Whet

Background:

 

Whet was my wife, Cara's, favorite band. It was a 4 piece all female band, except for me. Everyone in this band had terrific skills and it may have been one of the most qualified groups I've ever performed with.

Ingrid Stolzel was the primary songwriter and our guitar player. She is also a well known classical music composer whose compositions have been played by national orchestras all over the world.

Beth Robinson played drums and is easily one of the best drummers I've had the pleasure of performing with. Check out her hi-hat work on "All of It" and the explosive last half of "Nine Eight" for a master's lesson on theme development, dynamics and power. Those performances still raise the hair on my arms.

Tiffany Thompson played violin and was our lead singer along with Ingrid. Those violin solos did things that no guitar could. It gave us a different edge.

I played bass and got to really show off my orchestral abilities with these women. We all played inter-dependently, but with great individual conviction.

Read a review of a live performance.

Recording Notes:

 

These songs were recorded in 1998 (I think) and were all live takes performed in a friend's project studio. We set up in the same room, put up some microphones and gave it hell. Unfortunately, Beth moved to San Francisco to be with her girlfriend not long after we made this demo and we never got to record any more material.

Driving Myself Crazy rules. If you have a volume control on your stereo, now is the time to crank it. The second half of this song throbs so hard and the violin scratching is very disturbing. Go bang your head.

Wash Me Clean shows the other side of our sound. We could be big and nasty one second and then soft and vulnerable the next. I never thought in my wildest dreams that a waltz could be so inviting.

Nine Eight is an instrumental in 9/8 time. I can sum it up in two words: great drums. Beth just kills it and when she opens up toward the end of the song, it sounds like she's got at least four arms. Amazing. Ingrid's guitar playing is also over-the-top. It's hard to believe that someone who doesn't do drugs can play like that.

Two Arms Strong was written by Beth, but on the guitar. This is how we interpreted her song. I really like the closing choruses. I play some really cool bass ideas under the band and it makes this sweet song feel really heavy.

No One To Blame is another one of Ingrid's odd-time signature masterpieces. The arrangement is really cool and it has a nice violin & bass solo around the 2:45 mark (check out my right hand taps).

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