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Getgigs:
How did you get started as musicians?
McMillan:
I had been working as a television news writer, and
about nine months ago I started to focus full-time on my
music. I had been writing songs since around 1994/1995.
I started to play open mikes as a soloist and teaching myself
to play some guitar to accompany my vocals. I knew that
I needed someone to collaborate with; I just was not sure
who that would be.
Lyda:
I
was playing music for about fifteen years but am just now
discovering myself. I was pretty much self-taught, although
I did have a few teachers.
McMillan:
Brett
can hear a song one time and know it. I just play the chords
and sing the lyrics.
Getgigs:
How did you guys start to play together?
Lyda:
The
whole thing almost never happened. I kept asking Tracy to
let me hear her music or I would say to her that we should
play together. Tracy would always say 'my style is about
feel, and other musicians don't like that'.
McMillan:
Brett said he did like that. I had just written the
song 'fossils' and
Brett started to play around with it and flesh out the rough
parts. I love all of the melody -what I refer to as 'achingly
beautiful'- and we started tinkering with each other's music.
We both ended up loving what we were doing together and
with each other's music. It evolved into a collaboration
between my lyrics and Brett's music.
Lyda:
I
describe our getting together as two sparks that happened
to catch fire at the right time. The music really took on
a life of its own. Tracy wrote this really complex stuff
but only played a few months and didn't know notes or chords.
Getgigs:
At some point you decided to play in public, what was
that like?
McMillan:
For
a first show, we decided to do a benefit. We figured we
could get a decent draw, and give the money away to a good
cause. We performed in some theater space that a friend
found for us and that another friend fixed up for us.
Lyda:
Basically,
people just donated their time to make this happen. We discovered
that a lot of people wanted to help and we raised about
$500 for a shelter/recovery home.
McMillan:
We
played about six songs and we didn't even have a name for
the band.
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