This is the story of how I discovered Oasis and subsequently decided to become a rockstar. It shall be told in parts as I want to tell all the parts of the story and consequently it is quite long. It is also a bit esoteric, in that I think it is only interesting for people who know me or the band. In this first part I tell of how I endeavoured to play music forever. I play drums for a Christian choir and go to music college where I meet my future band members.
I used to play in a band. We called ourselves TUNE, which frankly I think is a good band name. It's got brevity and a bit of "punch" to it. I like short band names, not tenuously long “see-how-much-weirder-and-arbitrary-we-are-compared-to-everyone-else-that-are-weird-and-arbitrary” indie band names. Also, it’s what people say when they hear a good song. Just: “Tune!”. Very Mancunian. Yep, a lot of it has to do with my past as an Oasis sycophant.
I think I was fourteen when it happened. I had already been playing the drums since I was about seven, playing along to Beatles tapes. But lately I had stopped playing. I even considered selling my drums at one point, but my mum wouldn't let me. Thank God for that.. I mean: Thank MUM for that. Anyway: I was fourteen and I was sat waiting in my brother’s car and decided to pass time by checking out his cd’s; two of which were Oasis’ (What’s The Story) Morning Glory and Be Here Now. Step inside Even’s pubescent head: “Oasis, ey? Oh yeah, they’re the ones that did Whatever and Wonderwall. I remember them, got some good tunes. Well, at least the…HOLYFUCKINGHELLIHAVESEENTHELIGHT!!!” It was a mindgasm. My brain ejaculated through my eyes, salty tears of joy and wonderment. From then on it was ALL about the music. I say “music” because I didn’t (don't) want to be perceived as a sycophant. But in reality it was all about Oasis.
My twin brother, Espen, also got into Oasis. Of course this meant I had found a Liam to my Noel. Or vice versa, I hadn’t decided who I wanted to be like the most. I played the drums and he played the guitar. The unfortunate thing was that we lived in the small suburb to a rather small town and we didn’t know anyone else who played music, let alone Oasis music (yep, at this point I'm still too close-minded to embrace the larger movement called britpop).
The only possibility me and my brother had of playing music in a band with other people in our neighbourhood, was to join the local Christian choir. A gospel choir of little white kids. I played drums in the band and Espen ended up behind the desk, engineering the sound for the choir (he went on to be bloody good at sound engineering, something he still does on and off to this day). We had some really good times playing in that choir. I honed my playing skills a lot because the guys I was playing with were really good at what they were doing. But Christian Choir music isn't rock'n'roll, not matter how hard they try sometimes...
The time came for me and my brother to go to college. I applied straight away for music college. My brother, who has always been rather technically apt (hence, the instinctive expertise at sound engineering) was applying for some technical college, but applied for music as well, just for the hell of it. And we both got accepted! And if you believe in destiny, or horoscopes, or supernatural, divine interventions, then this incident was an example of all the planets aligning just right. For in music college me and my brother met two other guys with whom we would form a band: Lars, the natural lead singer; a grunge/britpop fan with an amazing, beautiful, awesome, and unique voice. And Arngeir; a classical guitarist with an incredible feel for music, who thankfully turned his energy to playing bass in the band.
We started off as "Rubens Arraba". A weird band name, sort of an internal joke. Long story short, Rubens is a painter who painted chubby angels and we used to joke about being chubby; and Arraba means four in Arabic or something - there were four band members. Later on, I would insist we change it (I tended to be a bit Noel Gallagher'esque at times and exert a bit of needless authority), and I suggested Tune, which they all went along with. I started writing songs, and soon we were on our way to illusory stardom...
Tune, from the left: me, Lars, Arngeir, and my brother Espen
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