Name: Damien
Location: Eastern Canada.
I have coffee and pie by my side. Here we go.....
What was the first single you bought?
The first single I ever bought was a Born Against 7" at a local punk rock show. I actually bought 3 7" records for $4. A event which blew my mind (3 records for 4 dollars brand new?!?!). My mind got more blown when I listened to the records for the first time and discovered how passionate the music was.
First album?
I think the first record I ever heard was either a compilation of Christmas songs or a Clancy Brothers record that my father used to play on the turntable as a kid. I remember Little Drummer Boy being my favourite song as a child. The earliest recollection I have of both music and my childhood, is actually myself looking up at the musical mobile hanging above my crib. The Clancy Brothers / Irish music was a normal fixture in my family as my fathers side is of Irish background.
The first record I half bought was Nirvana's 'In Utero' record. I was a huge Nirvana fan at that time and was in the hospital during it's release. I watched Nirvana's SNL performance on my hospital room's TV during the two week stay. The performance lifted my spirits profoundly. I was really blown away by the forthcoming songs on the new album. The day I got out I went to the mall with my mom, and it was instant priority to get that record. I walked into the record store and asked the guy at the counter if they had the new Nirvana album entitled 'I Hate Myself & Want To Die'. I had known the supposed title for the new Nirvana record from an interview Kurt gave in a magazine a few months back. You should have seen the look on my mom's face when her 13 year old son asked for a record with that title. My mom paid for half. My mom was rockin'.
The first album I ever bought in full was an original pressing of Operation Ivy's 'Energy'. I walked into Shake Records (a Ottawa record store that is totally long gone out of biz) and looked over at the wall with LPs on it. I immediately locked eyes with Op Ivy and bought it on spot. I had known who the band was but I also really liked the cover's artwork. When I gave the record a spin it was so gold. The whole record was just truth and bouncy, really positive. It sounded almost like it was recorded live too. It had this live presence about it that I loved.
I had been trading music for years prior to buying those albums but they were my three first music purchase experiences.
The second vinyl I ever scored was a 2nd hand copy of the Dead Kennedy's 'Plastic Surgery Disasters'. I already had the tape but I wanted the record anyway. Records were and are documents of history to me. I could not believe how good that record sounded compared to my tape. That was the first instance I ever felt the true difference of vinyl over another medium. I also bought a 2nd hand Clash 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' at the same purchase session. It was way rad to find out the whole record was a CBS promo copy and contained a big stapled document from CBS inside, as well as a promo poster, and an actual ripped ticket to the NYC Palladium show. The same show in which pictures were taken for the London Calling record.
How old were you?
I was 13 when I half-bought In Utero and 14 when I bought Op Ivy. I think 15 for the DK/Clash score. But I had been seeing and discovering bands in full force since 1991. 1991 is when I pretty much discovered the how and why of music as one of life's truths.
Who is your all-time favourite band or artist, and why?
That is really impossible to pin down! There are so many musicians and bands who have meant deep core inspiration to me over the years. Choosing one would do a disservice to the others that have had a profound impact on me. Rather than mentioning just one I'll give a VERY brief mention of some of the bands and musicians that have been a positive influence in my life. There are countless bands that should be added to this. I mean tons of garage bands, pre-war and post-war blues musicians. I'm leaving out really good female voices like Patsy Cline or Bessie Smith. Nina Simone. Or even Jazz musicians like Chet Baker or Miles Davis. Bluegrass musicans. It's way to big of a answer to undertake but here are a few..........
Nirvana: pretty much got me into music. I sat on my brothers bed, alone in his room at age 11, with Lithium playing on his stereo. It was THE doorway. That Christmas I asked for my own stereo and stole my brothers copy of Nevermind. I always loved how goofy the band acted and as well how they played passionately. The melodies spoke to me and solidified a understanding of why I loved music. I could never pin down why I loved music but that day I figured out why music had been a calling. Structure was finally brought to the mystery. I will always have a special place for Nirvana because it's like all the good memories you have within your childhood - you can't go back but their revelations are there to draw from. It was the beginning. Everyone loves, remembers and personalises their beginnings from any of life’s positive experiences.
