CASHLESS GENERATION: A HISTORY
As told by Kevin Wilcox
Chapter I: D-Frag
In the beginning, there was D-Frag. This band of ours was founded in November of 2015, and by February of 2015 we were looking for a bass player to complete our lineup. Ethan had just begun playing the bass as per a school project, so I invited him into the band. We had one practice together and recorded a video of us playi
ng our "flagship song," and one of D-Frag's only songs, Guacamole (the other memorable one being Alien Afterlife). However, Ethan thought Kirby sucked as a drummer, which wasn't too inaccurate at the time, but it did not mean much coming from a bassist who just picked up his instrument. So because of this, Ethan quit so that he and I could make a new band. Chapter II: The Kevin and Ethan Band
Ethan and I knew almost nobody who could join our new band, so as we searched for members we began to create songs. Among the first were a slightly modified version of Guacamole, a blues shuffle song later titled Apple Cider, and a song we never did much with title Killer On Venus. At school we would ask friends to ask around for a drummer. We had several friends in percussion but none played the kit. Connor said he had a kit but never really picked it up, my friend Grant almost joined but couldn't transport his gear, and Ethan didn't like Kirby's drumming at the time so we weren't going back to him. Eventually Ethan asked a girl named Amaya and she said she knew this dude named Douglas Aubrey. He was in this band called "Work In Progress" (which I had actually heard of previously, from David and Nate in my old band) and he primarily was playing jazz at the time. We got in touch with him and he said he'd try out (although, we were gonna give him the "job" either way as long as he was up for it). At our first practice with Doug, we played Guacamole around 8 times and I showed him some riff ideas I had, and he said he was in. We had no name at the time, so we all talked about a name after the second practice. I believe it was Doug who suggested "The Chambers" just based on Ethan's address. Chapter III: The Chambers
Dancing around Doug's jazz schedule, the three of us created three songs: Apple Cider, Guacamole, and Reverse Guac-- a title for an early Strangeland, named by Doug based on the chord progression of the song. At the time, I had created all of the guitar and bass lines, and had simple ideas for the drums on all but Reverse Guac. I ended up bringing in a rather dramatic sounding, Stairway to Heaven-esque riff which the three of us jammed to for about 30 minutes at one practice. This song was later named Through Time by Ethan. We needed to find a singer and luckily for us I knew a girl who sang very well. Her name was Ekaterina, at the time going by Katya (but now Kat), and she was very into Pink Floyd and The Beatles. At the time, Ethan and I wanted to make a psychedelic rock band, which Kat was really into. So she agreed without hesitation. She only made it to two practices and was sick at both. Ethan has not heard her sing to this day. She ended up quitting but joined again. She quit soon after. In December of 2015, Ethan, someone else (can't remember who) and I were in McBride Pawn Shop during the Denton Tree Lighting event when out of nowhere, Sam Tunnel (who previously sang and played bass in a band with Doug) walks in. We ended up asking him to join and he agreed and was excited. I somehow ended up hanging out with him after Ethan and everybody else left me. He wasn't hard to talk to at least. Chapter IV: The Year of Sam
We spent most of the first quarter of 2016 preparing songs and ended up recording a demo tape with our friend Armand right before school ended in 2016. Somewhere along the line, Doug laughed at a tree. We had a very short set list but with Sam's help, we completed most of our songs to a point where they were playable and that we were happy with at the time. Our first show was one of the most terrible public events of my life. We played at the Savannah "school is out" pool party with Armand's band, "Scuba Steve." Nobody really listened, and those who did were just there to complain about the lack of DJ music. Sam was a bit rusty and awkward as a frontman by the time we began playing open mic shows at LSA Burger on the square, and the host, Bone Doggie always ended up giving him tips which he did not seem to take. Sam must have gone through puberty or something because his voice started to lower a little bit and he was no longer able to hit all of the notes he previously was able to, which pretty much destroyed most of our melodies. He spent the rest of his time in the band asking us to tune down. He ended up bailing on us before we had two shows that were turning points of our band. Whether he had been in the band or not, these shows were both very important for the band. The first one was a show that nobody went to and nobody paid for in a tattoo shop in Garland, and the second one was a special guest slot at LSA Burger. Since Sam bailed, we had to scramble to find a singer. Luckily Armand (who was NOT the singer of his band, Scuba Steve, just for the record....) bailed us out. Chapter V: The Armand Shows
As I said previously, the first of the shows we played with Armand was in Garland (actually in Dallas, on Garland road) at a sketchy tattoo shop. Armand's mom ended up getting a tattoo during our set. The only people who showed up were the members of the bands, their parents, and Scuba Steve's posse. The employees seemed to greatly enjoy the show thankfully. My amp at the time, a Marshall half stack, just decided that it wasn't going to output properly. I was nearly inaudible at the show so Doug couldn't hear my queues and Ethan didn't know where we were. Armand did fine, given the circumstances. Our second and final show with Armand was set up to be even worse. Ethan blamed Armand partially for our failure, but all of us agreed we were having a bad night as musicians. Ethan was sick and nearly bailed on the show. It took both me and his girlfriend at the time to convince him to play. Later on, as Doug was loading his drum kit into his car, he accidentally slammed the trunk or car door on his thumb. His mom messaged me and said he cannot play. Doug however, messaged me to insist he will still play. Doug played the entire show one handed. That was our best show by far at the time. After our set, Bone Doggie asked us to play one more, which we didn't have with Armand. So I took vocal duty and covered Where Is My Mind? by the Pixies. After the show, a girl with a guitar comes on. I told Doug she's cute and had a great voice, he was like, "Then date her." But I was like, "No, we should ask her to be in the band." So after her set he told me to go find her, but I couldn't, so I went to chill with Armand and his mom. The girl and her friends walk over to Armand and I and essentially they fangirled over our great performance of our mediocre songs. Long story short, that girl is Anna, who's currently our singer. Chapter VI: Anna whips us into shape, Doug leaves and comes back
to be continued...
