This page is dedicated to Shawn Diaz.
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The first time I met Shawn Diaz was in Shawn’s basement while he was sitting behind a stack of speakers and a shabby looking drum set. My brother had me him through a friend and had decided that he needed some beat to go with a few of his newly learned guitar riffs. I had played a little bit of guitar, but not much, and sat there and watched the two go at it for over an hour until I noticed an old red Westone bass sitting in the corner. I picked it up and tried to keep up with the two. Having little success, I sat and watched how Shawn would bang out some Mexican beat to Jonathan’s rock / alternative strumming. I’m not sure, but I think Shawn was about the age of thirteen and he had been playing the snare for the same middle school music teacher I had had a few years before, while he learned to play the set from his father and older brother for their traditional Mexican band. Shawn was always laughing from behind his squeaky voice
and bowl cut hair.
Soon we formed a make-shift band and invited Jeremy Oleman to be the lead singer. We started learning popular songs and playing at high-school birthday and Halloween parties. Shawn and I instantly clicked as we decided we were the “beat” element of the band and should stick together throughout all the band arguments. I was the oldest and he was the youngest of the group and we had a lot of fun “goofing around” while Jonathan and Jeremy always kept a serious attitude about the songs we played. Shawn’s Dad went to all of our shows dragging the tons of speakers, powers and boards that we thought we going to make us sound better. He took all the crap from parents to cops seeing as he was ultimately responsible. Even when we ended up playing a show where no one was there, he put up with us all. I remember one day he bought us all a huge Mexican dinner after spending the majority of the day setting up in the back of a little coffee shop in Gainesville. Nobody came to the show, most likely because of the KKK rally being held earlier that day in the square outside. But Shawn and I didn’t care. We were there to have fun, and we did.
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Towards the end of my high-school experience, the band started taking off on a more successful path. We started recording, which included spending the majority of the night at “Crash, Bang, Wallop”, a studio downtown. We came out with our first demo and things became more hectic. Shawn and I stuck together more and more as the band became divided at times. One thing was for sure, we could always count on Shawn to break the tension with his big goofy smile when we were all about to tear our hair out. I left for the Air Force and every time I came home for leave the first thing I did was go over to Shawn’s house to see how he was doing. The band had replaced me with a couple of different people throughout the years, but Shawn always welcomed me back into the band, even if it was only for a week or two. Jonathan was writing more and more songs and they started playing bigger and better gigs. But we always had fun just messing around in the basement or on the back porch of his yard.
You could see a difference in all of the band members when I came back every few months. But Shawn always was the first to welcome me back with so much excitement in his voice. He was growing up faster than the other two. The thing that remained the same was his big smile, and happy go lucky attitude. The kid was probably the happiest person I knew despite all the crazy things that went on. Look at any pictue you can find of Shawn, and you will see that he was having the absolutre time of his life. Often times, I would go see Shawn late at night, while everyone else was off doing their own thing. We’d just hang out and talk about the “politics” of the neighborhood, and the “old days” when Kringe was just starting off. Even though I had long departed the band, Shawn always considered me part of it, part of the original crew. He’d tell me about what was going on with Jonathan and Jeremy and who was doing what. Shawn was probably the biggest gossiper in the band. He always started and ended every conversation with, “So, when are we gonna practice next?”.
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I was home on leave when Shawn was in the accident. I actually hung out with him almost everyday that entire summer, including the night before the crash. I noticed that he liked to party and he always had a crew of friends that surrounded him. It was really hard to have to watch what happened to him, especially the week before I had to report back. That week was one of the worst in my life, it really struck home for a lot of people. Jonathan, Jeremy and I went down to the hospital a couple of times, and every time we had so much hope that Shawn would wake up right there and we’d be the first to see his big smile again. We knew that everything would e just like it used to be. Unfortunately, he never woke up, and he never smiled at us again. I returned to the Air Force and Jonathan went to MTSU to study audio engineering, and Kringe has yet to play in that basement again. I don’t know if they ever will, but if they do, it will never be the same without Shawn. Shawn was the one who tied us all together, with his beat and with his personality.
By: Chris Simpson
(former Kringe bassist) 10 October 2002
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