For those that know me or have even followed this blog, music is important to me. I've been writing my own tunes and playing shows since my High School band, "Seven Day Sail" set...'sail' in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1995. Upon entering college, I traded my bass for a Martin acoustic and have been a closeted apartment performer ever since. Until now.
2009 saw my reintroduction into a bona fide band, now named, "dKOTA". I was reluctant to do so for many years, knowing that my perfectionism would be hard to satisfy in a music project with most of my focus on my Ph.D. degree. But the talents I stumbled upon over the past year or so were impossible to ignore, and so perfection became less of a concern when it took so little effort to have so much fun.
I first befriended a New York transplant, Peter, who in addition to being a great guy also happened to play guitar. But like me, his only Portland audience seemed to be his cantankerous apartment denizens. After our first jam session, I knew I was hearing something special -- Peter made my songs sing the way they were intended to, and he did so with a natural, minimal effort. So we played a couple gigs with just our guitars wailing (well, his guitar wailing), leaving all other instruments to fill only my imagination.
And then came Brad and Corey. They were also relatively new to Portland, and happened by one of these band-less performances. Seemingly before I could blink, I was in a house in NE Portland surrounded by the hum of electricity and cymbal rings ready for the first time in over a decade. And now, some months and two bass players later, dKOTA has released its first product: a modest demo recording.
It's not anything to sell or shout about too loudly, especially considering its 16 hour, $200 inception. But it does represent a milestone for myself in that with the band, I finally feel like I'm being heard -- something I think any artist strives for. We have a long ways to go musically, no doubt. But even if just this recording remains as the only token of dKOTA, I'll be happy to know that the emotion in some of my most sincere songs was translated into the language they were intended: a band.
You can hear and download dKOTA's demo for free HERE
And here is our MySpace page (no download option): dKOTA Music
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