Plugging in

It took over 9 years, but I finally put a new battery in my electric bass today. Apparently, the on-board EQ system (which is really just 4 shiny, unmarked knobs on the front of my bass) needs a 9-volt battery to run. Without a working battery, my electric bass is silent.

Long ago, I realized my bass's coma-like state was likely brought on by a dead battery, but my interest and inspiration to get the overpriced thing running again had waned. In 1999, just when I was in the full throws of a music-centered existence, I was working at a recording studio. It was exciting for about a day, until I realized I would have to listen to the same song hundreds of times a day. It was like torture when it was a good song, you can't imagine the suffering when songs were terrible - which most of them were. Reference point: I remember one teenage death metal band I recorded had a song with a screaming chorus of "WHYYYYYYYYY?" Over and over and over and over finally culminating in a whimpering: "I can smell you from here, bitch." Yeah, good stuff.

Needless to say this quite quickly drained my enthusiasm for music. At the time, I was entertaining thoughts of becoming a professional bass player. It would have been the culmination of a dream that began in high school. By 1998 my last year as an undergrad, I was in a pretty serious band. Over the course of two years, we played many dives in Cleveland and around Northeast Ohio. I'd like to think we were entertaining. I mean we really did write some catchy alt-rock songs - really. But alas, like most bands, we were done in by in-fighting and jealousy. We went our separate ways in the winter of 1999, leaving only a 3-song demo CD and countless memories of smoky bars and ear-splitting sound checks.

I don't know if the nostalgia hit me or if I was embarrassed by my purchasing a top of the line instrument only to have it sit untouched for 9 years, but today I finally decided to change that battery and plug in.

Who knows what this will lead to, maybe I'll learn some jazz, something new and exciting and challenging. Something.