Black Flag: I love the Four Bars because they were a total no bullshit band. They walked the walk and never had time nor the care for the bullshit talk. Every night they delivered and suffered - just so they could do what they loved. They had that 'Get In The Van and let's conquer' mentality. Something that is very rare. When you have people who play for the sake of playing because their hearts know nothing else, and they want to give back to the thing (music) that gave them so much truth, it's always bare and profound. I've liked every member who has ever been a part of Black Flag and I loved the fact they were not afraid to let a woman play in the band. They had no big management, no big tour bus, no big label backing them. It was as if the dog pound escaped and went on the run overriding every town. Just human beings giving us some jams - pure and simple. This is who we are, this is what we do, we won't lie to you, especially on this stage. Though The Flag was not the first band to live by a get in the van concept, they certainly paved the way for many bands to follow with the same intensity of focus: destroy souls and re-breathe life into the surviving embers with music. They travelled the musical deadland-frontier and set up the connections that other bands would access. Most of all they proved you do not need some corporate lifestyle to succeed (not putting that life down, just stating). Though it may drive you crazy, you can live life by your heart even if it means you gotta bleed it. They had their own label. They slayed any notion that you need a bigger entity than yourself. Or that is to say the only true bigger entity you needed was the medium by which you choose to honestly express yourself; al la music in this case. Black Flag for me is a truth: life is yours for the taking in a positive way on your own terms. The terms you create yourself. Black Flag, also, never censored their sound. Another very important aspect.
The Stooges. I lost my mind, body, and soul to the Fun House record. The actual sonic intensity and hooks on that album is like a heroin-amplified-mardi-gras to my ears. Again, like The Flag, I love how the Stooges were just the misfits - the odd people out. People who made music because they had to, not because it was a luxury. I've never really found another band like the Stooges. I found others that were their illegitimate children, or grandparents, but never their brothers and sisters. Fun House and Raw Power has everything down perfect. Perfect sound, perfect songwriting. To me this stuff retains the true spirit that is Real Rock 'n' Roll, besides those classic musicians that helped shape RNR, or who were part of it's first blast. The Stooge-sound was not censored and the rhythms have "hipshake" vibes 'a' vibrating. Stooges records feel like they were an evolutionary process of Rock 'n' Roll and hark back to primal music but also go off on it's own mutated direction. The same rhythms in these records that make you want to shake your hips and let loose are the same ones that James Brown, Link Wray, Elvis, and Chuck Berry bellow out. It's just like Rock 'n' Roll is - born out of primal chaos. You find a diamond in the chaos. Somehow beauty comes from the freaks. The music just keeps on jamming with intensity and wont let up. I can play Stooges records over and over and never get bored. I can always ride the waves they made. I've never heard a record that has such amazing songs back to back as Side A of Fun House. Sickest jam session ever.
Hendrix. Jimi pretty much showed me what is not only attainable on the guitar, but anything in life if you stick with it and believe in yourself. I think Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) is probably the most epic song of all time. It sounds like some electrified shamanistic circle dance. Hendrix always feels like his guitar is turning into a Thunderbird. I always loved how he talked in his songs too and never quite sang. Like how he was always a poet or a Wiseman. Wiseman from Mars. Some of his songs have these almost drifter-esque gypsy melodies to them too. Like how Castles Made Of Sand goes off into a Native American melody at the end. You always get the feeling with Jimi that he is a person travelled. Speaking as someone who plays guitar, he is one of the most profound magistrates and noblemen of that instrument, I have encountered within the court of music.
