We Are The Curse-Breakers:How I Met Clean Boys>Chapter 4

Not until we had a record, I wrote him back. But even before it began, I told him that we had enough material from the three performances combined for recorded material, but that wasn’t good enough for Pedro; he wanted to newly record the tracks. To me at the time and still to some degree, live recorded tracks are so much better than recorded studio tracks, simply because studio recordings can appear stilted, whilst a live track is tingling with the element of surprise and the endless possibility of wrong vocals or chords or any number of things.

I thought this would be so easy. All I had to do was book a venue to record live at, not perform for an audience-not that I would be able to get one; my biggest dilemma to date, but another time for this tale. And what venue could possibly be the place for me? None other than Swing State, a former 1920s speakeasy, now teenage non-alcoholic nightclub in the far northwest suburbs of chicago.

So I booked the date in advance, set for February 7, 2010, an midnight session for me; for Clean Boys, they would be online with us at 7 am Denmark time. I remember at the time, how a lot of my musician friends thought how crazy and cool the concept was. Who in their right mind would want to record a record on a Sunday morning?

That was the least of our worries. It had been a good New Year’s Eve, though, I can’t recall where I was, the day after, January 2, 2010, that goodness faded to a glimmer, when Swing State reported via Myspace, that a fire had broken out and as a result, the club would be closed until further notice. That was devestating to hear, if not think. Just five weeks away from our recording session and I thought that it was cursed.

Not so, said Pedro reassuredly told me both on Skype and in emails , “we are the curse-breakers,” he would tell me over and over. So, it was my job to find a new venue that would take us on; I must have written at least six proposals to coffeehouses, performance spaces and clubs. There were a few who dug the idea, but didn't have the Internet capability at the time, some who claimed their landlord would allow such a performance to take place because it was against the rules, according to their lease and the rest of them? well, they never bothered to respond. I was getting worried as the date inched closer.

Then another glimmer of hope sprang out of nowhere-an offer that seemed too good to be true.