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"The Volunteer," is quite simply one of my favorite demos that we have ever made. The original band, Cydona Rise, was always meant to be a foursome. Drums, Bass, Rhythm guitar and Lead guitar... we just couldn't ever find the missing piece since splitting from Rob in Six Hour Ride. Recreating that magic came with a price and big shoes to fill.
Once Kyle and I settled into Columbus, OH, we found bassist, Tony Kangas, and after that we endured a short tenure with guitarist Rick Barnett. One of the things I did genuinely love about Rick was that he was a real fan of the band. He liked our ideas and where it was going, we shared the same appreciation for Rock N' Roll... at the end, we maybe shared a little too much enthusiasm for the extra-curricular activities of it all. "When in Rome..."
During his first audition, we made him learn a few songs, and that experience went terribly awful, but that was something that could always be worked out. The most important question looming was, "can we even write songs together?" You can practice all day long in a rock band, however, if you cannot write songs together and find that chemistry in the marriage, it is game over.
That's when he brought out and polished off two of his greatest and oldest ideas, "The Volunteer," not yet titled, and, "Honey, Look at the Moon," not yet titled either. I commend him for that... bringing to our band his two best songs and ideas that he really could have kept for himself. Instead of keeping them on shelves, he felt that we were worthy and to this day, as I said, "The Volunteer," was one of my favorite songs to sing, play live and so happy that I got to write on.
Kyle and Tony took to them within minutes and it was really nice for me to be back behind a microphone with my lyrics book and just singing out ideas, no guitar and no obligation to play guitar... The arrangement fell into place and it was just one of those tunes, magic in thin air.
I titled the songs within the hour and the lyrics for, "The Volunteer," fleshed themselves out within moments along with the singing style and melody lines. The song absolutely rips when playing it live and to this day those are my only real, viable memories with Rick. Some others are the photo shoot I've been releasing and some acoustic gigs we did together as a duo. The rest are not meant for these sections of words.
"The Volunteer" has a great concept in its storytelling as it is a song about growing up in small towns with a deep sense of adventure and wanderlust... a need to break out. Instead of sitting around and doing nothing about it but dreaming, our character gets up, throws caution to the wind and chases after their dreams. So many people do not.
I was always happy to see people with potential get up and go. It made me feel like they were utilizing their voice and their freedom of choice by doing so. They were, in a sense, volunteering for the hero's journey and taking charge and those are my kind of people.
Not thrilled that the band fell apart before this could make it onto a second record. It is one of the last demos with my brother-in-arms, Kyle Nail, and for that, I will forever cherish it. The is the last known recording of this and it will have to remain a, "home demo." I am grateful to have been a part of this moment and to share it with you, no matter how you hear it.
Thank you and cheers,
Andreas Stavropoulos
- Genre
- Rock