(no subject)
I've been thinking and I really can't even remember when or why or by what means the simon girl became a band.This is what I can piece together so far:
The Simon Girl was a result of many things coming together at once,prompted by the hand of God. The only common ground for this formation was faith and musical background. Aaron Cook had been playing music and leading worship well before the rest of us came into the picture. His is a history unto itself.
What became The Simon Girl began to form at Seaside Community Church's college bible study in a little house where the Bray family lived, sometime around autumn of 2001. With Grant Godfrey teaching, Aaron Cook lead worship every Sunday night on a sticker plastered guitar just as he had been doing both in northern and southern California for years before. Sitting on the couches in the living room on those Sunday nights, singing along in worship to God were three musicians Aaron Cook would get to know very well in the future: Matt Beckelman, Justin Deckert and Brian Dishon. The three were well aquainted. Brian and Justin's families were very close and the two had grown up together. Matt and Brian had recently graduated together from Edison High School and on a regular basis Justin and Matt ate breakfast with their former youth pastor Adam Anastasi. Music was a common bond that they all shared. Justin, in years preceding had enjoyed a healthy run as bassist of Seaside's high school worship band with Dave Anderson singing and playing guiar and Jay Thomas playing drums. Matt's background was at first, not so much musical as sports related, playing football for EHS. He learned to play guitar sometime after recieving Christ but had been playing piano from a young age. Music had always been a part of Brian's life. He inherited his drumset from his father who had played in bar bands in and around San Antonio, TX. He and Justin made up a joke punk rock band in jr.high and tried their best to play surf music in Brian's garage. Brian had also spent jr. high and high school playing drums in the school band and various garage bands. At that time both Justin and Brian regularly played with Moses Toth on Sunday mornings at Seaside Community Church as well as every Thursday night at E.P.I.C. nights, Seaside's jr. high youth group where Matt was an active leader. Since music and in particular worship were close to their everyday lives it was only natural that one by one they began to use their gifts on Sunday nights in the Bray's living room. With Aaron Cook's permission Matt began to play a small keyboard. Brian followed playing a small set of bongos and the occasional accordian with Justin joining in on guitar. Aaron Cook's leading of worship was already recognized as being a gift of his but with Matt, Justin and Brian, there was a sense that something special was happening. Parts were coming together to form a body. Soon enough, Grant had plans in the works of having a College Sunday at Seaside, in order to display to the congregation what God was doing in the college group. As to who would lead worship it was only obvious. Aaron Cook extended this invitation to his new friends and the four made plans to form a standard band for the event with Brian playing drums, Justin playing bass, Matt playing his keyboard and Aaron singing and playing guitar. Tuesday night was the only night all four were free so for the weeks leading up to the event practice was held once a week at Seaside's youth room.
And we jammed-worship songs,aaron's songs and just jamming in general.We started working on our jams,to the point where they were becoming songs(this is all so hazy to me because this happened almost without me knowing it,but I look back and go,yeah,friggin yeah!)So anyways a youth Sunday was coming up and either Grant suggested we play or we suggested to Grant we play...regardless we played a youth Sunday and the congregation was floored.People reeeally liked us,everyone wanted a tape.It was crazy.I rocked the accordian and everyone was like "Wow I never knew you played the accordian" and I was like "Niether did I".We were invited to play a banquest for the royal family kids camp,which we did.So we were scheduled to play another youth Sunday in a couple of months.At this time I beleive we started to play on a semi-regular basis at a youth group run by a guy Matt knew from high school,called Da' Spot in Lake Forest.So we'd all pile our stuff and the four of us in Matt's truck and head down there.It was pretty cool,not a whole lot of kids,but it was what we were used to:a small tight knit group of people to lead in worship.We met Sally at Da' Spot who was this girl from england that had an amazing voice.I'm not sure if we ever practiced with her,but we invited her to sing with us on the next Sunday we played Seaside,which I believe was on the 7th of July,the day me and Justin got back,narrowly escaping a flood in Texas.Again,crowd reaction was positive.This,I think is when we started to get serious about forming and maintaining a band...
part two is on the way,but if you have anything to add or have a different take on the formation of our band write your own band history and we can compare and contrast our views to form one overall "band history".It is incredible to me how far God has taken us in this,alot of times without our knowlege,like were working on a secret project that we will only find meaning in later.
