A band re-union through Skype
Andy S. in Redwood City, California, USA
“My 10-year Princeton reunion was approaching. During college, I'd been part of a successful band called Liquid Playground. We'd done some touring and released an album.
Then everything blew apart – basically every type of stereotypical reason a band breaks up, we had it. We were able to set aside our differences to do a reunion show in New Jersey. Problem was three of the members resided in California, while the bassist and guitarist lived in Colorado and Massachusetts.
We were trying to figure out how we'd do the rehearsals. I'd been using Skype for a while by that time. I got everyone else signed up for it, even our bass player who isn't the most technically adept. With a few amplifiers and some basic microphone adaptors, we managed to practice in real-time via Skype. The effect you got was kind of eerie.
It worked really well when the guitarist [in Boston] would play, we'd hear him through our amplifier [in California] as if he were in another room just a few steps away. It makes you feel like everyone's right there! We did the 10-year anniversary gig with only 30 minutes to prepare in person.
It's a challenge at this stage in our lives, but we're all still in it for the love of music, and Skype certainly made it a lot easier. I don't know what we would've done otherwise.”
