Back in the late 90s when I was just starting to walk about,
I loved to listen music at all hours of the day. However, my original choices
of music may have been a bad taste, it wasn’t till later on that I began to
find a style that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Here’s my story.
There I was enjoying the days of being a wee tike, not
having a care in the world, or what was going on half of the time, a free
spirit if you will.
With my little Walkman and various tapes I would carry
around with me at all times. I had a couple of my Fathers old tapes like
Boston, Def Lepard, and ZZ Top, but the one tape that I myself owned and played
probably 90% of the time was the album Black & Blue, by the boy band group,
The Backstreet Boys. Yes, Backstreet Boys. I too hate to admit it, but what
young child at that time didn’t listen to the Backstreet Boys, or at least know
a few songs by heart.
Night and day I’d be blasting that tape listening to the
Backstreet Boys. Then one sad night after leaving my Papa and Grandma’s place
after supper with my dad, I had left my apple juice in the seat, where it sat
next to my Walkman. It had tipped over and completely destroyed my tape as well
as my beloved Walkman.
So what did I do next you ask?
I saved up my chore money for months until I was able to by
myself the new thing on the streets,
… The Discman…
I felt like the coolest kid in town, I was unstoppable.
But there was one problem; I hadn’t saved up enough money
for a CD as well, not one of my brightest moments. But my Mother, who was so
very kind, helped me out and bought me a Backstreet Boys CD. However I cannot
actually remember what album it was, I was ecstatic and began listening to it
everyday.
My music choice began to improve as I was getting tired of
the ‘Boy Band’ people; I began to turn to a sound that would captivate me.
Rock n’ Roll.
My Father and Mother had always listened to Rock n’ Roll and
by now my older brother was also beginning to listen to Australian rock band
AC/DC. My good buddy at the time (he still is today), who is considered chosen
family, was a son to huge KISS fan, so he began to show me the ‘heavy’ and
groovy music of the legendary group.
So by the time I was probably 8 or 9 I had forgotten all
about the Backstreet Boys and was all over the Rock n Roll scene with Bands
like KISS, AC/DC, Bryan Adams, and Def Lepard, just to name the bigger
contenders. This style opened many doors with listening to the local rock
station, as well as a competition between my Dad and I to see who could name
the song and the band on the radio first. He would win most of the time at the
start, before I caught on.
After years of listening to KISS and getting influenced by
North America’s Rock. My friend and I broadened our minds once again, but this
time to a heavier more modern side of Rock n’ Roll. By then I had begun to listen to bands like
Weezer, Velvet Revolver, Buckcherry and legendary group (the greatest rock n’
roll band of all time) Led Zeppelin. I even experimented in listening to Country
Stars like Willie Nelson and Toby Keith.
When the very first X- Fest came to Brandon Manitoba about 7
or 8 years ago now, my buddy and I went and experienced it all. We saw Default,
Hedley, and our favourite at the time, Buckcherry. Buckcherry remained my
favourite for years; I’ve seen them in concert at least 5 times (I think). And
it was after that very first X- Fest that we decided to start a band.
So with the band my preferred music genres changed
drastically. There were bands like Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Pearl
Jam, Tom Petty, and even the headstones.
But my favourites at the time were still Buckcherry, but
bands like Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine were sneaking in.
After years of not really having any specific favourite
band, I began to focus on songs that would be good for the band and what kind
of sound we were striving for.
Then one day, when a couple of my friends and I, one who was
also in the band, use to work for my friends Dad cutting grass all around our
home community and surrounding area’s. He showed us an album called ‘Aha Shake
Heartbreak’. It had a really weird sound that I never heard before with a funky
folky southern type sound and a scratchy-ish kind of almost bad sounding
vocalist. The band was Kings of Leon; the first song I’d heard was Day Old Blues.
I knew of Kings of Leon from songs like Sex on Fire and Use
Somebody, but never really liked that sound. But after my buddy’s Dad playing
this album day after day while driving somewhere to cut grass, I began to like
it. The weird unpredictable style with lyrics that made me stop to think what
the f*** he was talking about. So it wasn’t long before I bought my own CD,
however it was their latest album at the time because it was the only one I can
find, Come Around Sundown. I listened
to that album thousands upon thousands of times in my CD player until I
purchased a live DVD of Kings of Leon live at the O2 London Arena. That DVD has
honestly been played probably a million times. Everyone who has ever came to my
garage has seen the DVD at least five times. I listened to every song from that
DVD, and it wasn’t long before I had collected every album by Kings Of Leon.
This group was the favourite I had been looking for those previous years.
It wasn’t long until lots of friends were listening to the
band; even my parents and siblings began listening to it. My own Mother now
owns three of the Kings Of Leon albums and they seem to always be playing in
her car.
This band remains my favourite today, and I’m sure everyone
knows it as I’m pretty well always listening to something by them.
But the main styles I listen to now a days’ is Southern
Rock, and a Folky type of Rock.
My favourite bands would probably be KOL, The Weeks, Deep
Dark Woods, and The Head and The Heart. Other favourites that aren’t under that music genre
are bands like The Band, Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder, Led Zeppelin, and various
other groups that I stumble upon and find interesting. Of course there are many
other bands that I listen to but that would take awhile to get through.
This music genre ‘Southern Rock’, is what our band used as
our goal type of thing (the style we were striving for) to helps us create and
play our own material.
So be sure to broaden your music selection, find new sounds.
If you have a favourite band, find out what that band’s favourite band was or
what they listened to when inspiring to be musicians, you’ll learn a lot and
maybe you’ll even like the music.
I’m glad my music selection turned out the way it did, even
if it started with the Backstreet Boys, but hey, there’s only one way to get
where you wanna be.
