Blurring the lines between fan, blogger, and musician, I joined Swim Party at the Whistlestop last night to play keyboard on “Said the Captain.” Why?

Because my skill set includes 10 years of piano lessons. And ridiculously long fingers.

Actually, the long fingers are more of an attribute.

Honestly, though, this has been 9 months in the making. One of the first times they played “Said the Captain,” – it might have been at the Quasi/Frightened Rabbit/Swim Party show last November – I was talking to Alex afterward and brought up the strange time signature that the song used. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “I liked that new song. The one with some parts in 11/8?”

Alex: “Actually, it’s one bar of 6/8 followed by one of 5/8. Wow, I can’t believe you picked up on that.”

Me: “I had 10 years of piano lessons growing up, so I know all about time signatures.”

Alex: “Cool. Wanna play a song with us sometime?”

Me: “Sure, why not?”

Then there was 9 months of inertia and other stuff going on. Like Swim Party recording an album. And Eric getting married. And Alaska. But when I got back, we decided we should do it. So we did. And P managed to catch 35 seconds of it (including a boob close-up) on tape. Because I didn’t specify that I wanted the whole song. Duh. He didn’t even get the chorus, which was the best part. Oh well – I’m supposed to be playing with them at the Casbah on August 14th, so hopefully Rosey and her video skills will be able to make it to that one…