10 Things I Love: Music

Of all the hobbies and obsessions of mine, nothing is more addicting to me than listening to music. Music has so many connections to our lives, and takes up many meanings well beyond the borders of an artist’s lyric.

My connection to music began at a very early age. My mom would leave the radio on near my crib as a baby, and I would drift off to sleep peacefully with the oldies station peacefully singing me to sleep.

It had connections all over my life and throughout my family members. My grandfather loved The Beatles, so a connection was made to them immediately, as well as other greats such as The Beach Boys and even Elvis through my grandmother.

I had a record player as a young boy, one of those blue plastic Fisher Price kinds. I would spend hours listening to my Disney records, singing along, memorizing every word and every beat. It could keep me entertained for hours as I performed elaborate productions with my G. I. Joes and Transformers action figures.

My sister joined one of those “Get 11 Cassettes Free!” clubs (note to younger crowd: Cassette Tapes are those funny rectangular things you find in your parents closet with pictures of Huey Lewis and Billy Ocean on them). When they arrived, being the bratty six year old child I was, I threw a fit until my sister was forced to give me one of her musical treasure trove.

The tape I received was the Purple Rain soundtrack by Prince. I’m sure that explains a lot about me now.

I had discovered pop music, in a big way. It wasn’t soon after that I began asking for blank tapes, recording song after song off the radio. I was perfecting the Mix Tape, before I even knew what that was. I would labor for hours waiting for my favorite songs to come on, and if the DJ happened to talk over the first part of the song, I would wait for it to play again.

I was obsessed. My tastes went from pop music of the 80s, to the metal and hair bands, and around the mid-90s to Rap music and eventually “alternative.”  By my teenage years I was hip on the “Seattle Music Scene.”  I had watched Singles about twelve times, had every Alice in Chains album, and was obsessing over the latest Pearl Jam.  I ensconced myself in bad flannel shirts and baggy jeans, despite blatantly ignoring the fact that I lived in Texas.

My tastes continued to mature as I did physically. With the influx of ever-changing music types, I also expanded to older music I had never explored; Led Zeppelin, Paul Simon, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and many more Gods of Music of present and past.

At the age of eighteen I joined a band (Formaldehyde) playing the drums, of which I had absolutely zero experience. Despite not knowing what I was doing at all, I picked up the basics pretty quickly. We put out our own demo on a 4-track, and played two shows including one self-produced show.

Like all high school bands, it fell apart and I never did pick up the drums again. I would later buy an acoustic guitar in my early 20’s that I taught myself to play, but purely recreational.  The only song I can play all the way through is “A Letter To Elise” by The Cure. I can also play the beginning of “Come As You Are” by Nirvana, heh.

I’m pretty sure just about every girlfriend I’ve had has received some type of “Mix Tape/CD” from me. They weren’t just some Memorex tape with the title written in permanent marker, no, these were extensive detailed meaningful mixes complete with custom CD Labels and cover designs.

In my late twenties, I was presented with the unique opportunity to do something that had actually never occurred to me: DJ. I had a wide library of music knowledge in my head, and I had the music collection to back it up with.

My then next-door neighbor brought it up one day and proposed a partnership doing it professionally, starting out in small bars/clubs and weddings and eventually moving up the food chain.

I ended up DJing for almost 2 1/2 years. I saw everything from drunken bar fights, to old ladies doing the Chicken dance, to one of Houston’s biggest club venues filled to capacity, bouncing and moving on the beats I was providing. It was exciting, addictive, and scary all at the same time. I loved it quite a bit, and there will always be a DJ lurking somewhere inside of me; there always has.

Due to a direction change to live shows with some unsigned rap groups, I started to enjoy the experiences less and less. We put on several live shows, and even toured around the country promoting some upcoming artists in everywhere from Houston to Detroit to Los Angeles. A few months after the tour ended I left the company, and eventually moved to San Antonio to start over.

I’m still obsessed with music, I always will be. Recently I’ve turned away from commercial radio more and more, and have been much more interested in independent and unsigned artists. The local San Antonio radio station KSYM has introduced me to dozens of new bands to obsess about, from The Eames Era to Feist to The Ting Tings.

I don’t see anything changing in the future. I’ll aim to be the “cool” Dad one day that knows more about the bands than their teenage son/daughter does. I’ll be the guy taking my kids to the concert but not sitting in the parking lot waiting for the show to end. I’ll be sitting in a retirement home in my wheelchair wiggling and singing along to the Oldies station, which of course by then will be playing Nine Inch Nails and Metallica.

Regardless of age or state of mind, I always have room for music in my life. It connects the dots of my past, present, and future. I collect it, read it, sing it, dance to it, and love to it. There is no other form of art that affects so many so profoundly as music, and I wouldn’t prefer it any other way.