By Jim Fusco:
Welcome to another edition of “The Open Mic Sessions” with Jim Fusco! Today, I reach back into the archives for a song off of the EP “Meaningless: Echoes of Dreams”. You see, back when these tracks were recorded, the idea was to take an entire week’s vacation from school and record an album. Our idea was to basically lock ourselves in and to write and record the whole thing. It’s still an idea I’d like to try someday, but back then, it just didn’t turn out that way.
First, I had a bad cold so I couldn’t really sing. Second, my brother and I are, well, brothers. You can’t lock us in a room for a week (figuratively speaking, that is) and expect good results. So, after some fights and even less work getting done (mostly because of arguments over how each song should’ve sounded), we ended up with nothing more than a few backing tracks at the end of the week. Oh yeah, and a vow to never work together again…which we ditched in 2006 when we started MoU. And now we’re still in the throes of the newest vow never to work together again. 🙂 Time heals all wounds, but some wounds take a bit longer to heal! I guess that’s why certain bands that have stayed together longer aren’t really friends- they work together and go their separate ways. It’s tough to think of playing music that way because of how social it is. But, there’s so much passion involved. And the addition of one vocal part one band member doesn’t think should be there seems like a life-or-death decision. I kind of liken it to a marriage, except it’s even more stressful because there’s someone messing with something you’ve created!
That’s a long-winded way of saying that, even though we didn’t accomplish too much, what we did accomplish was really good. Those tunes are some of the most enduring ones I can remember writing and participating in. “When I Go” is played by my brother and me every time we jam together. It’s just this great tune that has a great beat. What more could you want? So, when I went to play an open mic performance at The Space in Hamden, CT, I wanted to bust-out this song. I never got to perform it there while in MoU, so it was my chance to resurrect it.
I hope you enjoy the performance- everyone there certainly seemed to! Stay tuned for more from The Open Mic Sessions, as my solo acoustic and electric performances of original songs continues here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs and original music video blog!