Dopamine

It Starts Here

Reflecting on this piece of writing, some of the name drops are outrageous. But quite plainly, these are my friends from school.

People often say that the world’s interconnection means you are only seven hops away from everyone, so perhaps statistically this is not that improbable. My own surprise reminds me of a concept within Information Theory, which suggests that being surprised is closely related to the amount of understandable information conveyed in a completely new and novel scenario. Essentially, it is about finding familiarity within a peculiar setting. So perhaps you will be surprised as well.

My Link with Music

My dad played guitar, sang, and wrote music. When I was young, he would record me rapping on a reel-to-reel. I had been around music, but I never stuck with an instrument or learned the technical side. I suspect the main reason was that teachers always pushed us to learn things like Three Blind Mice or Greensleeves. It bored me. Had I been learning Oasis or The Beatles, it might have held my attention.

Nonetheless, I knew a bit, and it turns out that when you start a band at 14, a bit is enough.

Starting the Band

I had started learning drums, but when it came time to form a band, I decided I would be the singer instead. To be fair, I had always liked singing, through choirs, school shows, and experimenting with rapping and singing.

My first call was to Log. He would need to learn guitar and play rhythm. Then we roped in an exceptional guitarist, Slim Red, for lead. Tim, who was also in The Architects and lived next door to Log, joined on bass. Chris, who lived a 30 minute drive away, took on drums.

Our first practice was chaotic but memorable. I sang through a makeshift home stereo system that I had wired four speakers into. Log had an acoustic guitar from a car boot sale, with a mic taped to it, also running through the stereo. Slim Red and Tim had proper amps, and Chris used my drum kit.

Slim had been playing for eight years, so he naturally became the songwriter. Within a few practices, we had our first hit. I think it was called Recipe for Disaster. It was almost pop punk, and through rose tinted memory, I would say it was actually quite good.

Line-Up Changes and Early Success

Then things started shifting. Chris had to leave because his mum would not drive him to practice anymore, so Babes joined on drums.

Tim and Log fell out because Log kept making Eric Cartman noises into the mic strapped to his guitar. That led to Emile joining on bass. This ended up being our best line-up.

We entered Brighton’s Battle of the Bands and did surprisingly well, ranking higher on the bill than both our direct competition and our friends from school, The Architects.

At one point, Emile painted himself head to toe in green, meant to channel Wes Borland, but in reality he looked more like a dishevelled garden pea. After the show, we went to a nu metal night and people kept calling him a bogie.

Cracks in the Band

Despite the momentum, cracks were forming. Emile wanted to switch to guitar. Slim, meanwhile, had a habit of turning up to gigs with broken cables, talking back to sound engineers, and generally undermining our performances.

At the Battle of the Bands, the sound engineers explicitly said not to touch the amps after the sound check.

Slim walked on stage and turned everything up to the maximum. We even have it on video. The result was a wall of feedback. The engineers had to remix everything live, and Slim’s guitar ended up sounding like a banjo. Not very rock and roll.

The Final Iteration

Slim was eventually kicked out. Emile moved to guitar, and Caz came in on bass. Before long, we were not very good.

Soon after, we recorded a CD. The artwork was done by Jack Clark, co founder of Anthropic:

https://soundcloud.com/user-777729105

Dopamine by Dopamine

The End and Aftermath

Not long after recording, things fell apart. Emile just could not write captivating music. Slim had been genuinely brilliant at writing and playing, but could not deliver on gig day. Emile, on the other hand, was extremely organised, but that rigidity showed up in the music.

Ultimately, the whole thing fell apart.

Still, it made it into my business profile because we did earn a few hundred pounds from record sales and gigs, money that was later stolen in a burglary.