Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. And so on.

File this one under "Learning Experiences."

Recovering from losing our singer back in January, the band was understandably a little shaken up. Each of us responded to the stress in out own way.

My response was to keep pushing hard and working on anything possible to keep up our momentum. New songs, putting up flyers and messages trying to find someone new, managing the album release... anything to keep moving.

You could feel the negativity slinking thick through the air at practice. Progress on new material was frustrating and everything felt sloooooooooooooooooooooooow.

We decided to take a month off from the band.

I spent time talking to everyone to see what we could figure out was the cause. We wanted to get the energy back, but until we knew what was sapping it, we were stuck.

Finally, it came out.

It wasn't fun anymore.

My initial response to the stress of losing a singer was to push hard, and it was this push that drove the fun out everything. Practice was somber because we were "not making enough progress."

You can feel when a song is lifeless. Even though every note was spot on, there wasn't a heartbeat to a single measure.

With all the business advice and focusing on "getting things done", it's easy to get caught up in 'work mode'. But, above all else, music is about Love.

So I tabled my "to do" list, forgot all the grandoise plans, and we started jamming for the sake of jamming.

And all was right again.