The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, February 10, 1994 - 3 Violet Wine performs on campus, waits for big break By DARCY LOOKMAN If all success stories have humble beginnings, Violet Wine just might be the latest tale of triumph in the making. Late evening on North Cam- pus and the evolving rock band be- gins practicing amidst the broken chair-desks and black steel music stands of a second floor music school classroom. Musty chalk odor and barely tuned piano, you'd be hard ressed to find a humbler beginning. ut singer / lyricist / keyboardist Jeff Rosenberg remembers the old days and attempts it. "We used to practice in a State Street basement "I would sa full of scary and time next y obscene things," he shudders, US to havei laughing. Appar- some serioi *ndMy, rehearsal conditions are And that'si looking better for that I wouli the band these days, as is their in music an status in the Ann think at the Arbor music scene. After nine we haven't long months on something ' the fraternity arty / Cava Java ourselves ti ircuit, Violet would chan Wine will play a coveted spot at direction. A theBlindPignext feel like I'm Tuesday night. They didn't forward..." always think they'd get there. For awhile, they didn't even know 1'+ I, n ai .I After helping Rosenberg break a national Subway submarine selling record (231 in one hour), Justin Yunke became the band's permanent drum- mer. Recently, Yunke's scholastic commitments forced him to leave the band. Tonight, Matt Miller sits where Yunke would have been just weeks before, on the metal stool in front of a rickety drum kit. Due to another re- cent departure (that of singer Gary Thomas), Rosenberg takes over on vocals. In this room stands the new Violet Wine, together for the first time in their present f at this incarnation. ear I expect Humble begin- nings. eally made "I'm lost," is progress. says Miller, hav- ing trouble keep- iot to say ing up with "Va- l not work cation" as he at- tempts it for the ymore, but I first time. t point if "You're just doing the down- really done beats on the sec- 'or ond half of the eighth bar," ex- tat we plains Siegel. ge They start over. This time s long as I Miller gets it and moving the four get lost in their music as it carries them off Errol Siegel of North Campus and onto a stage in front of a screaming crowd. But only for a brief moment. They end rather abruptly and Miller glances questioningly at Siegel, drum sticks mid-air. "We haven't totally figured out how to end it yet," the guitarist says apologetically. "Well, the end is sort of like the beginning - one of those," Rosenberg does a drum roll on the cymbals with his fingers in explana- tion. The four - a picture of Gap- grunge, late-night scruffiness-move on to the next song. "Miss Mary's head was ticking like a bomb," sings an unamplified, barely audible Rosenberg, "Any dose of aspirin had long since been gone." Miller cuts in, "I'm really drown- ing in this stuff so far." "The arrangement's kind of funny," Abramson allows. "You're doing fine," Siegel com- forts. "All you need to do is keep a steady tempo," Rosenberg advises. It is a bizarrely tender scene, these three recent University of Michigan graduates training their new drum- mer: the music is their baby, and ANASTASIA BANICKI/ Daily Violet Wine spends more time in practice rooms than on playgrounds. Need proof? Go hear Siegel, Abramson and Rosenberg (Miller not pictured) at the Pig. vho they were going to be the next day. In the last year, the band has gone tbrough three singers, two bass play- es and countless scab drummers. They even changed their name once. But from the beginning, there have been two - Rosenberg and guitarist/ songwriter Errol Siegel. Rosenberg remembers, "Three years ago I put an ad in The Daily, 'Seeking serious musicians.' About 6 guitar players showed up. Errol was one of them." More humble be- ginnings. Tight Violet was born. Siegel and Rosenberg "hung out and wrote songs" for awhile - wait- ing to find a bass player, a drummer and a "killer female vocalist." They got all three. But the bass player ran off with the singer, and the drummer ran off to do Club Fabulous, leaving Qhe keyboardist and the guitar player fight back where they started, less the tname Tight Violet. Enter basist Lee "J Cool" 4Abramson. "They stole me from an- opther band," tells the erstwhile psy- chology major, "I believe they called .themselves 'Another Grateful Dead mover Band.' I didn't like the Grate- :'ul Dead." THUR 9 FRIDAY First Ligh Abramson, Siegel and Rosenberg take great pains to ensure Miller learns to care for it properly, that he does not drop it on its precious head. They begin again. This time, the drummer holds steady. Rosenberg gives him a thumbs up. Once more, Violet Wine has metamorphisized. With the exception of Miller (a junior at Spring Arbor College), the members of Violet Wine are now full time musicians. Their commitment comes through in the music. Even as they rehearse in the acoustically im- perfect classroom with both new singer and new drummer, the progress Violet Wine has made since last summer's recording of their first al- bum ("Violet Wine") is clear. While not necessarily more polished, the band's sound is cleaner, more fun. But what exactly are they singing about? "Jeff's lyric writing is pretty much stream of consciousness," says Siegel. Take "Tie Up the Cat" for ex- ample. Explains Rosenberg, "If you've ever had sex in a room with someone who has a pet and likes them a lot, they (the pet) get really jealous and want attention. So tie up the cat is like, okay, remove your pet from the room." So your songs are about sex? "No," he continues, "The song is about a house full of random people and they're all kind of wrapped up in their own stuff, so they don't really know what their roomates are doing. The point of it being, yeah, we're weird but it's not necessarily a happy thing." So your songs are about college? "No, it's about a guy, and obviously he's depressed." Enough questions. While happy to be playing the Blind Pig - as well as to be appear- ing semi-regularly at local spots like CavaJava, Rick's and Cross Street- Violet Wine acknowledges they have a long way to go before they make it. How long do they give themselves? "I would say at this time next year I expect us to have really made some serious progress. And that's not to say that I would not work in music any- more, but I think at that point if we haven't really done something for ourselves that we would change mu- sical direction. As long as I feel like I'm moving forward...," Siegel trails off. Abramsonjumps in, "Five to seven years. My degree doesn't help me at all, and I can't bear the thought of going back to school until I'm like 30 or something." Rosenberg speaks next, "If a year from now, we're not a hell of lot better off, I don't know, maybe I'll seek something a little, I don't know, something not exactly what I'm do- ing now." Miller hesitates, "I got the gig a week ago so I don't know. I'm willing to give it what it takes. I know people ' that tried other musical ventures that spent 10, 20 years doing odds and ends, but when they did make it, they made it really big." The band picks up their instru- ments and begins yet another song in this cluttered classroom in the dark- ness between Bursley and the North Campus Commons. Humble begin- nings. The stuffof every success story. VIOLET WINE will play Tuesday, February 15 at the Blind Pig. I 'I SDAYS -IA! MEN IN )fi kerFREEOSO I S. ML CE $ # PITCH. 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