The next morning, luffy told his unsuspecting friend about the song. This friend of luffy is me (Ameen), at the time I was into hip hop. I have been since I was a kid and loved the idea that words can be a magnificent and beautiful thing if correctly used and arranged. Anyway back to the story, Luffy told me that he needed me to make up some lyrics for his song. I hesitated, cause you see I was into hip hop and at the time the idea of a band was disgraceful and a betrayal to what I love. But seeing that Luffy was a good friend and in a way persuasive, I decided to give it a shot. Ladies & gentleman..this is the moment when it all started.
Once I was aboard of Luffy’s plan..we hang out regularly at G5’s shop. Still at the time we were not sure what we were doing. I don’t know whose idea it was, but seeing that we were already there trying to make a song happen, we should take the opportunity to make a band. Luffy was good with drums, Deal & Adul were good with guitars. So they decided to find a vocalist and play bass. The first choice to play bass was G5, even though he could not play a single instrument, the others persuade him to learn it. When I say persuade I meant they force him to play it, hahaha :D G5 when thru hell to play bass, he learned the basic chords with Deal & Adul on his back constantly screaming if he made a mistake. But im sure that it was that experience that made G5 good at what he is doing now J and also G5 was the first one to buy an instrument amongst the band members (you see what determination and a few sessions of torturing can do to the human mind..hehehe).
With a drummer, 2 guitarists and a bassist on board, it was now time to search for a vocalist. This part of the story is somewhat frustrating and tiring. We all decided to start with our friends, we found a bunch of people to audition for the spot. Its was a long..long journey to find the suitable one. Alas not one of them was suitable..some have an accent, some were not into it, some don’t have the voice for it. Then Luffy gave me the chance to try it out. Now, I have something to confess, I am not the vocalist type. I don’t have the voice range to sing. Im pretty much tone deaf (its when you cant differentiate the vocal range of highs and lows). So indeed we have a problem, plus I wasn’t into rock music. So I learned and learned to find my voice, with the help of Luffy & Deal and the rest was as they say history.(Thanx for giving me the opportunity guys).
So..we were all set and ready to go. The only thing left to do is find a name for the band. At this moment we were already jamming at a studio. Since we haven’t find an agreeable name we just called ourselves Bandana, this name was Luffy’s idea of a joke and it first came up when we were paying for a jamming session in a studio. The guy working there asks us to whom the receipt was made out for and Luffy wrote Bandana. Seeing that the name Bandana was just a joke we all agreed on the name of Circle of Emotions, as most of our songs are related to emotions. But we found out that there was a band that almost has the same abbreviation as ours. So we searched for a new name..again. This time around I was given the honor of doing it. So I turned to someone for advice on finding a cool name. At the time I was in a relationship with a girl that totally digs alternative rock music and has a vast experience and knowledge about it. So I asked her what would be a cool name that has an actual meaning but no one knows about it. She remembers a song title by Butterfingers that she used to hear..the song was called ‘Epitome’. I was astonished by that particular name as the meaning was the embodiment, an excellent example of something. So I came up with The Epitome of Tragedy. Meaning that we were the example of a tragedy, because that was how it all started. The others agree and it became official for a while. Soon after some of us had trouble saying the name, as it was a mouthful. So we decided to shorten it to ‘De Epitome’.
And that was our history as a band. It all started with a simple rhythm. Now we are still holding on to our dreams and because of that we had been thru a lot of difficult times as a group. I know for a fact that being in a band is difficult because a band consists of not only 1 person. So sometimes one can disagree with one’s idea. But Alhamdullilah we are still here doing what we love. 3 years, 7 singles and still 1 dream.I have a lot of story to catch up, but this is all for now.
(Blindnecros-De Epitome)
