The story of our band is a long one, but a simple one. All anyone really needs to really know is that we are the best of friends, and that this band is merely a symbol of that friendship, which continues to grow and mature with time.
And it was a long time ago, in the year of 1987, that our story actually began. Aaron was but a little 3rd grader, attending Richholt Elementary in Bismarck, North Dakota. That was the year a new kid came to town. His name was Jon. He was from Minot, North Dakota which was a 100 miles north of Bismarck up old highway 83. So Jon was in a totally new world when he walked into Richholt Elementary on the first day of school. He walked down the hall and turned into the classroom of Mrs. Ekeren, his new third grade teacher. As luck would have it, Aaron was in that very same classroom, and the two boys became friends. It might have ended there, for the next year Jon moved to a new house and school across town. But one day during that third grade year, Aaron came to class wearing his little blue Cub Scout shirt. All the patches, pins, and other adornments looked so cool to Jon that he asked Aaron how he could become a Cub Scout. Jon joined Aaron's Cub Scout troop, Troop 123, and the two became even better friends. The next year came and Jon went to a new school, but through Cub Scouts, and later Boy Scouts, their friendship held strong.
It was also that next year, fourth grade year, that another new kid came to Richhold Elementary. His name was Nolyn. This was already his third school in his short educational career. On the first day of school he happened to ask Aaron if he'd like to each lunch with him, Aaron agreed, and they were the best of friends from that day on. And so it went for years to come. Jon and Aaron in Boy Scouts, Nolyn and Aaron in school. Junior high came and Jon went to Wachter Middle School while Aaron and Nolyn attended Simle Junior High. They only rarely did things as three.
Then came the turning point: Aaron's dad, Dave, bought a beautiul red Yamaha drumset. It was the summer of 1994. Jon soon began taking time to sit down at the drumset, and was able to play simple beats immidiately. At the same time, Nolyn had finally decided to pick up one of the many guitars around his home and learn to play. Then he walked into Aaron's house one day and heard one of Jon's drumming sessions. He was intrigued. The two arranged to jam and it was left at that. Eventually they did have a jam session, but since both were so unskilled at the time, little was accomplished. But as luck would have it, the two met at a local teen club a month later and decided to try jamming again. Later that same night, Jon went back with Nolyn to hang out at his house. Nolyn showed Jon a song he was writing. Excited, Jon added a drumbeat and slowly a complete song began to emerge. Their second jam session was a revelation, a realization that they could actually create music together. Also jamming was guitarist Nick Schneider, a virtuoso of the instrument already at age 15. He was too skillful for begginers Jon and Nolyn however, and eventually became disinterested. But Jon and Nolyn were inspired. They began writing songs left and right - none of them were any good, but it was a start. Soon they decided they needed to find a bassist to complete their combo. And who better to be in their band than their best friend, Aaron? There was only one problem - Aaron couldn't play the bass, and even if he could he didn't own one to play. But when Aaron's dad heard that Jon and Nolyn wanted his son in the band he went out and bought Aaron a nice bass and amp. Not much later, Aaron began bass lessons.
The three spent the next 6 months practicing at an insane pace. Jon and Nolyn would spend a weekend writing songs and then spend the rest of the week rehearsing them with Aaron in Aaron's garage. Up until this point, they didn't actually have a singer. Jon and Nolyn would sing to the songs while they wrote them, but since neither could sing and play at the same time (they were beginners for pete's sake), they were forced to practice instrumentally in the garage. Then one fateful day in early 1995, Jon was sitting out during gym class, drumming on his thighs as usual, when he decided to sing Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" and drum to it at the same time. And suddenly, as if by some kind of divine intervention, he could do it! He rushed to practice that day and showed the band his new-found skill. And so, Jon, because he was the guy cool enough to learn how to sing and play at the same time first, was awarded the position of lead singer. Yes folks - a singing drummer. Not much later, Nolyn also became able to sing and play so an agreement was made to split the lead singing jobs of their songs evenly among them. A practical choice since their songs included both harsh screaming and normal singing. This way, after ripping their throat apart on a screaming song, the singer would have a song to rest before they had to sing normally on their next song. And so the band continued to progress and write increasingly cooler songs.
