Surrogate Child was the name of the band I played bass in between approximately 1996 to 1998. We played around Atlanta with a couple of different lineups and really tried to make something of ourselves, but we never really succeeded in finding our sound.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. We practiced consistently and tried to find good gigs, but something just wasn’t there.
Our vocalist and principal songwriter was Chase Jones. He also played guitar when necessary, but preferred having a lead guitarist to handle anything serious. When we recorded our demo CD (you can hear two songs below), I played all of the lead parts in addition to bass. Harold “H Cool” (though he didn’t get that nickname until later on) Johnson handled rhythm guitar (acoustic) and backing vocals. For the majority of the Child’s existence, drums were the domain of Rick Ortiz. There is very little of consequence to say about him.
Yes, I'm playing a pink bass.
Rounding out the lineup was usually a lead guitarist. Our first lead player was a guy whose name I can’t remember. That’s OK, because I can’t remember a single note he played either. He wasn’t exactly unskilled, but he was a bit aimless on the fretboard. I tried to help him out, but at the time, the closest I was able to come to constructive criticism was the following tidbit:
If a solo doesn’t go anywhere, it’s crap.
I remember that because, for years after, other members would remind me of how tactless I had been and how it had probably been a deciding factor in Bill’s (yeah, that’s what his name was - Bill…) leaving the band. I was OK with that and suggested my friend Mike Healy to fill the role. Mike is a much better player now - better than I am - but at the time, he just wasn’t ready to play lead in a band.
In between lead players, we cut a demo. To my knowledge, only two songs from that session survive. Here they are:
Eventually, we got Nate. Nate had been in one of Chase’s old band in their hometown, and moved up to Atlanta, in part to join Surrogate Child. He was a much better player than Bill had been, and came equipped with ideas, an edgier sound (which we had much desired), and even a couple of songs. Nate fit SC pretty well, and I had a lot of fun having a guitarist who could actually handle interesting parts.
Still something was missing. Probably several somethings.
In the end, we just lost momentum. I took a trip to Japan, and when I returned to Atlanta, there wasn’t a band left. No surprise really, but it was kind of sad all the same.
Chase and I continued to be good friends and tried for some time to start a new band. We were tentatively calling ourselves Snidely Whiplash and were attempting to recreate the entire Baader Mienhoff album in a live setting. We recruited Karen Schultz for a short time to play some bass and keyboards (I was playing guitar), and we searched high and low for a drummer. There was one guy named Keith that we really liked, but we could never get enough elements happening together at the same time to really call ourselves a band.
Ah, yes. I still remember the gig with the SillyString, and the horrendous “safety issue” it created! The only tragedy I can remember was that the only place to find a chair to sit in that night was in Purgatory…