bands, then show off the bands
in a giant performance at two local nightclubs, sort of as a local
version of Live Aid. We presented
a new song for the album called
“Strange Situation”; as I remember, it was basically a way for us
to get this new song recorded for
free, at a time when it still wasn’t
quite possible to equal the quality
of a studio recording in your home
or practice space. But when the
charity record came out, “Strange
Situation” was lead track on the
album and it became a huge hit,
earning lots of airplay on stations
in Bloomington, Indianapolis and
eventually across the Midwest.
The charity album sold out and
the success of the song revitalized
the band’s career, causing huge
crowds of fans to come to our
shows.
“Strange Situation” did well,
and afterward, did the band pursue Motown? Did Motown pursue you? What was that like?
My understanding is that our management got an intermediary to
get a tape of “Strange Situation”
to an A&R executive at Motown.
We were signed and given a small
amount of money to record an
album on our own, producing
the record ourselves. (We had to
change our name to The Voyage
Band because there was already
a French disco band which used
the name Voyage.) We went to