It's been a long time since Drawing on Eve has been a band. We originally got together in high school around 1997 after the messy breakup of another band that Ryan and I had both been in. I had shown Adam the little I knew about playing the drums and with that knowledge, he taught himself a hell of a lot more, becoming our full time drummer. We auditioned at least one other bassist before we found Jake who, as I remember, wasn't incredible but he had a practice area and he grew into a great bassist over the next couple of years.
We never played a lot of shows. That was our downfall. I was too interested in writing songs and not interested enough in the business end of things until it was too late. So that's what we did. We wrote a bunch of songs, some of which I'm still quite proud. Between 1997 and our semi-breakup in 2001 we wrote two albums worth of material, about 20 songs total. I've made all this available for download at http://drawingoneve.com/mp3/. By the time we stopped regular practice in the fall of 2001, tensions were running so high that I never even saw a copy of the second album and have no clue as to whether or not it ever actually saw a semi-professional presentation. We were no longer united in what we wanted and I was sick of trying to make things work. I imagine you could easily say that I broke up the band. Maybe I did but I needed a break. I didn't write and barely played for two years after this. Making the last album had drained me creatively.
Summer 2001 was the last nail in the Drawing on Eve coffin. There were a series of ambitious gigs that just ended up being fucked up in one way or another. There was another feeble attempt to get some management, which failed. Finally, there had been lots of arguments and tension over the album design and credit. No one was willing to compromise anymore. I am just as guilty of this as everyone else. Meanwhile, very little got done and I grew more and more frustrated. It was my frustration that caused me to stop wanting to be in the band. Something that I had loved just became something that was causing me pain and that fact alone was enough to make me want out. So, that's what I did. When Jake moved to Ann Arbor I made sure I wasn't available for any practices. I essentially avoided the problem until it became moot. This probably wasn't the best solution but it was the only step I was prepared to take at the time.
Despite all the grim words this story does have a happy ending. I am trying to make amends with the all the band members and hopefully we'll all get together soon because I miss hanging out with them. Also, we left the world 23 recordings that communicate just how much fun we were having when we were at our best. Finally, I got to experience a little bit of what being a rock star was like, for which I will always be grateful.
Thanks for listening,
James