Meet the band

You know those “Meet the Team” posts?

They can very quickly start sounding like LinkedIn.

So I was looking at the people we’ve assembled for Metropolis and noticed something much more interesting.

Nobody got here in a straight line.

There’s Colin, our production manager and sound guru. A Frenchman living in Portugal who is fluent in three languages and music.

Pascal, a first-generation Brit from France 🤔 who sounds like every American’s idea of the Artful Dodger, plays insanely great guitar and, just for fun, also plays the Chapman Stick.

Taryn, a Texas track-and-field athlete who moved to London to sing opera. Really, really high opera.

Francesco, our Italian drummer who moved to London enough years before Brexit that, luckily for us, we can now torture him by making him play electronic drums.

Olga, our Polish-born violinist living in Birmingham, who can make you weep with the sound of four strings and a bow.

Austin, California-born, Nebraska-raised in a town of about 600 people, who moved to London to study and sing rock ’n’ roll with us.

Harry, our resident Brit, equipped with a wicked sense of humor and a gorgeous pop tenor voice.

Victoria, our rebel Canadian, who packed up and moved to Los Angeles and whose only truly questionable life decision was hooking up with…

Me.

A Kentucky-born kid (over which I had no control) who discovered Sgt. Pepper, fell hopelessly in love with music, then needed some underwear one day and eventually started writing crazy mixtures of rock, pop and orchestra that sync up with silent movies.

See the pattern?

There isn’t one.

Art doesn’t travel in straight lines.

Neither do artists.

Maybe life doesn’t either.

Where you’re born. What you're good at. What grabs hold of you. What you feel compelled to do when you wake up every morning.

And maybe most importantly, how badly you want it and whether you’re brave enough to follow it.

Every person on that list is insanely talented.

But they’re also brave.

They left home. Crossed borders. Changed direction. Took chances. And chose a life with absolutely no guarantee that any of this was going to work.

All because there was something inside them they wanted to share with you.

We may all eventually end up in “an exclusive, high-security residency program focused on personal accountability and structural discipline.”

But until then…

Show starts at 7:30.

That’s it. I’m not gonna get all mushy.

See ya,

Kevin