The Pencils

The Pencils (circa 1994): Michael McCrickard, Brad Markum, Alan Wiseman and Larry Duke

I was a late bloomer, insofar as writing and performing music goes. I was about 26 when I bought my first real keyboard and started writing and recording songs. Alan, however, had been playing music his whole life and was already writing songs in elementary school. James McBride and Alan collaborated on a song in third grade, "I Love Amelia (and Everybody Knows It)". Alan and James both owned cheap plastic guitars that they had received for Christmas and Alan came up with a riff on his. James wrote some words to go with the riff (about the object of their mutual affection, a dreamy blonde girl in their class). James played the song for his sister Louanne, who stated flatly, "You two didn't write that song, you couldn't have." She was firm in her belief that they had just appropriated something they heard on the radio. Sometimes disbelief is the best compliment of all.

In any case, when I began writing songs in my late 20s, Alan was one of the first people I ever jammed with. Our jam sessions paved the way for The Pencils, a garage band that managed to play a few parties in the late 80s, early 90s. Mostly we practiced and jammed and partied. And partied and partied. Our finest moment came when a friend of mine agreed to let us play in a huge warehouse that he was essentially squatting in. I hesitated, warning him that we could be kind of loud. "Aww, don't worry," he said. "It's a warehouse. Nobody's gonna hear you."

He wasn't around when we came in that evening with carloads of musical gear, PAs and microphones and video equipment. I'll never forget the look on my friend's face when he showed up around 11:00 pm and we were in full tilt boogie, playing louder than we ever had before. "What are you trying to do?" he screamed. "Get me kicked out of here?"