Musician Required
Hi Joe,
My name is Rupert T. Rupe The Drummer, also known as Noah Fence. I am looking forward to meeting with you, as I have heard about half of one of your songs "Living Life Through Yesterday" from the Craigslist link you provided in your post seeking a drummer and I liked it well enough to reach out to you before having had the chance to hear more. Let's talk, may we?
I've been playing since pots & pans with wooden spoons, provided to me by my Mom at age 2, to be used on the kitchen floor to keep me away from the stove while she was cooking. Gradually, I switched over to the sofa, with home-made cardboard cymbals, and progressed to 'arm chairs' from the age of 5 or 6. Neighborhood guys from around the neighborhood and I started our own band ("Crown") at age 12, rehearsing in my parents' basement, playing cover tunes and working on original ideas & songs. We played our own grammar school graduation, many block parties and private corporate events, a number of high school & college "dances" and a good number of outdoor festivals and at 15 and 16 years of age, we played a bar/nightclub called Spider Web Lounge with a 24 yr old bass player who vouched for us. At 19, I joined Bobby Dunn Band and we played the local bar/nightclub "concert" circuit a few days per week.
Finally found a capable bass player and keyboardist who liked more progressive rock, so we played Rush, Deep Purple, AC/DC, etc, but we couldn't find a good vocalist, so we were forced to dissolve.
To round it off, in earlier years, I was playing 6 evenings per week and often afternoon matinee shows with 3 different Elvis Impersonators. I just happened to find them during the span of a couple years and there weren't any other well-paying opportunities or good players, so I joined Johnny Elvis Koren for many shows, but judging by the way he acted later on, I believe he had a little bit of grey matter that had been damaged or had gone missing, Dave Elvis Carlson lasted about 9 months, but he proved a bit kooky and that fact was authenticated by his girlfriend, and then, Dave Elvis Ehlert.
Played nightly for a year on the road with a "radio rock" "top-forties" cover band called "The Lifers" from Montana, having been chosen for the position out of over 150 drummers. After I came back off the road, I joined a 50s 60s 70s rock & roll band having played larger outdoor gigs, Naperville's Last Fling and also Naperville's Annual Rib Fest, where we entertained audiences numbering upwards of 22,000 in attendance each night. Other jobs were such as Milwaukee's Summerfest, Taste Of Chicago (time and time again), in Soldier Field practice space for a two-and-a-half-hour show where it was 113° F in the shade, with only a few seconds between some of the songs. As such, I have a lot of live stage / studio recording experience.
After the Exit Door on that opportunity had closed, I reorganized a few of the fellows we put together with two band members from our youth and a new lineup emerged, minus one of the original members, whom we found we didn't need. This band wood-shedded to pen and had copywritten a couple dozen original tunes. I had the originating idea(s) or entire song idea on about 60% of our compositions and I wrote many songs in their entirety. This is when I got the nickname, "One-Take Richie" while recording in our home-made basement recording studio...
Having received local airplay at WCBR out of Arlington Heights, Illinois, where most bands had one or two of their original songs played on that radio station, we had EIGHT of ours in rotation and we were invited into the studio for a 1-hour interview that was also broadcast numerous times on different occasions. That success led us to enter Entertainer Magazine's Nationwide Songwriting Contest. We submitted three songs, per the instructions. I wrote the song that got awarded Second Place in the contest. First Place would have gotten us a recording deal/contract with Columbia, but we got beat-out by a band like Boyz II Men... Oh, well.
Anyway, here I am. I believe my sound and playing style will be RIGHT for your music and since I like your sound, it should be a fun, productive opportunity that could very well benefit both or our agenda. If you have time to discuss, I would like us to meet or speak via phone at your earliest opportunity...