We didn’t get together until nearly one year later for Chicago Calling Four, Fall, 2009 in Chicago. This time it was different; I wanted to do something completely out of character for me. So I strung together what I dubbed my own “punk opera,” entitled DP (which stood for the word depression)-A Sound Text Punk Opera, which was based on my own mental illness. I had previously toyed with at least one of the pieces beforehand and felt the other two pieces, one an actual unpublished essay on that very subject, plus a a poem, in which I changed one word so I could disguise it.
In mid-September, 2009, I asked Clean Boys to be a part of it and asked them to compose music for the first two parts; first part being a sort of rocknroll composition that would collapse suddenly at the end, while the second part required a jazz score; the third part would consist of the drummer hitting his kick pedal against his drum kit, whilst the other members of the band would speak in foreign languages other than their own native tongues. By this time, I had lost my job. We were communicating almost exclusively by Skype, texts and emails by now. Every few weeks I’d go to a local library, reserve a room and talk to them. Turnaround time on the compositions was less than two weeks. I was astonished, if not completely amazed!
We did one dry run rehearsal at the public library that nearly caused a riot! I had to not to blow my Shofar so loud though, that was the trick and of course, curious onlookers pressed closely to the windows to see what was going on. We were on our way.
In early October, we were ready. The show at Mercury Cafe in Chicago seemed to go off okay, but there was one catch; while one could see hear them physically, you couldn’t see them at all; we lacked a wall or a film screen to project them onto. That would change at the late October, 2009 performance that followed Chicago Calling at HyperMedia. Their images were projected onto a giant wall, appearing as if the four of us were onstage together for the very first time. That was experimental and thus began the task of negotiating for a decent time slot for both us and Clean Boys. Circumstances and time slots were not always negotiable, however when it came to dealing with hosts and artists running venues, however. It always seemed to be a matter of art snobbery and eggshell tiptoeing or groveling; not always a good choice, but such is the case in a city like Chicago. I managed to get them and us a total of 28 minutes, which by the venue’s standards, was already way too much time. Of course, Pedro kept the pressure on to get them even more time, but the more I pushed, the less responsive and more iron-fisted the venue became.
But I completely understood Pedro, because they were getting up in the middle of the night to perform. Shows that I would often collaborate on with them involved a six-to-seven hour time difference. If say for example, it was 9 pm in Chicago, it was 4 am in Denmark. And unless they were reporters, law enforcement personnel, firefighters or lumberjacks, getting up at early meant something completely different and so, 28 minutes meant little if nothing at all!
By the time all was said and done, however, Clean Boys and myself had a powerful product and that’s when Pedro proposed that I should come overseas to tour with them.
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