HELLO GOODBYE
It began with dismantled drum kits. It ended with other people’s music on the albums.
From the apex of garage psych to collapse, Chocolate Watch Band singer Dave Aguilar looks back.
“It was an awesome garage.” DAVE AGUILAR
HELLO JANUARY 1966
I was playing with a band, The Early Mourning Reign, on a Sunday afternoon in a club in Santa Clara, out in California. I had noticed a couple of guys checking me out – [guitarists] Mark Loomis and Sean Tolby. I received a phone call from Mark saying they were forming a band and needed a lead singer, and would I be interested? I met them on Wednesday that week at Mark’s house in a tree-lined suburban neighbourhood.
When I arrived, I remember a bass drum came rolling out of the front door and onto the front lawn. It was the previous drummer of The Chocolate Watch Band who was not in the reiteration of the band. There was an argument going on and his equipment was being thrown out, and I thought, “Wow, this is a great reception!”
I walked through the front door and Mark had a big grin on his face and there was a heavy-set lady standing behind him. It was his mother, and she was there waiting to check out the new lead singer of Mark’s band. He said, “We’re meeting out in the garage,” which is where all American bands at the time were setting up their equipment and playing.
It was an awesome garage, it had carpet on the floor and on the walls to kick the sound down. This was a serious business!
Everyone had confidence and musical skill and there was an immediate chemistry, so it was a true joy. We realised that we were light years ahead of so much of our competition and very quickly we were playing great venues in the Bay Area with bands like The Seeds. Then we had a manager who opened the doors to be in movies [1967 tripsploitation flick Riot On Sunset Strip] and record albums. Everyone smoked a little pot at the time, but that wasn’t what it was about. Acid came later when we started rubbing shoulders with our San Francisco friends the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. GOODBYE APRIL 1968
For [1967 debut] No Way Out we went into the studio and the producer Ed Cobb said, “These are the songs that I want you to record that I’ve written and you can record some of the songs that you’ve written, or are covering on-stage.” We only had about four days to record the album, and he went back and added other vocals and instrumentation, and songs to fill out the album.
When we listened to it, we said, “What the hell is this? Why did he do this to us?” And there was no answer. Our manager did not stand up for us, and that caused so much dissension and anger.
Then Mark wanted to do more mellow music and I was to the wall with just slamming a show on-stage. Also, the band were now heavily into psychedelics and I’ve never dropped acid in my life, because I saw what it did to Mark and other people. Mark left and started another band, The Tingle Guild, and I then left. But a few months later, Sean called me up and said, “Look, we’re going to do another album and Mark will come back.” So we made The Inner Mystique. But then the studio did the same thing again and put other people’s music on it and I said, “I’m done, this is the stupidest thing!”
When I left music, I didn’t even tell people I’d been in a band. I was kind of embarrassed, as it had never gone anywhere. But in 1999 my little brother said, “This is the weekend when The Chocolate Watch Band are getting back together. Why don’t you just go sing with them?” I sang a couple of songs and loved it. Here’s the weirdest part: I went home and bought a little synthesizer and taught myself how to play guitar, because I couldn’t play instruments, and the songs just flowed, one after another, all the music that I had saved up in my subconscious. And I continue with the band to this day.
As told to Mike Barnes
The Chocolate Watch Band’s This Is My Voice is out now on Dirty Water Records.