Viva Music!

Someone once said, "Music is what feelings sound like." Nothing could be more true. Music to me is the ultimate from of self expression. Unlike other art forms where it can sometimes be difficult to understand what the artist is trying to express, with music all you have to do is listen. The greatest thing about music is it can be about absolutely anything. No matter what you're feeling or thinking about at a certain point in your life you can write about it and turn it into a song. There’s been a time in everyone’s life when you hear a song and think to yourself, wow, I can definitely relate to what this person was going through because I’ve been in the exact same situation. Music evokes human emotion. You listen to certain genres of music and songs when you’re in a happy mood, when you’re in a sad mood, when you’re angry, when you’re lonely, when you’re in love, when you get your heart broken, when you’re chillen, when you want to dance, when you want to rock out, and hundreds of other situations. Some people listen to music for the lyrics, some for the actual music, and some people just want something they can groove to no matter what it sounds like. I believe there are two types of people in this world when it comes to music… People who LISTEN to music and people who LIVE music. I fall into the latter category. Don’t get me wrong now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a person who just listens to music. That’s not a bad thing. However, there are people to which music is a passion, an everyday obsession. Listening to it, writing it, playing it… Living it.

Most famous musicians say at some point what their inspiration was to play music. I can pinpoint mine to age 13 when an older neighbor of mine gave me the album Countdown to Extinction by Megadeth on cassette tape.

Before that I would listen to music sparingly, whenever I felt an urge to turn on the radio, not all that into it. After listening to Countdown to extinction, I was F'ing blown away. I had no idea a guitar was capable of producing that kind of sound.I was instantly drawn to the heavy metal sound and became hooked. I listened to that album so much I wore out the tape. The fast, crunchy, distorted guitar riffs were what I liked the best. I had a natural ear for music and could easily distinguish when chords would change and different picking patterns, although I had no idea what any of that was at the time. I soon went on a mission to discover new music. More heavy metal, classic rock, punk, blues, reggae… I was like a sponge soaking up all these new bands. After spending about 6 years perfecting the air guitar, my senior year of high school I finally picked up a real one. It was a $150 piece of shit red and white Fender Strat rip off but I loved it. I learned how to read tabs and taught myself how to play. It was a slow process but after I started playing that’s all I wanted to do and I’ve been playing pretty much every day for the last six years.

Music is an escape for me. Music inspires me. It’s the one thing in my life that I’m most passionate about. There’s rarely a moment I’m not listening to or playing it. I devote a good amount of my time to discovering new bands. I’m obsessed. Without music, life would be a very dull and boring existence.

I’m planning on introducing a new band every few days that maybe you have or haven’t heard of. I’m working on getting in touch with some of these bands and hopefully getting little mini interviews from them. I also want to give local music a platform to be heard. I’m super stoked to share my musical tastes and knowledge with you… It’s a subject I can talk about all day!