Over the summer, MuchMusic contacted Soul Plane and informed us that they would be invading our lives for a good couple months to film our band's debauchery and give us some national television exposure and to put us through rockstar training to see if we have what it takes to make it somewhere in the music industry. If you haven't seen the episode or heard the verdict yet, catch it online now at http://www.muchmusic.com/tv/disband/soulplane.asp (full-screen the window for the optimal in-yo'-face experience). These are my memoirs from our time on set with Much...
Day 4 – July 21st, 2008
Location: Rehearsal Factory
Time: 10 30am
We realized at 10 35am when we got to the rehearsal space that MuchMusic rented out for us (the biggest room in the Rehearsal Factory at Dufferin St. and
Hector told us that we could either ask the guy who ran the Rehearsal Factory for replacements or do whatever we had to do to get our hands on some drumsticks and some patch cords. We had to be quick about it, though, because Greig Nori was going to arrive by
It just keeps getting better.
When we finally got back to the Rehearsal Factory for good by 11 30am, Luke and Mel were already set up and good to go. We had some trouble figuring the PA system out, but in the end it all worked out. We were able to bang out a rendition of “Welcome to
The first thing Greig did was make us go around in a circle introducing ourselves and showing off our individual skills that make up Soul Plane. He got Gideon to solo, Kevin to play the verse riff to “Through the Fire and Fame,” Luke to drop bass groove, Aaron to stick him with a drum solo, Mel to sing a verse off “Life is Beautiful,” and me to drop an acapella freestyle. We each took turns ripping it until he told us to stop – at the end he had a pretty good idea of where our individual levels of talent were set at.
He then asked us to play him the song we planned on playing for the panel of music-industry judges for our concert finale. We played “Life is Beautiful” and before Mel was finished singing the first chorus, he cut us short: “Eeegghh, I like it, it’s got a nice groove, a real warm feel to it, but it’s not going to grab the judges by the balls. What else you guys got? No offense, I just don’t want the judges to lose their attention span after the first six bars.” We dropped “Impossible” on him, and this time, he saw potential. This potential could only be realized, however, if we took time to open our minds and pay close attention to his feedback. His reasoning was sound: “Hey, I’ve been through this, guys. I was you guys once – I had people to please. I know how these industry people think, I know what they’ll like, what they won’t… but at the same time, you don’t have to take my opinion – I’m just here to help.” Keep it coming, homie, we’re listening.
He told us there would have to be some serious restructuring involved – the verses were too long, the choruses were too long, and there was too much unnecessary fat on the track. Everything would have to be condensed to hold onto someone’s attention, especially the attention of industry-professional judges who are specifically going to be looking for things about us to hate. He listed several ideas in terms of re-composing the lead guitar line and the chorus (after all, the chorus is the most important part of the song). After he did a cursory re-write of our entire track, he addressed another issue: the issue of copyright infringement should we ever blow up under the name “Soul Plane.” The reasons for considering a name change were two-fold: 1) It’s the title of an absolutely garbagetimes movie… people might assume (accurately) that it’s also the name of an absolutely garbagetimes band. 2) The name “Soul Plane” is more than likely a registered trademark, which means that MGM would more than likely shove a lawsuit up our asses if we ever in our flea-ridden, rabies-infected lives try to make profit off of that name.
Finally, before the shoot for this particular segment ended, Greig handed me a “clue.” He said that the whole point of this show was to help us improve our musical standards as well as push ourselves out of our comfort zone: “So, Yui, that being said, this clue is going to lead you to a challenge, kind of geared towards you and your position in Soul Plane. Your band needs to be there to support you through this event, though. Good luck.” The clue was a Polaroid picture of the front entrance of Orange Lounge (www.theorangelounge.com) with the street address of the studio written under it. He asked me if I thought I was ready, if I was nervous, probably hoping to throw me off, even going so far as to remind me to get lots of sleep the night before (it is now 3 30am). I looked him square in the eye without missing a beat and said, “Greig, baby, I was born ready. Just test me.” Famous last words.
After a lunch break, we had to change into a different set of clothes to fake a different day of filming. We were told to continue practicing as usual, bearing in mind all the revisions that were made by Greig “yesterday.” We actually started jamming after discussing how we were going to start changing up the song, and before long, I saw a manila envelope slide itself under the door. By now, I knew what MuchMusic wanted me to do, and to save time, I jumped through the hoops: “GUYS! Check this out! We got mail!”
I opened the envelope to find a photo of Much VJ Hannah Simone with stuff written on the back. Hector had to prompt me to actually turn the photograph around because I was spending too much time staring into Hannah’s eyes and sharing a moment with her that she is not yet aware of. When I finally read the stuff, it informed us that we had to find a way to prepare for the “toughest interview of our lives.” Pffft. Poor Hannah Simone has no idea what’s about to hit her. I predict she’ll give her two-weeks’ notice in less than five minutes after we wrap up the interview.
Here’s where MuchMusic tried to create drama within the band, but we were a little smarter than to let them in: the instructions on the back of Hannah Simone’s photo told Mel and me to pick one other band members to represent Soul Plane in the interview. It wasn’t anything they’d give us time off-camera to think over and talk about, either. It was clear that the boys all wanted a piece of the spotlight, but there wasn’t enough to go around, and MuchMusic knew it. Too bad they didn’t count on Mel and I being gangsters: “Well, the decision here is pretty simple – the reason Gideon is the one coming with us is because he’s our lead guitarist; out of the four of you, he gets the most time in the limelight. Maybe people should get to know him.” There was a little bit of debate between whether it would be Aaron or Gideon, but in the end we went with Gideon because of his instrumental role in the band – if anyone is on the same line as Mel and I on stage during performances, it’s Gideon during his solos. I continued to reinforce the idea that any of the boys would have been perfectly adequate to crusade for Soul Plane on any television network, but that because MuchMusic was forcing us to pick, we were going to go with the most reasonable and logical option – the lead guitarist, who usually carries his own voice in a band much like the vocalists do.
MuchMusic clearly did not get the intended effect of cooking up beef within the Soul Plane camp – proof of this could be seen in the way Julie asked the questions during the “confessional” they filmed after we made our decision. She asked me if I felt that Aaron was upset that we picked Gideon out of the two of them, and I answered her referring to Aaron only as “he.” The idea here is to not let them turn us against each other, try as they may. I knew what they were trying to do… Julie was like, “Can you please say Aaron’s actual name… like ‘AARON seemed upset’… but only if you truly think so?” I smiled at her and said, “No, I couldn’t speak on his behalf. You’d have to ask him about it.”
Good try, though, lady.
After the confessional, Soul Plane congregated back inside the Rehearsal Factory and tried to hammer out “Impossible” according to Greig. If there was tension, no one let it show. We were all just exhausted and we wanted to put our last bit of effort into putting Greig’s words to practice. We’re going to be grinding from now until August 9th, the day we’re going to have to perfect execution the song in front of very important, very critical people.
This could be cataclysmic.
