Laying the Blame

Well let’s start here, hey guys!

 

Ya know something; it’s almost like yesterday that this thought comes to mind. It’s amazing how much you remember when you are focused on writing something. I had just got out of a semi-long term relationship with Jodi. I think this one lasted about 9 months, and it nearly fukin killed me when I found out that she just couldn’t let go of her ex (we’ll leave it there). I felt disheveled and had no real direction in life, guess I was just wandering.

 

About the same time I reunited with my cousin Melissa, we were always close, but much like my relationship with my mother (also a Capricorn), we had spasmodic moments of heated arguments. She was kind of like the person who comes along and picks up the pieces in the down times of your life and then fucks off after you are ok waiting till you are destitute again, know what I mean? Any how I soon became friends with her circle and found that if nothing else there was an outlet for me, a place to be, a place to belong.

 

Dave and Scotty (who was dating Mel) were a couple of guys wanting to get this band started. They were struggling with the drummer who just wouldn’t commit to anything and really, after I heard his stuff it was no great loss, had a lot of material to offer. They had a lead guitarist, a bass and a rhythm player, but no front man and needed a drummer who wanted to be family. I was (I think) about 32 years old and they were all somewhat younger than me, but secretly in the back of my mind I wandered if I might have something to offer them. I had always thought of myself as a singer but as the saying goes, “self praise is no recommendation” and in those early days I really thought they knew where they were going and what they wanted. Truth was they were open to all who might have something to offer, we really were just mulling it over a table lol (dope joke there). They had a singer who lay down a few tracks and at least after hearing his stuff I knew where they wanted to go.

 

The sound they had was kind of like a mix between Manson and disturbed, kind of Korn like but not as heavy musically, honestly, a style all their own and the original stuff they had written really blew my mind. I was excited, the prospects looked incredible, and when Scotty asked me to lay down a demo on his song “Lay the Blame”, I couldn’t resist. I had no idea how it would sound, whether it was what they wanted or even if it was a style that I could consistently keep up, non the less there was no way I wasn’t going to try!

 

Up to that point, my singing ability was no more than a few hundred bucks won at various karaoke contests, no training vocally and no experience on stage as a band. I remember how that thought daunted me somewhat, but I worked on those lyrics all week till the Friday. Every night, for hours, till I was confidant that I could sing it the way they wanted. Funny though, that their expectations were no more than me being able to hold a note let alone sing it well! The (now usual) Friday night piss up came around and I was so excited about getting into the spare room and showing what I’d done.

 

Dave had bought an eight track recorder which at the time I thought was so technologically advanced I was dealing with a serious motivated group. Truth is, it is a great unit but small in comparison to what your average house band might have under their belt. That eight track is what you guys can hear when you listen to the tracks on the tribute page, not bad I would say, not bad at all. The decision still hadn’t been made about me joining the band and I knew it and HATED IT! All I wanted was to belong to something like this and these guys were so focused on where they wanted to go. I was so intone with my writing at that stage that I was pumping out a new song every two days at least. I remember having a note pad next to my bed and waking up during the night with a chorus in my head. I’d write it down and save it till days or weeks later till I could make it fit somewhere.

 

So finally that night I lay down the vocals on “Lay the Blame” and Scotty was blown away! There was no more talking about it, I was the new singer songwriter for Darkshot, and I was so proud of myself. The track on the home page is actually the very first time I lay it down, it’s raw, unrehearsed and totally freeballed, but it worked and had very little change after that. There were a few other tracks that the boys had written before I came along and I really wanted to master those too since the last singer couldn’t. I had to re write a few of the lyrics to make them ours and not his, and generally we did a great job.

 

Lay the Blame was a song I worried about from day dot! Apart from the fact that the word “FUCK” appears in it 64 times, yes 64 TIMES, I really didn’t know how it would come across to the public. Yup, even at that stage I was thinking about the image, but I will leave

this blog by saying, “It was our Trademark Song”. To see all those fingers up in the air while we played it was such a high! See, we didn’t have a huge following at the beginning, but by the time we played the Manifold Concert, we were well known enough to have people getting into it with fingers and arms held high!

 

Christ, I have to get this sorted out before I start jumping too far ahead lol!

 

Much Love, Till Next Time,

Luke xoxoxo