Reuniiited and it feeels so goooood! The Slants reunited to do some farewell performances and release The Band Plays On record. There's a Spotify link to it on the side of this page. It was great to see everybody and to work on the songs. We swapped parts over the internet and exchanged files, leading to the album's completion, which was in true form with The Slants. A unique quality about this band was that it was heavily based on homework. I think I only practiced with the band 3 times in 3 years (which included my audition). Normally we'd fly to whichever anime con or show we were performing at and send a host of odd looks at each other when one of us didn't do the homework correctly. Not a problem! We'll get it on the next show 😀
HOLY GUITAR MANIA!
When it came time to do the shows together, we had to figure out how to do the songs with all 4 guitarists at the same time! It was a pretty wild (and loud) experience. Thaiphoon and I were the Seattle guitarists who played in the band at the same time, so it was only natural that when it came to writing for the record, we met up at my studio to track our parts for the record. All in all, it was great to see the guys, especially since we haven't all shared a stage necessarily before. I replaced the original guitar player, Johnny Fontanilla, so it was neat to share a stage with not only Johnny but also my replacement Joe Xiang on the stage at the same time. There was a lot of, "ooooh, is that what you were playing?"
WHAT'S IN THE FUTURE
Not sure if that's it for The Slants. Maybe we'll be like Mötley Crüe who just keeps doing farewell tours over and over. 😀 We are all dispersed throughout the US but hey, we're friends, we're family and I'm always down to do some music with these guys 🙂 Here's to the future! Feel free to read more about my time with the band on the website.