What it takes to be a band.
When it started to get colder, Duran came up to Connecticut because Mike wanted to record some demos at his studio in NYC. We had been sending videos to Duran in Florida for the past few weeks so that he could learn the songs we were working on and hop right in. We took time after each practice to break down his parts for him like an instructional video. I taught him the lyrics to Go, and we told him to learn Hot For Teacher. There were a few other songs to learn but it wasn’t too hard of a task.
The night before the studio, Duran arrived at the rehearsal space with tons of energy. His long, blonde hair was accessorized with a green fedora and feather. Everyone set up their instruments and I shared the plan. “Okay, guys. Mike is coming in an hour so we should play through the songs a couple of times that way we can ‘wow’ him when he gets here.” Everyone nodded and I counted off the first song. Ben, Carly and I started playing, but Duran didn’t join in. I waved my arms, motioning the band to stop. “Are you good, Duran?” I asked thinking he may have just been nervous the first time. Turns out Duran didn’t learn anything we had sent him. “What was your plan then?” I yelled and began to sweat thinking how Mike was arriving in just under an hour. Duran shrugged as he didn’t think it was a big deal. Not wanting to waste any more time, my dad began to show Duran his parts again and we tried to make at least one song sound good before Mike arrived.
It was too late. Mike was pissed. He lectured Duran saying that he wasted everyone’s time and that he had over a month to learn these songs. Duran looked at the ground ashamed and things were tense for the rest of the rehearsal. It was getting darker and darker outside and nearing 10 pm. “Dad,” I whispered as he looked my way. “ I haven’t done my homework yet. What do I do?” He shrugged and gave his attention back to Mike who was getting serious about what it takes to be in a band. Mike didn’t even notice the time and soon, the parents caught his attention and practice ended.
Back at home, I was too tired to do homework. I thought I’d try to make up for it during my free period and decided to just go to bed. The next day, I was in Geometry during first period. My assigned seat was in the back row which was good that day because my eyes began to close involuntarily. Struggling to stay awake as the teacher collected everyone’s homework from the night before, I was startled to hear my teacher say my name in a sharp tone. “Miss Kalafus!” She yelled over the heads of my classmates. I jumped in my seat and tried to refocus my sleepy eyes. “I’m missing your homework. Where is it?” She said loudly. I had never been one to miss an assignment, so I felt ashamed to answer her. “I - I don’t have it.” I stuttered and everyone’s heads turned to face me. “This is UNACCEPTABLE,” She exclaimed, “See me after class.” Her tone was sharp and her face was serious. For the rest of the class, my stomach hurt. When she wrapped up her lesson, everyone left the room, their eyes seemed to be telling that they were glad they weren’t me. I folded my math binder and slung my backpack over my shoulder. My teacher walked up to me and began to speak sternly as the last of the students left the classroom. Once it was just the two of us in the room, her tone changed.
“How’s the band going?!” She asked in excitement. I was confused. Was this the same teacher that just yelled at me in front of everyone? Now she’s kindly asking about my band. How did she know? “I’m in an after school teacher program with your dad. He’s been telling me all about it!” She said with a smile. “My homework -,” I started, but she waved her hand and laughed.“Don’t worry about it! I’ll give you a free pass.” She said whispering closer to me. I smiled and laughed and she told me to just try as best as I could to get my assignments done on time. What a relief! As glad as I was not to be in trouble, I did try my best for the next couple of weeks to get my homework done, but it was getting harder and harder.
Over the next few weeks, we went to NYC to Mike’s studio to record. It was the same studio that The Jonas Brothers were just in recording their first record and I felt proud to be in the same room. We brought sandwiches from Chef’s Table with us on the train from Connecticut and everyone grabbed a seat in the room to have lunch. The couch was crowded with parents and band members as one by one, we laid down our parts. Carly was recording her part but the $99 bass she was using just wasn’t cutting it.
Me, Duran and Carly crammed on the studio couch.
After several hours, we took a break and Mike left the studio for a bit. When he returned, he was carrying a hard case with the word Gibson on it. We were all asking him what it was when he turned to Carly with a smile and gifted her the hard case. Carly smiled and opened it up to find a candy apple red Gibson SG bass guitar inside. “It’s yours!” Mike said and we all crowded around to look at the beautiful instrument. I feel like this was the moment Carly became a true musician as she now had a true professional bass that was hers.
Recording was a lot of fun. I loved crowding into the live room to play my takes on drums. Mike's instructions to me from the control room made me feel like a professional musician. “I’m giving you two bars up front before the song starts, okay?” He told me from the control room. When I heard the click start, I counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4 and started to play along. Following the click and locking in, Mike was satisfied the first time around. We did another take just for fun and he started calling me, “One Take Cait” since I did such a good job. After the drums were recorded, everyone took turns laying down their parts. Mike suggested we all cram in the booth to do group vocals on Go. The line in the chorus is a group vocal yelling, “Just Go!” Ben, Duran, Carly and I crowded around, sharing headphones on one ear and yelled our lines each time it came around. “Double it!” Mike instructed from the control room and we did. It was so cool to be recording a song that I wrote and to hear it come to life in a studio.
Recording “Go”
