meandthestereo

Image is a huge factor in rock music.  For lack of a more articulate term, I typically observe musicians and performers constantly attempting to appear “cool.”  Why bother?  It seems like being a talented musician and performer should be effortless once the musician is confident in his or her career.  Why are people not just comfortable being themselves?

Rock musicians are only suffering on a bigger scale from what we all face.  When we talk to other people, are we constantly thinking to ourselves, “what does this new person think of me?”  The image we project becomes the part of our personality that will be the first impression.  So we try to perfect this impression, and end up sometimes agonizing over it.  We are control freaks who want absolute control over our image.  Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing or controlling what others’ impressions of us will be.  So instead of dropping the whole idea, we hyper analyze and obsess. Read the rest of this entry →

Many people want to make certain changes to their lives.  There is a huge self-improvement section of the bookstore, where I can sometimes be found.  From better scheduling to better eating, from more thoughtfulness to more action, change and improvement seem to be popular.

Maybe it’s just me, but people seem to rely on music to unleash some of the emotional neediness that arises in everyday life.  We interpret as we please, and seek reassurance in the cryptic lyrics.  The haunting melodies evoke either energetic times or sorrowful times, pensive times or forward-moving times.  We chose what we listen to, but maybe we can’t always control how exactly a particular song will affect us on a particular day when we listen to it.

When I listen to Mates of State, I feel a lot of energy from the upbeat piano lines and drum rhythms.  I want to feel enthusiastic about something when listening to Mates of State. Read the rest of this entry →

I’m not naturally a performer, but there is an element of performance to being a musician.  So I have attempted to transform my nervous energy into stamina for singing and playing music onstage.  Usually, the crowd is nonexistent or mostly intoxicated if I was lucky enough to play on a weekend evening.  Perhaps the most nervousness comes from playing at open mic opportunities, when some of the crowd is actually listening!

I can’t say I ever feel comfortable or at ease on stage.  But I still value music performance, because I believe it is an opportunity to share.  I spend a lot of time working on songwriting in the privacy of my own living room with a notebook and a guitar.  The process is not really complete until I share the song with a few listeners. Read the rest of this entry →

Some bands stay with you through the years, others are just a passing trend.

In high school, I listened to Fuel and the Foo Fighters and Live and Counting Crows.  In college, my freshman year, I would listen to A Perfect Circle and Tool.  Later on, I would listen to The Shins and Elliott Smith.

I’ve listened to R.E.M. for many years, and their songs have stuck by me through good and bad times, thoughtful and emotional times.  The first R.E.M. album I got was New Adventures in Hi-Fi.  Because of my age, I was joining them late in the game.  It has been a treasure trove of albums to discover.  I admire how unique R.E.M.’s career has been and how they seem to continually challenge themselves to keep being creative. Of course, besides the music and instrumentation, I am a huge lyrics person.  My ears always strain to make out the singer’s words when I’m listening to any music.  Michael Stipe’s lyrics and delivery never fail to be poetic.  One of my favorite songs is “Find the River,” the last song on Automatic for the People.  In high school, my favorite R.E.M. song was “Strange Currencies.” Read the rest of this entry →

Has Pop music negatively influenced the course of music in general?  I hope not, because I love Pop music.  I think I got my definition of using the term Pop music from a Michael Stipe interview that I have a vague memory of in the back of my mind.  I can’t find the interview (I just searched a bit), but I could’ve sworn that Michael Stipe said something about R.E.M. creating Pop songs, and R.E.M. being my all-time favorite band, it has given me positive connotations with the term.

I think Pop music is able to translate its message, whatever that may be, easily to many, many people.  You’re allowed to interpret.  You’re even allowed to sing the words wrong, guessing at unintelligible syllables and creating your own sentences that go along with the catchy melody, and then interpret this patchwork song with any meaning you really chose.  Maybe you think it’s about the songwriter’s own breakup, or maybe you personally identify with it.  Maybe, as Better Than Ezra lyricizes about in one song, a Pop song identifies with a particular memory or time period of your life. Read the rest of this entry →