My Musical History, Episode 11: A Really Big Change

After the record label debt was paid off, a really big change happened: I relocated to the mainland. Vancouver, Washington, to be exact. For those of you who don't know, Vancouver is a town on the Washington/Oregon border, right across the Columbia River from Portland (the home of this particular TV show.)

It was funny trying to describe to my friends in Hawaii where, exactly, it was that I moved to. A typical conversation usually went something like this:

Me: So, yeah, I'm in Vancouver now.
Friend: Vancouver? You mean Canada?
Me: No, um, Vancouver, Washington. Washington state.
Friend: What? Washington? So, like, Seattle?
Me: No - Southwest Washington. Near the Oregon border. We're actually right next to Portland.
Friend: You moved to Portland?
Me: Forget it

Anyway, once I arrived here, I got straight down to the business of putting together a new band. Since this was still in the days before Craigslist and Facebook - seriously? - I went back to the tried and true process of running some classified ads in local music zines and posting flyers in music stores. Eventually, I managed to find a drummer who you will be hearing about in future episodes of this serial (and have already heard about before.)

At the same time, I also began teaching a music business class at Mt. Hood Community College. As luck would have it, one of my students was a guitarist that I ended up getting along with pretty well. So, after the aforementioned drummer and I cycled through a bunch of bassist candidates, we contacted this guitarist and forced coerced asked him to play bass with us.*

With the lineup now set, we found a rehearsal space in downtown Portland (a storage unit) and put together a bunch of new songs. And thus, Upper80 was born. I was pretty excited, because I had heard a lot of positive things about the Portland music scene, and during my short time as a resident of the area I had already seen a bunch of good bands at cool clubs that seemed to support and appreciate original rock music. So, world domination plans, back on track, right? Right? Well...

Next: Evicted

P.S. Don't forget to come out to Shanahan's this Saturday @ 9pm to check out Rocket 3, Stab In The Dark, and Second Player Score!

* Because remember, nobody actually wants to - aw, you know already