Well I'm finally home again after a couple weeks of traveling, and life seems to come to a hault when you're not on the road.
I've missed Chicago and can't wait to get back. I have place to crash/live now until September or until I find my own place first, which is fine with me right now. I haven't even seen the place yet, but I don't really care to be honest.
I have two gigs this week, one is on Tuesday with my side-project experimental/electronic band Furniture playing at a loft party which I think will be pretty cool. The other gig is Friday night headlining the Elbo Room with Ben Joyce, which if it's anything like the last time we played the Elbo Room will be a very very awesome show.
I'm finally going to start doing some serious traveling, which makes me happy, and I actually have a schedule now of where I'm going to be:
Milwaukee - The first two weeks in August selling fried veggies
Syracuse/Buffalo/NYC - The last week in August until Labor Day. Selling veggies and doing a drum clinic.
Nashville - The Third weekend in September playing a huge showcase for record executives with my band. Very excited!!! Can't wait to play Nashville
Hartford/Springfield MA - First weekend in October.
Mexico - Spring break next March
Brussels - Next June doing a public policy seminar at UN headquarters
Birmingham UK - I'm going to England whenever I have the time between now and next summer.
Showing posts with label The Drive To 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Drive To 2011. Show all posts
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Never Be A Machine
I will never be a machine.
I will not feed the machine.
You just might be one, if you don't know what i mean.
I will never be a machine.
I will always follow my heart.
I always listen to the beating of my heart.
They want us all to think like a machine and fall apart.
But I will always follow my heart.
People are easy to control.
What has happened to us all?
The past is usually ignored, and the future I don't know.
Don't let them take away your soul.
I'm not so easy to control.
Don't be easy to control.
There's no point to be a sheep and live your life in that role.
Don't ever let them to tell you to lose hope.
I will not feed the machine.
You just might be one, if you don't know what i mean.
I will never be a machine.
I will always follow my heart.
I always listen to the beating of my heart.
They want us all to think like a machine and fall apart.
But I will always follow my heart.
People are easy to control.
What has happened to us all?
The past is usually ignored, and the future I don't know.
Don't let them take away your soul.
I'm not so easy to control.
Don't be easy to control.
There's no point to be a sheep and live your life in that role.
Don't ever let them to tell you to lose hope.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Inductive Resonance
It is impossible to achieve the aim without suffering.
It is possible to suffer without achieving the aim.
Understanding changes what we understand.
A test of our understanding is whether we can apply it in practice.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When we had no faces we turned to the bright sea.
We wished and heard voices, released our hands and feet, heartbeat.
This Yes, this is how we want it to be.
I say yes, this is how we want it to be.
So let us lead on, Yes, with the big sunshine in us.
Let me trust in your constant releasing of me.
Let the world commence dancing with peace.
This is how we want it to be, lets say yes, this is how we want it to be.
It is possible to suffer without achieving the aim.
Understanding changes what we understand.
A test of our understanding is whether we can apply it in practice.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When we had no faces we turned to the bright sea.
We wished and heard voices, released our hands and feet, heartbeat.
This Yes, this is how we want it to be.
I say yes, this is how we want it to be.
So let us lead on, Yes, with the big sunshine in us.
Let me trust in your constant releasing of me.
Let the world commence dancing with peace.
This is how we want it to be, lets say yes, this is how we want it to be.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Prelude Of The Gulls: Scaling The Whales
I had to change the name of my blog again.
I had a lucid dream the other night on mushrooms in which I was at sea basically as like a Capt. Ahab type character and I was looking for my white whale. Then I had a similar dream to that again last night, in which I was on a boat at sea looking for a group of whales that I couldn't find.
Since having these dreams I've had this phrase in my head "Scaling The Whales." I feel I've reached the part of my Drive To 2011 where my journey has been distracted by my attempt to scale the whales.
I assume that the "whales" I'm looking to scale involve music. Even within that phrase the word scale has multiple meanings and music has scales, which only leads me to believe I'm looking for something with music.
I'm in the process of starting a new side project with one of my oldest friends and former bandmate from 5 years ago, which is a total departure of what I've been playing. I hope to get some our of music online very soon, it's all improvised and more electronic than about anything I've ever done. Our music is a mixture of King Crimson, MGMT, Animal Collective, and free-form jazz. We're thinking of naming the band name Weather. I like it, it's a very simple name and weather invokes all different kinds of mental images to people when said.
I had an interview at DePaul University earlier this week as part of their admissions process trying to get in there for grad school, and Dr. David Ehrlich who interviewed me said I exceeded all expectations he had after meeting me, and that he is recommending for DePaul's Public Policy Studies graduate program. So I'm pretty excited about that, and now I'm on the scholarship hunt. It'd be cool to be going to grad school this fall, and DePaul was my No.1 choice, so it's great that I got in there and now I just have to figure out everything else in my life.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
A Man More Intelligent And Insighful Than Myself.
