History | Press Release | Artists | Interviews

8-13-2003

What sound do you love the most? Dislike the most?

I have two favorite sounds: First is the sound of two notes, a half step apart, playing simultaneously. Second is the sound of a sample/sound repeating short and fast, making a buzz-like sound.

What book are you reading now?

This might sound a little funny, but 2001, A Space Odyssey. I have never read it, and it is something that is quite a Sci-Fi accomplishment, so I figured that I would have to read it.

What is your primary motivation to create music?

All my emotions throughout the day inspire a lot of my music. There are some songs that I write with a specific mood in mind for a certain occasion, but most are just random thoughts and emotions.

Do you have any religious/spiritual/philosophical beliefs? If so, how do you feel they affect your music?

I am a born-again Christian. I have a certain amount of praise in all the music that I write. Sometimes there is a certain amount of anger/angst/depression/etc. in my music that people may think is funny after I just said there is some amount of praise in my music, but I feel that when you try to understand what God wants to happen, there is a lot of frustration that you go through, simply because there is a lack of higher knowledge that keeps us from seeing things as the Lord does.

Now this may seem totally opposite from what I just talked about, but I also have some humanistic philosophical beliefs, that some people may think are contradictory to being a Christian. I believe that we were all made with a sense of understanding about ourselves and the world around us. I think that at any given time, we know what we need. When you need food, you eat, when you need water, you drink. It goes even deeper—when you need companionship, you call a friend, when you need love, you find a girlfriend. At the most basic level, I think that what we want, is what we need. Greed can get in the way of this, and we may want more than we need, and this is a struggle that I show a lot of in my music. The struggle between what has been imbed in us—something that we truly need, and what the world has told us we want—something that is artificial, and from a bigger perspective, worthless.

If you would like to discuss philosophical beliefs with me, e-mail me, I don’t want to take up too much room with this one question, but my ideas on humanism and Christianity go much deeper than what I have written, so drop me a line (drummerguysteve (at) PunkAss.co)m!

I'm guessing that your musical forays have not made you a millionaire... do you have "real" job?

I am a gardener at a community college. It doesn’t pay much, but the benefits of working at a state-owned educational facility are great. The college pays for any education I receive at any state educational facility. I plan to stay at the college until I get my masters, but I may stay there until I have my doctorate. As much as I really enjoy my job, I would love to be able to “make it on my own,” so to speak, simply by getting enough business on my own record label.

How do you feel about the latest changes with the RIAA (new chairperson, more strict copyright lobbying)?

I hate the way that the RIAA is pushing for more strict copyright protection. Record sales have done nothing but go up since music downloads became an issue. I think that when people download a song, they see if they like it, before they go out and buy the album. The only way that I think music downloads affect the artists/record labels is that it is a new technology that is keeping them more accountable. If somebody does not like a song, they will just download it, listen to is a couple times, and delete it. An album needs to be just that, and ALBUM. People spend too much time making one song that sounds like everyone else, and putting it on an album full of filler tunes. Nothing is original anymore, and I think that that is what the RIAA is afraid of. They know that all popular music SUCKS, and they know that music downloads will let people filter out crap, and find new stuff that they normally would never have heard.

If people could not download indie music, and only heard what they could hear on the radio, who would be in control? The RIAA wants their record labels, and artists to be heard. What they don’t want is to have to earn the respect of their listeners. The RIAA wants to sit back, relax, push play, stick a pretty face in front of a microphone, and make another quick 10 million bucks. The downloaders are not criminals, most indie people would probably feel privileged to be listened to by someone who is not a local. Downloaders are keepers of free thought. I will only buy an album if it is good. I may download a radio hit for my Fiancé, but I will not support a musician that is not an artist.

What inspires you to write songs? Life?

I find most of my inspiration late at night. Before I go to sleep, I do a little bit of meditation, and I relax a lot; I drop all my mental defenses, so to speak. After all the walls are torn down, I have a lot of pure emotion that takes over, and I just start to write some music.

My life definitely takes a big part of my song. I have a hard shell that I use to keep things away from me, and to keep my feelings away from others. Although things that are going on in my life may not seem important in my day-to-day tasks, they make a enormous impact on my music. After all of my defense mechanisms are turned off, anything goes, and usually every little thing that has happened that day makes some sort of impact on my daily musical portrait.

What is the greatest sacrifice you've had to make for your music?

Lots of my family members treat my musical side as if it’s my dark side. They do not understand how much music means to me, or how little I could do without music. They all wanted me to go on to do great things, and they did not see music as even a choice of career paths.

While my dad seems very proud of some of my work, I know that he would rather me do something that is a guaranteed way of making money. He has told me on several occasions that I could do so much more with my life than play music, but I know that he knows that I do what I love.

When I was writing music at home when I was growing up, I was frequently told to shut up, to stop making noise, and to do something useful. Later, when computers started to become a bigger part of music, I was pushed into a career in computers. They saw the money that was available in the computer industry, and thought that I should be a part of it. When I again shattered their dreams for me, I was never really accepted as a musician, or even a person.

At what point did you realize or were told that you had the talent to be a
performer/musician?

I have played music since I was in the first grade. I took piano lessons for eight years, and then moved on to other instruments. I played trumpet, trombone, sax, cello, bass, guitar, viola, percussion, and drums in band and orchestra in junior high, and high school. If zero hour classes, and after school classes were included in the school day, I was actually spending more class time in band and orchestra than in other classes. I have always felt a knack for music. I always felt it flowing throughout my body. Although nobody in my family besides my dad would ever admit to me that I had musical talent, I just felt that it was something that I had to pursue.

Is songwriting part of your healing process?

Yes. As I explained before, Songwriting is something I do after I tear down all of my walls. I am one with myself, with the secular world, and with the spiritual world. All emotions are raw, and all anger and pain are let out, free to run wild, and eventually calmed, and healed.