For a band which has only been together for about 7-1/2 years, has 4 albums, been through 3 name changes, and 2 weddings, we guess that’s a lot to cover. However the 3 members of P f and still yet R have done just that. AAAhhhhh, where to begin...
Joel, who is the guitarist for the group, summed it up best by saying just this: "Mark and I met at Camp Shamineau in Minnesota the summer of 1987; he and I did a little bit of music together. But it wasn't until the summer of 1988 when we decided that we should play together more often. Mark was a counselor and I was leading the music. He and I played some music together, but a drummer and a guitarist don't make a band. It was the fall of 1988, when Patrick started coming to the youth group where I was an interim pastor. He was seeking.....um pretty girls and found them. That's why he came but then Pat started playing some of the worship stuff with me and he picked the stuff up right away, singing harmonies..."
And that's how the 3 member's of the band Inside Out met. Keep in mind we did say "3 name changes". Now known as Inside Out-- Pat, Mark (the funkiest drummer on the face of the earth, not that any of us are biased), and Joel started playing at the camp. From there the campers would hear them and have them play for their youth groups. This didn't happen just over night—No sirry BOB—this was in a 3 year period. .Also in that time the band members were lucky enough (would it be wrong to say someone was looking after them) in opening for the big acts at the New Union in Minnesota. This would eventually pay off BIG TIME!!!
On one faithful night they played for a chap by the name of Steve Camp, which then turned into (...he told two friends, then they told two friends and so on and so on and so on...) playing for Jimmie Lee Sloas and Bobby Blazier, who produced there first album. In October, the band, Sparrow Records, and Brown Banister started talking about record deals. According to Patrick, the bass player "...we went down to Nashville, signed on February 19, 1990 and started recording on February 20, 1990..." From that moment on there were known as Pray for Rain. The name Pray for Rain came about, contrary to popular belief, from a poem Pat saw and not so it would rain at every festival the band played. And believe me, we think we all must have attended a festival where they played, and we all wished their name was "Wait for the Sun".
