masterfully, but she was a total perfectionist as well. Bob smiled and nodded to himself.
She looked over to Chelly and Judy and asked if they had four pillows that she could use for the session. She apologized and said that she'd bring hers the next time, but Chelly had told her to leave her stuff at home.
Judy went into the house and in a few minutes came out with a pile of pillows for Jan. There were more than the four she'd asked for, but Judy had known what they were for so brought some extras.
Jan climbed off the throne and walked around to the front of her setup and picked up a couple of the pillows stuffing them into the front of one of the bass drums, then repeated the process with the other. The pillows would serve to dampen the reverberations from those two drums. In a garage setting they would be far too loud without the pillows. She could tune them by adding or removing pillows, but that would have to wait for later in the day.
The only one that really had a large curve to overcome was Michelle. She had one full Roland Keyboard, a Kurzweil production station, a Kurzweil Stage piano, and 3 of the highest quality Korg synthesizers made that she was going to have to program and play. There were already a lot of effects in the can, and she already knew some of the sound programming, so she was a bit ahead of the curve, but not that far. She also knew what did what, and what things would sound like when she did them, but she also knew she'd be able to do nearly anything with these toys.
Bob thought about it for a while, and kicked himself for not picking up at least one other synth and a straight keyboard for Maryanne. There were going to be some times where Michelle was going to need three hands anyway, so while she was making the full symphony orchestra happen, Maryanne could provide other keyboard pieces.
Moody Blues music came immediately to mind. He had already heard Chelly do very nicely with some of the orchestration on the older synth equipment that she already had. She was going to be able to do amazing things with the newer equipment and just needed a little time and plenty of encouragement.
Bob thought to himself, "Maybe a couple units by Moog. Bob Moog was a fucking genius and there's nothing to really compare with those old analog synth units. The Minimoog Voyager Electric Blue Edition is only like $3500 and that's peanuts compared to the music it will make. Hell, maybe a theremin for Maryanne. Another call to Mr. Bill." He chuckled out loud when he thought about the girl's reaction to more new goodies. He was going to force them to push the envelope, and he had no doubts that they were fully capable of the task.
He just wanted to avoid having anything "pre-recorded" like all of the specials "The Who" had on the "Who's Next" album and tour. They had put a tape deck on the stage and fed all the keyboards and synths into the "system" while they played the bass, drums and lead parts on their usual instruments. Come on, it was "The Who", you can't tell me they couldn't afford to hire a keyboard player to do it live? Granted, Pete Townsend had done all the synth work in the studio, but it wasn't rocket science, it was simple shit - hell, Chelly had it down in like three minutes or less. Hire a keyboard player. Had to give them a "Bogus" vote for that tour.
When he mentioned to them that there were a few things he'd forgotten, they agreed but told him that it was no big thing. He'd done plenty already. Bob just gave them a knowing smile. He had some other tricks up his sleeve. Time to give Mr. Bill a call.
When they started to really look around to see everything that was there, chuckling at Janell for still being in "set up" mode, it dawned on them, this was some of the finest musical equipment that could be had. This was a lot of money that Bob had tied up so they could play top-notch instruments.
It was Michelle that broached the subject. She must have figured she knew him best, so it was most appropriate for her to query. "Bobby," she said, waiting for him to acknowledge he was listening, "I don't mean to rain on anything, but this is some expensive stuff. How much did you have to front out to do all of this?"
He looked to her and said softly, "Chelly, that's not important, it's only money. What's important is that you four are some of the finest young musicians that I've ever had the pleasure to listen to -- even if it was a fairly crappy recording on cassette tape. You can't imagine how much I'm looking forward to playing with the four of you tomorrow."
All of their faces went to the large round eyes of shock, but looked past him and finally noticed that he'd set up a complete concert complement for playing the bass. What he had just said started to sink in.
Maryanne spoke quietly, "Is that why you said I didn't need to bring my bass?"
Bob smiled and said, "Yes ma'am. It will be my distinct pleasure to join you four in the morning for a little fun."
Judy finally decided to put in her two cents worth as well.
"Girls," she said tentatively. "I asked Bob to listen to your tape because I honestly thought you were becoming very accomplished musically, but you're just kind of drifting without any real direction or organization. You get together regularly and you all practice constantly and you are all very good at everything you do, but where are you taking it? I hoped that Bob could come down, listen to you and come up with a direction for you to pursue. I had no idea that he was going to do all of this. Believe me, I'm as shocked as you are."
