• We all had lived in a suburb in California. It was a pretty boring place, nothing to do, nothing to see. In 2004 that all changed. We hadn't been much of musicians before. Hell, we didn't even know each other for the longest time. You see we all started off as just a couple of Juniors who knew nothing about music. I had listened to Metalica, and other bands and was a huge fan, but actually playing music had never crossed my mind until that one faithful day.

    I had gone to a record store at the mall when I had run into a kid who goes to my school, Logan. He was browsing through some old Metallica records, just as I was about to, and listening to his Ipod. "Hey so you like Metallica?" I had said trying to get his attention.

    "Yeah I do." he had replied. "I'm gonna guess you do to right?" he asked back.

    "Well duh." I replied. "They're the best damn band ever!"

    "True that." he said back. Then we had started to talk all things Metallica for hours. Before we knew it we had been in the store all day. "Wow, check out the time" I had said. " I gotta go home."

    "Yeah me too" he added. "I'll see you in school on Monday, dude" And with that we both parted ways until Monday.

    Over the course of the next month we had become great friends. I also found out that he was a great guitar player. In fact one of the best I had heard ever. One day he suggested we start a band, which sounded really stupid at first. "A band?" I had said "I can't even play any instruments!"

    He just said "Come on theres gotta be something your good at."

    Then I remembered how my grandmother gave me singing lessons til' I was 13. I had also took singing lessons for a year after that, but I quit because I really didn't give a s**t about singing back then. But at that moment I did.


    I told Logan that I could sing and he just said "Great, now let me hear you." So I started singing some old folk song, but he interrupted me in the middle of it. "Dude forget that s**t." he said "We want to have a rock band remeber?

    He was right so for the next few weeks I practiced singing in lower pitches and heavy songs, until I finally nailed it. Logan thought I was great, but we still had a problem, no other band members.

    So we looked for a drummer, bassist, and another guitarist. We had no luck at all and were dumbfounded. We posted flyers at school and around town, but still no luck. We had to stop the search for a week because Logan had to go somewhere, but he never told me where.

    So I spent the week as normal. My parents still pestered me about getting a job, but I was fine doing what I did for money. You see I sold some weed here and there, which kept me in the green. My parents never knew why I always had so much money, even to this day. Then one day I went to the mall again and was on my way to the same record store where I had met Logan, but I never made it there because something interesting was happening in the Sporting store next to it. There was a guy riding all the bikes, skateboards, and even one of the kayaks they keep on display in the store. Of course he got kicked out of the mall, and for some reason I followed. He went over to his truck where strangely enough he had a drum set in the back. He hopped on the back and started playing some of the fastest beats I've ever heard. It was then I realised he also went to my school.
    "Hey!" I interuppted him.
    "What is it queer?" he said back.
    "Your really good." I told him. "I was wondering if you'd want to join my band."
    "Aren't you in my Spanish class?" he asked completley off topic.
    "Yeah I am." I replied. "But you still didn't answer my question."
    "Well, lets see, I could join your band and not go anywhere with my music, or I can tell you to ******** off." he said. "But which one?" he thought for a minute or so and finally answered " Ahhh what the hell, sure why not."

    So he joined our band, and told me his name is Jimmy. We started talking for hours and he seemed excited like he had never been in a band before. I asked him if he knew any bassists, so he also told about his friend who plays bass.

    So Jimmy introduced me to the bassist, Mike. And we finally were a full band, except we needed another guitarist. Which we still couldn't find. I tried playing guitar but couldn't, so the search went on.

    A week later Logan came back and I introduced him to Jimmy and Mike. Jimmy and Logan didn't get off to a good start, but I think they became good friends years later.

    We had put up posters all over town looking for a guitarist but this time it actually worked. He showed up while we were practicing in my garage. He came up guitar in hand and said "I heard you guys need a guitarist"
    "Finally!" Logan yelled. "We've been looking for a backup guitarist for weeks!"
    "Guess you guys are glad I'm here then." he said. "My names Tommy." he said.

    Everyone liked Tommy and he was a great guy to get along with.

    So we started to practice and, of course, we sounded horrible. The hard part was playing in tune with each other. I couldn't sing in tune with Logan's guitar , and Jimmy played too fast for everyone else. We continued to practice a couple of times a week until we could actually play a song. We never named that song and I don't think it will ever be named, but it will be remembered by us forever.

    I was actually suprised at how good we were together. And we continued to practice evey week.

    All continued like this for around 2 months, until our town held its Battle of the Bands. Every year our town has one, always with at least 10 bands joining at a time. I decided to enter us in it without asking the guys first. They were cool with it though, and we started practicing for it. We all decided to play Enter Sandman for the show. WE practiced and practiced, until we nailed it.

    Then it came, the day of the competition.


    To be continued in year 2004/part 2