Pair makes music with new organs

By Candace Murphy

Staff Writer

There's a sobering ticker put out by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Updated to the minute at OPTN.org, it details the number of people, regular folks, waiting for an organ transplant.

As of 2:23 p.m. last Thursday, there were 88,452.

Marcus O'Realius and Joyce Steinlauf are quite familiar with that list. The two Berkeley residents used to be on it, back in 2000, when O'Realius was waiting for a kidney transplant and Steinlauf was waiting for a heart and lung transplant. O'Realius suffered from polycystic kidney disease, the world's most prevalent kidney disease, while Steinlauf had struggled all her life with congenital cardiac and pulmonary problems.

O'Realius and Steinlauf got lucky and received organ donations. They got even luckier that fall, when they met in a organ transplant support group and discovered a mutual passion for music. They are the front musicians for the band The Transplantdentalists.

The pair - O'Realius is now 60 and Steinlauf is 50 - will appear at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley at 8 p.m. Tuesday for a special performance. O'Realius took a break from rehearsal to answer a few questions.

Q: Has having had the transplant made it more difficult to perform?

A: It's hard for people to be aware of the challenges, physically, for transplantations. They often look perfectly fine. People will say, "Oh, you got a new heart," like you got a new carburetor or something. The truth is that the whole phenomenon and the drugs that sustain you can be very fatigue-inducing. It's a real challenge to put on a two-set show.

Q: Do you sing any songs about organ donation?

A: I don't have a song about that, but we are going to talk about it and the California Transplant Organ Donor Network. I do have a song about health called "Staying in Shape," though.

Q: Well, it'd probably be a heavy topic and not too lyric-friendly, huh?

A: Well, it should be written. Actually, I'm looking at my set list and there is a song I'm going to be doing on Tuesday about coming out of the transplant and wondering if I could ever write a song again.

Q: What made you think your music days were over?

A: I remember I was on a lot of Prednisone, my hands were shaking so much from it, and I thought, "My God, I can hardly write my name." I tried to get right back to playing guitar and still, I wondered if I'd ever play. The first song I was able to write after the transplant was a little prayer called "God Grant Me a Song." That's as close as I get to the organic matter of it all.

Q: Will there be organ donation cards available at the show?

A: There should be flyers with information about the California Transplant Organ Donor Network, but I'm not really handling that aspect of it. The last time I did the show I had these registration cards and frankly, they didn't fly, so to speak.

Q: Why didn't it work?

A: I'm still not sure how to promote this in a commercial way. Joyce and I have been playing some open mics to warm up and have been throwing around some ad lib lines about transplants and spare parts, trying to get the audience to understand what it's all about and not hit them over the head too hard. It's kind of new turf. Transplant performers are kind of in the closet. There's not too many of us out there. It's hard to know how to relate.

Q: Are there any artists you look to for inspiration on an organ donor level?

A: David Crosby, the singer for Crosby, Stills and Nash had a liver transplant. I actually thought we'd try to invite him to the show, but I looked on his Web site and he's touring in Paris. I guess he's doing all right.

Q: Your bassist, "Downtown" Cindy Browne, and keyboardist, John "Cisco" Groves, are not transplants. Not to belittle their musical chops, but is there hope of an all-transplant band?

A: We tried to do a search of other Bay Area musicians with transplants to get an all-transplant band. We couldn't find anybody, really. But that's something to think about. The musicians we're working with are very accommodating. I had to cancel a rehearsal last week because I had the flu. That's what happens with organ transplants - the immune system is depressed. That's a whole other thing.

Q: Were you an organ donor yourself before going on the list?

A: I wasn't because I thought no one would want my compromised body parts. But I've learned since, having had (kidney disease), that you can use all sorts of different body parts for donation - the cornea, connective tissues, skin, blood vessels, all sorts of things. So now I'm on the registry with the California Transplant Organ Donor Network, which is a great idea. It sidesteps the confusion of the driver's license - like trying to find it at difficult moments. And this way it's clear what the person's wishes are, and the family doesn't have to interpret anything.

Q: Would you like to be considered a musician, or a musician that promotes organ donation?

A: I'd like to be considered as a musician who's dealt with kidney disease for quite a while. I'd also, frankly, like to be considered as a very angry middle-aged man who can't really tolerate the indifference toward being an organ donor when it's so easy. There's so much indifference it's appalling. It's a simple sacrifice writing one's name in order to give a second chance to so many people.

Copyright © 2005 ANG newspapers.

This article posted July 18, 2005.