Step by Step / ooh Baby!!!
Once Jeff and Ben came back from the airport where they left Mikko after 3 intense but fulfilling weeks, we gathered the band together to share a special moment, or should I say, to make some steps, because I was around 1,500 and my daily minimum required is 10,000. So it wasn’t really the most glamorous of all activities for our first band night “off”, but it’s always rewarding for each of us to keep the 10k streak going. The last time I missed my goal was the day Mikko arrived. So even if I was “dangerously” far behind my mandatory steps count when the guys arrived at 8:30 pm, it rapidly became a matter of GO GO GO! And just like that, turning around the Upper Room Studio for 90 minutes stood as the band’s celebration following our first album production stretch. The guys were laughing as I started to walk like a zombie saying: “Steps, more steps… always more steps!” Ben added: “No more steps, I already wasted nearly 15 pairs of socks. And I’m at my second pair of slip-on shoes. Everything was all cool and easy when I was spending most of my days seated on a studio chair, but I’m blessed to support you, brother. I just need more socks now.” We all laughed some more. It was a light type of communal moment. Thanks to the steps, steps, steps 🙂
We gathered in the green room a little later to talk about the last 3 weeks. We talked about what we experienced personally and collectively, what we went through, what we accomplished, what we’ve learned, what we want to integrate or change in our band routine, and what we want to explore before Mikko comes back. And we talked about how we were envisioning the next 3 weeks of production with him. It’s quite incredible to realize just how much we have grown as a collective in the last couple of months. If being one on stage wasn’t a problem once, it’s all the rest that was quite problematic at the time. True friendship is a rare and precious gift, but it’s also the most fragile and delicate of all intangible blessings you can share. It’s a privilege you need to take care of by offering the best version of yourself to the people involved in that God-given relationship.
(First official picture following Moose joining the band – March 31st, 2006)
Therefore, to all be in the same room after such an intense 3-week stretch wasn’t a slight affair. You can visualize just how much of an unimaginable scene it might have been for us to look for every opportunity to keep on gathering ourselves together. Being a tight unit makes everything possible, and unity is something I tried so hard to create in the band, for years… from vacations to special dinners, short trips, and surprise parties, up to welcoming them all in Tangier (for 2 weeks that turned into a year), to establishing a writing session studio at home in Virginia and countless mediation meetings. To my shame, I had completely lost any faith that we would ever be the real friends I wanted us to be, which is supposed to be the sole purpose of being a band. At least, for me it is. So to slowly rediscover each other, to genuinely appreciate being together, and to have a healthy type of collective relationship is nothing short of a “miracle”, one that is wonderful for so many different reasons, especially as it’s all blooming naturally without having to think about it or to set any sort of therapeutic scheme to facilitate our communications. And it’s beautifully rewarding, to say the least.
Note: I ended up with more than 13k steps done… without any socks casualties… Not that bad 😉
