20 Minutes

The Blog section of the website is starting to fill nicely, with ten song stories already posted. And for the eleventh, we come to song #11 on the ‘Running Behind Time’ album, which is called ’20 Minutes’.

Musically, I wanted the melody to be driven by a mid-tempo funky groove pattern, which is quite similar to how ‘Said it Before’ (described previously) came about. I worked with the original studio engineer who played bass on the song, to create a pattern between drums and bass guitar which drives the melody. For the hi-hat and ride patterns, I play quarter notes, but on the 2 and 4 (rather than 1 & 3), to accentuate the funk vibe. I played drum fills in a chopped, broken style, to compliment the funky feel of the song. You can hear my 8’’ tom featuring a lot here.

When I later had the album reproduced at a different studio, the studio engineer/producer (who is a guitarist) there, played additional guitar tracks that were not present on the original recording, and which added a level of guitar melodies that really gave a unique character to the song.

The lyrics were inspired by a gig I played at a couple of years previously when I was playing drums with a local Hungarian rock band. The name of the venue translates as The Screaming Rat Black Hole, which probably tells you all you need to know about the place 😆. It was situated in an outlying town adjacent to Budapest. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t exist anymore (the venue I mean, not the town 😂).

We were one of the bands in a type of band marathon event, and as these things usually go, it ran over time. Hence, for the final few bands in the evening, each band was limited to a 20-minute time slot, with about 10 minutes changeover time between bands. Which was challenging, to say the least 😊

We managed to get set up and play our set in the allotted time, and actually delivered a good show. When we were leaving the stage, I stood aside to let the following band members get on stage quickly, but their drummer and one or two of the others (who obviously had a few beers too many while waiting 😁) were quite abusive towards me, saying I was blocking them. And they were complaining about only having 20 minutes to play their spot.

I quickly got away from the bandstand with my other band mates, and we went to bar area to have a post-gig beer, and listen to the band who followed us. Needless to say, they were atrocious, much to our amusement 😂.

That night at home, I was thinking about how ridiculous the whole event was, but also something to laugh at. The ’20 Minutes’ basis of it gave me ideas about having to deliver a show and make an impression, all in 20 minutes. And then pack up your show and move on to the next venue. Almost like a vaudeville act. This is what the lyrics are making a wry commentary about 😊