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Watashi Wa
Biography
Watashi Wa
watashi wa began in the winter of 1996 and consisted of four friends; Seth Roberts who was 13, Denny Raike who was 13, Brendan Alvord who was 14, and his little brother Kevin who was 12. Seth met Brendan at winter camp because they both had a crush on the same girl. But they soon became good friends and realized that they both shared a love of music. Getting inspiration from bands such as MxPx, Value Pac, Ghoti Hook, Ninety Pound Wuss, Green Day, Dogwood, Weezer, The Supertones, and others, they learned to play guitar together and, because there wasn’t much else to do besides skateboard, they decided to start a band. Brendan told his little brother Kevin to buy a bass, Seth’s old friend Denny started playing drums at just the right time, and Watashi Wa was born. They got their name from Burl Jensen, who is pretty intelligent in a bizarre, twisted sort of way. Burl went to the same school as Seth and was good friends with Jeremy Wells who played in the other local band, Noggin Toboggan. Noggin Toboggan took Watashi Wa under their wing, getting them their first show and helping them out whenever possible. They began to play more and more locally and developed a name for themselves. But just as things were beginning to look good for them, the worst thing a 13-year-old boy could imagine happened. Brendan and Kevin’s family had to move away. They moved more than eight hours away to Weaverville because their dad was a firefighter and was transferred. There were rumors that they would move back but everyone had a feeling that it wasn’t going to happen, and in the end they were right. They didn’t come back. A lot of people were affected when the Alvords moved away. They had a lot of close friends and it was a pretty sad time for everybody that knew them. This is where Mike Newsom and I come into the story. I had known the Alvords since elementary school and had actually moved away but gotten to know them again when I met Seth at summer camp. Mike met them through Seth as well. Mike and I were there when Watashi Wa started and wanted to start a band of our own. We bought guitars together and practiced all of the time. Mike excelled at it immediately, whereas I was not quite as good. Mike even almost joined Watashi Wa as a third guitarist. Some of the funnest times I can remember are of hanging out with Seth, Denny, Kevin, and Brendan; going to their concerts and practices, riding the bus to Paso Robles to skate on Kevin and Brendan’s halfpipe, and sleeping over at each others houses. It was very hard for everybody when Kevin and Brendan moved away and it looked like Watashi Wa would call it quits. But at the beginning of everyone’s freshmen year, Seth and Denny decided that they didn’t want the band to end. Seth made a few phone calls and asked Mike and I if we would want to try to replace our old friends. It really was a dream come true. Despite a few obstacles; I didn’t own or know how to play a bass guitar, my step mom didn’t want me to be in a band, my parents made me play sports in school so I didn’t have a lot of free time (are you noticing most of these obstacles have to do with me?), we ended up making everything work out. We began practicing at Denny’s house, writing new songs and learning old songs, and played our first concert together at a church in San Luis Obispo during the fall of our freshmen year. We began to play more and more, with the help of Noggin Toboggan and the few contacts Seth had made, but after a couple of months Denny decided that he didn’t want to be in the band anymore. What more could go wrong? But we all prayed that God would work something out for us because we loved playing together so much and we didn’t want to give it up just yet. And no more than a few days later, Seth met a drummer from Arroyo Grande at a rehearsal for a choir festival. They were sharing a room at the hotel they were staying at and became good friends almost immediately. Lane practiced the next week with all of us and we were all amazed. God had blessed us with someone who had so much more talent than we had ever expected. Musically, we clicked almost instantly, and although it was a little awkward at first, after practicing every weekend for a month at Seth’s dad’s office in San Luis and hanging out together whenever we could, we became really good friends. It really was a whole new band that had started, it just so happened that we had the same name. After that first month we decided we wanted to record. Seth’s friend Will Steffenauer helped us to record at the Nazarene church in Atascadero and we went on to mix and master it with Thomas Gingell at Moon Studios in Arroyo Grande. The result was Stephen’s First Time Out, a ten song EP that we were all very happy with at the time. We all had a really good time and learned a lot in the process. I think it was then that we decided that this was what we all wanted to do with our lives. That was almost four years ago. Since then, we’ve grown together spiritually, musically, and as friends. We’ve played countless small shows, a couple of big ones, went on a very haphazard tour, made hundreds of friends, and have loved every second of it. There have been a lot of trials (feel free to ask us about them, we all have our own stories and perspectives and would love to share them), but because they haven’t killed us they’re only making us stronger. Because of school and families and sports and the like it has been a very slow process getting to where we are now, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. Now that we are all out of school we are so excited about getting the chance to play music as a serious full time job and we’re going to try our hardest to make it happen. So far it has been an amazing experience and I know that I am so lucky to be a part of it. I’m very excited about what’s to come in the future. By Roger Tompkins |
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