I started seriously getting into music when I was working at some dive coffee shop in North Hollywood. It was right after I heard on the radio that Kurt Cobain had killed himself. It led me to wonder what kind of person he was and what his music was all about. Listening more and more to Nevermind and In Utero, I realized that Kurt was an extremely talented pained artist and that music is a powerful form of expression. I then traced back to albums like Incesticide and Bleach and found more of a historical feel for Kurt. I started learning some of his songs and then I started coming up with riffs of my own. Since I had some lyrics and poems scratching about, I decided to apply them to the music.
On the corner of Ventura and Lankershim I met a guy named Don Livingston. He was coming out of the Wherehouse to smoke a clove cigarette and I needed a light. I was smoking Camel lights back then. Since then I’ve quit, but anyways… We met and struck up a conversation and it turned out that he played drums. I told him that I had some songs I had written and that we should jam.
The following week we got together at his apartment in North Hollywood and started jamming in his garage. We sucked. Just messin around.
During that time I was booking bands for the coffee shop I worked at and I came across a band called The Burning Sofa’s #10. I thought they were a very unique, unusual band with a lot of cool eccentric elements. I got to talking to the band and found a lot of common ground with one of the members name Jack Acre. What I wanted to do was start a power trio like Nirvana, so I asked Jack if he would like to be our bass player. The next day he called me up and agreed.
Jack at the time was playing all sorts of instruments for The Burning Sofas, Don had a drum kit that was pieced together through various garage sales and I still had my old Fender Strat which I bought in High School. We were a rugged, loosely knitted, starry eyed, immature bunch. However, we started practicing and practicing and practicing. Everyone had day jobs so we would practice on our spare time.
Ed Smith, another member of the Burning Sofa’s had a small lo-fi studio at his house and we went in and made our first recordings there, but then there was trouble.
Some of the tenants living at Don’s apartment were starting to complain about the rock music. We tried to ask them for some leeway, but it just became more and more apparent that they didn’t want us there. I really didn’t want the band to end so I opted we practice at my house in the Pasadena area. What was confining about that situation was that we could only practice once a week and Don was riding a Vespa scooter at the time and could not haul the drums around on that. So I saved up some money and bought a drum kit for Don to play on.
We were back in action. Once a week we would knock it out. Hit the songs and get everything together. I meet a small time promoter in the local area who was booking shows at various venues. He started getting us some gigs and got our name out there. We started drawing a small audience. We hit up places like The John Bull, McMurphy’s, Billy’s Dug Out, and the haunted Al’s Bar, but then there was trouble again.
One day on his way to practice, Don was hit by a car. His arm was broken, his knee twisted and he was out of commission for about 8 weeks. Everyone visited him at the hospital and wished him a fast recovery. In the mean time the band stood still. My friendship with Jack became better and we just wrote a little and hung out mostly. It wasn’t long before Don was out of his cast and ready to try again. He made a valiant effort, but it seems that the accident was a little too much for him and he never fully recovered from it. It wasn’t long before Don was falling behind on the beats, showing up late, or not showing up to the practices at all. The art was suffering, along with us.
After deep consideration, everyone agreed mutually that it was time to move on. It was a very tough moment for all of us. We had been great friends and continue to be, but we would no longer share the band experience. We would miss the friends, the music, the sound, the alcohol induced rhythm, and coffee all nighters. We said our goodbyes, shook hands and walked away…
After a few months had gone by, Jack and I thought we should keep going and maybe look for a new drummer. In the local scene, there was a guy named Paul Porter who played in a band called Puppy Bus. We always had admired Paul. Then it turned out that he had also admired what we were doing. So we approached him and asked if he wanted to try out for our band. He agreed right then and there. Paul played great and always with a smile on his face. We hit the local circuit hard and tried to branch out to other circuits and even got a gig at the Whisky aGoGo in Hollywood. We played tight and good.
At that point we had met another guy from the local scene named Josh Schwartz. He had a fairly nice studio called The Space Shed and was very reputable as a sound engineer. After one of our shows he approached us and offered his recording services. We all agreed and started practicing hard to get tight. This time around we had a lot more experience then before and pulled it off without too many pumps along the way.
We decided on a theme and figured the name of our very first album should be First Day In. We all went and got the navy blue jumpsuits and my sister Charis took the photographs that made up the design for 1st Day In.
Since then we have released it to various radio stations throughout the country and are getting plays right now. Listen for us on any good rock station, or call and make a request.
Well, that’s all for now. I hope you like our music. See you at the show.
-Chuck
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