Shows  |  About the Band  |  Digital Media  |  Store  |  Contact  |  GuestBook  |  Links

The earliest memory of this band is when Rich Mazurkevich answered an ad looking for a guitar player.

Until then, Bill (bass) "was jamming with a drummer in Bridgewater named Keith."
Keith left and was replaced by a guy named Joe. The search
for a singer lasted a very long time thereafter. During that time Joe left the band.
Eric Schmidlin auditioned for drums and as per Rich "he showed up and wouldn't leave!"

At this point, Rich started to build a rehearsal studio above his garage in Howell
where the band continued to audition over 30 potential singers.

On March 2nd 2003, one and a half years of auditions later, the band was skeptical to hear that the next
guy auditioning was a young indian doctor…Gautam Malhotra. Rich remembers thinking “Whatever. Who cares
as long as he’s good.” The cynicism was mutual. “It was surreal. These older guys hangin out in front of
all this construction equipment pointed me to the garage when I asked about the audition. I expected
their teenaged kids to be in there. I thought they were joking when they started picking up the
instruments. It was obvious that both the band and I expected this to be a very short audition.”

But when the band played the first chords of Radar Love, "I could feel the unbridled energy in Rich’s
guitar playing. At least it was going to be a fun audition.” Duely impressed, they challenged Gautam to
sing Led Zep’s “Heartbreaker.”

“When that song was over, Rich came over to me and said, ‘There are 3 kinds of singers, those that lean
back, those that just stand there, and those that lean in. You are leaning in. I’m gonna speak for these
guys. You’re in if you want it!’ I offered to give it a try for a month to see if they could tolerate my
musical input and unforgiving residency training schedule.”
(At this point, the band’s name was “Brass Balls.”)

In November, Bill left as he was unhappy with the direction the band was taking with Gautam on board.
Eric’s friend Liam Jackson, a guitar player, filled in on bass for a while before he moved to England.
(The band’s name was Victory22 at this point.)

Enter Mike Fash, a scary skillful bassist. On Mike’s official audition with the entire band, he stunned
them with his energy and chops.

Also present at that rehearsal, as a spectator, was Eric’s old friend Mark Polon. “Eric kept telling me
how amazing this band of his was so I eventually gave in and came to the rehearsal.” But his skepticism
was replaced by a desire to pull out his keyboards and start playing again. The band decided not to
drastically change their sound but welcomed Mark on a number of songs. The sound of the band filled up
immensely with the new sounds of Mark's keyboards.

In November of 2004, Eric left for personal reasons. The band’s philosophy was to re-invent the wheel by
adapting to each line-up change from scratch. Unfortunately, the constant change in membership was
preventing the band from playing out at all. (The band’s name was Vice at this point.)

Joe Manno joined on drums a month later in response to an ad and the following email with
Rich’s description Joe enhanced the rehearsal process with a new disciplined approach.

Unfortunately, Gautam couldn’t rehearse with the band for many months due to family and professional obligations.
It took a number of months before the chemistry was solid again. The name Vice was already taken locally.
For a few weeks, they were called “Doctor Bad” (picture a surgeon putting on a rubber glove with an evil grin).
They settled on the name “Twitch” (Joe’s reference to Rich’s sometimes nervous habit).
They played a party to “Welcome home the troops” for the Cranford Elk’s club.

That was the endpoint of over three years of patient & disciplined dedication.
That was also the new beginning of Twitch...

Shows  |  About the Band  |  Digital Media  |  Store  |  Contact  |  Guestbook  |  Links