Page 1 - Escolariódico 4ª edición

ESCOLARIÓDICO
PERIÓDICO ESCOLAR QUINCENAL
Teachers rock! The story of State Line Road
15/11/2019/ /4a EDICIÓN
ESCOLAPIOS EMAÚS GENIL , GRANADA
PAUL MARTIN
Thirteen years ago three English teachers — Stuart, Hans and Paul — decided to get together and form a band. All three shared a passion for music. Stuart, a piano and guitar player, had been in several rock bands before. Hans had been playing the guitar and writing songs since he was a kid. Paul played no instruments but had sung in choirs in high school and college.
It was a good fit, and the trio decided to call themselves Bad Moons, in honour of a classic rock song called Bad Moon Rising. They played that song and other well-known songs for friends at parties, and soon a fourth teacher called Ben joined the group to play the bass guitar. Bad Moons’ first public concert was on 12 April 2007 at a pub in Granada called Peatón.
A fifth teacher who had played the drums in other groups saw the concert and accepted the group’s invitation to be their drummer. Now the band had all the elements of a proper rock band.
But playing songs by famous groups wasn’t enough, especially because Hans, Stuart and Ben had all written songs that they were proud of and wanted to share with their fans.
They needed a new name, an original one. One day Paul was telling other band members about a road that divides his hometown, Kansas City, into two parts in different American states, Missouri and Kansas. The road is called State Line Road.
As soon as Paul said it, all of them looked at each other.
“Great name!” they said. And from that moment, the band was called State Line Road, too.
After that, the band played concerts a few times a year, practiced nearly every weekend in the attic at Stuart’s house — and started recording their first album, “eXist”. Music was just their hobby and there wasn’t money or time to record in a professional studio.
But little by little, they recorded the songs up in Stuart’s attic, which had no studio-style soundproofing. Once, a neighbor’s dog barked while Hans was recording. Instead of getting upset, Hans decided to use the dog’ bark to open a song called “Distracting the Emperor”
Finally, the album was ready in August 2009. Thirteen original songs on a truly “homemade” production. People liked it, and the band sold almost all of the 1,000 CDs they ordered.
Lots of things have changed in the band members’ lives over the years. Stuart, Hans and Ben became fathers, while Paul finished raising his own children. Stuart and Paul left their first school and came to be teachers at Escolapios Genil. Ben moved to Murcia, where he teaches in a public school.
And the band changed drummers several times, but never really connected with any of them — until the night that they presented their second CD in a concert at Escolapios. The new album was called “Second Generation”, and they had recorded it in much better conditions than the first album — in a semi- professional basement studio at the home of an all-Escolapios family. Thanks again to Antonio and Carolina!
The benefit concert State Line Road played that night in September 2017 at Escolapios was a success. Lots of money was raised to support Escolapios’ Itaka charity, whose projects help many families in Granada and other cities.
The concert was also a farewell to the band’s drummer George, another teacher/musician who had recorded “Second Generation” with the band but was leaving Granada to go back home to Ceuta. What State Line Road’s remaining members didn’t know was that, just like 10 years before, in the crowd at the concert that night was the man who would become the band’s new drummer.
His name is Ed, he plays practically every instrument ever used in a rock band — and he’s performed with quite a few. He’s a talented, knowledgeable musician who brought a new beat and new energy to State Line Road, a decade after they started up.
In the two years since the Escolapios concert, the band has played twice in the Aliatar, one of Granada’s best known music venues, and shared a stage with four other rock bands in the Apolo Rock Festival in Cartagena, Murcia.
This year State Line Road is working on new songs which they hope to start recording sometime next year. No one knows what the name of their third album will be, or exactly when it will come out. For this band, the most important thing is to enjoy making music and, if possible, to share a little bit of that love and joy for music with all their fans, young and old.
If you want to see and hear State Line Road, you can go to their YouTube channel, State Line Road Band, or follow them on Facebook. Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know about their next concert!
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