message from Kasim

NOVEMBER,
In all honesty, I wasn't looking forward to the Utopia tour.
It wasn't the Utopia that I was a part of and my role in the band for these shows was simply singing background vocals.
I was certain it was going to be 3 weeks of thumb twiddling.
I've never been comfortable on stage without playing some kind of instrument
As much as I love singing, I need to be holding more than a microphone to be at ease.
The rehearsals were short and unfortunately, after the second day it became apparent that Moogy wasn't going to be able to tolerate any amount of traveling given his health.
Having to make the decision to go forward without Moogy and have him join us for the shows that were closer to home was a difficult one.
Given the fact that Moogy was the main reason we were doing these shows in the first place, missing his persona on stage, his distinct playing and his bad jokes was going to be hard.
Of course it could be done but it wasn't the way anyone wanted this tour to proceed.
Todd mentioned that I might be able to pick up some of the slack on what we'd be missing without Moogy's keyboards and I gladly jumped at the chance to busy myself with the challenge.
I'm not a great keyboardist. I'm nowhere near as proficient as one needs to be in order to play this kind of music but little by little I'm picking up parts here and there and I'm happy to go the extra mile to help round out the sound.
After a week on the road I can honestly say it's one of the best tours I've done.
John Siegler, Ralph Schukett and Kevin Ellman are some of the nicest guy's I've ever had the pleasure to work with.
Not only great musicians but wonderful to be around too.
Considering I've spent so much time in the past with musicians who 'thought' they were extremely good, it's refreshing to be around those who really are.
So, I've gone from dreading a tour to not looking forward to it ending.
Funny how life works.