Early Daze
I was always into music as early as I can remember. I always loved to sing when I was a child and I remember wanting to be a DJ at a very young age. I hooked up my first Discman to a very old record and 8-track stereo system that would have been big enough and designed in a way it could have been my casket. Instead it breathed life into the concept of music performance to a young boy. I liked all sorts of music by the time I was 7 and I remember signing up for the old Columbia House deal when I was well under the age and completely getting all the CD’s for one penny that I could handle. I remember when they called me too J My first order was a bunch of music that I had never even heard. A wide range to start off my collection featuring titles such as the Boyz n’ the Hood soundtrack to Pearl Jam’s Ten. Not to mention they sent me other CD’s to make up for the ones I requested that they didn’t have. It would soon form the listening habits of my life.
By now I had heard a huge range of music, a lot of one hit wonders, legends like Elvis and The Beatles, a lot of Dance Mix. The first tape I remember being fond of was given to me by a cousin from an uncle I never met. It was full of great black music a lot of Motown old and new which included Boys to Men. However the first album I really can remember anticipating in my life was no less then Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle. The whole west coast gangster rap resurgence, created by Dr.Dre, had drawn my friends and myself in from all the way across North America and across a US, Canadian border. We all knew the words to the Chronic, even though we had no idea what they meant. I find that strange now because I so appreciate and expect great lyrics so much, especially from hip-hop.
When I moved out of the city, and into a new school, it drastically changed what types of music I was into. Being in a new school and being a lot different from everyone, I would follow the trends and make an effort to fit in. In a lot of ways the content was a lot less mature, especially the music. I went from hanging out with friends that would recite the words of Snoop, Biggie, Pac to Metallica and Nirvana, to trying to fit in with kids you liked the Lion King Soundtrack to Garth Brooks. I’m not trying to front! I really, really liked the soundtrack and the movie too, but you can see that this is a really big change. I don’t even want to talk about going from baggy to tight jeans J I guess at this moment I feel it gave me more of a childhood instead of trying to grow up to fast.
I eventually had two different groups of friends by that first summer and my new friends loved heavy metal. Mostly the big three of the time, Metallica, Guns and Roses and Megadeth. One day I walked into a local store and noticed a copy of Guitar Magazine that featured a bunch of Metallica riffs written in something called tablature. I bought the magazine and when I got home I went into my parents room, crawled under the bed and took out my Dad’s acoustic (a twelve string, that what forever reason he still only keeps six strings on) and tried to translate the notes into something that resembles parts of the songs. After about three hours of figuring out how this tablature thing worked, I was playing something that sounded a bit like the main riff to Metallica’s Enter Sandman.
Here is where my Dad comes in (who can play all the cords and performs for fun and charity to this day). Instead of teaching me a G, all he says is you should sing and play and you will get better. Whatever that means! Anyway I got into playing guitar and started learning more and more riffs, never full songs, that is important for later on in my story. After going down to the city to hang out with my old friends, I heard and became aware of an album that would become monumental to me, equal to Snoop’s Doggystyle, Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged.
The End of Part 1
Okay that’s all for now folks. I just wrote this out of the blue when I was tryin
g to write a more personal bio for a website, but now it seems like a good idea. However I am hard at work my new album SO! You will have to come back for part 2 another time.
Check the links below to hear my stuff and keep in touch. Also you can get my podcast on iTunes or find the player on my Got a Love Woman Blog and MySpace.
Thank you for listening,
S
At this moment in listening to Al Green “Guilty”
