This story starts with Marlon Carbone:
When Marlon was 16 he went to see the Rush - Power Windows Concert in Dallas, TX. The day after that concert he bought his first bass. He learned every single Rush song on bass. Unfortuantely he was WAY too much of a nerd to be invited to play in any high school garage bands so he just kept on practicing... sometimes as much as 20 hours in a day (no joke). When Marlon hit college he majored in music composition. Still the biggest nerd ever, he would spend an unhealthy amount of time practicing.
After college Marlon got into rock bands. The rock bands taught him to not act like a nerd (though he's still one at heart). They also taught him that 99.999% of rock bands are uncreative and unproductive. Also, that nobody thinks very highly of a bass player.
Eventually, Marlon was auditioning a local band to where he lives. The band wanted to do Van Halen (among other 80's, has-been bands) covers. By this time Marlon was playing a seven string bass and was starting to write profusely. Van Halen, though a very popular rock band, is not very song oriented. Van Halen is ALL about the guitar... and more specifically, the guitar solo. So, Marlon left the audition with yet another bad taste in his mouth...
Except...
The drummer of that band was Jim Spalding. Jim is a fantastic lyricist and singer as well as a great drummer. Jim had loads of song ideas that just weren't getting considered in that band because Jim wasn't "in charge" and his songs weren't Van Halen covers. During the aforementioned audition Marlon told Jim that if he ever wanted to record, Marlon had a fully functioning studio and would teach Jim how to do it himself... Marlon also offered to play any and all instruments that Jim wanted him to play.
Marlon wanted to write Rock, Pop, and Country music to sell to artists that needed to pad out their repetoire. Jim was game and both guys learned how quickly they could write and record songs to finality. It was as if there was a divine intervention. Two people who were great friends that could work together effortlessly, explore all creative avenues, and nobody had to be "in charge." This just isn't heard of in rock bands.
For the last three years MerJer musiK (Jim came up with the name) has written, recorded, and mastered a song averaging every two weeks. We haven't sold a song, per se, yet... but we are working on it.