I was in this band called Sister Soleil. What a rollercoaster. Started out playing small shows in Chicago then it got wacky. Biggest show we ever played was in front of 14,000 people, with Everclear.
Other bands we played with included: Slipknot, Outkast, Chumbawumba (no lie), Stabbing Westward.
A picture of early Sister Soleil when we practiced near Hubbard st and ogden in Chicago:
Eventually we ended up recording an album at Realworld studios, Peter Gabriel’s studio in England. It was pretty nice. In this picture you can see how it looks out on a pond.
It was a long, grueling recording session, interspersed with tea — with milk in the tea of course.
The album was produced by various people, including Bobby Hukic (with the tattoos), who has been at various times involved with Chicago bands Ministry and Marz, and Robert Smith (right), a British dude.
This picture is of me with Stella Katsoudas and Grey Parker onstage. Stella created the band; it was her thing, and she was gracious enough to invite me to play live when I first heard her cassette demo through friend Howie Beno who was producing it, and i wondered if she thought it might sound cool with some flute. It worked pretty well and then I roder the rollercoaster from thereon.
I always wore sunglasses onstage, and usually black — eventually Stella got me to try wearing some hip hoppish threads.
At the time, it was heaven for me to travel around, playing shows. I loved life on the road. I thought to myself, “This is what I’m doing for a living, I don’t need to finish that master’s degree”. But I did end up finishing my M.A. thesis on the tourbus.
And I’m glad I did.
