We all harbour a secret desire to be in a band. Admit it. Even if you’ve never successfully played a bar of music in your life, you’ve basked in the adoration of an imaginary stadium of fans boisterously losing their shit over your blisteringly hot tennis racket solo or leave-it-all-on-the-bedroom floor lip sync into a hairbrush.
Slow Man Tofu brilliantly bottles the cacophonic energy that comes when one person turns to another and says, “Hey, you wanna start a band?” on the aptly named “Starting Bands”. It’s about music as therapy, music as release, music as a way of life. It’s finding kindred spirits whose first reaction to such a question isn’t to laugh, but to dream. An eruption of guitars mid-way through is the sound of potential and possibility rushing to the surface, finally free to be voiced and shared with another. You’re never alone when you’re in a band. It’s more than having safety in numbers; it’s having a sense of purpose and value.
It’s that feeling you get when you know, truly know, there’s a connection between you and another. A transcendent connection beyond physical and emotional love. It’s the connection that comes when you’re keeping time with another. Like “Starting Bands” itself, the feeling is fleeting, but in the moment there’s nothing better.