Flame The Band

There are those few moments in life when everything you thought you understood about yourself gets turned on it's head. One of those moments happend to me the day I met Michelle King, front person for the band Flame. (Click the name to go to their site!) My good friend and now business partner David owns a recording studio in upstate New York. It's the kind of recording studio you see pictured on the front cover of Mix magazine (in fact I think it has graced several covers) One day while I was there doing voice overs for While You Were Out, he played me some music he was producing from a band called Flame. He made a BIG point to tell me that the tracks were raw, just recorded live from beginning to end (unlike the punched-in produced music style today), and he wanted my opinion. I listened to a cover of Rocketman sung by this soulful female voice. For the first time I understood what that song was about - I used to think it was just about 1970's drug use or something, but her interpretation told a different story. One about being on the road, loneliness, isolation, the hang ups of success, losing your bearings, and not feeling grounded. It was really amazing. I was impressed but, then again David's a talented musician (world class drummer) himself, and a tremendous producer, so I assumed he was trying to impress me with his chops. Then he slid a brochure over to me with a picture of the band. My eyes were immediately drawn to the crutches, wheelchairs, the faces of down syndrome, and... the smiles on all of their faces. David said, "This is the band I just played you." Every single member had a significant disability crossing the range of conditions you'd imagine you'd find at a special needs center - precisely where this band was formed. On her way into the studio at this moment happened to be Michelle - the lead singer and guitarist. She looked like any other person, so I asked David privately what disability she had and David said,"...her GIFT was music." Pressing, he told me she had Autism - a condition I knew little about. She also happened to be a musical savant. She learned to play guitar on a very high level in a few months, she picked up the harmonica and was immediately able to play anything she heard back identically, and she has a steel trap repertoire of thousands of song lyrics, chords, progressions, etc... but she can barely hold a conversation with you. When I tell you this is one of the tightest live performing bands I've seen - it's no exaggeration. They express no stage fright, they live to play, and they don't have the distractions of other big bands like, drugs, obsession with fame, money, or manipulating groupies. Yes they have their issues but I haven't seen since, a band that played out of pure love more than this band. It was also the beginning of my affiliation with Autism Speaks. Wanting to run the NYC marathon to raise money for some charity (any charity), I quickly decided, why not Autism? I have no family history or connection to it, so it seemed an opportunity to contribute to a charity with no pretense as unselfishly as I could. In a way, Michelle was a casual link to my new found awareness and passion. Go to their site, listen to their music, read their story, and if you can, go see them live! It will effect you way more than seeing a thousand Bon Jovi, U2 concerts, or even a live aid combined!

~Evan Farmer