I've been talking alot of music with people lately, especially since the show I played last friday at The Elbo Room. Some of the talk has been technical as far as equipment and mechanics, but much of it has been musical philosophy. Why do I like the music I do, why do I play the music I do. Why is certain music popular more than others, what are people are listening to in music.
Much of my musical philosophy is based on my musical heroes and influences. People who know me, notice that whenever I talk about music I mention the name Robert Fripp quite often. Robert Fripp is kind of like the center to my musical philosophy. I think the man is genius, and is a very true and geniune artist and human being. Robert Fripp actually walked past me this last August at The Park West in Chicago, and I don't really count it as meeting him I was next to him and felt just such a benevolence of his being. With that said, I thought I'd post two videos of Fripp speaking. To most people they probably don't care what Fripp has to say, but I think even to non-musicians Fripp can be insightful and he's a great philosophical thinker/speaker. The first video talks about Fripp's career in the late 70's and he talks about playing with David Bowie and Blondie and is pretty interesting. The second video is from the mid 80's and is Fripp discussing musical philosophy, but not in the sense of judging what music is good like most people do, but the relationship of music to people and understanding music. I think it's very thought provoking and is where I derive my philosophy as far as a musician and artist comes from. More musician focused, but still insightful.
Much of my musical philosophy is based on my musical heroes and influences. People who know me, notice that whenever I talk about music I mention the name Robert Fripp quite often. Robert Fripp is kind of like the center to my musical philosophy. I think the man is genius, and is a very true and geniune artist and human being. Robert Fripp actually walked past me this last August at The Park West in Chicago, and I don't really count it as meeting him I was next to him and felt just such a benevolence of his being. With that said, I thought I'd post two videos of Fripp speaking. To most people they probably don't care what Fripp has to say, but I think even to non-musicians Fripp can be insightful and he's a great philosophical thinker/speaker. The first video talks about Fripp's career in the late 70's and he talks about playing with David Bowie and Blondie and is pretty interesting. The second video is from the mid 80's and is Fripp discussing musical philosophy, but not in the sense of judging what music is good like most people do, but the relationship of music to people and understanding music. I think it's very thought provoking and is where I derive my philosophy as far as a musician and artist comes from. More musician focused, but still insightful.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Indie Music, Beer, & Lawyers: The Weekend that was my Birthday
Rock 'N' Roll at the Elbo Room, drunken debauchery in Lincoln Park, photo session on Division St, are just the main points to how I spent this weekend in Chicago for my birthday.
Friday night I played my first show with my newest band Ben Joyce and The Savage Young. The gig was at The Elbom Room on Lincoln Ave opening for the group aptly named A Band Called Catch. Going into Friday night I wasn't thinking about the gig too much, and really didn't expect much of it. I had played at the Elbom Room previously before, and it's the typical rocker/indie bar like The Subterrean or the Double Door. We were the opening act and only playing 40 min, so I wasn't expecting much money or many people there yet to watch us, but i was totally wrong.
Ben Joyce has quickly become my favorite person to play a show with. Ben brought about 30 people to the show and there were about 100 people in The Elbo Room by the time we started playing and it was so packed people were wall to wall after we were done i couldn't move around in the crowd and it was almost impossible trying to get our stuff off the stage. It was pandamonium, it was the kind of crowd you'd expect at CBGB's in 1977 or something. It was Rock 'N' Roll at its purest and most raw form, and the energy was amazing. I am so proud of our performance as a band, especially it being our first gig together. The highlight for me was the last song we played, which was a cover of The Police's classic "Next To You" which is probably my favorite song of The Police. We recorded our set, and listening to it the next day, I think my drums on "Next To You" is the best drum track I've ever recorded and listening to myself, which I usually hate to do because I'm more own biggest critical, I was blown away by my drumming. I don't mean to sound full of myself, I was blown away because I usually think I could have done way better, but It was maybe the first time I heard myself playing and thought that was damn good and better than I thought when we played the show the night before.
So the gig Friday night went unbelieveably well, and is something I'm really proud of, and we got paid way more than I thought we would, and is the best pay day I've had for a quite a while and reminded me that of yeah you can actually make a lot of money playing music.
Friday and Saturday Nights I went out with friends of mine in Lincoln Park. Friday night was the cause to get annihiliated was my band's performance which put me on cloud 9. We went to 3 different bars that I remember, and I dropped a total of three glasses throughout the night, and somehow I ended up crashing at my friend's by Clark and Fullerton in Lincoln Park, but my van ended up being parked two blocks from Wrigley Field, how this happen is still blurry, but it's all good now.
