Influences

Nick hits it on the nail yet again. What a guy. Sigh.

The other day there was a joke fest going on about all of us who play crazy punk rock type stuff now who grew up listening to ridiculous soft rock or mainstream drivel or what-have-you.  It is also regularly true that, at CJ rehearsal, someone will mention this or that band in a "well of course everyone knows this band or this album" and my answer 100% of the time is "I've heard of them, but have no idea what they sound like." This is always met with total disbelief and a not-so-subtle sense of "well you really kind of suck."

How this happened I do not know. I bought 2 cds a week in the summers of 1990 and 1991. This is the basis of my frame of reference...and yet I don't even know half the bands in the genres that I was glued to from those summers. My music collection now is 100s deep...but I know almost nothing. I had big brothers with great taste and also was glued to my radio throughout the 70s and 80s. But until a few years ago I could not have even told apart AC/DC, Led Zep, and The Who. I can tell them apart now only because you really can't take rock drum lessons and not learn that.

I think that my musical background is narrow...but deep. I know a great deal about the bands that I know about...and I know nothing else.

I really don't know how it is that people read every comic book, watched every movie, and listened to every album that ever came out. And still have time to know about cars or their jobs or educations or what have you. Clearly I mis-spent my youth daydreaming about cute girls.

Anyway...who are my song-writing or instrument-playing influences? Fuck I don't think I have any. I steal what I can but basically do whatever comes out. It's probably a mis-mash and I barely understand enough to even be ABLE to copy others.