The band name. Unquestionably the hardest part about having a band is choosing the god-forsaken name. Yes this name is very important; it says a lot about you and your music before anyone ever hears or sees you. My question is , why can't the band just listen the guitarist's idea and accept that he is the most artistically inclined and will choose the best name?
But in all seriousness every member should agree and feel confident stepping on stage representing the idea of name-X. Boy is it a bitch to find that one name though....
The name and idea that we finally agreed to present our rockdom as was Black Bear Tribe, but you can call us BBT for short.
Everytime I tell someone this the response is usually along the lines of
"Black Bear Tribe? Where did that weird and wild name come from?!"
Well I'm going to tell you all now,so you can stop asking.
It started, as most great ideas of mine do, with The Hobbit. I knew that this band was going to produce rock of epic proportions. The only reasonable name would have to be something mythological, like Wolfmother. Most cultural mythological names of events or characters were already taken. Others were too esoteric or hard to pronounce.So I looked to my spiritual guide, Tolkien. It couldn't be too predictable though. It had to be a great character that wasn't obvious but was recognizable and bad-ass. Finally I decided on "Beorn" The mountain man protector of the woods who turns into a giant freakin black bear at night. Now if you're thinking "but that character wasn't in the Hobbit movie" dont worry he's coming in the next one. I loved the name, decided on it and had made the first full length album cover before the group even had its first jam.
I was happy as a clam with myself until a week before our first show when out of the blue my illusions came crashing down around me.
I received an email from Jason with a subject heading titled "so about the name..." I knew I was doomed.
He thought the name was too nerdy and not evocative of what we were trying to do musically.
I guess
Surely, I thought, the Jeff and Trevor don't feel this way. Short story, they did.
Now here we were, a great band, a week out from our NYC and world debut, nameless. The unspeakable horror.
Many sleepless nights. Questioning the bands existence all together. Too many bad names thrown onto the table only to be eviscerated in a matter of seconds...
Finally a glimmer of hope. The idea of Beorn simplified into the Black Bear.
Many more name of loathing: Black Bear Tea Party, Black Bear Bonanza, Black Bear Band...I needn't go on...
I thought we might as well give up on the Black Bear idea all together
But Jason insisted we stick to it because he had been seeing it in his dreams.Who was I to argue with a man's dreams? Not only that but he was thinking that he wanted to try to think of a way to incorporate his Cherokee heritage.
Jason is 50% Cherokee. Cool I know. Even cooler than that is that his grandmother was a Shaman. She was born with an extra layer of skin over her face that they have to pull off at birth and it means she has the gift of foresight. So for obvious reasons Jason was interpreting his dreams with special mystic significance.
After he told me that I knew instantly what we needed to be called. TRIBE was the missing ingredient.
A group , a family, a band of brothers with the intent of conjuring the energy of the Earth and her creatures to a higher state of being for the greater good of the world!
And thus the name Black Bear Tribe was born
now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
Excelsior,
Sam
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