Shyneboxx

Biography

THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY…

Here are my thoughts - I met Victor and Ralph through Mike DiBari when I was around 19 years old - I had just graduated High school and moved out of my parents house - I had gotten a job at a Bank as a teller to support myself - Mike got a job at the deli across the street from the bank, I used to eat there a lot - I knew Mike because he was one of the first guys that I ever met that had a band together that did gigs and made recordings - So I used hang around and help move equipment when they did high school dances - One afternoon Mike mentioned that he was gettin’ together with a coupla guys to play some music, would I like to join them? - I said sure - I don't really remember much about the first time we got together - I don't remember what I wore, I don't remember what they wore - I don't remember what songs we did - I remember thinking that they sure were different than what I was used to dealing with at the time (I'm still not sure about dealing with Ralph…just kiddin’ bubby)! - I have to admit I thought I was auditioning them - I know now that they were auditioning me - I'm glad I passed - It has led me down the golden path - We started rehearsing 1-2-3 times a week - To be honest, for me at the beginning rehearsal was another excuse to get loaded and play music - Sometimes, I would not even come - Really, looking back I can't believe they let me hang around so long - I was a guitar player, who wanted to play so bad I switched to bass - Some how over the next year or so we jelled into the unit that recorded the earliest of these tracks on this box set - Listening to these recordings I hear many things - I hear the energy that was busting out of all of us at that age - I hear my classic rock background trying to fit comfortably with the pre-indie rock vibes of Victor and Ralph and the advanced musical ability of Mike - I hear creativity being born by people who probably shouldn't have been pregnant at the time - I hear longing and frustration, hope and dissatisfaction with where we were at with our girlfriends, our jobs, our ambitions – I also hear the love we had for music in these recordings - Our love of the Beatles, Stones, Ramones, Husker Du, the Replacements, the Monkees, the VU, Television, R.E.M., etc. - Each song is a little snapshot for me - Ralph arranging for us to win the Battle of the Bands at his high school (still one of my personal bests as far as payment is concerned, 50 one dollar bills) - The live recordings from the Court Tavern - Memories of Vic and I rolling on the ground laughing so hard I couldn't stop - Walking back to the 1st Ave. apartment after playing CBGB's - Going to the deli for 40's and cheese sandwiches and listening to Exile On Main St. until we passed out - Playin' CBGB’s and hearing a disembodied voice from above say to me “Bass Player turn down" (freaked me out) - Coming up with little bass figures for these songs that still sound pretty good - Playing the Rat Trap Café 3 weeks after being stabbed in the chest with a hunting knife - The arguments (me telling Rowan that I find nothing humorous about an out of tune guitar) - The reconciliation’s (letting me back in the band and lettin’ me play guitar) - The firings (telling Ralph we wanted to grow musically then having him go off and write “Quincy, M.E.”)- The hiring (going into Rowan's basement and meeting Chris Fiore for the first time) - I hear all this when I listen - I remember thinking when Mike left the band that we couldn't go on - Boy, was I wrong - Thanks to Vic, he dragged us by the scruff of our necks into the 90's and into to arms of our many female singers - Talk about musical growth - We went from “I Hate Bugs” to “Parks And Old Men” to “A Momento Mori” - The girl’s songs forced us to take a different approach to our music and employ techniques which we still use today - Though I missed Vic, I learned a lot being apart for a while - I stretched my songwriting with Tamela and learned how to deal with a lot a day to day crap that helps keep a band together - Also, we made some pretty good recordings with indie record producer Kramer (Galaxy 500, Bongwater, Ween, King Missile) - All part of the journey - When we were done with the ladies we morphed into Shyneboxx - It was here that we grew again without even really knowing it - Ralph was back and we ended up with the original Shyneboxx demos - Still some of my favorite things we ever did - It hangs together quite nicely after all these years and still serves as a good blueprint for what we are as a band - We had some time off as a functioning band after this - Vic went to producer's school and stopped playing drums for a while - I played guitar in a band called the Thrill Cycle for 5 plus years - Then we got the sad news that Chris Fiore (one of the sweetest guys you could ever meet) had cancer again - He wanted to record a Shyneboxx record - It was a bittersweet reunion - Good songs were written, great rehearsals gave us time to spend with him - But in the end it made us realize we should have never stopped playing together - When Chris died it took a lot out of us - Listening to him soar on “A Brand New Start” still makes me both shake my head in wonder at his ability and makes me sad and angry that we did not do more - Hard lesson to learn - We will forever miss Chris - Now we are at it again – New album, new shows - In twenty years (if I'm not dead, and Vic can still be in charge of things and Ralph can still keep quiet) we will probably still be going - I truly have loved everyone we ever had in this band and I appreciate everything anyone has ever done for us – Onward!

Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.