I’ve been fired

I have never been fired from anything in my life. That changed last night.

I was fired from my band.

I have been dealing with allergies my whole life. Something causes mucus to pool over my vocal cords, and I lose part of my singing range. It’s kind of like having a dry throat. If I can clear out the mucus, I am fine for a few minutes and then it comes back. The flareups usually last about a week or two and then I dry out. When we moved to Colorado last year, my allergies were the same as they’ve always been.

This year, however, has been completely different. My symptoms have been consistent since February. I’ve been to an allergy specialist and to an ear, nose and throat-specialist that people like Stephen Tyler fly in to see. I’ve been on antibiotics, antihistamines, steroids and asthma medicine. Nothing has helped. I was told to give up acidic food like tomato sauce, coffee (yikes), oranges and alcohol, and I did. Finally, I decided to start the five-year allergy injection process to try to get the problem solved once and for all. It takes two weeks to create the allergy cocktail, so I haven’t had a shot yet.

I guess the band ran out of patience. I understand. It’s been frustrating for me too. There were four or five songs that I wasn’t comfortable singing when I couldn’t hit the notes comfortably. I suggested coming up with a Plan B, so that on my off-nights, we could still play our four-hour show and not skip songs or plow through them at 80%. That idea was shot down, and I’m okay with that. I joined them, and it was their band. At the end of the day, we do this because it’s fun. If it’s no longer enjoyable, there’s no reason to continue to do it. You don’t become a musician so you can have a J-O-B!

I’m sad, but not heartbroken. I’m a firm believer in worrying only about what you control.

A few days ago, I wrote about having unfinished music I recorded sitting on my hard drive, and how I wanted to finish it. Strangely enough, I decided yesterday morning in the shower that I was going back into the studio to finish the recordings once and for all. You can hear some demos here: https://soundcloud.com/chris-lafata-music or here. I had never even played in a cover band until about five years ago, and original music was always my passion. It’s also therapeutic for me (just like writing).

I will miss hanging out with the guys in the band. They are all fun to hang out with and are good musicians. I have absolutely no hard feelings. Of course, they’ve told me we should hang out, and maybe we will, but my experience is that you hang out with people you that you share activities–whether it be your job, your kids, your neighborhood (yes, I know a neighborhood isn’t an “activity,” but you get the idea), or your band. When you no longer share those interests, your “close” friends tend to drift away.

My writer friends are probably thinking that I should focus on more writing, but I’m not wired to do just one thing. I need to be well-rounded. Besides, music has always been a huge part of my life.

I’m excited. I get to go back to writing music, playing acoustic shows, and maybe get an original band again. Besides, is anyone really going to miss me singing Jesse’s Girl?

I think not.