Getting back into music… with a little help from eBay
When I began working in the software industry many years ago, I was amazed to discover how many software engineers were also musicians. At first glance, the two disciplines couldn’t seem more different. One is predicated on attention to detail, mathematics, careful planning, and a tendency to work in isolation, while the other relies on spontaneity, no set plan of creation, collaboration with others, and a spirit of c'est la vie - a sense that songs aren’t “written” as much as they are “discovered.” Coders carefully plan and execute; a songwriter’s inspiration is ephemeral - if a melody is not captured in the moment, it is often lost forever.
But after talking with a number of my peers who had a foot firmly in both camps, I learned that the things that draw people to both coding and music are often very similar, starting with the basic desire to create something. Software, when done correctly, is as much of an art as it is a science, and music has its own mathematical constructs that appeal to engineers who enjoy playing with numbers, whether that playing involves fine-tuning an algorithm or figuring out the proper downbeats of complex time signatures or the best interval to use next in a run of notes. There are an infinite number of ways to write code to solve a problem, some beautiful and elegant, others horrendously inefficient and impossible to understand. The same can be said about chord progressions, melody, and lyrics.
When I worked at eBay, I was fortunate to work in an office that held a yearly in house concert. Employees were encouraged to form bands and perform a few songs - the concert was called “MobileHead” in honor of the mobile apps we worked on for eBay. It was quite the event; we even had special t-shirts and posters made each year to celebrate the day and the bands performing. The office would shut down mid-afternoon; food and drink was brought in, and a professional crew was even hired to set up the stage and run sound. After a drink or two of liquid courage, employees who I had never seen play guitar or sing or sometimes even speak much in front of others would get on stage and impress with some cover songs or even self-penned work. The quality of musicianship was surprising - these people were GOOD. The style of music ranged considerably, from a single person playing country or folk music, to thunderous death metal that shook the walls, to a group of engineers who decided it would be fun to try and play Pink Floyd’s “Animals” album in its entirety (more on that in a moment.)
I had watched a couple of these events, and while I didn’t participate, I couldn’t help but notice a twinge of envy inside as I imagined myself in one of these bands, playing my old bass guitar. But, it had been so long since I played that the thought of actually doing it seemed as remote as, well, writing music again. But, in 2016 I found myself on stage for the first time in 23 years after I was “drafted” to play bass in a band that decided to tackle “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” We called ourselves The Floydwheels in homage to a VP at the time who used the word “flywheel” about ten times in every corporate presentation:
The lineup at my first Mobilehead, 2016. Our graphic artists were as talented as the musicians.
Clearly you cannot play MobileHead without one of these.
As it turns out, I had spent the past few years eyeing various pieces of music gear as part of my daily perusal of eBay wares. Since I was going to be playing in front of people, in my mind this justified the purchase of a new bass guitar! And since one of my heroes had come out with a signature model years before, and since I had always wanted a genuine Fender bass, and since I happened to “find” some extra money laying around, and since it was such a good deal, I purchased my Geddy Lee Jazz bass a few months before the show.
We rehearsed a few times and figured out that we could actually sort of get through the piece without completely embarrassing ourselves. When the day of reckoning came we …. well, we got through it. We had a few glitches - Jason forgot when he was supposed to sing, I neglected to sing loudly enough, and we were all a bit, shall we say, tentative. But, I had a lot of fun, and I was reminded how much I missed making music. Fortunately, someone recorded the event for posterity, although you can certainly tell the videographer was related to our drummer:
The Floydwheels at MobileHead 2016
The following year, after adding a couple more members, we decided to up our game and tackle the “Animals” album. And me being me, I decided to not only play bass, but also acoustic guitar and keyboards, as well as do some singing. And me also being me, I insisted we do the entire album. We rehearsed like mad - I wanted us to nail it and impress those Pink Floyd fans in attendance.
Acoustic guitar, check. Bass guitar, check. Keyboards, check. Tall mic stand, check.
I didn’t tell my bandmates, but doing the whole album was a stretch goal - I would have been happy if we managed to just pull off “Dogs”, the 17 minute highlight of the album. As it turns out, we were able to also do “Sheep” and both parts of “Pigs on the Wing.” This latter tune was split into two parts on the original album, except for fans who bought the 8-track version, where it was arranged as one song instead of two. That version had a Snowy White guitar solo in the middle of both parts, his first work for Pink Floyd in fact. I asked our new guitarist Steven Woolgar if he’d be interested in tackling the solo and he said yes. Anyone who was a serious Floyd fan got quite a treat, hearing a rare version that most people are unfamiliar with:
What amazed me most about our performance, other than the fact that we actually got through all the songs, was the quality of the monitors on stage. Right from the beginning I was impressed at how good everything sounded on stage, and I knew if it sounded that good up there, it had to sound good out in the audience. I could hear everyone so clearly, and I could also hear myself! I felt like I was enjoying the sound and the show the same as the audience. Steven and Josh did an amazing job with the dual guitar solos in Dogs; I later learned that while Josh was an experienced hand at this, our show was the first time Steven played in front of a live audience. Could have fooled me:
Our secret weapon was Ben, who covered some guitar parts on his violin and played some amazing solos himself:
These shows, particularly the second one, reinvigorated my love for making music and got me thinking about how I could integrate it into my life again. The following year, our group decided to tackle “The Wall” album, and true to form, I set a goal of doing half of the album, including the entire first side. Rehearsals were going well, but a couple months before showtime eBay had a layoff and unfortunately, MobileHead for me was not to be. But, I am grateful to my bandmates for helping me rediscover the joy of making music - these shows started a train of thought in me that gestated over the next couple of years. I started thinking about the Loverture recordings, and if it would be possible to somehow finish them. So these shows set the stage for those thoughts and definitely had me ready when Kevin came calling a couple years later.
C’est la vie!
- Jim Leno