Saturday night we went out celebrating my birthday which was actually Sunday. I realized a few things after going out Saturday night. I am not a lawyer. One of my best friends is going to law school, and I've pondered the idea from time to time especially because I plan at somepoint in my life in getting involved in politics, so logically it would seem to make sense to go to law school. We went out to the bar and met up with some of my friend's friends from law school. I just don't really get along with law students. I don't want to make any assumptions or try to make stereotypes, but there is just something about lawyers that rubs me the wrong way. I was trying to be polite and talk to this guy who was a law student and he's making fun of me because i was wearing really tight jeans and blue/yellow shoes, while he's wearing a cardigan sweater and to me resmbled a guy who would be named Prescot and spend his summers sailing somewhere wishing one day to be able to suck Mitt Romney's cock. He's going on about how great John Roberts is and just sounding like the typical non-free thinking idiot. Or as John Malkevich would say "he's an idiot in a league of idiots."
It's just crazy how many people have a holier than thou mentality, and it drives me up the wall. Having a law degree doesn't mean anything. Having any degree doesn't mean anything. Getting an education is only useful if you use it. Just getting a degree and hopefully an education doesn't mean anything, it's all about how you use it. I wish more people understood that. I feel more of an urge now than ever to get involved in politics, maybe it's the Thomas Jefferson and Harvey Milk in me.
Me and a hipster friend of mine spent a good chunk of time Saturday night at bars discussing and observing members of what we call the non-thinking culture(religous people, die-hard capitalist consumers, nationalists, people driven only by money, elitists, bigots, conformists). This is the culture that makes up most of America, which is sad, but i think will hopefully change or eventually our species is doomed at some point in the future.
My hipster friend and I eventually got tired of hanging out with law students and we ended up at a Golden Nugget until 6 a.m. discussing politics and environmental concerns. After tiring of talking about green technology for hours, we decided to hit up an after hours bar, which was insane. It was literally an urban jungle in this place. I don't mean that in any kind of racial way at all, it was about all young white people in there. What I mean about urban jungle is, you get all these people who probably in every day life are and seem normal. You then put these people in an environment which allows them to drop their inhibitions, and they literally go wild. It is amazing what alcohol, multi-colored bright lights, and crappy dance music with too much bass will make people do. In a way though I think it's good for people to be more animalistic, but I think way too often people take it way too far in their wildness and still don't at the end of the day realize we are just animals who have the same needs as other animals. Morals aren't real and are a manmade delusion, the sooner people realize that the better off we are as for as social progression.
I also was involved in a photo shoot this weekend, which was a lot of fun and the first one I'd been involved with in a couple years. In and all it was a quite memerable weekend.
Friday night I played my first show with my newest band Ben Joyce and The Savage Young. The gig was at The Elbom Room on Lincoln Ave opening for the group aptly named A Band Called Catch. Going into Friday night I wasn't thinking about the gig too much, and really didn't expect much of it. I had played at the Elbom Room previously before, and it's the typical rocker/indie bar like The Subterrean or the Double Door. We were the opening act and only playing 40 min, so I wasn't expecting much money or many people there yet to watch us, but i was totally wrong.
Ben Joyce has quickly become my favorite person to play a show with. Ben brought about 30 people to the show and there were about 100 people in The Elbo Room by the time we started playing and it was so packed people were wall to wall after we were done i couldn't move around in the crowd and it was almost impossible trying to get our stuff off the stage. It was pandamonium, it was the kind of crowd you'd expect at CBGB's in 1977 or something. It was Rock 'N' Roll at its purest and most raw form, and the energy was amazing. I am so proud of our performance as a band, especially it being our first gig together. The highlight for me was the last song we played, which was a cover of The Police's classic "Next To You" which is probably my favorite song of The Police. We recorded our set, and listening to it the next day, I think my drums on "Next To You" is the best drum track I've ever recorded and listening to myself, which I usually hate to do because I'm more own biggest critical, I was blown away by my drumming. I don't mean to sound full of myself, I was blown away because I usually think I could have done way better, but It was maybe the first time I heard myself playing and thought that was damn good and better than I thought when we played the show the night before.
So the gig Friday night went unbelieveably well, and is something I'm really proud of, and we got paid way more than I thought we would, and is the best pay day I've had for a quite a while and reminded me that of yeah you can actually make a lot of money playing music.
Friday and Saturday Nights I went out with friends of mine in Lincoln Park. Friday night was the cause to get annihiliated was my band's performance which put me on cloud 9. We went to 3 different bars that I remember, and I dropped a total of three glasses throughout the night, and somehow I ended up crashing at my friend's by Clark and Fullerton in Lincoln Park, but my van ended up being parked two blocks from Wrigley Field, how this happen is still blurry, but it's all good now.
