My dear friend and bassist Mark Curlanis and I closed the curtains on the first version of my L.A. band, Hidden Secrets because we had peaked and needed to take the next step. We put out an ad for lead guitarists and drummers, eventually choosing 3 of each to audition, and they were given cassette tapes and charts for 8 songs to learn.
Audition 1: The first duo arrived at Sound City and we worked through the songs. Decent guitarist and good drummer. Took a lot of time and energy to assist them in getting the songs down to run through.
Audition 2: Next up was a really good guitarist, Sam, and a rarity in those days — a female drummer. Much better musicians. Took less time to be able to play through the songs. Felt sold! And a woman on drums? Cool!
Audition 3: The final pair came in and I began to talk them through the first song and they both interrupted, saying, “Let’s just play it, man!” (Huh? How are they going to do this without walking through it?) Cue the sound of drum sticks clacking 4 times and we played right through all 8 songs.
Mark and I were looking at each other as we played, giant grins on our faces. They were amazing. THIS was musical heaven. We could have played that set in a club right now.
Tom was solid on drums. Ringo solid. Just holding the beat down without a need to shine. So hard to find.
But it was in Bruce Burger (RebbeSoul) that we had stumbled upon a guitar genius. Not only was he incredibly skilled, he had a great feel for the music and was so damn tasteful in his licks. More than that, what a beautiful human being. Humble. Even with all of his later success as RebbeSoul, he still is.
I’ll share more about Bruce and how we co-produced the album in upcoming stories. But for now, check out his beautiful music: https://rebbesoul.com/
Coming October 11th: “There's Nothing Wrong with You” (Pre-Save the single)
https://found.ee/there's-nothing-wrong-with-you