"What was that beautiful sound?" "Why that was music!"

I could lie and say that I just listen to music because it makes me feel better, but over time, it has come to mean so much more. Music, no matter what form, breathes life into all that hear it. It takes up no space whatsoever, yet it can fill the largest room with personality and vibrance. It doesn't have to be a classical composer or a jazz great. Pop music is also included. If you need to relax, listen to music. If you want to get pumped up, listen to music. Need to impress someone? Break out the music. Need another reason to listen to music? All the people I know that didn't listen to music were straight up, WIERD! So drink, listen, and be merry!

1984 - The Beginning

This was the year that I recall my first exposure to music. My dad had a record player and an 8-track in my bedroom closet, as well as a stack of vinyl and tapes to go with it. My first taste of music was courtesy of Van Halen! My dad had the album "1984" and I couldn't put it down! The energy and power that this band had entertained me for hours on end. I was too young at the time to know who Van Halen, the band, was, but I just know I loved listening to "Jump". Every time the guy on the record would say "Jump" I would start jumping around the room like an insane 3-headed monkey! I was able to catch the video on MTV often because my cousins who lived across the street were in their teens and they had it on the TV all the time.

SIDE NOTE: There was this video saw a few times with a guy leaning against a wall singing and a bunch of arms out of the wall behind him. If anyone knows what this video is...please email me, I've been trying to figure it out for years!

At this point in my life, I didn't really distinguish too much between music types, and eras. I knew the difference between modern music and classical for example, but I didn't really know that the Beatles were a 60s band, whereas Van Halen were 80s. My father used to take me to the school bus stop every morning during my elementary and junor high years. He would always have the oldies station on and I don't think it occurred to me until maybe 5th grade that this music was old. For example, the very first album I asked my father to buy me was Billy Joel's 'Storm Front', which was in 1990, and I thought it sounded kind of like Lovin' Spoonful. I thought those bands must have been related somehow.

The Realization

When Nirvana finally hit it big was when I really started to understand and keep up with 'new' music, and I learned about the differences between all the genres. Everyone always called that new music 'Alternative', but I was like 'why is it called alternative, when its basically the only option on the radio and MTV'. So my thinking was, There were Oldies, Country, and Alternative. Wow, I was naive, huh? I jumped aboard the Nirvana train for 3 reasons. 1) Everyone else was doing it. 2) I wanted more of an identity, and 3) The music was decent. It was about this time that a school project came up where we had to pick any song we liked, write the lyrics out, and play the song in class. Then we had to describe what we think the lyrics mean. Since about every Nirvana song was taken, I ended up picking a Queen song called 'Bohemian Rhapsody' that I had seen in a movie called 'Wayne's World'. Again, I had no idea that this song was over 20 years old and that Queen had a long prolific career. One thing that I learned during this project was that there was a cool band named 'Metallica' with a song called 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'. A girl by the name of Amanda played for the class. I'll get back to Metallica later.

Nirvana had pretty much stayed the #1 band in school and to me at the time I supposed, All the way through 'In Utero' until we found out one day that Kurt Cobain had been found dead. I remember it was at the end of 7th grade that it had happened. Nirvana had then been elevated to 'God' status, recognized by all. I guess we were all pretty impressionable at that age, huh? I know the summer of '94 was the first summer I had MTV religiously since the 80s. I remember they had this summer beachhouse scene going on with this huge tiki head doing these silly commercials I couldn't get enough. The other good videos on at the time were Sheryl Crow with her Tuesday Night Dance Club whatever album, and that Naughty by Nature song whatever it was hehe. Anyway, a replacement band for me didn't come until 1994, in the form of a polished punk act called Green Day. 'Basket Case' was the song, 'Dookie' was the album, and it was my new band of choice. I went out and bought it immediatly, memorized every song, still have it memorized today. I felt a little more comforatable with this band than I did with Nirvana because they didn't have as many followers around school the next year.

