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Of course, everything goes back a few years, and some of it goes back longer than that. But let's start by going back only a few years.
That was when Tyler Chroniger invited Mark Joseph Young to play bass guitar and sing at a midweek praise and worship meeting in Shiloh. Everyone liked having more than just one guitar and one voice, so they added a drummer, and sometimes the drummer's father on keyboard or lead guitar. But the meetings ended when Tyler moved just far enough away that midweek was not possible for him, and the duo started exploring other options. Soon a band was coalescing under the name 7dB. Eric Kyle Baxter, the younger of that name, came aboard as lead guitar, and Tyler's sister Jessica made it three vocals.
But then, for reasons of his own, Tyler decided this was not what he wanted to do. Jessica wasn't going to work with us without him, and suddenly the duo who didn't know what to do was Mark and Baxter.
For several months, they tried to put together a band on the model of 7dB with a more rock edge, but all they could find was Adam Young, who was interested in learning to play bass guitar, and Kevin, a drummer Baxter knew who was interested in being in a band. Efforts continued to find two more vocalists and one more instrument.
Finally, Mark decided that it was time to stop trying to put together the band they wanted and do something with the band they had. He started pulling together a repertoire from 7dB stuff and his own originals which they could do decently with one vocal.
As soon as they agreed on that, Brittany Boscola showed up. She had a solid voice, an eagerness to minister, and the ability to play guitar. A few changes in the arrangements, the composition of a new song, a couple of swaps, and they started practicing.
I said some of it goes back more than a few years. We won't say how long ago it was that Mark was principle in another band, The Last Psalm, but it was back in college. The drummer from that band, John David Mastick, tracked him down, found out about the new band, and made a good case for having a second drummer. It was going to make practice locations tricky, but for a band that wanted to capture a rock sound, having two drummers made a lot of sense.
So Kevin and John play drums, Baxter and Brittany play guitar, Adam plays bass, and Mark--well, sometimes we have another guitar, sometimes we have another bass, and sometimes we have a keyboard. Mark and Brittany sing.
We're uploading song lyrics to the blog, for those who want to read the message in the songs. We're still working on getting the sound together, but the core songs are sounding good and maybe soon we'll have a private concert for the few who want to hear us before we go public.
We also have to thank Grey Vanaman of Audio-Clear, whose assistance with our equipment has been invaluable. He's the man to see for sound equipment, whether installing a system in your church or running an outdoor festival.
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