Saturday night we went out celebrating my birthday which was actually Sunday. I realized a few things after going out Saturday night. I am not a lawyer. One of my best friends is going to law school, and I've pondered the idea from time to time especially because I plan at somepoint in my life in getting involved in politics, so logically it would seem to make sense to go to law school. We went out to the bar and met up with some of my friend's friends from law school. I just don't really get along with law students. I don't want to make any assumptions or try to make stereotypes, but there is just something about lawyers that rubs me the wrong way. I was trying to be polite and talk to this guy who was a law student and he's making fun of me because i was wearing really tight jeans and blue/yellow shoes, while he's wearing a cardigan sweater and to me resmbled a guy who would be named Prescot and spend his summers sailing somewhere wishing one day to be able to suck Mitt Romney's cock. He's going on about how great John Roberts is and just sounding like the typical non-free thinking idiot. Or as John Malkevich would say "he's an idiot in a league of idiots."
It's just crazy how many people have a holier than thou mentality, and it drives me up the wall. Having a law degree doesn't mean anything. Having any degree doesn't mean anything. Getting an education is only useful if you use it. Just getting a degree and hopefully an education doesn't mean anything, it's all about how you use it. I wish more people understood that. I feel more of an urge now than ever to get involved in politics, maybe it's the Thomas Jefferson and Harvey Milk in me.
Me and a hipster friend of mine spent a good chunk of time Saturday night at bars discussing and observing members of what we call the non-thinking culture(religous people, die-hard capitalist consumers, nationalists, people driven only by money, elitists, bigots, conformists). This is the culture that makes up most of America, which is sad, but i think will hopefully change or eventually our species is doomed at some point in the future.
My hipster friend and I eventually got tired of hanging out with law students and we ended up at a Golden Nugget until 6 a.m. discussing politics and environmental concerns. After tiring of talking about green technology for hours, we decided to hit up an after hours bar, which was insane. It was literally an urban jungle in this place. I don't mean that in any kind of racial way at all, it was about all young white people in there. What I mean about urban jungle is, you get all these people who probably in every day life are and seem normal. You then put these people in an environment which allows them to drop their inhibitions, and they literally go wild. It is amazing what alcohol, multi-colored bright lights, and crappy dance music with too much bass will make people do. In a way though I think it's good for people to be more animalistic, but I think way too often people take it way too far in their wildness and still don't at the end of the day realize we are just animals who have the same needs as other animals. Morals aren't real and are a manmade delusion, the sooner people realize that the better off we are as for as social progression.
I also was involved in a photo shoot this weekend, which was a lot of fun and the first one I'd been involved with in a couple years. In and all it was a quite memerable weekend.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Something For Nothing (A Libertarian Poem)
Live for yourself...there's no one else
More worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more
Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind
A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind
We can walk our road together
If our goals are all the same
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim
You don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be
What you own is your own kingdom
What you do is your own glory
What you love is your own power
What you live is your own story
In your head is the answer
Let it guide you along
Let your heart be the anchor
And the beat of your own song
Different eyes see different things
Different hearts beat on different strings
But there are times
For you and me, when all such things agree
More worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more
Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind
A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind
We can walk our road together
If our goals are all the same
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim
You don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be
What you own is your own kingdom
What you do is your own glory
What you love is your own power
What you live is your own story
In your head is the answer
Let it guide you along
Let your heart be the anchor
And the beat of your own song
Different eyes see different things
Different hearts beat on different strings
But there are times
For you and me, when all such things agree
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Finding My Way
I got opportunity knocking on my door.
I got people giving me advice more and more.
But I just want to figure out what this life is for.
I've made a couple big decisions in the past couple of days.
I'm tired of being alone and want to be with someone.
I'm tired of people not taking me seriously.
I'm finally going to start writing the book I've been stewing over for the past two years.
I'm going to take up painting, which I've wanted to do for a while.
I've decided I'm applying to grad school for the fall semester. What I'm undecided about is whether to get my masters in History, Political Science, or Cultural Anthropology.
Right now I'm narrowing my choices down, but I'm going all out in selecting what schools I'm applying to. I got accepted in ivy league schools for undergrad, but said fuck it because I really didn't care. Now I kind of don't mind the idea of going to an ivy league type school for my masters to kind of prove it to myself that I can do it. I proved it to myself when appyling that I could get in, and at the time that was good enough for me. I've felt more overachieving lately than I have in a long time and I'm starting to miss college.
