When you get down to it, there are few things that REALLY matter in life. Love and music are two things that definitely make the list. Like many artists I came from a pretty rough background. Music for me at a young age was a way to both connect with others of the same and a means of escape. Playing and creating music is an experience on a whole other level. It takes me to a place where all the bad things in life don't matter anymore. Those things seems to fade away in those moments and I'm brought to a very neutral place that is so hard to describe.
It's very simple. To create music that makes somebody somewhere feel something. Much like others have done for me.
I'm not an optimistic person by any means, but if it were possible I'd like to see and end to people killing others and endless war.
Black by Pearl Jam. They're still one of my all-time favorite bands today. I had found a stack of cd's somewhere in the house mixed with music disks and computer software. That was the first time I had heard music that touched on deep, painful emotions and I really connected with it.
Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin.. I could list on and on. I like my music raw, loud and dirty.
Music takes me to a different place, creating music is a feeling that can't be found anywhere else for me. I'd say it's that feeling that keeps me coming back.
I really don't know if there is a message. I mostly just hope the music I create stirs up some kind of feeling with somebody. To see someone enjoying the sound, whether it be a foot tapping or whatever it is, to know what I created had a physical effect on someone, that alone is enough for me. It's certainly a great platform for sending a message to people and I suppose if I could, it would be one of unity. Something that is very much needed right now before the world tears itself apart.
It may sound strange but they disappear along with everything else. I get very focused into what it is i'm playing and feeling.
It's very a very split world for musicians these days. The industry really has fractured. I wouldn't say it's for the worse though. On one hand you've still got those commercial pop artists still being pumped out like a machine in a factory, with some not even creating all of their music on their own. Those are actually the minority believe it or not. Then you have the majority of musicians working very hard with smaller organic fan bases who sometimes can reach a lot of people but for the most part aren't noticed by the world. The good thing is the internet has made it much easier for even the average musician at home to reach a lot more people than otherwise would have been possible in the past.
I think it's great that everyone has a resource to use their passion and to share it.
The fact that there is amazing talent out there that will go largely unnoticed.
I go see live music wherever and whenever I can. I play music with local musicians. Live music fires me up, I love to see somebody putting themselves out there no matter the skill level.
I think today it's important to connect with fans on a personal level, especially when starting out. The days of being "Found" by a record producer are gone. Those people don't "find" artists anymore, they "make" artists instead. You need to be able to gather a small tight-knit group of people who enjoy what you do and grow it.
Scot Petri is an artist i'm following right now who is a great example of one who connects with his tight-knit group of fans regularly in a real positive way. I love how his playing style comes right from the soul.