Robert Johnson is a ghost Samedi in a rocking chair. Seriously. That guy is both the grim reaper, the otherworld portal, and the secrets of the universe manifested into audio at the same time. The Blues is one of the most powerful expressions I've ever come across on this planet. I feel really gifted to be able to be exposed to something like that in the same way I feel gifted to be exposed to the grand architecture that is mother nature everyday of my life. I could write an essay on my love for the Blues. I love how bluesmen and women took the environment they lived in and mirrored it to the music. The rhythms of the train tracks, chain gangs, juke joints, the crossroads of old religion and new religion, the oppression. The shackled heartbeat of freedom that was sinking to the bottom of the same ocean their ancestors sailed on when they were ripped from their homeland. Our planets seas became polluted (by salvery) long before we threw any chemicals into them. The retaining sacred old rhythms from Africa or the new ones forming in America. I love how the music was rebel music, shunned by it's own people but also loved by it's own people as if it were a giant un religious sermon from an un religious pastor. Or how it was a means to get out of poverty. It was Fire & Brimstone in the creative sense. I love how the music was an unacknowledged and unrecognized voice of humanity crying out against oppression. But then we, the world, embraced it later. The Blues was born into and climbed out of poverty. It has always been powerful stuff to me.
I am a avid fan of the Pogues too. They have a brilliant way of actually translating the word poetry to musical form that is just so amazing you can't even understand how it could be done. It's the resurrection of Thomas Dylan and Yeats.
Audio and written speeches from profound speakers such as Martin Luther King, Tecumseh, or Chief Seattle.
As anyone can see by some of the music I toss up on here. I am a big fan of garage music too. I always love seeing how young people just take something and put a twist on it ignoring the rules. It also goes along with my whole belief in raw and uncensored music. As a guitarist, I love how garage music retains basic early guitar chords and progressions. It's like freedom in a tradition of constriction.
All in all, I think what draws my love towards music is sound and expression. I am addicted to expression, sound, and creativity. It's just so interesting how music sounds, whether all instruments mushed together or on their own. It's beautiful how all this individual expression that goes around sounds wonderful alone or in groups. All these soundscapes people make. The most important aspect of what sound or music has taught me is that you should never censor what you create. So many people talk about censorship of ideas or lyrics within the music spectrum, but few mention the censorship of sound. The censorship of sound has always been something I have questioned and been aware of from the get-go. Music to me is expression and I have no understanding why a musician would want to censor themselves through sound. If you are a musican, sound is a dynamic part your expression. Utilising Black Flag as a reference point again, The Four Bars cranked it up and kicked out the jams raw. It's not a thing having to do with violence. It's about the power of your expression being carried by the weight of your sound. Which does not mean you have to play stuff loud, it means that if you give your heart to this world, give it up real and raw. Loud is good though. I am of the belief that expression should always be raw and never censored. This was the primary revelation I learned from music and I still live by it like it's some sort of code duello. Uncensored sound is also another of the many reasons why early recorded Blues music is so profound to me. Because it's just the musician and their instrument. It's the raw. You are essentially listening to a live performance or the closest thing to being in a room with that musician. You can't turn away from the marvel of it because it's un-distilled.
What song always makes you happy?
Lithium by Nirvana. It's like going back to the beginning. Outlaw Song by 16 Horsepower is another song that feels wonderful. It's an American take on a Hungarian Gypsy song. There is a Shoshone word, sunnikuse, which translates to medicine. That's a good one word description of Outlaw Song.
What song makes you cry?
George Burton Blues by the Canadian band, Ghoststory. I heard that song when I got news that a best friend had passed on. The song has this eerie feeling of creeping up and discovering a dead body in the wilderness. At the same time you get that picture from the song, you also get a feeling of the deceased's soul slipping away to the next world's plains with the blowin' wind and leaves. It's a healing song and a goodbye song at the same time in a macabre and dime-novel narrative.
Do you think music and politics are a good mix?