I'm starting to feel like I'm just filling in the cracks of society like most people do and accept, but I won't go without a fight. I can't give up on my hopes and dreams and just get some mondane career and just become another ant in the colony. I wish more people were empathetic or understanding of my wanting to say fuck it to much of societies norms and just find happiness in doing what I want to do.
Life sometimes seems to be a beauty contest, and I don't want to be a contestant.
I'm still torn on where to move, whether to still go with the plan on settling down in Chicago or moving to Detroit or somewhere crazier and more progressive like Portland or San Francisco. This moving decision is killing my job searching and I need to resolve that soon.
I got people giving me advice more and more.
But I just want to figure out what this life is for.
I've made a couple big decisions in the past couple of days.
I'm tired of being alone and want to be with someone.
I'm tired of people not taking me seriously.
I'm finally going to start writing the book I've been stewing over for the past two years.
I'm going to take up painting, which I've wanted to do for a while.
I've decided I'm applying to grad school for the fall semester. What I'm undecided about is whether to get my masters in History, Political Science, or Cultural Anthropology.
Right now I'm narrowing my choices down, but I'm going all out in selecting what schools I'm applying to. I got accepted in ivy league schools for undergrad, but said fuck it because I really didn't care. Now I kind of don't mind the idea of going to an ivy league type school for my masters to kind of prove it to myself that I can do it. I proved it to myself when appyling that I could get in, and at the time that was good enough for me. I've felt more overachieving lately than I have in a long time and I'm starting to miss college.
I'm starting to feel like I'm just filling in the cracks of society like most people do and accept, but I won't go without a fight. I can't give up on my hopes and dreams and just get some mondane career and just become another ant in the colony. I wish more people were empathetic or understanding of my wanting to say fuck it to much of societies norms and just find happiness in doing what I want to do.
Life sometimes seems to be a beauty contest, and I don't want to be a contestant.
I'm still torn on where to move, whether to still go with the plan on settling down in Chicago or moving to Detroit or somewhere crazier and more progressive like Portland or San Francisco. This moving decision is killing my job searching and I need to resolve that soon.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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"
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"
Constant Reinvention
I've been pondering lately what direction in life I want to go in. I had been hellbent for sometime about relocating to Chicago, but now I'm not as hellbent now as I once was. Changes can be hard to decide because you don't know what the outcome will be. I'm always trying to put myself in a situation to better myself, and I'm not totally sure what direction to go in.
A large problem I have is being a musician. Playing music is the greatest and sometimes also the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Like so many other people my age I wish I could just go get a job and be happy or go off to grad school and be happy, but I wouldn't. I want to do something with my life that involves music. I want to make people happy. I want to creatively inspire people. I've been posting some songs on my myspace page recently and the feedback I've gotten has been phenomenal. It's really encouraged me to maybe stick my neck out a little more than I normally would as far as taking my music more seriously.
I think my musical career is ready for another change in its constant reinvention. I'm a believer that once you somewhat master something and get a grasp of what you're doing then it's time to move on and try something new and different. I've been playing in rock bands for almost 8 years and I love rock music, but I often find myself thinking about well what if I was doing this with music instead. I want to maybe explore jazz and/or electronic music more. I use to play with a hybrid drum set featuring both electronic and acoustic drums, which was my most productive writnig phase. I think it might be time to get experimental again.
Where I move will also depend on what happens with my musical reinvention. I'm tired of playing in bands and playing music that sounds like something, I want to create something new that people haven't heard before. I have to put myself in a situation where I can find and play with musicians who think the same way as me. I also want to put myself in a situation where I'll be happy outside of what I think and do with music.
Socially I'm ready for a change as well. I'm tired of smalltown Michigan. I want to meet more people like me. My social circle and influence is dwindling. I have made some new friends recently, which has also helped me open my eyes to the fact that change can be good, and change is what I need.
Below is a video I find on youtube of my favorite drummer Bill Bruford. It has a little boring introduction, but once it starts I think it's the most melodic, danceable, and most creative drum solo I've ever seen. I wish I wrote it, and this song was the main influence my song "Bill's Boogie" which is a melodic drum solo I wrote and recorded which is on my myspace page. http://www.myspace.com/williamcovert
I find this video to be a reflection of the kind of music I wish I was playing now. Where's jazz fusion musicians when I need them!
A large problem I have is being a musician. Playing music is the greatest and sometimes also the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Like so many other people my age I wish I could just go get a job and be happy or go off to grad school and be happy, but I wouldn't. I want to do something with my life that involves music. I want to make people happy. I want to creatively inspire people. I've been posting some songs on my myspace page recently and the feedback I've gotten has been phenomenal. It's really encouraged me to maybe stick my neck out a little more than I normally would as far as taking my music more seriously.
