Bands - the lula stream

You know, one thing I think all musicians are guilty of at one point or another is over-complicating their music.  Just because we may understand music at a different level than the average listener, we ourselves often want to hear something inventive and challenging.  The problem with that is we think the average listener should feel this way too.  Well, they don't.  And the sooner you learn that the better.  The best thing you can do is keep it simple and get over yourself.

the lula stream

(2002)

jason boles - guitar/vocals, jon soucy - guitar, laurie collins - bass/vocals, victor varadi - drums

Jason Boles

Drift, for me, was an good little band.  I just don't know if it was a listenable band.  Yes, there was something there.  As I've said, Jason is a phenomenal songwriter.  We would occasionally draw people in.  But at the same time playing with crazy time signatures, alternate guitar tunings, weird tempos and chord changes probably kept the average listener out.

Jon Soucy

Jason and Jon didn't wait too long to find another drummer.  They only needed to dip back in to the rich well that was former members of Water For Paul.  They called Victor Varadi.  Great move.  I had played along side Victor in the band LILA and we had clicked pretty well.  I had no idea he would become one of absolute favorite people to play music with ... not to mention just one of my absolute favorite people, period.  (And maybe it's no coincidence we share a birthday.)

Laurie Collins

The next surprise would be Jason.  We wouldn't be pulling out any old Drift numbers for this line up.  Jason had evolved.  He had stopped over-complicating his music and had written a bunch of new, amazing songs.  The Lula Stream was born.

Victor Varadi

See.  We even had decent pictures taken.  We also headed back up to that warehouse in San Francisco to make a decent recording with Bert Garibay.  Victor not only could play to a click, he insisted we as a band practice to one as well.  It was a smart move.  It made our live performances that much more impressive.  And, thankfully, the recording this time turned out pretty great.

The Lula Stream would be the band to end all bands for me.  But just as we were building some buzz, is when the floor would crumble beneath us.  There was no drama between any of the members this time around.  But there was something going on inside Jason's head and it wasn't good.

I don't think Jason never wanted to be the main focus of a band.  But since he wrote all the songs, that was sort of unavoidable.  Both Jon and I wrote songs, but I think we were both too afraid to put anything up against what Jason was churning out.

Then we had to contend with the one thing that often makes the best creative people so great - their demons.  Depression was getting the better of Jason.  At a time when we should have been building on the momentum we started, he decided he didn't want to play anymore.  It was a shock to all of us.

I say this all the time:  This is the band that broke my heart.  That remains true to this day.  It would be the last band I'd ever play in with Jason and Jon.  In fact, I don't think Jason, while he's still playing music and has become a really good producer, has been ever been the lead member in a band since.