Drawing The Line

I was in Nashville this past weekend, which was an interesting experience.

My band played for record label executives at a band showcase, which was more fun that I thought it would be.

My band finally played the Metro this past Friday night, which was a great experience and exposure for us, but I digress.

I have spent probably 6 years of my life wondering where I as a musician and an individual fit into modern music. I have flirted with electronic music in the past, and have thought lately about either incorporating electronic drums and synths into my current band (which is now called No Exit) or starting an electronic side project. If a musician doesn't embrace technology that usually get left in the dust, and I have no intention on getting left behind in the musical landscape.

Along with wondering how I can survive as a modern musician, I've also felt the pressure of time on my available window to "succeed" as a musician trying to survive in the modern world. I'm 24 years old, and for most people that's a young age to be, but for a musician I'm an old man. So I feel I'm always working against the clock.

This past weekend playing both the Metro (biggest show of my career) and playing a showcase in Nashville, I've had all those thoughts about technology and age on my mind. Can I "make it" as a career musician before 24 and playing in a rock band?

All my opinions and assumptions are currently changing as I write. Over the past couple years I've become more and more of a fan of the band Porcupine Tree, which is kind of like England's answer to Tool and Radiohead and a return to album oriented experimental rock music. The new album by Porcupine Tree entitled "The Incident" is the freshest piece of music I've heard in years.

It is an empowering musical statement, and an artistic tool to show self-awareness. While there are some use of electronic music on the album, it is mainly just a well composed and arranged rock album full of progressive and experimental song elements. I think it's a beautiful album. To see such a fresh and creative album coming from a group of guys who are in their mid-40s who have a band have been around for 20 years, but only now getting commercial success makes me feel much better about my place and status in the music world.

The centerpiece of the 2 disc album is a 55 minute long song titled "The Incident" whcih is broken down into 14 parts and covers the entire first disc.

Steve Wilson who is the guitarist/lead vocalist/lead songwriter of Porcupine Tree wrote "The Incident" as a conceptual piece, and I really like the concept of the music. I wish more music had the depth and psychological awarenress as "The Incident."

"There was a sign saying ‘POLICE – INCIDENT’ and everyone was slowing down to rubber neck to see what had happened... Afterwards, it struck me that ‘incident’ is a very detached word for something so destructive and traumatic for the people involved.

And then I had the sensation that the spirit of someone that had died in the accident entered into my car and was sitting next to me. The irony of such a cold expression for such seismic events appealed to me, and I began to pick out other ‘incidents’ reported in the media and news,” continues Wilson.

“I wrote about the evacuation of teenage girls from a religious cult in Texas, a family terrorizing its neighbors, a body found floating in a river by some people on a fishing trip, and more. Each song is written in the first person and tries to humanize the detached media reportage.”

War On Music Part 3 - Fear Of A Blank Planet

I am not particularly a fan of love songs, I find them boring. I've always been more interested in lyrics that deal with what I call "the real world."

The real world is not the always positive, everything turns out good in the end, disney world that a lot of pop music and pop culture concerns itself with.

The British Progressive Rock band Porcupine Tree is a band I've heard of for years, but only started seriously listening to within the last year. I think they are on the forefront of what I call Free-Thinking Rock Music. Their music is more darker and edgier and reminds me of a mix of Tool and Muse. Their lyrics are great, and they tend to deal with the negative aspects of society. They write about loneliness, prescription drug abuse, depression, violence, inequality, negative effects of technology, and conformity. So they fit right up my philosophical alley.

Their latest album is called "Fear Of A Blank Planet" and it's about the desensitization and dehumanization of mainstream western society. I think the lyrics to the title track sums up typical close-minded conformist America, which is quite large.

Below is the lyrics to the song, which I think are fantastic and the video which is an edited version of the song because Porcupine Tree is on Atlantic Records and they're not going to make a video for a 7 minute long song.

Fear Of A Blank Planet

Sunlight coming through the haze
No gaps in the blinds
To let it inside
The bed is unmade,
Some music still plays

TV, yeah it's always on
The flicker on the screen
A movie actress screams
I'm basking the shit flowing out of it

I'm stoned in the mall again
Terminally bored
Shuffling round the stores
And shoplifting is getting so last year's thing

X-Box is a god to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me

Don't try engaging me
The vaguest of shrugs
The prescription drugs
You'll never find a person inside

My face is Mogadon
Curiosity has given up on me
I'm tuning out desires
The pills are on the rise

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left, I simply am not here

I'm through with pornography
The acting is lame
The action is tame
Explicitly dull
Arousal annulled

Your mouth should be boarded up
Talking all day with nothing to say
Your shallow proclamations
All misinformation

My friend says he wants to die
He's in a band, they sound like Pearl Jam
Their clothes are all black
The music is crap

In school I don't concentrate
And sex is kinda fun, but just another one
Of all the empty ways of using up the day

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left, I simply am not here

Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with this boredom
Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with this boredom

You don't try to be liked
You don't mind
You feel no sun
You steal a gun
To kill time

You're somewhere
You're nowhere
You don't care
You catch the breeze
You still the leaves
So now where?

War On Music Part 1

Being a musician I'm not fond of a lot of music that exists in the pop mainstream.

Being The Drive To 2011 is very much about self-awareness and personal creativity I thought I'd share some things in my blog of music I appreciate and others might too if they are exposed to it. I have dubbed these blog posts my War On Music.

The first part of the War On Music is a beautiful song I love written and performed by one of my favorite percussionists Gavin Harrison. Gavin is one of the best musicians I've seen live and plays in the bands King Crimson and Porcupine Tree.

The song is titled "19 Days"