New Keyboardist?

When I initially sent out my Facebook emails regarding recommendations for keyboard players, one of the other people that responded was my old UGA piano department friend Jake...he said he would totally love to do it, but he was still living in Eugene, Oregon and obviously wouldn't be around. Well, a couple weeks ago, I got a random call from Jake saying that he's coming back to Georgia and wanted to see if the position in the band was still open. At this point, we HAD found Emily, but since we found her first and she fit the female backup singer slot we were looking for, we weren't really considering replacing her, despite the fact that Jake is possibly a better rock pianist than both of us (definitely when it comes to classical).

It just so happens though that it was right around this point that I started realizing how nice it would be if I didn't have to be attached to my keyboard at all times during a show and could instead be running around acting like a proper frontman, so it just made sense to view Jake as a replacement for me, not Emily. Ultimately, I would still play keys when I wasn't singing, but then I would leave the parts up to Jake so I could go be as charismatic as possible (and focus on my singing).

So, Jake's not moving back to Georgia until mid-September, which is when I'll be in Europe, so we won't get a chance to audition him until the first week of October or so. In the end, the audition won't really be to see how well Jake can play (I already know he's good to go) but rather how much he's feeling the music and wants to commit to being with the group. At this point, I really hope he does, both to have another good friend in the group and also to alleviate some of my onstage responsibilities.