June 11 - Ye Liveliest Awfulness

Ahhh, to be young again... I got my first guitar when I was 13, I believe, and ready to take classical guitar lessons at the Trondheim Music School. I loved the lessons - and I even grew my nails on my right hand, always using an emery board on them to make sure they were nice and rounded and wouldn't hook onto the strings.

My lessons were weekly for one year - but when I came back for a second year, I had a new teacher who insisted I stopped playing anything but classical guitar and I said screw it. I think I went for one, maybe two lessons, and then I was done. But I wasn't done with music (although I had also quit the school band - clarinet was not the instrument for me) - I had joined the music/drama elective at my middle school, and I was part of the band there. Being the worst guitar player, I played bass. I didn't necessarily like bass as an instrument - that wouldn't come until later - but I was a part of something that really was enjoyable.

Arve was curious about music as well. I have already shared how I tended to give Arve a tape for every Christmas and birthday - and he was interested in learning how to play the guitar. Of course, being young and cocky I told him I both could and would. And, to my surprise now, I did. Except his mind works very differently than mine. I love framework and theory - and while I didn't have much grasp of theory, I did like the ideas of tonic, dominant, and subdominant chords with corresponding minor chords - and if I felt adventurous, a seventh. Arve didn't have these boundaries, so while I was stuck in a traditional pattern he blossomed and surpassed me by being unpredictable. Although I don't think I necessarily admitted it, at least not at the time, he did indeed quickly surpass me on the guitar.

When we turned 15, it was time for confirmation, which is more a rite of passage than a religious ritual in Norway. It is a societal expectation. However, neither Arve nor I believed in a god, so the traditional confirmation was out of the question. I chose a secular version of the ceremony, but regretted it as the learning that came with it wasn't what I wanted it to be at all. Arve, on the other hand, chose to not do it at all, and instead he got a Casiotone keyboard with a built in sampler. Not the high tech version, but more than high tech enough for a couple of guys interested in exploring and creating music.

So Arve and I started writing music as well. And we went from using the keyboard to using first two guitars, then guitar and bass. Then we realized that we needed a drummer, and I had already introduced Arve to Jan Are, and we were all good friends, so we started a band. Not one of those rehearsing all the time kind of bands, but one that would get together every now and then. And we wrote our own music. Listening back on the music, there is a clear evolution going on - but today, I am going to start at the end. From the very last time (so far) we played together and wrote new music, the title of today's song was actually taken from a horror roleplaying game: Call of Cthulhu (Cthulhu Now). The thought was to take the title, which referred to the ultimate cosmic horror, and then create lyrics further describing it. The result is pretty good, especially given the very poor recording equipment we used. I play bass and do the lead vocals, Arve plays the guitar, and Jan Are plays the drums - and all three of us contribute to the demented chorus. Please enjoy. There will be more musical illustrations and anecdotes from the brief and wondrous life of Coma.