I think my musical career is ready for another change in its constant reinvention. I'm a believer that once you somewhat master something and get a grasp of what you're doing then it's time to move on and try something new and different. I've been playing in rock bands for almost 8 years and I love rock music, but I often find myself thinking about well what if I was doing this with music instead. I want to maybe explore jazz and/or electronic music more. I use to play with a hybrid drum set featuring both electronic and acoustic drums, which was my most productive writnig phase. I think it might be time to get experimental again.
Where I move will also depend on what happens with my musical reinvention. I'm tired of playing in bands and playing music that sounds like something, I want to create something new that people haven't heard before. I have to put myself in a situation where I can find and play with musicians who think the same way as me. I also want to put myself in a situation where I'll be happy outside of what I think and do with music.
Socially I'm ready for a change as well. I'm tired of smalltown Michigan. I want to meet more people like me. My social circle and influence is dwindling. I have made some new friends recently, which has also helped me open my eyes to the fact that change can be good, and change is what I need.
Below is a video I find on youtube of my favorite drummer Bill Bruford. It has a little boring introduction, but once it starts I think it's the most melodic, danceable, and most creative drum solo I've ever seen. I wish I wrote it, and this song was the main influence my song "Bill's Boogie" which is a melodic drum solo I wrote and recorded which is on my myspace page. http://www.myspace.com/williamcovert
I find this video to be a reflection of the kind of music I wish I was playing now. Where's jazz fusion musicians when I need them!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Everyday Is Like Sunday
It can be hard to go to sleep at sea if one has never done it before. I remember as a young boy when I would spend the night on my grandparent's house boat in the summer. At night when you lay down to try and sleep the boat rocks. It feels as if you are constantly rocking back and forth and can be quite annoying if one is not use to it. Like most things in life though after awhile you no longer feel the constant rockiness from waves hitting the boat and it's just like sleeping in a bed on land.
The reason I'm even thinking about sleeping in a boat is because that's how I feel in my life right now. I feel like there is a constant rocking that's just slightly throwing my off of my balance, and I'm trying to get my balance back. I'm waiting to get re-adjusted.
I have had some people say some things to me recently that have just thrown me off, and seem to have come out of nowhere from my perspective. I feel my days living at home are numbered, and ultimately I'm sure that's more of a good thing than bad.
I think one problem that a lot of people have is pride. I have no pride, or at least very little and I don't want anymore pride. I think my lack of wanting pride makes people who are very prideful uncomfortable.
I am a musician, but I'm not prideful about my music, and usually won't go into detail talking about my own musical career unless asked.
I'm an educated person, but I don't boast my academic success, which is always a reason why I went to Ferris State University a college most have never heard of opposed to Harvard, University of Southern California, and other more prestigous schools I was accepted to. I went to school to get educated not to boast about my alma mater.
I have no pride in any job I've ever had. I do not believe in the Japanese business model, that you should take pride in your job. I think that's a stupid way to unbalance your priorities. I don't care about work or about having a career, because what does that get you when your dead? You gonna wear your gold watch when you're a rotting corpse in the ground. Have fun with that.
I believe you should do what you love, and fuck the rest. That tends me to live an unmateralistic, unmotivated to work, philosophical thinking, and for the most part stress free life. Yet when I tell people this, more people get pissed off than accepting of how I choose to live. I don't get it. I'm trying to figure it out, and the only thing I can decide is those who live very prideful lives and have a lot of pain in their heart doesn't like to see someone who lives without that unnneeded stress and pain. That makes me sad, I wish there was less anger in the world, and sometimes I feel I cause more pain than joy, which is not my intentions. I'm a musician to bring happiness to an unhappy world, but lately I somehow have been bringing a lot of anger to people. I don't feel any different, so I hope it's not me, and that's why I feel like my world is rocking in a sea of confusion. I still have hope for the future and am upbeat about things to come, so we'll see.
The reason I'm even thinking about sleeping in a boat is because that's how I feel in my life right now. I feel like there is a constant rocking that's just slightly throwing my off of my balance, and I'm trying to get my balance back. I'm waiting to get re-adjusted.
I have had some people say some things to me recently that have just thrown me off, and seem to have come out of nowhere from my perspective. I feel my days living at home are numbered, and ultimately I'm sure that's more of a good thing than bad.
I think one problem that a lot of people have is pride. I have no pride, or at least very little and I don't want anymore pride. I think my lack of wanting pride makes people who are very prideful uncomfortable.
I am a musician, but I'm not prideful about my music, and usually won't go into detail talking about my own musical career unless asked.
I'm an educated person, but I don't boast my academic success, which is always a reason why I went to Ferris State University a college most have never heard of opposed to Harvard, University of Southern California, and other more prestigous schools I was accepted to. I went to school to get educated not to boast about my alma mater.
