A little long, but if you want just start at the second paragraph.
For me personally, music has always been a part of my life. Apparently while in my mothers womb, she would sing to me constantly (my mother sang as a member of the NY Met for about 4 years before I was born), and my entire family used to have sing alongs ALLL the time. There were two passions I held as a child. One was drumming. The other was singing. I was a much better singer than a drummer though and sang my first solo at the age of 5 to an auditorium full of parents at a school concert. For the record I sang "Rocky Top". By the conclusion the parents were clapping to the beat so hard that I couldn't hear my own voice, which I recall really pissed me off. The experience didn't deter me, and I continued to sing at every chance. I sang in chorus all through elementary school, and even sang part of an old jingle on a local commercial when I was eight. I was paid the princely sum of $250.00. For the next 4 years I used to think I still had 250 dollars in the bank somewhere.
I had some pretty good pipes at an early age, and I sang in chorus all the way through high school, and was in our Mens Chorus as well. During my sophomore year of high school I sang in a local band called Bell Jar. Since I was so young, I had to have my mom chaperone me at clubs when we played out on the weekends. We had moderate success as a local band, culminating in our being one of the featured bands appearing on a local radio stations album (two years running), of local bands original songs. I recall our guitarist Greg telling me how close we were to getting signed and being famous (it's amazing how many musicians still think signing a record deal means you've made it to the pinnacle), and how I should say to hell with my football scholarship and not go to college.
Because of college football, I was too busy to sing in a band full time, but I did sing here and there through college and then grad and law school.
In the early 90's I sang in a band called Snooze Button Trivia, and one of the songs we played was Lay it on the Line by Triumph. I always had a pretty good range. My vocal range was everything from a tenor to a baritone and I once had a voice coach tell me it was more of what she called a "tenortone". At various times I've been told I sound like various people (all vocalists experience this pretty regularly, especially if you do covers). I used to be able to (and still can sometimes) conjur up Don Henley so well, you'd think he was in the room. I have been asked more than once to join various Eagles tribute bands. I could also do a pretty decent Steve Perry too. I had a very strong head voice and could mix a falsetto in pretty well.
Anyway, we had just done "Lay it on the Line", and had finished our set when this really tiny anorexic looking chick walked up to me on my way to take a whiz and say "You sound more like the guy from Dream Theater than you do Rik Emmett." My first thought was WTF? I could nail those parts pretty well. In fact I felt that Emmett would have been proud of my pipes with his music. Instead of rolling my eyes I said "Dream who?" She then asks me "Have you heard that new song called "Pull Me Under?" I answered "No", and a guy standing nearby said, "Dude, that song is out there! I mean it's awesome though. You do sound a little like that guy so you should check it out."
I did. Needless to say our band didn't have the chops to pull off a DT cover. Not properly anyway.
And I think my voice has the same power as JL, but no longer quite the range as I used too.
But from the first listen I've been hooked. They still never cease to amaze me. Clearly my second favorite band.
The last band I sang in was called Tempus Fugit, and DT's music was a huge inspiration to the entire band.
Topic: How did you get into DT? (Read 28179 times)
