Last year (2011) I finally finished my 900-page ADAM OUT OF EDEN novel, which was about a baby Bigfoot who is raised by humans and grows up to become a rock star. The story contains therefore 13 songs, ostensibly written by Adam Leroy Forest, "the Singing Sasaquatch". Since the book is posted here on my web site (temporarily at least) I wanted to include mp3s of those songs as an appendix to the book, so I got to work with my digital mini-studio and proceeded to do my usual one-man-show recordings.

That's a fine way to present a song and develope musical ideas, but still pretty far from an extraordinary musical experience one wants to hear again and again. I mean these are GREAT songs (since they've been written by a GREAT BIG Sasquatch anyway), so they should be HIT NUMBERS, right?

Then I met Peter Troelstrup, who is a rather capable guitarist, and for some crazy reason he became interested in my project. We agreed to meet up with his drummer-buddy Ole Olesen just to see if we could have some fun doing live recordings of the 13 songs as a group project. It seems that we could.

Ole has a sound studio in the basement of his house in a villa neighborhood of Copenhagen, where his drum set is bolted to the floor for some steady rocking. They have a digital multi-track and various sound processing racks, although it's all of vintage pedigree (these guys would prefer ANALOGUE). There's also a refrigerator for keeping beer cold, which we drink.

Then we laugh a lot and play music, so it's kind of fun, guys night out every Wednesday kind of thing. We've been rehearsing & recording the songs, working towards being ready to perform for friends at parties and eventually make the perfect Live Recording. But it's just as much hard work and discipline as it is fun--or wait, maybe it's all the same thing?

There's really a lot of luck involved in finding a band to play with--not only do you have to feel good about each other's talents and like them as friends, you also have to be interested in the same kind of music and have the time and place to get together on a regular schedule. And then you must each complement what the other guys need to get what they want out of their own musical adventure.

As for me, I want good recordings of my own songs, of course, and it's great that I've fooled these guys into playing this stuff instead of something better. Peter wants to get into the technical/artistic details of doing finished productions, but has always been frustrated by making music with others who are only into doing one take and then party! And Ole just wants to hit things-- okay, actually he wants to hit his drums and make them SING (seeking the Profound Sound in rhythm to the Cosmic Beat).

Here they are, the greatest rock stars of their local studio: Wild Peter, the Mad Mixer. Good ol' Ole, the Basement Fixer. And 3R Hisself, the text trickster.

While we don't really have any finished products yet (being such perfectionists), you can follow our work in progress, posted at the link below:

REVERB NATION

Actually, there IS also a YouTube link of our band playing in the recording studio, although I find it a little embarrassing because we look like a bunch of raging alcoholics swilling in the Danish beer culture. Hey, I didn't take the film, Ole did; nor did I mix it, Peter did that-- so it's all their fault. But of course, I suppose that we DO sip a beer or two in the process of a recording session.

The song is : MEAN TO ME

And remember: "The musician who plays when he practices, practices when he plays."