I think politics is a natural and subversive topic that goes with music. Music is expression. If you feel like expressing about something political then go for it. Musical expression is freedom. Music should be a direct projection of that freedom you feel to express. I don't think there is anything wrong with politics and music being adjoined. I think music and politics go together like bread and butter. If they didn't then I have to wonder if Woodie Guthrie's or Billy Bragg's working class anthems would no longer mean anything? Or would the personal wails of the suppressed culture that gave us the Blues be cast aside? I like to think that some music is naturally political. Take for example the music of the First Nations. I always like to think in some way Aboriginal music is political in itself because it streams from a culture that is either dying, being suppressed, or is in agony. Just the fact that, that music is being performed by a culture that currently is in such a state means it's political. The cultures music becomes the brief, but loud, powerful, and hopeful mummer from it's mouth while being silenced by a gagging rag. Fado music of the Portuguese people; always longing with saudades has always felt socially and personally political to me.
Did someone in your life influence your taste in music?
In my early years I researched musical roots from the members of the bands I was fond of. So I learned lots of bands from bands. As a musician, I always learned lots through those people as well. I have always been constantly but slowly trying to trace the footsteps of music back through it's storytelling evolutionary process.
My family largely introduced me to music though. My family is of Irish background and music is something that flows in our family. I knew what a guitar was when I first layed my eyes on one. I knew what it was for and semi knew how to play it the first time I picked it up. Music seems to have always been a part of my natural being. I knew it was a channel and naturally knew how to access it. Not a day goes by that I don't think that my love for music probably in part is some sort of echo from my ancestry. I also think, that on a subliminal level, I love music from cultures because I in turn know what it is like to have cultural music passed on to me. So it's an easy route for me to engage in. Many of my family members also play musical instruments and storytelling is a natural element in our background as well. Where I come from creativity is as much a source akin to family-made moonshine. When I was little, my father used to play the R'N'R basics: Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Ventures, Elvis's Sun years, and Johnny Cash.
There were three other people who had a profound influence on me with music discovery. The first one being Louis from grade school (shortly before high school). I was big into Nrvana and not too far into discovering to punk when I met him. He had been the only person I knew of at my age that was into punk. It was so cool. He was this chubby black dude with a huge 70's afro and 14 hole docs. He played bass. He lent me tapes of bands I had known about and wanted to track down, such as the Ramones. When I heard the Ramones for the first time I thought they were the beach boys of punk. Lou was also the first peron I jammed with and formed a band. Our only song was called "Navan spelt backwards is Navan" because Navan spelt backwards is Navan. Navan was the local town Louis came from and where we spent lots of time hanging out. Later on in life we would come to appreciate wonderful conversations about Miles Davis and see Propaghandi millions of times.
The other person was my friend Andrew, who I met during high school. Andrew basically was not only THE school punk at my high school, but also the original OG punk of the area I lived in as far as I could tell. This was a guy who singlehandedly found out about punk and zines and everything on his own. He probably singlehandedly got at least 15 people into punk from our town. He had a record collection of punk essentials. We developed a friendship when I stunned him with the knowledge that I had Op Ivy on vinyl. He also had a commonality with me because, like himself, I had taken my own road so to speak and began searching for underground music on my own.
The last direct personal influence was Rob who I had met, again, in high school. We were 15 and he was the only biker kid in the whole town. He had long hair, a sleeveless Levis jacket and Harley patches. He had a really old Harley. Total biker culture. Through our friendship we had a musical exchange. Hd basically taught me 70's rock music and I showed him punk rock. It was really cool because we both essentially had the missing knowledge we needed. We were the missing links of the missing chapters in progression of rock music history. So I learned about Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple from him. When I heard that shit I was like ahh this all makes sense now. That exact same thing happened again when I heard the Stooges for the first time. It was the Link Ray beyond Link Wray if ya know what I mean.
Back in those days it was a very hard process to discover music so I was lucky I found these people (and all the mail-orders, labels, and zines). The internet has made finding out this shit soo easy now (which is awesome!) but back then you were truly a lone wolf if you went looking for the needle in the haystack. Or at least you were in my old town. I was from that generation - where music, especially underground music in particular, was a total refuge. I don't think that mind set is ever going to die. People will always have the hunger to seek out. Every soul is born hungry. There will always be people who have a third eye sense for seeking the hidden streets with hidden names.
