Numb

The previous post, ‘Michigan,’ explains how I landed in, you guessed it, Michigan.

My wife (the reason I moved) had a handful of cousins. Two of them were about my age, were in an all-original band, and were attending the Recording Institute of Detroit. I later joined the institute to earn a certificate in multi-track recording. Analog. All analog.

To make it easier to tell this story, I’ll call them Dude A, the guitarist, and Dude B, the singer. And let’s call their act The Cousins.

At that time, there was a tiny li’l indy label from Nashville called R.E.X. Records. An A&R rep from R.E.X. tried to persuade The Cousins to sign a deal with the label. But The Cousins, made up of all Christians, had wisely determined to not participate in the Christian music industry.

Dude A had an idea. With the knowledge the 2 had acquired at the Recording Institute, they could produce a band for R.E.X., just not their own band. Trouble is, they had no previous credits as engineers / producers. But Dude A and I had been ripping drop D guitar riffs over a drum machine for fun. It was a creative release for me, and a side project for Dude A.

R.E.X. had put out a call for tracks from new artists for a compilation. Dude A and I wrote a (pretty terrible) track titled ‘Numb.’ That track was selected for the compilation. Sorry world.

That track at least proved to Mr. A&R that the 2 cousins had production chops. Dude A and I had a handful of demos, which amounted to our 2 guitars on 11, a drum machine plugged into a guitar amp (if I recall right), and hitting “Record” on a cassette player. So his idea? → Pitch a full album for the side project.

What happens next absolutely deserves its own post. Until then…