Fire

02025-01-19 | Guitar, History | 1 comment

We both arrived in Boston in 1979 to play guitar. A year or two later I met Eric Schermerhorn (wikiwand – LINK & Eric’s website – LINK) who played guitar in the band Ooh-Ah-Ah!, which featured Cinde Lager on vocals and Japanese bass player Akio Akashi. My band was called Red and, like Ooh-Ah-Ah!, we used a drum machine. They had a Roland TR-808, which Akashi had brought from Japan, and we used an Oberheim DX.

I left Boston in 1986. That same year Eric was in a new band called East of Eden. We weren’t in touch until sometime in 1995. I don ‘t remember how we reconnected, but suddenly we started talking on the phone… He was living in New York City, had toured with David Bowie and Iggy Pop and many others. I invited him to my place in Santa Fe and we decided to record some music. I remember Eric told me he had to use a radio to play white noise so he could sleep because Santa Fe was too quiet compared to the city.

Here is a recording from 1995 with Eric and me playing guitars, Jon Gagan on bass guitar and keyboards, and the late Carl Coletti on drums:

There is a whole unreleased album of music we recorded that year… we called the project Lava. I am going to give the original multitrack recordings a listen today… perhaps I should do some new mixes!

Eric also played an electric guitar solo on Butterfly & Juniper, on the album Opium:

And here Eric plays steel string acoustic and slide guitar on Little Wing:

Eric moved to California in 2001 and worked with P!nk, Christina Aguilera, and Seal. I remember Stephen Duros playing the DVD of Seal Live in Paris on our tour bus one night. For me Eric’s guitar playing was the best part of the performance.

Years passed and then we had several phone conversations starting in 2020. I was thinking about making a big change, perhaps even moving away from Santa Fe, and listened to Eric talk about Portugal and Lisbon in particular. He had performed in the country several times, and although touring provides only snapshots of life, he liked the country and the people. I was intrigued and in December 2021 I visited Portugal for the first time. Three months later I had an apartment in Lisbon.

Of course I knew about the fires in the L.A. area but then I got a call from Eric. His house was outside the fire zone but it burned down. Here are photos from before and after:

More than 50 guitars, old microphones like the Neumann U67 and many other, hard drives, multi-track tapes… all gone. Nothing can bring back some of the unique guitars and mics. I got rid of a lot of stuff before I left Santa Fe… but I did it voluntarily. This is a radical forced purge. I can’t imagine what that’s like.

There is a fundraiser for Eric and his family – LINK

1 Comment

  1. Robin

    The LA fires are unimaginable and horrific. It seems everyone knows someone who lost something. I have friends who lost their home in the Altadena fire. Another friend compared things as to living in a ghost town. I was in Vegas last week waiting in line at the front desk of a hotel and a man just started talking to me…he had lost his home in the Altadena fire as well. He stood there with his young son telling me his story, and I could clearly see he was in a state of shock. Absolutely heartbreaking.

    Reply

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