Music and Life
Posted by admin | Filed under My Band - Maru, Poetry
There was one morning where my entire family was hanging out in my parent’s bedroom and there was a nasty thunderstorm outside. I must have been nine or ten years old and I wasn’t a big fan of lightning.
If you saw my father’s music collection you would laugh, scream and cry all in the same breath. He has everything from Otis Redding and Gladys Night to Rage Against the Machine and Alter Bridge. During this particular thunderstorm though, my father chose to give the family a taste of Black Sabbath. The year was 1985 I believe so I think it may have been vinyl even and he played the title song which opens with the sound of a thunderstorm so it was quite appropriate. It is memories like this one that help me understand how my life has been shaped and why I ended up where I am.
Fast forward to 1990 when I bought my first guitar and I immediately wanted to learn that song. The main progression played during the verse is evil and fitting to its name “Black Sabbath”. I wasn’t a morbid child. I wasn’t depressed nor did I favor death and destruction over strawberries and dandelions however it always intrigued me. This would help to explain my horror movie fetish. In discovering Black Sabbath the band, not just the song, I was opening myself up to a whole new world of music. See, in 1990 the radio airwaves were overwhelmed with MC hammer, Paula Abdul, Vanilla Ice..etc. A lot of commercial crap that was incessantly redundant and produced for the masses only to make a buck. But I have to admit that I liked all of it too. I have never been a pop music hater. I will listen to anything that has a melody, at least once. But Black Sabbath was something I could relate to as a child. Because it was different. Because it was mysterious. Because it was me.
I have very, very few regrets from my childhood. And of those the most significant would be that I was always shy. I rarely stood up for myself. My family never had a lot of material things. This isn’t a regret. It was a hardship that shaped the man I have become. I am thankful for having the capacity to need less than most in order to be happy. I am not one for the extravagant or excess. I like spending money but if the money isn’t there I am able to find comfort elsewhere. What happens to a child who doesn’t have the things the other kids have? Typically they become jealous, envious, angered. For whatever reason my brother and I seemed to look past this and we were always happy with what we had. I think it was because our parents taught us to appreciate what we could have, even if some would consider it not the best. It is all subjective anyway. Just like music.
In the great state if Iowa in 1990 you would never hear Black Sabbath on the radio, at least not on the pop stations of the time. To be introduced to most of the metal bands you would have to visit stores like the old Relic Records where you could hear Jerry and Bruce argue over which Uriah Heep album was better. They also sold the best posters. The walls of my bedroom were lined with Hendrix and Zeppelin posters. Most people only knew what was on the radio and never explored music outside of that box. Having a father who took that step allowed me to discover so much more in life that helped create Matthew the musician, the guitarist. I am thankful for this. Over the years I have played with many musicians and I will say the best of them would be those with the most diverse tastes in music. If a guitar player has Tupac, Garth Brooks, J Geils, Hall & oates, Metallica, Lamb of God, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Fats Domino on their Ipod, I am going to guess they are most likely a decent player. If all they have is death metal it is highly likely they are really good at playing death metal. Or in many cases, really bad at playing death metal. Variety in music is the real “spice” in life. Music influences the way we behave, create and think. When I was doing bar security years ago the bar I worked at couldn’t play “Up In Here” by DMX because it always started fights. Cover bands can’t play Tiny Tim in most bars because people will leave. Upscale restaurants play jazz music because it sets the mood for relaxation. Growing up seemingly different from most kids whether it was the trailer park I lived in or the K-mart clothes on my back, I turned to music that was different from what most heard. I liked my trailer, my clothes and my music.
These days I play in a cover band where I get to jam Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Its as if I was preparing for mid-life back in my teen years. I think we all do in some form or another. I am no longer as mysterious because I decided to open up years ago. Now it is public information that I am strange and I prefer it that way. I look back and realize that I was the same as any other kid, the only difference being their father’s didn’t expose them to Sabbath and many of them lived in houses. We allow ourselves to be shaped by our environment and we assume these shapes cannot be changed. The radio today is proof of these changing shapes. Metal is now mainstream thanks to the grunge and the post-grunge movement. Pop music still has all of it’s despicable glory but you will find many more kids enjoying progressive metal like Avenged Sevenfold and Children of Bodom than ever before. The commercial music world has changed significantly and I like it.
Tomorrow night my band is playing at Volume and we are trying two new songs along with 3-4 others many have not heard. If you ever get the chance to see us play you will see a side of me you may have never seen. A serious but fun side. And whenever we play Sabbath I remember that thunderstorm in 1985 and my first guitar in 1990 and those K-Mart clothes and all of it makes me smile over and over again.