If you spend your day job hours sitting in stuffy hotel ballrooms watching the slick multi-media presentations that dot modern-day business conferences, keep your eyes peeled; in that sea of shirts and ties, a fierce rocker lurks. Well, okay, he doesn't so much lurk as he does work, but he's there nonetheless, and his day job mission is to make sure that your boss' boring-beyond-words Power Point presentation goes off without a hitch. And after he's done supervising everything technical, he flies home to Chicago and brings the noise.
Meet David Bon, freelance Audio Visual Technician/Producer, lifelong rock-lover and current member of "power trio" Audiobon. David is a homegrown talent with true dedication to his art, and his day job. An impressive self-taught musician who has "a mission in music", David was "turned on to classic rock from an early age" and fell in love with bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and The Doors. An introduction to the blues quickly followed, and before long he found himself plunging headlong into the world of music-as-expression. For his twenty-first birthday, David bought himself a harmonica and "was soon disappointed at how bad I sucked... I abominated many a Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf tune." He persevered, however, and soon the friends who begged him to step away from the harmonica were egging him on to play a tune or two. Note: I tried to teach myself how to play the harmonica a few years ago, and though I practiced every day I was forced to give up after a solid four-month butchering of 'Shenandoah'. I sounded like a deranged howler monkey screaming into a paper bag. The harmonica is one tough bitch to master.
Three years later, though, David's day job took precedence and he put his music career on hold. He started a successful (read: $$) valet parking company, and as he watched his business grow, the harmonica -- and music in general -- stepped out of the dream-spotlight. After a few years, however, David was lured back into the beguiling arms of Mother Rock by Audiobon's current drummer. "I can't accept not following this dream," he says.
Balancing his current day job with a performance and rehearsal schedule can be tough, but David makes it work. The A/V gig takes him all over the country, and sometimes the world. "I've been known to spend the night in the studio in order to squeeze in a practice and then catch an early morning flight, or I've returned from a job and have had to go directly to practice in shirt and tie with suitcase and briefcase in tow," says David. "I get a lot of strange looks from all the other band dudes who occupy the building."
Despite this mad job-juggling, David simply can't give his music or his job a raw deal. "I refuse to get swept up in the career money thing only then to hang up my desire for playing music... I try to balance the two as much as I can."
David's technical prowess has seeped into his performing, it seems, and this can only serve to benefit the band. He regularly adds as many sounds as he can to their music, and the process has made him a better musician in the long run. From those humble harmonica beginnings David has cultivated a musical repertoire that includes playing the guitar, the Theremin, the Moog Taurus (with his feet, no less), the didgeridoo, a foray into sampling and some very capable singing. He touts the raw power that the trio can exude, and a quick listen to songs like 'Anything You Want' indeed display a level of surprising complexity and depth of sound. "We've followed 6-piece bands and have had people stunned by the variance in sound," he says.
I don't doubt it, and after hearing some Audiobon tracks I was taken by a sudden urge to attend whatever conference David is running the A/Vs for. I don't care if it's a dental hygienist convention in Topeka, something tells me that if David's behind it, it's the best show in town.