Bob started closing and locking the trailer, and then lowered the garage door while shooing all the women towards the house. Judy offered and then brought everyone drinks while they had a chat in the living room.
Bob figured he should probably fill them in on where his head was. He'd obviously tied up a lot of money in instruments, and they were just a "garage band" so where was this trail leading?
"Ok ladies, I'm sure that by now you're all wondering 'Why'," which got highly animated nods from everyone.
He chuckled, "To be totally honest, I was really glad to receive the demo that Judy sent. I was sitting around on my ass, getting fat, feeling sorry for myself with nothing to do." He looked around the room and continued, "God knows, I don't need money. I just love playing and making music. I hate sitting around on my ass trying to find something on the TV to keep my interest for more than a few minutes," then with a loud chuckle, "I'm sure you all are aware that Television is a vast wasteland of nothingness."
He saw nodding heads and heard loud laughter with his observation.
"I was playing with myself but, trust me on this, there was not a lot of cerebral stimulation, if you know what I mean." again receiving nods and grins from all the girls who had obviously chosen to ignore the innuendos in his statement.
"When I heard you playing on that low quality tape and sounding so damned good, I wanted to hear a recording that was done professionally, but not only that, I wanted to hear you all play on the best equipment that I could find on the spur of the moment. Don't take that wrong, what I brought is top-notch equipment, but it is all I could find in a few hours. We'll upgrade it as we can. Some stuff I'll probably have to special order, but Billy can take care of that for us."
They looked shocked, but he was on a roll. "Since someone asked about money, I have to say, it's not as important to me as you four excelling in your musical development. All of the 'stuff' in the garage is on loan to me for now, so if I think it makes you all sound the way I think it will, I'll happily pay the man, and it will be yours, or perhaps I might say ours.
There were loud gasps from all of them and disbelieving eyes. There was a low murmur as they each looked at the other saying something that Bob couldn't make out, but he figured it was good. They weren't yelling or telling him he was out of his mind. Maybe he is, but that's a tangent we don't need to visit.
"Now then, you all are going to have to talk about this amongst yourselves and if you can all agree, what I have in the back of my mind, if I can pull it off, is to start a professional band." Adding, "I'm pretty sure I can pull it off; I still have some great connections."
Once again Bob was viewing the backs of throats as their mouths hung open not believing what they had just heard. There were six different conversations going on at the same time. Some of what Bob heard was a lack of confidence, insecurity and fear.
He let the conversations diminish to a dull roar. Looking around the room at each of the girls, stopped at Janell and asked, "What? You don't think you're good enough?" He gave out a short cackle, "Listen up ladies, in my opinion, you are much better than 85% of those out there making the big bucks playing music. You are extremely talented and offer a very unique sound."
They looked around at each other again but all nodded tentatively. They knew they were good at their instruments, but never dreamed of becoming a real band. Well, they may have dreamed it, but that's as far as it had ever gone. They'd never had any kind of promotion or any idea how they would get it. Now, here it was being offered up on a silver platter. They figured they'd always be, like so many others, a "garage band", having fun when they could get together.
"Look, if you guys sound as good or I guess I should say if we sound as good as I think we will, the recording I'll make tomorrow could launch a new sound. I have a friend that will take a listen and do a mix to see what he can do with a raw recording. That's another reason I wanted to get the best equipment I could."
"You guys pretty much only do other peoples music. The unique aspect of your renditions is that you play the music to the note, exactly the way it was recorded in the studio. Listen, the bands that did the original recordings couldn't do what you do on a bet, that's why live performances usually sound as crappy as they do. What you hear on a CD or an LP is studio magic lashed together by very talented engineers.
"Don't get me wrong! There's nothing wrong with playing others music, I mean, Sha-na-na made careers of doing other peoples music," he continued.
"The real musicians out there will know how good you really are because they know it's a lot more difficult to learn and do what you four have done than it is just coming up with "new stuff" or playing something your own way. You've learned, note for note, some extremely complex music, done by some of the greatest musicians in the business. I'm going to have to really get my shit together to be able to play along with you."
They all turned and looked at him with surprised faces. Janell commented softly, "Oh Bob, Come on. You're one of the very best. You think you'll really have a problem doing what we do?"