Bands and performers did have a huge inspiration on my taste in music though. Any band or performer that gave it up raw and real. Gave up a good, no bullshit example, of what it means to involve yourself within music. I searched what influenced them to go crazy and make the music they made. Many bands that were rebellious somehow or not afraid to let loose and cut the barbwire so to speak. I also got exposed to a good amount of cultural music too because I grew up in Canada. It's easy to be exposed to other walks of life here. One thing I love about having music in my life is that you are constantly discovering the past, present, and the future of an element of humanity. Music is in many respects a time machine zippin’ all over.
Have you met any of your favorite musicians? How was the experience?
Strangely enough, I have met very few of the bands and musicians I listen to. I normally don't approach bands to chat. The music is pretty much all I need to know. If a band or if a lone musician is doing their thing I just am glad that they have found what they want to do in life and want to share that expression. My ears and heart thank them for the honest jams. When I do chat to musicians it's basically about music and usually about the joys they get from what they are creating. The moments where they get revelations from sound. The conversational experience is great because you get to hear other peoples opinions on why they love the same thing as you. They have another piece of the huge puzzle, a piece that can only be given to you because it's from another person's individuality.
What was the first concert you went to?
First show I ever went to was a Ripcordz and Black Triangle show. A local punk show in Ottawa basically. I was around 12 I think. A profound change in my life. I loved how there was no boarder or Berlin Wall between the band and the audience. I still to this day love the mutated Rock 'n' Roll form of Punk for bringing music back to a short-blasted beginning. In the sense that the "performer" and "listener" could become inner wound for some type of massive interactive tribal dance exchange once again. The first huge band I ever saw (if you discount FUGAZI) was Rancid in 1995. I couldn't really see any of the "larger" bands before then because most of those shows you needed to be older or have adult supervision to get into (another reason why I love all ages shows). The solidarity and unity in that room was thick. The whole place was line dancing with arms around one another. I think the band even did a double encore. I love gigs. Live music is awesome. Again, it's just the truth right in front of you. Sound you can't deny. & people from all walks of life come together like an unwritten poem. It's great to see point blank creation and then a point black reaction to that creation.
What was the last?
The last band I heard was a murder of crows this morning. They were sitting on Grandfather Maple Tree, kawing away in the front yard.
What is the next one?
I have no idea. I have to check out what is playing in the city soon! But before I make it out that way there will probably be gigin' birds around. I like to listen to birds sing. They have the best stage 'costumes' too.
What is the most embarrassing CD in your collection?
I'm not embarrassed about anything in my music collection. They are all cobbles in the cobblestone road from which I have travelled upon.
What are the 5 (only 5) albums that you would bring if you were going to be stuck on a deserted island?
Like the question about what my favourite band is, this is impossible for me to narrow down. For the sake of fun on I'll answer the question. I'd have to say at this moment in time it probably be five from the following:
Stooges - Fun House or Raw Power
Pogues - Red Roses For Me or Rum, Sodomy, & The Lash
16 Horsepower - Folklore
Link Wray - Link Wray
Some compilation record of First Nations music or a recorded session of Vodoun Loa possession.
Any Jandek record
Robert Johnson's Complete Recordings
The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
Hendrix - Axis: As Bold As Love
Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
Any Nina Simone
A guitar, slide, and lots of strings are coming with me to that island also. As well as an amp and some device on how to convert water to power my amplifier.
What was the last album that you bought? Was it online or in a shop?
The last record I bought was remastered reissue of Link Wray's 1971 record. I ordered that online a few days ago. I wanted to check out how it differs compared to the original master. I buy from online stores, old fashioned mail-orders, and in shops. I do prefer to buy music in shops because I like real life interaction which you probably have figured out by now. But it doesn't really matter how the music gets to me, so long as it does. I also usually like to buy straight from a record label when I am not buying albums in great sources like Birdman Sound, Taz, or from mail-orders like Get Hip, Bomp, or Crypt.
