Chapter 1

The story begins here. It was the beginning of an especially beautiful summer in 1999 in Thousand Oaks, CA. An unexpected thing happened and no one really knew what to say or do. One thing was certain though, after Ryan Campbell (drummer) left Fiasco, everyone wanted to jam with him. He didn't start jamming with people right away though as I thought would happen. It was a few months before he, guitarist Chim, bassist Ramon and I got together to work on a tune that Chim and Ramon had started after the break-up of their band, the Hip-Hop/Rock outfit Cannibus.

The song, later titled Exposed, was coming along quickly, and Campbell had the perfect candidate in mind for vocals. It wasn't long before he called Dave Perry, ex-guitarist of the recently split-up band Andromeda. It only took the memory of some awesome back-up vocals sung by Dave on an Andromeda recording for Campbell to know this was our perfect match. The band was complete. Dave came in and quickly began adhering to the material. Soon lyrics were added and Exposed was finanally a completed song. Or so we thought.

Immediately everyone felt the vibe. There was something here with this and it was good. We even called over our new friend Dizzy Reed of Guns n' Roses fame from next door to check out our new baby. Once it won his approval we knew musically we were a match. Personally, It seemed easy getting along with everyone being that we had all been friends in the same circle of people all throughout high school. We all had extremely similar tastes in music (Tool) for the most part at that time so at times it felt like we were reading each others minds when we'd write tunes. We didn't really tell any of our other friends what we were doing as we never really commited to each other as a band. It was like a bunch of horny high school jocks who wouldn't commit to one girl in fear of all the pussy they might miss out on. But unlike the meatheads, there came a point where we all realized we had something good and should stick with it for a while. Or until it proved to be too much difficulty seemed to be the attitude some of us carried occasionally.

Now, for some odd reason secrecy became something of importance for us. I think it was Campbell's idea that we all jumped onto. "Let's hide this away for a while until we get good enough so that we don't embarrass ourselves in front of our friends for our first show" is what it felt like to me at times. Probably my own insecurities being projected as a collective band thought but that's what I initially thought to myself. We worked constantly trying to build a set list. I remember visiting rehearsals that I couldn't attend while I was on duty working for a food delivery service. It was all fresh and new to us, we were attached at the hip at most times. We rarely went anywhere or did anything without another band member if not the whole band present. I think we did that subconsciously so that in case one of us came up with any ideas, the other would be around to hear it so that it wasn't forgotten. Any free time we had was devoted to helping fuel the beast.

Although we worked hard (or so it seemed), finally in around September-October of 2000, we felt like we could handle playing a gig and booked one at the Cobalt Cafe in Sherman Oaks with Krave and Whichway. Fortunately the set for that first show was only 30 minutes or else we wouldn't have had enough material. It took us about a year to write 4 songs. A FUCKING YEAR. 4 SONGS. At this point it was becoming clear that we were ALL picky bitches which may or may not have been the ultimate demise of the band. Oh yeah, it also took us a whole year to decide on the name Balance.