Under the Influence
If I think back far enough in my life to a time when I started to actually make sense of what music was I remember the music that moved me. Michael Jackson’s music did just that. It made me want to dance around like some maniac emulating every move he made on that stage. I bought records, hung posters, watched videos and I even wrote him a letter when I was about ten years old. I was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan!
As I grew a little older, I started playing trumpet in junior high and was exposed to Classical and Jazz for the first time. I started listening to some of the contemporary jazz trumpeters of the day like Wynton Marsalis, Jeff Tyzik and Doc Severinson. I would try to figure out my favorite tunes by ear and then play them a day or two later trying to impress anyone who would listen. I was pretty good at that actually and I loved playing so much that I would practice for hours even on weekends.
It wasn’t until I got into high school that I started writing songs. I was still in band but I had started listening to the music of Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Richard Marx and it was that music that inspired me to try to write songs of my own. My parents had bought me a keyboard for Christmas one year and I immediately started to try to write something that sounded vaguely like a song. Two of my earliest tunes were called “Always” and “Walking in the Rain” and after I had played them at a high school talent show one year and made a few of the girls cry…I knew I wanted to be the next Richard Marx.
So, fast forward to the mid 90′s. I hear this band called Toad the Wet Sprocket and a tune called “Something’s Always Wrong.” That old familiar feeling was back. That inspiration to go out, buy a guitar and start my own band sort of feeling and that is just what I did. We were called Mundane Rain and we played around town at the local bars, coffee houses and pretty much anywhere we could get a gig. Paid or not we just wanted to play. We developed a small but loyal fan base and after about three and a half years, we decided to call it quits.
Since that time, I have been out on my own writing, performing and recording as well as holding down a day job which I am not ashamed to admit. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the opportunity to make music full-time but having the day job to pay the bills helps ease the stress and pressure of trying to break into an industry that is very difficult to break into. Music for me is my religion, my therapy and my passion and I never want it to become a “job” in the traditional sense. Something to think about I guess.