What are your thoughts about the digital music / mp3 format?
It's like the toss of the coin in mid air to me really. Let’s see some ideas I can toss out.
On the heads I absolutely love vinyl. It's no big secret around Kittyradio. So in some way I feel like I am part of that old school mentality of vinyl. Digital music, mp3s, and CD music as mediums kinda feel cold when I put them on the scale with vinyl. I'm going to admit that I do have a bias towards vinyl because of the wonderful experiences I've had with listening to records.
But on the flip-side to the coin....
I think it's great because digital music is giving musicians another option beyond the three ring media music circus that operates. Then again that three ring media circus is trying to own digital music. I suppose, like any artistic medium digital gives as much control to the user as they want to put in. It's kinda like life, you get more of it depending on how much you put into it. Does that make sense?
Just for a general discussion, I find digital music and mp3's by technological nature are rebellious. It's challenging the status quo of not only the establishment but as well as the anti-establishment. Tech does that I guess - it postals every street and delivers question marks. I think it's great that there's something going on out there that neither the establishment can control or people haven't fully figured out. It's reminding proof that once again, things will always mutate somehow. Also, it helps strengthen the whole DIY thing and I'm a full supporter of DIY.
It always bugs me that musicians are told that success is this one driven path of media circus focus. So many musicians try and take an alternate path as they have every right to. We should be able to take our creations on our own path forged. I find digital music is helping shift focus off the only majority acknowledged media circus path of "success". I don't think the music industry or process should never be pushed in one direction, unless that direction means total freedom and control for the creator and the created.
I think we are really (like most people in any era) all victims of our era's history and we really don't really see the full picture until it's hindsight. I try not to look at digital/mp3's as a bad thing. The traditional business model is not the only way to live a life dedicated to music. But then again I'm a person that believes that music is made for hearts by the heart. It's spirit. I believe that learning yourself through an instrument is rewarding enough without the money. I don't think digital music is bad. It's just another branch from the technology tree. Though it seems like technology is aimed at us like a product bullet these times - moving like the normal nature we are used to and then anti nature; sprawling and prowling. I don't think we should hate branches of technology because they are branches of technology. We should strive to understand and know what is being aimed at us though. We should be aware. Should we use said technology, we should make sure it's positive and patent for everyone, everywhere. Digital music is just another medium that has come along in the history for recorded audio. I am sure someone will be kicking digital or vinyl mediums around for a while. There will probably be dedicated people to every medium for recorded music in the future even if that dedication is fringe.
No matter when or where in the universe, someone or something is going to go back to the beginning. The beginning is always important and always has a truth that can't be denied. It is the blueprint. I think that's one reason why people won't give up Rock music (then again rock music hasn't been around for a long time when you really look at it). Real RNR music is truth because it came from truthful hearts. It makes us feel good. Good music does regardless of musical subgenre. The main thing is between all these different music medium formats is that we have choice. Choice is beautiful. We have the freedom to choose. We should always have that. But the choices available to us should always be honest choices. I think that the way digital music backfired and is corrupting the establishment is just the process of things venturing back to the beginning to make sure that our choices are honest and available to everyone. So I am all for digital. It's helping many honest people harness what they create and express. Digital and the internet has also singlehandedly come together unexpectedly and created the biggest free library of music/human expression so far. It blows my mind that people resist this. How can you resist a library of human expression? Corporations like to go on about how they are losing money but it amazes me how they don't realize or rally behind the fact that such a library is probably one of the most profound and influential educational lessons reaching worldwide. That library is helping human beings to become more expressive, to harness that expression, so it can be shared back with our species and take it's place in that same library.
Do you / Did you ever buy vinyl?
