ECLIPSE

ECLIPSE

1984-1986

This band was formed from a mutual admiration of various bands like King Crimson, YES, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis, Allan Holdsworth, UK, Gentle Giant, etc. I was attending Mt, San Antonio College where I was majoring in music. While playing both drums and bass in the advanced jazz bands and combos, I became friends with a guy called Sal Misquez. Sal was the type of guy who could pick up just about ANY instrument, and within a week, be playing it well. While Sal was going to another college for other classes, he met and became friends with Geoff Martin, a bassist/vocalist/keyboardist who was also going there. I eventually met Geoff one day at Sal's while we were just messing around in Sal's garage studio. We found out we had the same interests in music, that we were all looking to get into a band, so we decided to give it a shot and see what happens. Well, the first time we played together, it was like we were meant to play together. It was uncanny really. We could all read each other musically really well. When Geoff busted out with one of his originals for us to try, Sal and I just came right in like we knew it already. We actually wrote one of our songs that very first night. Well, we got a rough version of it down anyway. We started to rehearse on a daily basis and started to come up with more and more ideas for songs that eventually turned into the songs on our live tape.

After about a month of playing together, Geoff suggested we add a guitar to the band. Sal an I agreed that it would definitely round out the sound of our three piece. So James, Geoff's brother, came in. Now James was more of a hobby type musician. Not like the rest of us of which music was our lives, so his ability on the instrument showed in comparison to the rest of us. Not to say that he was bad, just not of the same caliber as the rest of us. It was a little rough for the first few months, including our first real gig, but James eventually found his niche.

Eclipse was pretty busy for that year and a half we were together. We did a bunch of garage studio recordings at Sal's place that were pretty good, played a lot of gigs, the largest of which was the Centennial Celebration for Monrovia. We actually headlined that show, played for around 3000 people and actually got on a local radio station. Towards the last part of the band's life, we became a friends final project for his recording degree. We were able to record two songs in a full on professional 32 track recording studio, all for free. They turned out decent, but not great. Probably because it was still amateur, although done in a pro studio. But it was a great experience because we all learned so much about recording, editing, and production.

It was at this point that Sal left to pursue an opportunity in a touring band and was replaced with a friend of Geoff's, whose name I can't remember. He was a pretty good keyboardist, but had an ego that wouldn't quit, so the band finally broke up at the end of '86. I still keep in touch with Geoff, but haven't heard a thing from Sal or James in about ten years. If you guys happen to come across this page, GET IN TOUCH WITH ME!

For those that are interested, all the songs I still have copies of are available for download below.