I have blogged a few times about my tenure as bassist for The Get-Up – a band that re-forms once a year for a weekend of playing a mixture of original songs and covers. The originals are mostly songs that have been written by an individual band member and fleshed out as a band.

After 10, yearly gatherings, our keyboardist, David Husted (aka “Dave”) got the idea in his head that maybe we should write and record a new song as a part of the 2018 band weekend.
In preparation, he suggested that we each submit a song for inspiration and some lyrical snippets.
(YouTube playlist of the songs submitted)
I had recently seen a headline via New Scientist‘s twitter feed, (“Why now doesn’t exist, and other strange facts about time.”)
I jotted some things in a Google doc and shared it with the band with the thought of a theme of people/time passing & making the most of the time we have.
We were able to get past a “philosophical disagreement with the theme of this song” by drummer/guitarist Alan Schwartz – citing “Some would say that ‘now’ is the only moment that exists.”

Friday night is usually practice for an audience-less “concert” early Saturday evening. While we did practice some songs, we also worked on some chord progressions for the new track. I believe Alan and Bill O’Driscoll were instrumental in this phase. (Memory can be a little spotty as the sampling of craft beers is an integral part of these weekends.)

The Saturday concert was replaced by a recording session during which Dave donned the mantle of recording engineer as Alan, Bill and I, separately, sang and played the various pieces. We did not attempt to record drums as a part of this session due to time constraints. Alan played acoustic guitar and some tambourine, with Bill supplying the electric and myself dribbling in some bass guitar – all under Dave’s super “vision.”

Alan had had a bit of an epiphany which resulted in the chorus and we worked the chord progressions practiced the previous evening into a dough that we were able to shape into verses and chorus with an interlude. While Alan was recording some of his parts (vocals on the chorus, I think), Bill and I scurried down the hall to complete the verses. We mostly ended up singing what we wrote, but there was some overlap.

After we went our separate ways (some Head East – others Journey), Dave went to work on taking what we had committed to bits and working it into a viable song. We were all quite impressed with what he was able to accomplish – adding drums, keyboards, other midi sounds & some signature Husted backing vocals. He also rearranged things a bit and made Bill’s verse into a bridge. After some suggestions from each of us, Dave tweaked, then mixed and mastered what we have deemed our single.

And “Now”…

The Moment That Doesn’t Exist
Written & performed by The Get-Up

Featuring:
Alan Schwartz: Acoustic guitar, lead vocals (chorus), background vocals, percussion

Bill O’Driscoll: Electric Guitar, lead vocals (bridge)

David Husted: Keyboards, midi madness, drum programming, background vocals, production, mixing/mastering

Ed Bejzak: Bass guitar, lead vocals (verses), background vocals

Spotify:

iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-moment-that-doesnt-exist-single/1451132968

CD Baby:
https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/TheGetUp1