Splunge - 1/22/12

Jason, Sal, Nick and I, all on board. I had to begin the session with the unpleasant news that I had decided to leave the band and why. Sal's reaction was that he'd assumed from the beginning that something like this would eventually happen and that the band had always been on borrowed time as far as he was concerned. Nick was clearly depressed by the news, describing it as like finding out that your girlfriend was dumping you because she'd been offered a great job on the other side of the country. He said you'd be happy for her and sad for the resulting situation for you personally. Jason didn't say much of anything, but was clearly down as well. All wished me luck and said they'd want to come out to see my new band when we played out. The general sentiment was that they'd known I wanted to play out again for some time and were not surprised I'd take the chance when it was offered. I couldn't have asked for a better reception to such bad news, and I was very thankful to all of them for that.

So would Splunge continue without me? It was certainly possible. Nick could handle lead vocals while they looked for my replacement, but sentiments were clearly mixed. Sal clearly wanted to go on, and said as much up front. Nick shook his head, and didn't seem very warm to the idea. Jason, again, didn't say much. He very much wants to play out, and he may not feel this is a very promising situation for him to achieve that goal. I'd truly like to see them continue, since everybody gets along. Sal volunteered to step up and take leadership, at least for now.

Everyone still wanted to play, for which I was again thankful. We didn't put a lot of time in on any particular songs, deciding to just enjoy ourselves and get the best recordings we could. Our recorded sound had improved so much the last time that I hoped there would be at least a couple of keepers among the tracks to document what we'd done together. Unfortunately, with morale so low, it showed in some of the performances, and even my own showed serious signs of being distracted.

I would've passed on playing my own song, "Can't Go Back", but the others insisted and I went with it. The irony of playing a song that was originally written about coming to terms with the breakup of my first band hit me hard in this situation. We closed with Nick singing "Celluloid Heroes", then me singing "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World", which had always been our best song.

Nick asked if I'd come back if the other band didn't work out. I honestly answered that I hoped I wouldn't have to find out the answer to that question. Even if things played out that way, I think they'd always wonder when I was going to leave again, and that wouldn't be good for any of us. We left open the possibility of getting together again some time, just for fun. They're a great bunch of guys and I hoped I'd helped them improve musically while we worked together. Playing with Splunge gave me the chance to sing a lot of lead (too much, really) and experiment in ways I'd never had the time to do in my previous bands. We were certainly going to stay friends, and not every band departure plays out that way, so I'm grateful.