…in my company newsletter, anyway. Hey, you gotta start somewhere. I offered my services, and they gave me a couple hundred words to write about musicians in the company. They even did the interviewing for me. I thought I’d put a fun spin on it.

Note: although this article is fictional, facts about each employee are entirely true.

While working late the other night, I got an unusual request. Marketing was planning a big launch event. “We hear you have some musical experience,� read the email, “and we need a soundtrack for our presentation.�
My musical experience was limited. I play electric guitar in the modern worship band at church. I did some choral singing in college, and as a kid I was stuck on Level 3 Piano for seven years. Yep, I was held back a grade in piano. I was going to need help, so I set out on a mission familiar to musicians everywhere. It was time to start a band.

I began my quest in VST sickbay, where I noticed Mike grooving to some hip-hop on headphones.

“What’s that?â€? I asked.

“Just something for this album I’m working on.â€?

“You don’t say.â€?

It turned out that Mike was an experienced writer, producer and recording engineer – having recorded music since age nineteen – and sometime percussionist. He had his own production company and was finishing up a CD, but thought he could squeeze in another project. Mike brought in a truckload of his own gear — keyboards, consoles, and software — and set up his studio in the server room. Now the band had a guitarist (yours truly) and a producer.

Next we needed a keyboard player. I turned to Bryan, whose father was an old friend of piano great Bruce Hornsby. Bryan was a veteran of several local bands, but his current gig consisted of helping out at his church. He had a collection of vintage keyboards, and also sang and played some guitar. Bryan had recorded dozens of his own songs, and would help Mike out with production.

We spent the next few lunch breaks writing, but needed more personnel – especially on vocals and in the rhythm section. The word on the eighth floor was that Steve liked to sing along to loud music. We invaded his office that afternoon, and found that in addition to singing, he could play guitar, bass, drums, sax and piano. Steve was no stranger to the music biz. He had spent over two years singing, writing and performing with a band in Charlotte, and they had recorded a full CD. It took some convincing – he wanted to finish his MBA before getting back into the scene – but he signed on as bass player and band manager.

We felt our soundtrack needed a female voice, so we hit the road. Someone had heard that a certain former employee was tearing up the DC karaoke circuit. Stay tuned.

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