I have been working on a side project (or just a hobby?) since COVID hit...rekindling my music side and gearing up to launch an 80s / 90s alt rock cover band once we are all allowed to party and see live music again. A little background, for those who are interested...
In my younger years (you guessed it...the 80s and 90s) I played in a band called the Accidentals. Once I started working post-college (and travelled a ton) my music career shifted to writing/recording music (most of which was never heard outside my friends, this was pre-Napster).
On one of my first dates with my (now) wife, she had an acoustic guitar in her apartment, which I played for her...after we both had a lot of wine. Super cheesy, but she kept going out with me and eventually married me, so I guess it worked!
I later wrote a song that was my marriage proposal to her, played it to her in a park by a lake...again, super cheesy, but she said "yes", so again...I guess it worked! (Still can't believe this amazing person agreed to marry me.) I recorded that song and we danced to it at our wedding.
Once we had children my music shifted to playing guitar to put my kids to sleep. I loved and cherish this, but it's not exactly the same thing as plugging into a Marshall stack, if you know what I mean. So, I've always played, just haven't done serious playing for a while.
When COVID hit and we were all "stuck" at home, I started playing again. And my teenage son started playing guitar, which was amazing for me to play with him. I started working up a bunch of covers and playing to backing tracks, which was fun...but then I started writing again.
I upgraded my "studio" setup (had to...my old stuff was firewire and wouldn't work even if I wanted it to) and I started recording again (the last thing I recorded was my proposal/wedding song in 2005). It's been a blast...not just recoding, but sharing it with my wife and kids.
So, the original plan was to launch a cover band. But I am now pivoting from covers to originals. Hoping to get some recordings finished and posted over the holidays. My social media (for this side project, hobby, or whatever) if you would like to follow my adventure is now @JasonStarrMusic ((taking a page from the author Jason Starr and his @JasonStarrBooks Twitter handle, pun intended).