I have no pride in any job I've ever had. I do not believe in the Japanese business model, that you should take pride in your job. I think that's a stupid way to unbalance your priorities. I don't care about work or about having a career, because what does that get you when your dead? You gonna wear your gold watch when you're a rotting corpse in the ground. Have fun with that.
I believe you should do what you love, and fuck the rest. That tends me to live an unmateralistic, unmotivated to work, philosophical thinking, and for the most part stress free life. Yet when I tell people this, more people get pissed off than accepting of how I choose to live. I don't get it. I'm trying to figure it out, and the only thing I can decide is those who live very prideful lives and have a lot of pain in their heart doesn't like to see someone who lives without that unnneeded stress and pain. That makes me sad, I wish there was less anger in the world, and sometimes I feel I cause more pain than joy, which is not my intentions. I'm a musician to bring happiness to an unhappy world, but lately I somehow have been bringing a lot of anger to people. I don't feel any different, so I hope it's not me, and that's why I feel like my world is rocking in a sea of confusion. I still have hope for the future and am upbeat about things to come, so we'll see.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
I Advance Masked (A Poem For Knowledge)
Can it be true that music might redeem our fallen world?
Can it be true that music can heal our world?
Silence is our friend, silence is our friend.
If only WE CAN LISTEN to our Friend.
Silence is our friend, if only we can say Hello. Say Hello to our friend, and hello to ourselves.
Love Cannot Bear that even one person be denied its place in paradise.
Music is our friend. Is our friend reaching out to You?
Can it be true that music can heal our world?
Silence is our friend, silence is our friend.
If only WE CAN LISTEN to our Friend.
Silence is our friend, if only we can say Hello. Say Hello to our friend, and hello to ourselves.
Love Cannot Bear that even one person be denied its place in paradise.
Music is our friend. Is our friend reaching out to You?
Monday, December 8, 2008
Artist or Aficionado?
I have been thinking to myself the concept of artist or aficionado. I have always viewed myself as an artist and as a creator, but am I wrong in my views? I think a lot of people I meet tend to see me more as an aficionado rather than an artist. I have a strange obsession with art, specifically with music, and when I tend to really like something I research the hell out of it to know everything I can about it. I did a 50 page thesis paper in college of Bill Bruford, who is someone most people haven't heard of, but over the past six years is someone I've spent a large part of time researching and listening to and analyzing his drumming style.
I use to think my compulsive reseraching on artists I like and of music in general was always a plus, and I thought it just helped me as an artist and made me more well-rounded. Then I started to think would an artist really give a shit about all this shit and care about what all these other musicians and artists have done or are doing? Wouldn't an artist just care about his art? Now it's got me thinking where do I exactly fall into this as far as artsist or aficionado.
People tend not to like aficionados inclduing myself. Aficionados tend to be self-righteous assholes, who feel they are better than you because of their scholarly like knowledge of a subject or thing. They tend to be pompous and pretentious and boring to talk to because they tend to steer a conversation into a realm of talking and thinking that they have more knowledge of than whoever they are conversing with. That's one reason I change my major in college and got out of being a music major, because a lot of them were assholes who thought they have some kind of musical blue blood and it drove me crazy.
I have now come to the conclusion that even in my personal pursuit is to be an artist, what I give off is the personality of an aficionado and that sucks. Most of my friends think I'm pretenious and think that's how I want to come off to people, but it isn't. Even in my band I have been called pretenious, that should have gotten me thinking right then and there, but it didn't. I got into another long winded Beatles arguement with no end in sight, and for me I don't care to change people's opinions with words anymore. An artist doesn't communicate his/her art in words, he/she communicates with his/her art. I think maybe because I was out east and not playing gigs full-time or playing with a band full-time it sort of drove me to communicate more with my words than I'm use to, and I need to get back to focusing on my music and if people don't like it oh well. I'm thinking back on the last couple months when I get into some heated muscial debates that were pointless in making heated and I feel like an idiot for it, I feel more like a pompous aficionado than an artist and that's a feeling I don't like or want to have.
