Where are they now? Still making music
Honoring the relationships that started at Ohio University
This feature appears in the fall/winter issue of Ohio Today as part of "The Common Thread," a series celebrating relationships that had Ohio University as their starting point. This is the last vignette from this collection.
By Anita Martin
Photos by Patty Mitchell
Something about Athens breeds bands. It might be the wealth of
young talent -- not to mention venues -- combined with the town's affinity for homegrown sound. Whatever the mix of reasons, for musicians who play together at Ohio University, the bonds are
hard to break.
Just ask the former rockers of Athens' own '80s band Myriad Creatures.
Decades after headlining the uptown weekend soundtrack, three members of this band continue to cross paths in the Bloomington, Ind., music scene. Bassist Dan Reed, AB '85, is an associate
professor of ethnomusicology. His brother, Tim, who attended Ohio in the '80s and '90s, teaches piano and voice. And Dave Weber, BSED '88, runs the successful Air Time Studios (which fittingly got its start recording Dan's group Monkey Puzzle).
Though they no longer play in the same band, they often see each other at local concerts, says Dan Reed.
They have many memories of the Myriad Creatures days, including Dan's personal favorite: the night they inspired throngs of patrons to stream out of O'Hooley's and dance on Union Street during a typical Athens spring downpour.
"We all shared a dream together of making a living as musicians and doing music that we hoped would change the world a little," Dan says. "We made music and laughed a lot, about in equal measures."
Dan, who now specializes in West African music, recalls his days in the language lab formerly in Ellis Hall, where he discovered music from all over the world that helped shape the band's sound. Myriad Creatures' high-energy originals also revealed influences of punk and new wave; covers included songs by The Police, King Crimson andthe Talking Heads.
It was a Talking Heads song that helped spark the Myriad Creatures reunion show last summer at Athens' beloved Casa Cantina. A gathering for friends was already in the works when Dan heard "The Great Curve," which Myriad Creatures used to cover, on the radio.
"I called Dave Weber," he says, "played him the song over the phone and said, 'We have to get back together!'"
The guys practiced just twice and were admittedly a bit rusty. Still, it was "really musically satisfying" to play in Athens, Dan says.
Some things -- like The Union, where Myriad Creatures played its first gig -- always stay the same.
"Athens will always feel like home," he says. "It's where I developed a sense of who I am. When you share those formative college experiences, and you remain friends well into your 40s, then you know you are friends for life."
Anita Martin, BSJ '05, is a writer for University Communications and Marketing.
Follow this link to see pictures from the band's 2006 reunion and sample Myriad Creatures songs.
Return to "The Common Thread" main page.
Posted 11-02-07
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