The summer of '96 brought through a huge MTV promotion by a new album from Metallica. They were playing the new videos from 'Load' back to back as well as some stuff from the black album. Out with Green Day (I thought the rest of their albums sucked anyway), and in with Metallica. I remembered that old song I had heard in class and tried out the recommended 'Black Album' Well, needless to say, I had 2 CDs of Metallica to listen to, and listen I did. Although Metallica was my fav band at the time (and still is today). I didn't fully appreciate or want to even listen to any of the Metallica from the 80s. I didn't really even listen to it as well as I do now because I wasn't into 'guitar' music like I am now. At that time I didn't saw bands more like an identity thing and you could only really cling to one, so I clung to one band until they went away or someone else came along. I finally began to appreciate more forms of music around....

Music takes center stage

Just about every night around 2AM, one video was played usually once and it kept catching my eye and I couldn't figure out exactly why. So I kept turning on the TV after midnight to look for this video from some guy named Ozzy Osbourne. The song was called 'I just want you' from an album called Ozzmosis. I had vaguly heard the name before but for some reason, I think I associated it with Hip-Hop before I saw this video for the first time. I took note that I would have to explore this 'new' artist a little bit further when I had the chance. This moment finally came when my french class went on this trip to Quebec. I remember Offspring's new album 'Ixnay on the Hombre' was in my CD player for most of the 15 hour grey-hound bus ride. So I guess this was in April of '97. I walked into a Tower record in Quebec, not really looking for anything in particular. I walked up and down the isles and I saw that Ozzy album, Ozzmosis. I immediatly grabbed it and showed my friend Keith what I had dug up. He said, "My dad used to listen to that guy when he was with Black Sabbath". Black Sabbath? The name sounded cool so I asked who they were. "I don't know anything about them except my dad liked them". I found a Black Sabbath album called 'We Souled our Souls for Rock & Roll'. Without knowing a thing about this band except they had a nifty name, I bought that record too. When I got back to my hotel room with my friends and popped in my new CDs, I knew I was onto something good. Ozzmosis was good, but Black Sabbath was better. I had no idea about any of the songs so I started at track one. I instantly recognized Iron Man, but that was it. Paranoid, N.I.B., and Children of the Grave got my attention too. I remember on that trip, my friends Josh and Ed asked what I was listening to, and I said "Black Sabbath", they were like "Oh no, We're going to goto your house and your gonna be sitting in your room smokin up and listening to metal". Josh told me that when we get back I should tune into 104.3 back home because they play that kind of stuff sometimes.

When I got back to Maryland, I shared my discovery with my friend Casey and we both started listening to 104.3. He became a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but I stuck it out with Sabbath. That particular radio station played every from the Stones in '66 to 'No More Tears' and Black Crowes. Every new song I heard on that station I researched it on the internet and the group's background. My CD collection started growing exponentially since I had a part-time job and cash to burn. I started to see music from all different sub-genre's of rock from the late 60s-90s. Over the remaining years of high school, I really got into the older music with my friends Casey and Dewayne. We would sit around on weekends or drive around in our cars between friend's houses and the college listening to the radio or new CDs we bought. I know we all thought we were wierd for digging old music, but who cares. Pink Floyd was big (Yes, Casey, you got me into that, so shut up!), and why not. Isn't Pink Floyd considered a right of passage for teenagers these days? Other stuff we had in our CD players then were Boston, Eagles, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, Kansas, Bruce Springsteen, Cream, and the Rolling Stones. So this exploration lasted over 2 years and I think I learned a new song just about every day. My collection grew from about 10 CDs to well over 100 in that time frame. At this point, I was still a music fan. Although I had dabbled in playing bass in high school, I never really considered myself attached to the music in any way.

Now

Soon after I had graduated high school, I felt that I had to put myself closer to the music. So I took up playing guitar. Unfortunatly, the job I took after I graduated put me in Japan so I was never able to find a music teacher or anything of the like. I bought books and studied them religously and tinkered around with a few of the locals who played in bands and by themselves. I have since taken up broader musical categoryies outside of pop, from classical, to jazz, to mainstream pop. My CD collection also grew accordingly, check out the artist list for details on my collection. I play classical guitar, with a touch of flamenco as well as keyboard (since I cant afford a piano). I still continue to study music on an almost daily basis, but just as a hobby. I don't have an apsirations of going pro or anything. Ill update this page as time goes on.