Ryan’s story has always been incredibly personal to me. I grew up 100 miles from Ryan in Indiana. He was a little older than me, but he was just another kid from Indiana like I was. I had just turned ten when he died and I couldn’t for the life of me understand how a disease, no matter how dangerous it appeared, or how scary people made it out to be, could make people be so evil to other people. Especially a kid.
Read MoreI was making music with synths long before I listened to any synth-based music on a regular basis and it was for that exact reason: I was on my own. However, making music with synths opened my world up to entire genres of music I’d either ignored or overlooked.
Read MoreGetting better keeps you motivated and you don’t get better alone.
Read MoreEverything about them was uplifting compared to Seattle. Gone was staying at home and dying from heroin. Back was cocaine, fighting and supermodels. I’m not suggesting going out, doing blow, getting in fights and going home with supermodels, but I at least understand why one would want to do that, as opposed to withering away on the needle at home.
Read MoreYou cannot create out of chaos, only out of order.
Read MoreBuddy’s career really only lasted nineteen months. From the ages of twenty to twenty-two. From the hot, dry days of Lubbock, Texas to the frigid, snowy nights of Clear Lake, Iowa, he packed a lifetime into those nineteen months. In his music, and in his life, it was a busy nineteen months.
Read MoreI simply approached him, said hello and he gave me a friendly “what’s up?” in response. So, I had seen on VH1 that they were working on a new album, and this was after Wes Borland had left and Durst was doing all the guitars. I asked him, “Hey I saw you’re doing all the guitars on the new album, how’s that going?”
Read MoreBut perhaps what Hughes was best at was marrying the right song to the right scene. Think of the end of The Breakfast Club and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” or the end of Pretty in Pink and OMD’s “If You Leave”. We grew up with this as an example, but Hughes knew… he knew that humans inherently tie memory to sensory stimulus. It’s a movie, he can’t make us smell or taste, but he can make us see and hear. I challenge you to listen to one of those songs and not think about Molly RIngwald.
Read MoreThe same can be said about music. The Vandals are not as good as Franz Liszt, but I like them both for different reasons. That’s okay. And it’s okay if you find out your favorite artist “borrowed” something from a song they liked. It doesn’t make them less-than. In fact, it might make them greater-than, because if you were obsessed with making music that no one had ever made before, you’d probably never get out of your bedroom. The key is finding a slightly different way of doing it, by combining these influences. Purity is a myth.
Read MoreWe talked for about an hour about Chicano music and how a white kid from Indiana fell in love with it. He just couldn’t believe I loved all this Chicano rock and mariachi. I told him I didn’t know why I responded to it the way I did, but I just loved it. I never saw the guy again, but that moment has stuck with me ever since.
Read MoreI’m not going to tell you that there isn’t such a thing as authenticity, but I am going to ask, at least in regard to art, “who is to say what is authentic?”
Read MoreNothing great was ever accomplished by playing it safe.
Read MoreHe would have been ninety next month. That’s a fair amount of years for a life by any definition. But, the world has lost a great artist. A literary legend has passed on to wherever he is now. Hopefully his work, which by no means caters to the utopian dreams of certain gatekeepers, will stick around to remind generations to come just how depraved we really are.
Read MoreA list of 101 music films I recommend. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some good ones, but these are not all that I’ve seen, just all that I’d recommend.
Read MoreI will tell you this, it feels fantastic to create something that I love and that I’m proud of. After that, the opinions will come.
Read MoreNowadays, things are fast, cheap and disposable. We used to build things to last. They were timeless. Now, we don’t care about our work, we don’t care about our things and we don’t care about each other. So, when people call me a dinosaur, I take it as a compliment.
Not only does Tiger Army take this kind of pride in their craft when it comes to writing, performing and recording, but they do it with their merch, and especially their music videos. Art comes first. On their terms. Their way.
Read MoreIt’s okay to be obsessed sometimes, but you’ll be better off to take a break and start again in the morning. I’m bad about taking breaks on the weekends or days off too – I will work all day. I love it, it doesn’t feel like work, but I have to remember to take a break if I love the work. I’m not doing it any favors by pushing through when I’m tired or forcing ideas when I’m out of them.
Read MoreMy reward is no longer in the finished product, but in the work itself. My reward is the absolute joy and peace I get from sitting in a dark room at the keyboard. I seek no one’s acceptance or validation. I am free from the expectations of others.
Read MoreNone of what I’m saying is revolutionary, but it’s important not to rely on this technology, just get the most out of it as a tool. There’s no substitute for a great lyric, arrangement, melody or performance. Great songs are great songs on a single instrument, but that doesn’t mean you have to write them that way. As the old expression goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat and there’s nothing better for the artist than to continually force yourself out of your comfort zone.
Read MoreYou could blame my individualistic, anti-authoritarian worldview on being of Scottish via Appalachian descent. Or, you could say it is because I’m an only child who spent the first twelve years of his life living in the country with no kids around. However, even if those things are true, it was punk rock that solidified it. It was punk rock that gave me not only a reason to do what I dreamed of, but a way to do the things I dreamed of.
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