He smiled nodding his head, "It'll be a problem at first Janell, because most of "us" don't play things to the note as perfectly as you four do. You've also been playing together for more than three years so I have to come up to your speed. I also have the reputation of playing "too many notes". I play my bass like it was a lead part a lot of the time, and it sounds really good, but that's not the way 95% of bass players do it. A lot of lead players don't like having someone be able to match them; it bruises their tender little egos. To most lead guitarists, the bass and the drums are just kind of there, heard but not seen. Everything is about 'them'."
"Wow. Heather's not like that at all," observed Janell.
Nodding to acknowledge what Jan had said, "Like I said, most bands don't even try to do on stage what they've done in the studio. You'll learn that doing music in the studio is very error tolerant. If you blow something, you just re-do that part and the engineer makes it right. We'll deal with all of that when it comes up.
As an afterthought, "I think you guys are going to love getting into this stuff. I also believe you will all excel at it. It's not rocket science, but it's not easy either! Sometimes I think I should have studied rockets."
Getting back on subject, "You, young lady," looking at Heather, "played that solo in "Stairway to Heaven" so perfectly, I'd bet Jimmy Page wouldn't be able to tell if it was him or you."
He paused at her skeptical face, "I'm serious!
Then pausing again for a moment, "Ladies, trust me on this; what you four do is not easy! Many people in the music industry will recognize that! At any rate, the ones that matter will, there will always be naysayers. You learn to ignore them!"
Then shifting gears a little, "We'll need to figure out whose music we can use professionally, you know, get their permissions and probably offer to pay a royalty for its use. Once they hear the demo I think I can talk just about any of them into letting us do their stuff without paying them a royalty unless we decide to do some records or CD's. It's pretty much free advertising for them by putting their work back into the public ear. Some of the music you do hasn't been heard for a lot of years. When was the last time you heard an Everly Brothers tune, even on an oldies station?"
He definitely had their interest. Looking around the room, they were all silently riveted.
"I also don't expect you guys to sound as good on tomorrow's recording as you will in a few months as you really master these new instruments."
Looking directly at Michelle, "Especially you Chelly. You have a very steep learning curve to get the most out of your equipment. It's not nuclear physics, and you already know most of the programming, so it's just a matter of expanding and refining what you already know and incorporating it into the hottest synthesizers available. I have no doubts that you'll be able to do that." With a short pause, "None!"
Then with an eye to Janell, "Jan, you have a curve as well. You're not used to having that many choices," he chuckled, "If there's anything you feel you're missing, let me know. You're also going to have to get comfortable with the double bass. I got two different styles of pedals for you to try, so work them out and see which sets you like the best. You'll also need to get used to having two pedals on the right side, assuming you're right footed, the right pedal is a roll pedal and the left is a single. I think you'll like the roll pedals, but it can be confusing to get used to. If you like it, we can try a roll pedal on each drum." Then with a cackle, "High speed bass drum rolls."
Janell nodded with a grin, "I've only played a double twice and I liked it a lot, but it wasn't with a roll pedal. I've heard about them, so it'll be interesting having two pedals so close together. I can't believe how many mounted toms there are; I've only ever had two. The only thing I've heard and isn't there is one of those quad mounted bongo sets, but I don't know where I'd put them."
Bob got a chuckle from her exuberance, but made a mental note, "Yeah, and every one of them has a different tone quality. That's something else that's going to challenge you, tuning. There should be at least 6 keys with the set, so if any get lost, or you get down to where you can only find two, we'll get more. There's also a CD with the set that will give you a base tune for each. It's just a place to start, but I've always found that the factory tone settings work pretty well."
She nodded acknowledgment, and then with a heavy sigh, "I've got a lot to learn."
There were a couple loud chuckles in the room while Bob moved on to Maryanne.
"Maryanne, we need to talk. I picked up a few things based on what Chelly said, but now that I see your toy box, I had a couple other thoughts, so we need to work on your 'stash'."
"Ok," she acknowledged, "I don't want you to think I'm greedy though."
"Don't worry about that, Sweetheart," he replied sincerely. "I want you to have whatever you need to make this work. There are very few musicians that have successfully done what you do. A few have tried, but most have failed, so if you need something, just say the word."
Then looking around, "That goes for all of you!"
Maryanne whispered a soft "Ok", while Bob moved his focus to their lead guitarist.
