All of these questions and more will be answered soon enough... but for today, How did this all begin?
Music was always a part of my life. Whether it was listening to my pop's incessant foot-tappin' stiff fingered gee-tar playin' or my mom's melodious screeching of my name blood curtlingly when calling me for dinner, music was there. My pet bird would tweet. The voices in my head were constantly humming.
I remember writing my first original song when I was about 6 years old. I was swinging on my neighbors swing, keeping a rhythm that became so infectious the voices in my head were moving in time with serendipitous delight. Swinging, swinging, swinging... then the words to the tune made themselves apparent and WHAM-O! I wrote my first song, titled "Swinging". Here is the full lyrical content: Verse 1 - swinging [repeat], Verse 2 - swinging [repeat], Chorus: swinging [repeat ad nauseum]
Years went by before I wrote another song, but soon after writing "swinging" I was overcome with another joyous hobby - writing. It started with my name, then a few curse words, next came scribbling some bathroom wall advertising, before long I was an unstoppable force. Short stories, poems, prose, home movie scripts, ransom notes, yearbook signings... I was writing all the time, everywhere! Insatiable and passionate writing.
I would go to elementary school and show my friends all of my delightful ramblings. Stories such as "Don't Touch Me There" and poems like "I wanna grow up to be an alcoholic". None of those little pukes cared though, but that wouldn't stop me. Here I am, yeah, what's up now? Where are they? I have concluded they are all dead or in jail (for reasons only my therapist knows). I wrote and wrote and tried my damnedest to never plagiarize, whatever the consequences.
More years went by and my childhood chum, Jerm and I would spend hours prank calling people (Ah, the days before caller ID) and performing street theatre at our own bemusement. One day, Jerm showed me something I will remember forever - it was a tape recorder. The world would forever change! Not that day, per se... but it was the door to a new hallway; the long, time-consuming, expensive, unrewarding and girlfriend repelling world of sound recording. Ahh-ahhhhhh (Angels singing)
Soon we were recording fake radio shows with interviews of imaginary guests and inanimate toy figurines, using special effects and incorporating multiple recorders to assimilate multi-tracking as to make a room full of people out of two voices. It was fun, it was exhilarating and since we were yet to reach puberty, it was stupid. However, all was not lost... the seeds had been planted.
More years went by and girls soon consumed every thought, every ounce of energy. Once again my friend and confidante, writing had found it's value. I began to write volumes of 'love' poetry; sappy, crappy, happy love poems. Since most girls were repelled by my freakish twitching and uncontrollable sweating and panting when I was near them, poetry gave me a fighting chance. Or so I believed.
teen love poem-
Your eyes are like really awesome,
you're like, really cool
Baby, I can't wait to see you again
even if it means I have to go to stupid school.
Well, you can imagine how far that got me. (disclaimer - No imagination necessary)
Several more years later (damn, I'm getting old now) I was finally able to overcome my fear of being within 100 ft of actual living females, gave up my poetry-for-love exchange program and graduated to the world of dating, handholding and the 4 hour long phone calls associated with 'girlfriends'.
During one of these deep pondering, mind twisting and absorbing content discussions, I brazenly promised my 'girlfriend' that I would write her a song. Ooops! It had been many, many, many years...hell over a DECADE since my self-critically acclaimed success of 'Swinging', but I had painted myself into a musical corner with no chair on which to sit.
Then, at that moment at 3 in the morning, I sang a rousing rendition of my new song "Orange Juice". It went like this - "Orange juice. Orange juuuuuuuuice..." Four words and six seconds would change my life forever... I was no longer a one hit wonder, but an accomplished and proficient artist. It was ON!!!
No longer would I have to shove poetry in front of girls and hope they got the deeper nuances of the words and furthermore, the author. Now I could SING my words and drill right through their ears into their hearts... then I got to thinking...hmmm. If I could sing love poems, why not all of my non-love poems as well!!!No one was ever going to read my books upon books of poetry unless I died freakishly, or went postal somehow and they were looking for clues why. This was it. Add music to the poems and I could force them, THRUST them upon people and MAKE them listen!!!
The Dream was born.
