Panda Cam

Yeah... I am not sure how long we'll actually use that name, but it's who we are for now, so we'll go from there.

A few years ago, I was in a band called The Company Picnic. After playing for years in a "serious" rock band (big blog post to come on this one) and never being quite satisfied by my sideman status, I started The Company Picnic in an effort to front my own band and have complete creative control. I would write all the material, call all the shots, and, in turn, garner all of the supposed praise. I was even so cocksure that I was up-front about my intentions when I called upon Poot (my oldest friend and musical conspirator) to play drums, Luke (my best friend, roommate at the time, and the best singer I know) to play guitar, and Chris (my friend via Luke via High School and the artistic "yin" to my "yang") to play bass. I think I even told them that if they agreed to join MY band they would need to play exactly what *I* told them to. Well... that all lasted about two rehearsals - but my supreme reign didn't end as result of any sort of mutiny but, rather, because I realized that a) I prolly didn't have the charisma, confidence, bank of songs/ideas, or leadership skills to pull it off, and b) because these other guys were great musicians with great ideas. So The Company Picnic had a good time writing, rehearsing, hanging out, recording, gigging, and drinking wine for about two years. Then life happened. Luke and I went to grad school. Poot's job and relationship with his lady got more serious. Chris got a "real" job. It wasn't so much that we wanted to quit - we just didn't have any other options. So we quit.

At some point last year, my wife's best friend, and one of my favourite musical conspirators, Stacey Wong and I got to talking. Despite my grad school commitments I was itching to do something more with my musical life than be a Randy Bandit. Stacey, having just completed a course of study at audio engineering school and having recently seriously taken up playing bass, was looking to try out her new skills. After TOO MANY conversations over AIM, we finally decided that we would create a new project wherein we would write and arrange tunes using digital multi-tracking software and then perform them - half live and half pre-recorded. Based on a separate AIM convo, we decided we would call this project Panda Cam. Knowing full well that neither one of us can get ANYTHING done without firm deadlines, Stacey decided that we would use a gig she had already booked for herself to premiere our new "band". We got together a few times, tried out some tunes, drank some wine, recorded some stuff, and realized we really liked working together. Unfortunately, we also realized we had bitten off a bit more than we could chew. While we were stoked to try out this new method (to us anyway) of making music, we knew there was no way we could get it together in time for the gig; so we called Luke (the aforementioned Company Picnic guitarist/roommate/best friend). We decided we would do a little trio thing wherein we would all write songs and all sing under the Panda Cam banner, and then we would go our separate ways so Stacey and I could continue without our aforementioned scheme. So we all contributed some songs, all sang, Stacey played bass, Luke played guitar, and played... wait for it... DRUMS (I KNOW!). We had a blast working together, played the gig with moderate success, and left it at that.

Now listen: One of the things you gotta understand about me is my need to rock. It sounds corny, but despite my skills and experience in the classical and jazz worlds in addition to my interest in musical subtlety, there is a part of me that needs to strap on my electric guitar, turn it up to 11, and scream my ass off. It's inescapable and something that's been missing from my musical life since The Company Picnic disbanded. So in late 2008 with the end of grad school on the horizon, I decided I would use my soon-to-be-reclaimed time to get my rock on. Using the knowledge gained and a lot of the songs I wrote for my many past-band experiences and much of the personnel from The Company Picnic, I planned to form the most fun and rocking band around. I called up Luke and Chris and we brought Stacey aboard to play souped-up versions of all of our best songs (past and present) under my general guidance. Sure, I would be the "leader", but we would ALL sing, ALL write, and ALL have a good timg. For a minute I even considered being the drummer in this band to both quietly control the band's direction while shunning the spotlight downstage center, but then I realized that I am a shitty drummer - but anyone who has spent any time playing live music in NYC knows that drummers are like needles inside haystacks inside bigger haystacks. But wait! Knowing full-well that he's been playing a lot of drums while recording his own album, I figured Spiff night be an ideal candidate. He's a helluva musician, though hardly a flashy drummer; but Spiff understands not only how music works in general but also that AC/DC rocks harder than anyone on the planet not because they are master technicians but because they are virtually unmatched in ensemble playing and that rock-solid, straightforward drumming is at the root of that. Sure enough, he was stoked to come aboard. So he decided he would come along and suddenly be in ALL of my bands. :) Lineup set. Ready to RAWK! and that brings us up to now.

but wait...

it just so happens that Stacey (who had been a catalyst of a similar nature earlier in this story) booked Panda Cam (the me, her and Luke version) as the opening act for Sarah Donner's CD release party at a local coffee shop. Recognizing this as an ideal way to get our new band jump-started, we decided to try to get a full-band set together for said gig. Everyone was a available, everyone was game, everyone was ready to RAWK!!! Oh - but wait... the gig is at a coffee shop. (I KNOW!) So once again, the rock must wait - but it's funny: we've assembled a few times and each time we have said, "well, we'll play quiet for THIS gig and then we'll start rocking", yet, we are really good at this mellow thing. I guess we'll just see where this takes us... come check us out at our first gig!! (details are on the sidebar)