Sweetheart - A show

Did you know I was in a band called Sweetheart?
I'm being partially facetious because most of you will know about that.  I wanted to talk about it for a couple of reasons. 
Part 1:
Firstly I want to mention how highly I think of the people in this band.  I have known MK & Sammy for 9 years and 6 years respectively.  Do you have 1-2 friends who you can go to with ANY problem and they will listen and give honest advice?  Well these 2 individuals I can literally go to with anything and they will not judge and they will listen.  That is important.  Both of them know my deepest & darkest secrets.  They have been there with me through the failures.  We have also stood there through some of the biggest successes in our lives.  Personally and professionally.  I would defend them and take a bullet for both of them.  This is what a band is about.  A band isn't about fame and fortune.  A band isn't about sex, drugs & rock and roll.  A band is a group of brothers who can have a laugh and have fun playing the music that they truly love to play. 

Part 2:
We hadn't rehearsed in a few months up until about a week ago.  Our good friend and fellow bandmate Weezee had left the group in November for a new opportunity in another province.  He was our bass player and we really enjoyed having him in the band and sharing a lot of laughs and a lot of amazing times.  The "new guy" had big shoes to fill.  A couple weeks ago I pitched the idea of playing bass in the band to my friend Robert Watt.  We happen to share a love for the Beatles and Brit-Pop and have had many a (beer fueled) disscussion about John L, George H, Macca, and Ringo.  He said, "Why not?".  He'd recently purchased a bass with the intention of recording some demos or possibly filling in here and there around the city.  He's a really really good player and can fill every role.  He also knows just about every song you can think of and we've had fun sitting around singing Oasis/Blur/Beatles covers on many a night. 
So back to last week's first rehearsal with a 4 piece.
I heard a quote from Geddy Lee once that said that when Rush got back into rehearsals for a tour they felt like the first few practises they were like a Rush "cover band".  Well last week it felt like I was in a Sweetheart cover band.  The only person who actually was really solid was Rob.  He is a great player and extremely versatile.  I was terrible and at times couldn't remember lyrics to songs we've been playing for a million years.  Fast forward to this week.  Last night we had our second jam.  When everything clicks in the rehearsal space there is no better feeling.  It's hard to describe.  It's like a warm summer day on a patio with your favourite group of friends with your favourite beer.  It's like listening to your favourite song that's been stuck in your head and you hadn't heard it in a long time.  It's like a good movie in a theatre with the smell of popcorn lingering in the air.  When Sweetheart hits our stride in the space, it feels like magic.  The songs we play are my some of my favourite songs. 

In closing.

I'll tell you why we're "getting the band back together".  Well first of all, we recorded a few songs last year and we're getting ready to release it to the world.  This will be a fun process and I always love the CD release party and the initial stuff that happens surrounding a release.  But secondly, we were asked to play a show a few weeks ago by our friends at Timbre Productions.  Click here to find out what they do and what shows they put on.  They offered us a show with this great band from New York City called Atomic Tom.  You may remember them from a "viral video" last year where they performed their hit song on the NYC subway entirely on iPhones with iPhone instrument applications.  Click here to see it:  As you can see it's a  pretty quirky video and really well done.  Anyway, we agreed to play the show and I'm really looking forward to Friday.  As always I hope some of you come out.  I will review the show from my perspective on Monday.

Now, if you don't have any recordings by Sweetheart, you should download the entire LP, Map of the Human Heart here for free.  It was recorded a while ago but we still perform a few songs from that album.  Just enter your email address and then you'll be sent a link with instructions on how to download the zip file.

Thanks for reading.

Love,
Marty
@martyzylstra
@sweetheartband