I think what drove me to become a pompous musical asshole is because of the music I play and like. As a musician you want to be liked because you want fans. Nobody wants to play to an empty venue. Is it art if no one is paying attention to it or even recognizes it? I think the wanting to be accepted as a serious and good musician drove me to intensely ridicule music I don't like i.e. The Beatles out of some jealous I have for the lack of my own mainstream musical success. Being a fan of progressive rock bands like Emerson, Lake, & Palmer doesn't help either. Keith Emerson himself said that the reason people didn't like ELP was because they were too good at their instruments. I think I started to adapt that virtuoso like cynicism of I'm too good and play too hard of music for people to understand, and I was really in the wrong and I usually never admit when I'm wrong. A real artist doesn't care about mainstream attention or care about what other people think of his/her art. Robert Fripp one of my musical heroes always said, "Never become so popular that the public take an interest in you." Now realizing my faults in my musical pursuits I hope to become less pretentious in my musical career and in my personal attitude and personality. In making myself more humble I'm thinking about going out on a limb and starting to listen to and feel out music that I would not normally listen to or know much or anything about. I feel the drive to go into unchartered musical waters will be good for me, and hopefully will influence me in a new way and get the creative juices going. Will Bill abandon rock music for some other musical form? Maybe I'll end up abandoning drums all together and focus my energies at synthesizer or chapman stick who knows what time will bring.
I will say this new drive to discover music I wouldn't normally listen to has given me a new foundness for the group Battles and their music. I think they're a great rock/electronic hybrid and could be a window to the future of how rock music can carry on as a form of innovative and creative music. For those unfamiliar with their music, which I'm still becoming familiar with below is a link to what I've seen thus far as their best performance from the tv show Later With Jools Holland. Their use of electronics especially the way they "treat" and synthesize the vocals I think is pretty cool and definitely original. What do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSkU5GJmtXc
I use to think my compulsive reseraching on artists I like and of music in general was always a plus, and I thought it just helped me as an artist and made me more well-rounded. Then I started to think would an artist really give a shit about all this shit and care about what all these other musicians and artists have done or are doing? Wouldn't an artist just care about his art? Now it's got me thinking where do I exactly fall into this as far as artsist or aficionado.
People tend not to like aficionados inclduing myself. Aficionados tend to be self-righteous assholes, who feel they are better than you because of their scholarly like knowledge of a subject or thing. They tend to be pompous and pretentious and boring to talk to because they tend to steer a conversation into a realm of talking and thinking that they have more knowledge of than whoever they are conversing with. That's one reason I change my major in college and got out of being a music major, because a lot of them were assholes who thought they have some kind of musical blue blood and it drove me crazy.
I have now come to the conclusion that even in my personal pursuit is to be an artist, what I give off is the personality of an aficionado and that sucks. Most of my friends think I'm pretenious and think that's how I want to come off to people, but it isn't. Even in my band I have been called pretenious, that should have gotten me thinking right then and there, but it didn't. I got into another long winded Beatles arguement with no end in sight, and for me I don't care to change people's opinions with words anymore. An artist doesn't communicate his/her art in words, he/she communicates with his/her art. I think maybe because I was out east and not playing gigs full-time or playing with a band full-time it sort of drove me to communicate more with my words than I'm use to, and I need to get back to focusing on my music and if people don't like it oh well. I'm thinking back on the last couple months when I get into some heated muscial debates that were pointless in making heated and I feel like an idiot for it, I feel more like a pompous aficionado than an artist and that's a feeling I don't like or want to have.
I think what drove me to become a pompous musical asshole is because of the music I play and like. As a musician you want to be liked because you want fans. Nobody wants to play to an empty venue. Is it art if no one is paying attention to it or even recognizes it? I think the wanting to be accepted as a serious and good musician drove me to intensely ridicule music I don't like i.e. The Beatles out of some jealous I have for the lack of my own mainstream musical success. Being a fan of progressive rock bands like Emerson, Lake, & Palmer doesn't help either. Keith Emerson himself said that the reason people didn't like ELP was because they were too good at their instruments. I think I started to adapt that virtuoso like cynicism of I'm too good and play too hard of music for people to understand, and I was really in the wrong and I usually never admit when I'm wrong. A real artist doesn't care about mainstream attention or care about what other people think of his/her art. Robert Fripp one of my musical heroes always said, "Never become so popular that the public take an interest in you." Now realizing my faults in my musical pursuits I hope to become less pretentious in my musical career and in my personal attitude and personality. In making myself more humble I'm thinking about going out on a limb and starting to listen to and feel out music that I would not normally listen to or know much or anything about. I feel the drive to go into unchartered musical waters will be good for me, and hopefully will influence me in a new way and get the creative juices going. Will Bill abandon rock music for some other musical form? Maybe I'll end up abandoning drums all together and focus my energies at synthesizer or chapman stick who knows what time will bring.
I will say this new drive to discover music I wouldn't normally listen to has given me a new foundness for the group Battles and their music. I think they're a great rock/electronic hybrid and could be a window to the future of how rock music can carry on as a form of innovative and creative music. For those unfamiliar with their music, which I'm still becoming familiar with below is a link to what I've seen thus far as their best performance from the tv show Later With Jools Holland. Their use of electronics especially the way they "treat" and synthesize the vocals I think is pretty cool and definitely original. What do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSkU5GJmtXc
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