As I have stated before but with a few more points:
I prefer vinyl for the personal feeling, the closeness. LP jackets are bigger and therefore the art is bigger. The whole point of album concept and it’s presentation is just more looming. The point comes across more. It feel's like delving into a musical book. More importantly, however, is just the whole process of accessing the music; or rather being a integrate part of that process. Putting a CD in a player and pushing a button is bland (in comparison to putting on a record) and I can’t see the laser accessing the data, but I always find myself illuminated in the moment of discovery by putting the stylus to the record. I’m a important part of the process of accessing the contents on the vinyl record. It must be subconscious human curiosity I guess. Vinyl (in a romantically mythological way) feels like some arcane tablet also - like a occultic document chiselled by some musical Moses or audio-loving monastic monks trying to spread the word via an audio illuminated manuscript (like the Book Of Kells). It just feels closer to science in a expressive way - close to the/a big bang. Especially when watching the stylus and record move - the latter of which feels like a planet. It feels like a axis spin. If I can’t feel the actual Earth moving, I can see and feel it moving, mirrored, through the spin of the record. Before the touchdown even occurs I can feel the music awaiting within it's weight.
The best musical listening experiences I’ve had have always been with vinyl. It’s almost as if magically I can see and feel the invisible soundwaves (or soundplagues as I like to say) flowing. I can x-ray vision them originating from the turntable. I always hear music through more of a '3D' experience from a vinyl and sometimes hear subtle things a CD listening experience doesn’t grant. Vinyl listening in a strange way is spiritual science.
The honesty awaiting in audio form music cries out to you in the vinyls physical form. You wonder too if what you feel is how Edison felt. I like that we can feel like Edison. It's personal. Music is expression. Expression is personal. And it's amazing we can all feel personal over one thing - or the same thing. It's the great connector and current. Vinyl is also primal too. You know when you are putting on a record that you have the skeleton key history as a medium of recorded music. The first major way audio could be captured. It's like a important ritual to our species that we can keep performing over and over. It's really cool to how two substances or two minerals on this planet can be harnessed to capture and access a moment in time.
I buy both CD, vinyl, and download music. There are some albums issued on CD that do not get issued on vinyl and vice versa. When it comes down to the bone and into the marrow, through the skin, I want to hear the music. That’s what matters to me the most. Being exposed to the sound somehow.
Another aspect of vinyl I love: free shit. Stickers, posters, patches, weird pop out 3D cuts, label catalogue, etc... A few bands back in the day used to take a double LP jacket, put t shirts where the second LP normally would go, and boom - you’d get a free shirt with the record. One of Link Wray's albums came with a piece of packaged bacon that he took from his farm, inside the sleeve. The creativity people get with vinyl is amazing and bizarre. I kinda don't see the that same level of creativity with people who produce cd's.
But yeah, just nothing beats being a important part of accessing the contents (music) on a vinyl. You can see the science unravel before your eyes when the stylus touches down. There is a anticipation of ritual discovery within vinyl that CD's do not have. I feel CD's make a listening experience impersonal somewhat, however, they are what they were designed to be: quick and compact. But all in all, all mediums have their ups and downs. My vinyl library (the villian batcave) makes the house I live in from 1852 tip more than I know probably.
Is there a band or artist that you cannot stand, why?
I'm not into getting down on people. In a unselfish way I just concentrate on doing my own thing rather than put others down. I do slip up once and a while but I try to not pay attention to putting people down. Putting people down doesn't really help them or myself; there's no positive progression from knocking someone in such a cheap way. Before they died, good friend of mine said "put your energy where you need it", and I think that basically sums up how I feel about the question. I try to not be so judgmental about music also and I do not want to be elitist. I am more into listening and enjoyment of music than I am about hating on it. If I hate anything about music or some music that people make, or some elements of the music industry, it's when music is just made to be a commodity or the sound is censored. I think sometimes the reason "art" and music can become a commodity so easily is because they are born from our most vulnerable qualities: honesty, expression, passion; three things that have no defence except their basic natures. Commodity is not my aim in life. I've been playing and enjoying music because I love it. Music is fundamentally one of the purest truths I've come across in life. It's one of the most basic cradles within the wellspring. It's a direct jack in to freedom and expression. I don't have an interest in music that is censored or manipulated. It cheats our whole species out of one of our most shining qualities we have and what has come forth from our existence. It derails the whole epitmoe of music when someone turns to greed. The only price value we should have on our music, should be the price payed by the currency of the honest heart when music is being created and by those that genuinely connect to music.
