New Baby, New Space, New Bassist?
Jeff and Amanda had their baby last week, another little girl. They named her Olivia Overhang Stienstra. I don't know why more people don't name their kids after rock bands. Here are a few that would work very well:
Rolling Stone Jones
Smashing Pumpkins Johnson
U2 Yoo
Rage Against the Machine Jr.
Earth, Wind and Fire Vander Dandersma
Also, we were approved by Thorn Creek Reformed Church in South Holland to use their sanctuary as a practice space in return for occasional participation in worship services and other special occasions. This comes at a good time since Jeff and Amanda's house is getting a bit too small for a family of four, Joel (who has been staying there the last several weeks) and a loud rock band in the basement. Playing at the church will give us more time to practice and a whole lot more needed space for speakers, drums, keyboard, guitars and amps.
Another item to mention is that Nate, a bass-playing friend of ours who we met through *cino connections, flew from Boston two weeks ago to visit the band and scope out the possibility of moving to Chicago. All parties involved came away from the weekend thinking it might be worth pursuing Grant, Joel, Jeff and Nate as OVERHANG (Hey, isn't that Olivia's middle name?!). Nate is currently working through other job options in Chicago and New York. We shall see what the next month brings.
And finally, an OVERHANG blog would not be complete without mentioning Janis, our producer friend. He had to move to Denmark to pay some bills at a recording studio there. He's been sleeping on the bathroom floor in the home of some pot-smoking hippie types and getting by on one meal a day to save money. Before directing your pity Janis' way, just remember he's doing what he was made to do. That'll get you through some tough days. And despite the hardships, he seems happy about his current situation. We're sending mixes to him again to see if maybe he can try one more time to make something beautiful out of our sonic mess of a masterpiece. He'll be heading back to Latvia in a week to dive once again into "Another Hole..." The best part is that our current plan for finishing the album would use all the equipment--including very expensive analog tape--we bought several years ago and wondered why we were doing all this. If everything finally works out, we'll be able to look back and say we knew what we were doing all along. Of course, that wouldn't be entirely accurate.