My Ongoing, Ongoing Story
And here is my on going, on going story.
I started learning music pretty late, at 17, when my parents randomly gave me an electric guitar. I had not been a very musical person, and I didn't even really listen to music as a kid at all. Other kids would ask me what kind of music I liked, and I would tell them I didn't listen to any music; listen to music on purpose that is. I remember one kid in elementry school that would always keep asking me about it. He didn't believe that it was possible for someone not be into music. When he saw my Nirvana shirt, he said "Oh, you like Nirvana then?". I told him "No, my Grandma got me this shirt." He said "What? Your Grandma likes Nirvana!" I replied "No, I think she just liked the sea-horses on the front."
High school was the first time I started buying CD's. It was all old bands, from the 60's & 70's, and predominately rock, which I feel is the type of music I make; classic, blues-based rock/pop, with that 60's idea of freedom to not be like everyone else and to try new things. I don't limit myself to using only the instruments they used back then, or try to sound the way they sounded back then, because they made music their own way, using just what they had. The reason I only had old music was because I didn't think any of the new music was as good as the old stuff, and that everything in the past was better. For many years, the "newest" CD's I had were 80's Van Halen albums. "Elephant", by the White Stripes, was the first actual new album I had ever purchased. It sounded like the classic stuff. I later found out that Jack White, like me, thought that all the old stuff was better than the new. I've actually since changed my mind on that idea. A lot of new stuff makes it possible for me to make music, and all that old, sought after vintage equipment that all the classic artists used back then, was new stuff, (for them). They made their classic equipment classic by playing it. That's why I like to buy new guitars & amps; I get the chance to give the instrument its begining history and make it unique.
In the fourth grade, my Grandma had tried to buy me an electric guitar, but I was just more interested in video games back then; I even proposed to my parents that that was what I could do for a living when I grew up. Their response was "No. We want you to have a job that will make you money." Oops, doesn't the video game industry out-sell Hollywood now? And speaking of Hollywood, after high school, my career choice was going to be movie director.
I always liked film, and my Dad always seemed to know every actor's name in every movie, and he somehow saw every old movie at the theater, in Aberdeen. I asked him how he was able to do that, and he said "There wasn't much to do in Aberdeen." Over time, I started learning all the actor's names too; also learning directors & writers as well - I even now know the Bollywood ones as well. (Excuse me, Indian Film Industry ones. If there's one thing Amitabh dislikes more than DVD piracy, it's the word Bollywood.)
I starting making films for school in junior high, and I found I really liked it. My parents were very enthusiastic about the idea, so college was going to be film school. Well, that didn't work out. All the film schools seemed like a waste of time & money to me, because they weren't focusing on just making good, original films, and the experience you gain from doing so. Instead of teaching what the common mistakes are, and giving good tips, they seemed more intent on telling you how they think a film should be done, or presenting you with a bunch of busy work to get your degree. (Let's shoot a black & white silent film, and cut it by hand! - Uh, no.) The only good one I found, was actually just a video production class at a community college. There you were presented with open filmaking & equipment, and it was actually taught by someone who worked & produced a show at the biggest TV station in Seattle. While there, however, my focus changed (Oh no, camera pun.).
While I had access to the video editing computers, I tried to put together a song on one. I had been occasionally recording my guitar playing on old cassettes, and I had wondered what I would sound like with other instruments playing at the same time. The video editing computer had four audio tracks, and it was there I put together my first songs. I was excited with its (poor) results, as you can imagine how good a song will sound when all the instruments are recorded at slightly different tempos.
Now, a second thing happened that made me change my mind on being a director. One of the class projects was to film a story where one of the students becomes a "ladies man". This is about the absolute last type of movie I would want to make. I realized that if I went into film directing, I would be making other people's movies. I did not have the money to produce my own, I would not have control over the films, and these are the movies that hollywood likes to make. Through digital editing however, I could make songs entirely by myself. The only obstacle then was, I had to learn everything about how to do it, and not to do what other people have done, so I could make new, original music, in a unique sounding way. And that's how this whole thing started.
To do everything myself, I had to learn everything myself; that way I could be original. With the guitar playing, I didn't want someone to teach me how to play, because I felt that would make me sound like them, and not be entirely myself. Plus, I was under the mistaken impression that Jimi Hendrix was self-taught, and never learned to read music. He's considered the best, so that must be how you do it. It turns out he was taught by the old tyme blues players when he was in the South, and he did learn how to read & write music later on. Oh well. I'll just stick to being self-taught and unable to read music anyway.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy discovering the music.
- Jesse
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