Pre guitar days
I grew up in a home where there was music about. Usually the radio, or my mom’s power ballad tape that she would listen to in the car. Occasionally a record would be played – usually Queen or Diamond Dogs (still a favourite to this day).
There was only one person in my family who played an instrument – my great grandmother – who was a piano teacher, many years before I arrived – but used to still play for the other residents in the assisted living complex that she lived at – though I do not recall ever hearing her play.
At about age 8 or 9 I would have sleepovers at my best friend’s house – he was a couple of years older. A ghetto blaster was always on, usually Whitesnake or some hair metal. This did stir some interest in me, though I was more focussed on video games – so again – music was in the background.
Somehow at around this time, I was encouraged to take keyboard lessons and was bought a little casio keyboard. Whilst I used to enjoy messing with the settings and making sounds with the keyboard, I loathed the lessons – and eventually, like with most extra-curricular activities I was encouraged to do, wormed my way out of it.
Like many boys of my age, I became very interested in Michael Jackson – and was bought a cassette of “Bad” – I loved this album very much and the imagery of the Bad video made a great impression on me – music was starting to move into being more than just a background soundtrack.
Between the ages of 10-11 my father, who had recently separated from my mother, got a younger girlfriend and moved in with her. Me and my brother would go and visit. She had a great stereo. The first time I had heard music through decent speakers. And she had LPs – one of these at the front of the stack mesmerised me, before I even heard it. It was Guns N Roses – Appetite for Destruction. Music nerds will know that there was an original album cover deemed to unsavoury to be displayed in the shops. This was that version. Everything about the cover, and the band name, and title of the record left me enthralled. Thinking about the name of our band now, probably has some deep sub conscious parallel to the name Guns (violence, machinery) Roses (beauty, nature). One of the all time great band names. I asked to listen to it, and was blown away. This was the first time I heard or experienced that music could be dangerous, nasty, grimy, real. I bought the cassette soon after and listened to it at every opportunity I could. I felt that music and lived in it. I didn’t know or care anything about the guitar, drums, bass – I listened to it as a whole. This was for me.
I discovered several other bands just being drawn to them by the artwork on the front of my dad’s new girlfriend’s LPs. Most also had very interesting titles “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” “Pornografiti” my interest in these things probably linked to awakening hormones.
Shortly after this – The Cure were all over the radio with “Friday I’m In Love” an incredible, perfect melancholy pop song that ate its way into my brain. It was also a mirror of the longing feeling I had towards my first crush, who I never let know how I had fallen head over heels for. The impact here, was seeing how music could not only reflect feelings, it could enhance them, or help you through them. I saw the music video on some TV show and wow. The look of the band, Robert Smith particularly, like something from another world. And so began a lifelong relationship with The Cure that has only grown stronger over the years. A band creating their own world and sending postcards to the rest of us.
Nirvana were bubbling away in the background blowing up whilst I was listening to the Cure and still obsessing over Guns N Roses. I missed it all until we got cable TV, and subsequently MTV. Now I was exposed to many more bands – but it being MTV can I say it was the music or the visuals? – I can say it was both – a theme here for me, that I am only uncovering as I write this, is that all the things I love musically are wrapped up in a stunning visual package. One day I saw the video for Heart Shaped Box. Kurt Cobain’s blue eyes and that silver shirt. The religious imagery. There was pain and anguish in the music, a first for me. I was hooked. In Utero was put on my Christmas list in 1993 – and was one of my first CD that I received on the day – along with a CD player. Kurt would be dead a few months later. I was watching MTV when the news broke.
In 1994 I attended my first gig at 14 years old. I went with a friend, though I cannot remember who it was. The Cranberries were blowing up with Dreams and Linger. I loved the Cranberries 1st album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Cant We. I got to see them play in Wolverhampton. I never developed into a big fan, but that 1st record is perfect and beautiful, and it was a really great gig.
Sometime after this. I discovered the next love of my musical life, Smashing Pumpkins. A friend gave me a tape – on the one side was Troublegum by Therapy? (A damn fine album) – which is the album I had asked them to tape for me. On the other, they put most (not all as it would not fit) of Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins. Like the Cure – this was music from another world. It was accessible to me because some of the rawness of Nirvana was there – but this music, the songs had intros, outro’s, fade-ins, wild guitar solo’s, an enormous sound, and riffs. The songs mixed brutal heaviness with fragile beauty. This was really accomplished music and wholly original again. They became my favourite band for the longest time – and I still do love them now. At this point in my life I had still not yet picked up a guitar. I think this was the one that germinated the seed. As a side note, there was a bunch of articles recently about how Billy Corgan felt he could play circles around most guitarists in these “best guitarist ever” lists and was unfairly overlooked. He came across quite narcissistic and whiny, but I will say this – he is right. One of my biggest influences as a guitar player (along with Jerry Cantrell whom we will get to later).
To be continued…
Distress Tolerance Band 