November 11, 2001

Ten years ago my next-door neighbors came over and asked me if I could arrange some a cappella music for them. I said I could, and then they told me they wanted NINE individual parts. Not four-part harmony... not barbershop, or glee-choir. They wanted something different.

Hey, I was studying music composition. I was all over 'different.' And what I discovered is that they wanted to be a swing band, only with lips, lungs, tongues, and tonsils instead of brass. Now, I'd never written swing band stuff before, but I jumped in and delivered it anyway. Some of it was actually pretty good. You can find a couple of my arrangements on this CD.

That was then... this is now. This weekend we had a 10-year reunion, and although I never actually sang with the group (oh how I ACHED for the stage back then, but I never made the cut), I was a part of it from the beginning. There was an alumni concert, and I realized that the guys who got the ball rolling managed to shape that ball so that it's still rolling today--no small feat in a cultural backwater like Provo, Utah. Brigham Young University's a cappella scene is 10 times the size of the scene at nearly every other university in the United States... all because a couple of guys had a dream, and wouldn't let go.

I was not one of those guys. I'm the dude in the third row back, carrying a torch and a rake, and offering to help storm the castle. Well, the castle has long since been stormed, and my torch has been handed off to someone else... and then handed off again, probably several times. I have no idea who ended up with the rake. Very few of the original members of Vocal Point still 'do' music--myself included. I miss it.

What more can I say? Today I just don't have time for the music scene. The time I have is spread pretty thin among my day-job, my family, and Schlock Mercenary. It was a conscious decision, giving up creating music for creating comics... I just don't have time for both.

Now more than ever I wish I did not need to sleep. What a waste of perfectly good time...

Anyway, happy 10th, Vocal Point. I remember the humble beginnings, and wouldn't trade those times for anything (except maybe the secret to not needing sleep. Somebody make me an offer).