While all this wonderful stuff was going on, Nick, Jon's brother, was having a musical revolution of his own. He had picked up the one guitar in the Quijano home, a crappy old accoustic, and began to teach himself how to play. Then for his 13th Birthday he got an electric guitar and an amp. He began practicing at an amazing rate. Anyone who walked into the house would hear that electric guitar playing. He would ignore meals just to play. It seemed inevitable that he would become part of the band.
And what did they call "the band" anyway? One of the first things Aaron, Jon and Nolyn did was have a naming ceremony for their band. They spent a whole night looking through encyclopedias and dictionaries, looking for a cool name. At one point, they came upon the word "taboo." They wrote it down and continued the search. At the end of the night, they looked at all the words and decided taboo was the coolest one. Thus, the band's first name ended up being Suggestive Taboo. A decent attempt. When they had grown tired of this name, Aaron suggested the name Distorted View. The other two liked it, and so Suggestive Taboo became Distorted View. This was the name of the band when it was learned that Nolyn would be moving away to live with his dad at the end of the school year, which was only a month away. So they decided to play one show before the band was broken up. They scheduled it for early June 1995 in the backyard of Nolyn's grandparents. Rehearsals were moved to Nolyn's grandparents' garage, where Nolyn's grandfather, Ed "King" Johnson, set up his P.A. system for them and taught them how to use it. (They could only set up the P.A. system after they moved a couple tons of crap, including about 20 mattresses, out of the stupid garage first - a fun day's work) To handle a couple second guitar parts for the show, the band decided to enlist the help of Nick. Since he didn't know any of their songs, they spent the next month practicing constantly with their new guitarist. Finally there was only a week left until the concert. Expectations were running high, people were coming, and all was ready to go. But the concert never happened. Instead, Nolyn's dad came to get him a week early and like that, the band was over... or SO THEY THOUGHT.
The band spent the summer apart. Nolyn in Williston, 3 hours west of Bismarck, with his dad. Jon and Nick spent some time with their dad in New Mexico, and Aaron stayed in Bismarck with his NON-divorced family. But by the end of summer Nolyn was homesick, and went back to live with his mom. Things would never be the same though, since his mom actually lived in Mandan, across the river from Bismarck. Before, Nolyn had lived mainly with his grandparents and gone to school in Bismarck. Now he was forced by the school board to attend high school at Mandan High, away from all his old friends. Nevertheless, the band was extatic and Jon, Nolyn, and Aaron began rehearsing with Nick for another show, this time at the One World Coffee House. The band had a new name by this time - DREVLOW'S DISCIPLES. They also added another guitarist, Curt Harens, to alternate with Nick as second guitarist. The day of the show, October 14, 1995, arrived. It was the night that Drevlow's Disciples went down in flames. Uncomfortable and awkward in their first show on that little stage, the band flopped. Their confidence was severely damaged. But only a month would go by before Drevlow's Disciples played their second show, again at One World. Curt Harens was now out of the band and Nick was firmly established as second guitarist. This time they opened for another band, 5-Speed Crayon, a local punk band. The show was an amazing success!
As time went by, the band developed a pattern of having a show every month or two. They would write new songs during the time in between and then play a concert to showcase them along with the older favorites. In the summer of 1996, they even played for Jon and Nick's mother's wedding. The year of 1997 was especially interesting. In February, they began recording their first album on Jon's new 4-track recorder. The resulting album would include a mix of songs from their entire history. There were the early punky songs and the newer more heavier songs. There were also songs that easily could have been done accoustically. The album was finished by April and a concert was scheduled for May 1st to promote it. The show, played in "Archie's", Bismarck State College's student union, was one of the best performances ever by Drevlow's Disiples. And by the end of the night 25 cassettes were sold. By the end of May, every last cassette had been purchased!
(To be continued...)