MEMBERS OF SOUND
Over two years ago I started digging around thinking of the next thing I should do creatively. I was inspired by the writings of sufi master musician Hazrat Inayat Khan. I wanted more creative sustainability; a song a month for 2 years sounded like a good way to keep the lights burning.
Now, here, I write at the end of that idea from a sea of change with new faces, new gigs, doors swung open, pages flipped, 2 albums worth of material and always perspective and more perspective.
Sure, the artist's mind can float out like a kite, separate and outside of the box, but the artist is in everyone; awoken in some, dormant in others. Creativity is in us like the hearts in our chests, pulsating away. As we know, some listen to their hearts and some don’t.
I talk to a lot of people looking for that spark, wondering where to ignite the inspirational flame. We live inside an avalanche of distractions. We're told what junk to over eat, who and how to be, but I believe that light is everywhere and most of the time it's very obvious, like looking for the keys in your hand or the sunglasses on your head.
Jump down the rabbit hole; write that song, that book, that poem, that short story, that play. Start a project, turn down the TV, write down your dreams, your observations, push your boundaries, stay inspired, paint, sculpt, read, travel, love, dance, sing, act, make a move, cast a line into the future, it'll hook on something out of sight and reel you toward the glorious unknown.
Use creativity as a torch to scare off the dark forces of mediocrity, societal conditioning and constructs. Creativity is a powerful card up your sleeve, your personal card with a suit no ones ever seen.
Go somewhere you’ve never been before; it's my call to arms lately and I think it will be for a long while.
So here I am, one of many with a guitar doing my best to sort it out. A member of the working musician class, a member of sound fighting to stay present as I move through the day, through sorrow, through happiness, through the strange thoughts that roam the brain and eventually through this body.
Every decision I have made lead me right here, down this path.
So adjust the bass and treble tones set out for new milestones.
A moment will come to let you know we’re all members of sound.
My plan is to release a song a month over the course of twenty months with various producers and musicians, fitting the pieces to my puzzle as I go. These ideas are based on (though I'll most likely do some wandering off) versions on my own experiences of playing music over the years with a nod of recognition to the countless musicians and songwriters out there in the trenches some of whom I've been fortunate enough to have traveled along side with. Songs about the kid who at first gravitates innocently toward music in its raw and spiritual form into the desire of some rockstar life few can ever attain. The joke of emulating worn out cliches associated with drugs, sex, and rock and roll even without the fame or money or ..sex. Depression, frustration, crushed hopes and dreams of clawing up ladders to nowhere. The egos, arrogance, selfishness, the backstabbing, the obsession with trying to be recognized. The realization that your corporate, blue collar job or cover band may end up being your true source of income after all.
Yet over time no matter what level you achieve "making it" may wind up being something else you never expected. Maybe it's the perseverance and perfection of your craft that is the real goal which may trump all of vanity's distractions. Maybe it's the on going search of the full potential of your own creativity, you coming into your own, on your own terms, with or without the trappings of popularity and the constant search for approval that matters the most. The vibrations of music may not only be bigger than the struggle, but it may very well be the foundation of existence itself. The kid comes in a full circle after the long wild tangent back to the original reasons for the gravitation toward the vibrations of sound. That raw source, that reason from the beginning that was forgotten.
The musician, the artist, finally sees not only his or herself as a member of those vibrations, but perhaps everyone here on our blue little planet, knowingly or not, are members of sound, and here we are together riding on a song through space and time life, death. Many of the songs are still being written as I go. The rough sketches are basically done . The first session has been completed with my current full band WELCOME MATT line-up Andrew Lion, Rick Munoz, Michael Papenburg, Pat Kelly and Joe Heavey. Five songs were recorded at Broken Radio with Matt Boudreau . The second session has also been recorded with Jeff Symonds on keyboards and Bass and Joey Castor on percussion at Prairie Sun studios with Wain Hewlett . Owls flew overhead at the end of the session as we were leaving on the longest day of the year. I'll choose to take it as a good omen though I'm sure it was just owl mating season.
