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Antoine Lester Bio:
I picked up a guitar for the first time when I was very little and there was always music being played or something on the radio at my house. Back then there was no cable TV so all we had was radio and a few stations on the "TUBE" or the various instruments about the house. I found myself drawn to music and art more than anything. During my early teen years I found myself expressing through the guitar to keep my folks away and playing a lot of punk like the Sex Pistols, Black Flag and tons of others that I don't feel like typing. But it worked, I got solitude to help with the oddities of being a teen and I got a lot of practice. Then when I was 16 my folks moved to Idaho Falls, ID and I opted to stay back in Chicago. By the way, I was born in Chicago. This was a very cool time in my life, I had no parents to tell me WTF to do but I also had to support myself so I was a little broke, but since I knew the owners of the 400 Theater I never had to pay to get in to Rocky Horror on Friday nights. Very, very interesting time in my life I must say. So almost a year later I got tired of the rat race and moved to Idaho Falls. In IF I got soooooooooooooooooooooo bored, I went back to high school. Until I met this dude that played drums, Jeph, and I dropped back out so fast I left rug burns. Jeph and I played for a while but never got anything-major going. Then about a year later this bass player, Justin, who for his age was amazing, called me. He could slap that bass like it was a monkey and he wanted to start a band with the sounds of funk, punk and rap. Back then the only cross genre attempt between rap and anything was "Bring the noise" with Public Enemy and Anthrax so his idea was interesting to say the least. When Justin and I started playing, he had brought along a really good drummer, Jason, and a Singer/rapper, Jason. We came up with the name "Force of Soul" for our new band and got down to work. We played about six shows that summer of 92 and made a lot of money. But then fall came and since Jason (drummer) and Justin (bassist) where going off to college, Jason (vocalist) and myself recruited good ol' Jeph on the drums and this skinny hescher Danny on bass. We played a few months with this line up, until Jason moved of to Boise and I took over the mic. We played about 12 shows before we got tired and called it quits in the spring. And that was when Justin (bassist) called me again. He wanted to come back for the summer and give the band thing a go again. I thought this was cool but I was tired of Jeph and didn't know any other drummers that where as good. Justin told me of this guy named Shad that had won state in jazz drumming and I was, to say the least, excited by that fact. So from there I took the initials of our first names and made it a band name, SJC. Some of you reading this may be confused at this time but don't let it keep you from moving on. Looking at SJC, I said the words "So Jesus Cried" and with everyones consent that was what our new band name was going to be. Then came the stick in our spokes, Shad pussed out. So for the next few weeks I searched for a drummer. Asking everyone I knew if they knew of anyone. Then one day when I was scoring a bag my dealer said he new this dealer that could play the drums and he would hook us up. Well, if Nancy Reagan and Tipper Gore could have seen that they would have puked! Anyway, I didn't want to sing anymore so we found James (vocalist) to pick up the mic and we got down to business. With this line up we played about two shows before Justin (bassist) pussed out and quit. So there we were, on the verge of thinking we could make it big and no bass player. So I called a couple of the previous Force of Soul candidates and scored with Matt (bassist). So again we got down to work, and we worked. Almost right away Matt got our stuff down and even started a couple of new songs, so we started playing shows. We played about 16 shows with this line up until we had an issue with James (vocalist), and I was thrust onto the microphone again. We played for four more years all over the western states and recorded a couple of crappy tapes. We, of course after so long with no major happenings, grew apart and I moved to Phoenix. Since moving here to Phoenix, I have gotten an AAS in electronics and recorded six more cd's. Four with myself and two with my prior band Zesty Lester & The Spicy MEATball. As for the future, I will always write, play and record music. I have no time or patience with music critics, fame is not the reason I write. I write to express my feelings, and that is all. |
