2 degrees of separation

I met someone very interesting on the train home today. I was with these 2 girls who I knew from my music subject last year. I was showing them my phone and using the composer function, jamming along with their phone which played a nice polyphonic rhythm section. Suddenly, this fellow sitting across the aisle from me, starts talking to me. Our conversation went as thus:

stranger: "Are you a dj?"
me: "No I play a real instrument: Guitar"
*The train leaves Roma St. Station*
"Oh cool cool... hey don't give that up. Don't give up playing guitar, or playing music. God I knew some people. They were in uni, but they dropped out to play in a band. I used to play with them sometimes. It totally shocked their parents that they quit uni just to form a band. But ya know, they knew what they were doing, because, you see, they went on to become Powderfinger"

This guy immediately has my full attention. Fark. It seemed very orchestrated, the way he said how he knew Powderfinger. But I believed him. He seemed genuine. He seemed their age. It was weird that he said this to me near Roma St. I'm gonna write everything he said to me, before I forget it.

He started off saying he went to school with them. And he used to jam with the Powderfinger guys. He said that he doesn't see them very much now. I asked: "Do they play in America a lot nowadays?" "Oh well they still play at a place in Samford". He later said: "If you ever meet Powderfinger, just drop the name Luba. That was my nickname in school. My name's Stuart. But I'm sure they'll remember me"

He was going on a tangent about how he plays guitar now, with other people. I wanted to know more about Powderfinger. I asked him what the Powderfinger guys did at uni. He said:
"Oh ummm ummm *thinking thinking* I think Bernard was doing journalism. And someone was doing economics?" He didn't seem very sure. But I really did believe him. He mentioned a lot about Ian from Powderfinger. I just nodded, cos I only know of Bernard

I quizzed him about how he got to play with Powderfinger.

"Oh one time they played in this old, empty firehouse in *suburb I forget*. They were about 20 girls there listening to them intently. I figured they were their goupies. They asked me to play with them, because I had my guitar with me. So I did. I was shy ya know. I wish I had a 20 metre lead so I could play in the corner."

He later said that the songs that Powderfinger wrote for their first album were written in the 80's. Such a long time ago. I laughed. I asked him if he thought Powderfinger used a riff that was written by him in one of their songs.

"Oh no, I could never write songs. I could always provide a backing to something. I never wrote anything"

I was talking about how I saw Powderfinger at the Big Day Out. I was sinuating that "I didn't hate Powderfinger!". He said how he saw The Cure in the 80's, 1983? And some other notable bands.

I started talking about the problems I had when I was playing in bands in high school. Playing in a tiny room, it's always loud. You can't hear anyone talk.

"Yes yes. I know what you mean. And you need to find a good drummer. A lot of drummers a psycho"

I said that I played drums in an orchestra. He asked me if I wanted to play drums in some band of his. I said that I didn't have a drumkit, I just did orchestral percussion. Ah.

He got off at Wooloowin station. I shook his hand, and he reminded me to namecheck Luba to them. I assured him I would. And so that ended one interesting conversation. Wow. I'm 2 degrees from Powderfinger now. Quite amazing. The people you meet on a train.