I didn’t really care for the city I was headed to. I didn’t really care for what landmarks I had to see. My priority was to meet up with someone that really helped me build my confidence with music so many years ago.
Will Boyce is a multi-instrumentalist based in Lafayette, California who I used to collaborate with when I was 17, which would’ve been 2006. I met him on a website called acidplanet.com, some sort of music community where you upload your tracks and where like any website where votes and reviews take you to the top, most of it was fake. Will had heard one of my many acoustic tracks of my pining for a girl I barely knew in high school and had pm’ed me requesting me to lay vocals over a track of his, “The Dinner Party.” At that point in time I was very reclusive about my music…didn’t really share anything with my mates, let alone tell people that I strummed the geetawr.
However, when I heard “The Dinner Party” for the first time, I remember getting giddy like how I got giddy when I saw Weezer live for the first time (that was like a month ago). It was an incredible chilled out folky instrumental track which made me insanely jealous, as Will was also 17 and his musical maturity surpassed mine. I whipped out my primitive set up and recorded some radio-effected vocals over it, hoping for the best. I sent a bounce over to Will Boyce and an explosion of kinship followed. Here is “The Dinner Party”:
We collaborated on and off for about a year and then we lost contact. University/college most likely got in the way and music probably faded a little. 6 years later I was compiling a list of people that I knew that lived in the states, in hopes of stopping by their area and saying hi. I sent an email to Will literally a month ago, not knowing whether he still used that email. No response for 3 days. Then a response came and I was blown away. Will invited me to crash at his for a week at his place in Lafayette, California. He has promised a local guide to the California bay area and this is what I’m getting as I type this at his place, which is surrounded by rolling hills and lush greenery. He’s a fantastic tour guide and provides one of my favourite things: fun facts. He also has a gnarly pick up truck. And two gorgeous dogs: Charlie and Wilbur. Wilbur likes me a lot. I like him more.
I’ll go into detail in what we’ll get up to but for the most part it involves rekindling our collaborative spirit with his and my gear. Most of this has been so surreal so far, Will and I parallel in so many ways…from the music we practice, to our day jobs (designers), to the way we approach songwriting. We went to a tiny chinese restaurant for a meal the day after I arrived and the fortune cookie that I got afterwards was probably the first fortune that has ever made sense to me:
I’m excited for the next couple of days. Stuff the touristy stuff.
Another track we did together:
-Chumpy x