—–Original Message—–
>From: the Poet [mailto:thepoet@xxxxx.com]
>Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 4:49 PM
>To: xxxxx@transcendence.com
>Subject: diary
>
>So here we are, in the vastness of Cyberspace. This note, from
>Transcendent drummer extraordinaire, The Poet, is for my fellow Transcenders, whether in the
>band instrumentally or just spiritually.
>
>I first came upon Transcendence through my friend Matt Lapland, an
>engineer at the Dungeon studios. Our band at the time was essentially
>inactive, so I
>jumped at the chance to “play a few gigs for our band” when Fishy asked me to. I met the guys, and they all seemed nice.
>
>That was about to be boring. Blah blah. I did play a few gigs with
>the band, they were cool, I wish I would have played better, shit in my
>personal life got really heavy this summer, I wrote and produced a
>movie, went broke,
>and left town.
>Now that the summary of my time in Transcendence is out of the way,
>let’s
>have fun, but be serious.
>First, stream of consciousness word associations with all the
>Transcendence
>members:
>
>The Piano man– good, serious, Spanish, busy,
>Father Bloopy– quiet, funny, looks like my friend Nick, elastic
>Vancouver– nice, everywhere, playing all the time, hair everywhere
>The Ambassador, better known as Fishy —sexual, uninhibited, confident, idealist
>
>That was next to pointless, but hopefully some small truths were
>revealed.
>
>So I was listening to the cd of some of the rough cuts of new
>Transcendence songs that I played on. And I’m listening to it, and
>then it hits me– coax. That is the word. COAX. The way I played on
>some of this stuff. It
>was unlike how I’d ever played. Partially because the bands I played in
>have been nothing like Transcendence musically, but partially because
>everyone in the band CARED so much about what I was playing, as much as
>what they were playing. And we tried it, and I did my thing, just the
>normal Poet thing, and sometimes, it was like, “No, not quite, that thing is fine, the Poet thing, but let’s push the thing,” and we did and it came
>out to be
>some really beautiful stuff. It was COAXED. Not forced. Just took a
>bit
>of PRODDING. I can’t lie, the stuff I played with Transcendence was
>less
>than perfect. It all happened so fast. As soon as I was discovering
>this
>new angle, getting over this new hurdle, it was on record and finished
>and
>shit got heavy in my personal life and I produced a movie and went broke
>and
>moved away– all before my feet even hit the ground on the other side of
>that hurdle.
>But nonetheless, the whole Transcendence experience, particularly the
>recording of the upcoming, yet to be titled, yet to be finished album,
>was amazing. That’s where it really started for me. Rehearsals 6:03
>to 9 on
>Tuesdays at Fishy’s were fine, because I was learning the songs and
>learning
>the guys’ playing and their vibe and all that stuff, but it was in
>Vancouver’s
>studio, with the Chicken Kitchen orders, and the beating the shit out of
>the
>drums because you can’t get the part, and the get there at 7 and leave
>five
>or six or seven hours later, that’s where it happened for me as far as
>really being in the band. And it was all so heavy, because we were
>making
>this music off the cuff, and making it so quickly and passionately. I
>wish I
>could have sunk even deeper into it. But circumstances you know.
>Circumstances dictate.
>
>So I’m here, in St. Louis, and I throw in the Transcendence rough cuts
>with me and the guys on them, and I am blasting it in my car, and I am
>loving it.
> I am loving the sound of a RECORDED COAXING coming out of the drums,
>and
>Fishy’s galvanized, laser beam voice and Vancouver treating the guitar part like
>he’s
>Jackson Pollack tossing paint all over a wall size canvas, and Bloopy
>laying
>low but stealing the show, because you can’t hold a good man down, and
>you
>can’t make Bloopy play the same thing two bars in a row, because if you did
>it
>would be a waste because he can play it four different versions of just
>right. And I’m loving it.
>these guys are geniuses. I will miss playing with them…
>Well, Transcenders, it’s been a pleasure sharing some of my experience
>from the band with you. Let love rule. Peace.
>The Poet
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