The Simon Girl was a result of many things coming together at once,prompted by the hand of God. The only common ground for this formation was faith and musical background. Aaron Cook had been playing music and leading worship well before the rest of us came into the picture. His is a history unto itself.
What became The Simon Girl began to form at Seaside Community Church's college bible study in a little house where the Bray family lived, sometime around autumn of 2001. With Grant Godfrey teaching, Aaron Cook lead worship every Sunday night on a sticker plastered guitar just as he had been doing both in northern and southern California for years before. Sitting on the couches in the living room on those Sunday nights, singing along in worship to God were three musicians Aaron Cook would get to know very well in the future: Matt Beckelman, Justin Deckert and Brian Dishon. The three were well aquainted. Brian and Justin's families were very close and the two had grown up together. Matt and Brian had recently graduated together from Edison High School and on a regular basis Justin and Matt ate breakfast with their former youth pastor Adam Anastasi. Music was a common bond that they all shared. Justin, in years preceding had enjoyed a healthy run as bassist of Seaside's high school worship band with Dave Anderson singing and playing guiar and Jay Thomas playing drums. Matt's background was at first, not so much musical as sports related, playing football for EHS. He learned to play guitar sometime after recieving Christ but had been playing piano from a young age. Music had always been a part of Brian's life. He inherited his drumset from his father who had played in bar bands in and around San Antonio, TX. He and Justin made up a joke punk rock band in jr.high and tried their best to play surf music in Brian's garage. Brian had also spent jr. high and high school playing drums in the school band and various garage bands. At that time both Justin and Brian regularly played with Moses Toth on Sunday mornings at Seaside Community Church as well as every Thursday night at E.P.I.C. nights, Seaside's jr. high youth group where Matt was an active leader. Since music and in particular worship were close to their everyday lives it was only natural that one by one they began to use their gifts on Sunday nights in the Bray's living room. With Aaron Cook's permission Matt began to play a small keyboard. Brian followed playing a small set of bongos and the occasional accordian with Justin joining in on guitar. Aaron Cook's leading of worship was already recognized as being a gift of his but with Matt, Justin and Brian, there was a sense that something special was happening. Parts were coming together to form a body. Soon enough, Grant had plans in the works of having a College Sunday at Seaside, in order to display to the congregation what God was doing in the college group. As to who would lead worship it was only obvious. Aaron Cook extended this invitation to his new friends and the four made plans to form a standard band for the event with Brian playing drums, Justin playing bass, Matt playing his keyboard and Aaron singing and playing guitar. Tuesday night was the only night all four were free so for the weeks leading up to the event practice was held once a week at Seaside's youth room.
And we jammed-worship songs,aaron's songs and just jamming in general.We started working on our jams,to the point where they were becoming songs(this is all so hazy to me because this happened almost without me knowing it,but I look back and go,yeah,friggin yeah!)So anyways a youth Sunday was coming up and either Grant suggested we play or we suggested to Grant we play...regardless we played a youth Sunday and the congregation was floored.People reeeally liked us,everyone wanted a tape.It was crazy.I rocked the accordian and everyone was like "Wow I never knew you played the accordian" and I was like "Niether did I".We were invited to play a banquest for the royal family kids camp,which we did.So we were scheduled to play another youth Sunday in a couple of months.At this time I beleive we started to play on a semi-regular basis at a youth group run by a guy Matt knew from high school,called Da' Spot in Lake Forest.So we'd all pile our stuff and the four of us in Matt's truck and head down there.It was pretty cool,not a whole lot of kids,but it was what we were used to:a small tight knit group of people to lead in worship.We met Sally at Da' Spot who was this girl from england that had an amazing voice.I'm not sure if we ever practiced with her,but we invited her to sing with us on the next Sunday we played Seaside,which I believe was on the 7th of July,the day me and Justin got back,narrowly escaping a flood in Texas.Again,crowd reaction was positive.This,I think is when we started to get serious about forming and maintaining a band...
part two is on the way,but if you have anything to add or have a different take on the formation of our band write your own band history and we can compare and contrast our views to form one overall "band history".It is incredible to me how far God has taken us in this,alot of times without our knowlege,like were working on a secret project that we will only find meaning in later.