As a musician you tend to be your own worst critic and I'm certainly no exception. For my final project I wanted to find another artists on campus to do a brief coverage of but the ones I knew seemed to be feeling "shy". I however am beyond the point of embarrassment. I wanted to do a simple cover of one of my favorite songs but my throat felt hoarse and everything sounded wrong. I was at a loss for what to do so I sat down and started strumming like I do when I get stumped. I decided to take a chance, I hit record and did something I do all too often, I winged it. I thought up a title and started playing what came to mind. The music was choppy at first but then it started to slowly unravel and stretch out into something interesting. I left the video at one take. Often times I do songs in one take and the results vary. While I feel that my voice wasn't all it could have been I left everything as is. This speaks to who I am as a person, I'm not always going to be perfect, in all honesty I may not even always be good. The real lesson is taking your experiences positive and negative alike and learning from them. Throughout I've included other snippets of me playing. I also have a youtube channel with a few mediocre dorm room made songs on it.
Keep the Wolves Away
On a less serious note I suppose I should tell about how I started doing music. I had always seen people play instruments growing up and wanted desperately to have that sort of talent. As a child with ADD, ADHD, and various other issues focus was not my strong suit. I watched a film called School of Rock and was mesmerized by the music abilities of the children in it, I wondered if I would be able to accomplish something similar. I picked up a guitar for the first time at around 8 years old.....and was instantly terrible. I'd like to say I was a child prodigy but in truth I didn't actually start playing till high school. Some friends wanted to start a band so I learned how to play bass guitar fairly poorly. After our band flopped I began to learn ukulele. After that I moved on to guitar. I've also worked on percussion and piano every once in a while. I would play at lunch during school with some of my friends and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. The biggest crowds I've played for were probably 100 people or less, the biggest of which being at a benefit for an extended family member who was injured in a car crash. Fun fact: I have never performed one of my own songs live.
I'll talk briefly about some of my inspirations. I draw on multiple genres and play whatever I feel like but I think I generally fall into a more folksy or alt-soft rock. Modern Baseball has been one of my main inspirations in recent years. Generally their songs are about a husky guitar player/singer who has bad luck with women so I relate. While I'm getting into fairly good shape, inside I still feel like that same chubby guy who wrote sad songs about girls who didn't like him in high school. I also like that the lead singer Brendan Lukens doesn't have a great voice but he makes what he's got work for him. Artists like Arlo McKinley have influenced my guitar playing and my singing on occasion. Around Texarkana I try to lean into the folksy side to cater to the large amount of country music lovers.
In all honesty the only reason I've learned as much about music as I have is simply because I enjoy it. While I have no serious aspirations when it comes to making music, as long as I enjoy it I'll keep doing it.
You Don't Care Enough For Me To Cry
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