Some musicians talk way to much bullshit rather than just concentrating on devoting that energy to their craft. I think the biggest problem I have with those people is they talk the talk but rarely walk the walk. I see it like this: If you want to make music, make music. There's no need to talk. Walk the walk. The music will do the talking. If your music is the shit, it can't and won't be denied. That's been proven time and time over. I think the best musicians are those that make music and don't talk bullshit - they just do, do, do - go, go, go. Because that's how you know they mean their shit. It's the get in the van mentality again. I come from the whole heart where you do things without any
PR. If you pick up a guitar, drum, bass, trumpet, etc..., it will do the talking because that is where your inner voice is plugged into, that is the
PR. Sometimes it seem like people bitch more about music than enjoying. Let's get back to why we love music. Let's get back to the enjoyment that can't be classified but we try to anyway. It's like poetry - elevated language. I think there are bands who basically do more talking than doing. That's my only gripe really. Doing does more for the world. Positive ideas shouldn’t just sit in an armchair.
I think if you are a musician, if you want to be a musician, If you feel you want to give back to the world with an open and exposed heart. You want that life. Just do it and do it passionately, honestly, and uncensored. Don't look back. All you need is what you got and what you can do and what you'll learn. Don't give up on your dreams and don't deny your heart. Don't worry about what you are playing, your playing ability, or what others think. Just go and conquer hearts. Don't loose the sight of the vision or the feeling that you get when you create music. Hold onto that soundwave bloodline.
What pisses you off about record shops, radio, or video channels? Do you think the state of music is healthy?
I think in the various previous questions along the way I have kinda answered this indirectly. I just think that as long as there are honest jams being kicked out everything will be fine. I don't like the projection of music as a commodity but then again I don't pay attention to that projection. It means nothing to me and I think people who feel the same stack up around the globe so I am not alone. Even if I was alone with my opinion I think I'd still have the same one. There is good music out there that outweighs the greed that slithers around. I think it's brave to do your own thing in your own time. No one can ever really take that from you. Such positive views of creativity like these last two sentences will be there to inspire and propel the heartfelt progression of music as a source further. Raw hearts and naked souls always do. Anything that is fake just fades away like the illusions they are. Bullshit is an ingredient to No Substance which is the recipe for Stalemate.
Are you in a band? Care to pimp 'em?
I see myself as a guitarist. That is the discipline which I live by and explore. I have been un-recording music since I was 13 and letting my sounds go to the Indian wind. I have recently been recording myself with a few 'solo' projects. The first is a 60's inspired garage/surf band. Just me kicking out the jams via primal RNR rhythms. The other is more acoustic slide old west blues. Inspired by autumn branches, feathers, and old outlaws. I live in the country and it has both a profound and negative impact on me. I will always be involved with music because while I love listening to music, I feel my place in life is more in line with creating music. I have discovered a lot about myself and the world around me due to this journey. I'm too far in to give it up. I would love to put out a record one day but if it never happens I do not mind because I'll always be sitting on a fallen tree or a porch, embracing six strings.
Anything else?
I hope this was not a bore read and I apologize for any poor grammar. I also hope I did no come off as a elitist. Lastly, if you play music: please move around. React to what you are creating. You were given a pair of legs and a body. Let electricity flow through you. Water is a current and we are full of it. Enjoy life and do your own thing in your own time on your own pathway. Kick out the jams! Jams being whatever you want them to be. Don't suffocate your inner voice, don't be blind to your higher arts. Thanks for having me as featured member of the month!
Linear Mode