"Oh, since you're next Heather," looking to where Heather had planted herself. "You, Maryanne, and I have a custom tuning box. I'll go over it with you guys in the morning. Essentially it's a spectrum analyzer that will show you a waveform. You just click the string/note you're going to tune and match your guitar strings wave form to the one the machine puts up. When yours matches the "canned" waveform it's tuned as perfectly as it will ever get. We can also use it to tune off key when we need to, but we'll get instruments for the specific off tune so we won't have to use one of our main instruments. We'll deal with that when it comes up."
Then after finishing the tuning information, "Heather you're going to have to get a feel for the new guitars, but from what I heard on the tape and seen here this evening, it may take you all of 30 seconds or so. An axe is an axe." Then added, "By the way, I heard you tuning a while ago, you have an incredible ear young lady!"
He got a blush and a big smile from Heather, "I can't believe I'm going to have the opportunity to play those guitars. It'll take more than 30 seconds, but I'll be playing all of them well in a couple weeks. Can I take one home?"
"You can take all of them home if you want. I want you to get the feel of every neck, I want you to learn the feel of every fret, I want you to become one with your guitars."
Thoughtfully he finished, "I have to say, quite honestly, that you are a very very exceptional guitarist, Heather. You already play like the guitar is part of your body."
She blushed a bit, and biting her lower lip slightly, "Thank you Bob, I appreciate that. I won't let you down, I can promise you that."
All the girls were nodding enthusiastically agreeing with Heather's assurance. Bob looked around the room, and told them, "I don't think any of you could let me down if you wanted to. All you have to do is play the music, and do it the best you know how."
Switching up the subject again, he noted, "We all need to get some rest to be on top of our game, are any of you expected home tonight?"
All three shook their heads, and Michelle asked Judy, "They can stay can't they mom?"
Judy just nodded, "If it's ok with their parents, it's ok with me. All of you know you are welcome here any time. I know you're all at least 18 now, but until you are not at home, you really should check in with your folks. I know it's after 1am, but if they're like me, they're waiting to hear you come in the door. I know Chelly worries me some of the time, but she does eventually check in. Heather, any time."
Janell and Maryanne made quick phone calls, and came back saying it was no problem. Maryanne said her mom sleepily thanked her for checking in, Judy gave her a wink and a whispered, "See?"
With a gleam in her eye and a mischievous smile, Chelly looked at all the girls and asked, "Who's sleeping where?"
Judy quickly spoke up, "Bob was promised the guest room honey."
"I know, but there's a king bed in there, so theoretically we can get three on that one. One can sleep with me, and one can sleep with you."
Judy looked shocked. "You expect Bob to sleep with 2 women he doesn't know? Chelly, that is so rude."
The girls were all laughing, but Heather said, "It's no big deal Judy, I don't think I'd feel unsafe sleeping with him, if he can stand my snoring."
Bob spoke up, "Well anyone sleeping with me will have to put up with 'Darth Vader'."
"Huh?" from Michelle. "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?"
"I have sleep apnea Chelly and I sleep with a machine to keep my airway open, and sometimes it can be pretty loud for someone not used to it. I always carry earplugs with me."
Heather said it would be no problem with her, and Michelle volunteered for the other side. Judy looked at her sideways, but didn't say anything.
Looking at Bob, "She's a big girl Bob, so if you think I'm going to object or deny you're wrong. I doubt there's going to be any hanky panky tonight anyway, but if there is," she said turning to look directly at her daughter, "It better be quiet hanky panky. Got it?"
"Yes mom. I wouldn't rule out any hanky panky, but probably not tonight. We have a lot of work to do in the morning!"
"That's the spirit," said Bob with a chuckle, complimenting her on her single mindedness.
Then Judy looked around the room, knowing the answer but asking anyway, "Ok, who's with me?"
With a deep blush and what to him looked like a lusty look in her eye, Janell said softly, "I'll go with you Judy."
Judy undoubtedly saw that look as well because she smiled and offered Janell her hand. Both of the women headed towards the back of the house and Judy's bedroom, while Maryanne was odd girl out and got Michelle's room all to herself.
Michelle looked at Maryanne and asked her if it was ok or if she would prefer that she slept in her own bed with her. Maryanne nodded her head, so Michelle turned to Heather and Bob saying, "it's you two tonight." Then with a grin, but forgetting what she had said to all the girls, "I'll get my turn."
Bob thought all of them were of the same mind, and went to their assigned sleeping rooms to retire for the night.
There was a lot of work in the morning.