When The Aspinauts met The Vagrants

OK, so you're face blind, a little meaning deaf, maybe you have social-emotional agnosia and can't read facial expression or body language to save your life or are completely literal. Would you be a little socially phobia? Have a little social anxiety? Struggle socially in the mainstream?

Well, how do a bunch of autistic people with this stuff rock up to a popular live music venue in the inner city and hang out among a crowd of potentially largely non-autism-spectrum people? Ask The Aspinauts because they're doing just that. What's more, they'll be on stage.

Donna And The Aspinauts came together as Australia's first professional autism-spectrum rock band when I volunteered to try and create an arts event featuring a bunch of performers on the autism spectrum. I was expecting a singer along, a woman with autism and schizophrenia, but she didn't show up. A once homeless bass player, Earl Woolf, suggested I be the singer instead. Sure, I'd done two albums over the past ten years, but those were in recording booths where I didn't have to look at or meet anyone. Jim Morrison eat ya heart out. But something about ol' Earl had me cave in. OK, I'll be the singer. Why not, we'll never have a band.

But after Russell Edwards, the keyboard player introduced himself and we then attracted Andrew Sherman and Wil Cole, The Aspinauts were a reality.

They were always nervous I'd leave them stranded. And perhaps rationally so, for nobody had written more about living with acute Exposure Anxiety as I had. But as the songs kept rolling out and the band formed it's own funky socio-enviro niche, something happened. I kind of fell for this ragtag bunch of dags (Aussie for 'affable fool'). By Christmas we played at a big autie-friendly barbeque where 90% of our audience was on the autism spectrum. Would we cope beyond this playing at a non-spectrum gig?

Well we were soon to find out. We put samples of our ambient live recordings up on our myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/donnaandtheaspinauts and within 4 weeks we had over 4000 profile views. Someone was listening. And within a blink we had 5 gigs lined up. We were heading 'out there'.

With our first public gig at a cosy live music venue called Ruby's, our next one was to be at Noise Bar alongside an established international band, The Vagrants, and supported by a fellow spectrumite, Heidi Everett.

Would Exposure Anxiety eat me? Would Earl and Russell bore someone to death with Aspie techie diatribes? Would Andrew's one size fits all grimace thing pass as a smile? Would our drummer, Wil, bring the house down with his drumming then seek to bond through verbal jokes none of us get? Would we survive the night and return to our traditional and routine cook up of celebratory popcorn?

Only time would tell.

One thing's for sure, The Aspinauts will be out there among The Vagrants and a diversity friendly world is looking just a smidgeon more possible.

Donna Williams

Author, artist, singer-songwriter

http://www.myspace.com/donnaandtheaspinauts

http://www.donnawilliams.net