When people say such and such an album, song, gig whatever....

[Dood]

5 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

Don't keep us in suspense...! 

 

Ok, for you and @ezbass! I will try to keep this brief!

 

The album is The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out, Wait For Something Wild by the band SikTh. It was bought for me by a dear friend as a birthday gift. Musically it was a breath of fresh air to my ears and I instantly fell in love with each crushing and brain melting riff.

 

Now, my memory is a little fuzzy these days as I attempt to recall what happened next, but at some point in SikTh's touring history I became frustrated that the band weren't playing in my local city. So, I did the thing that any self-(dis)respecting, slightly mental music lover would do and offer to front the cash for this band to come and headline one of my city's well known venues.

 

The plan, having contacted the tour agent and the venue separately paid off and I went on holiday for a couple of weeks. When I came back, SikTh were booked to play the gig. Anyway, I reached out to the band, told them my plan and they offered for me to come and hang out at the soundcheck and gig with them. Story short we all hit it off and are good friends to this day which is awesome. - James the bassist played with Devin Townsend recently, which is amazing as the DT band are one of my favourites!

 

Sometime after that gig and around the time the band took a break, I guess this was around 2007 I was called by Pin, guitarist and as we'd been talking about bands previously. He offered for me to come down and jam "audition" for a new band he and Jamie Hunt (previously of Biomechanical) were forming.

 

Story short I joined the band and I subsequently reached out to my friend and drummer Thomas Lang to join. Sadly, the band, due to busy touring and clinic schedules never really got off the ground, but Within The Void as we were known still have many songs, at least in part sat on my studio hard drives!

 

Jamie then invited me to come down and audition to play for his new band with Steve Smyth (Forbidden, Nevermore, Testament) that was code named "Firehead". I replaced Dragonforce's bassist. We recorded some demos but I left due to personal reasons about a year later. The band is now called One Machine. Interestingly one of the names I came up with but originally dismissed. 

 

Off the back of my now working relationship with Thomas Lang, we set about putting a band together and doing some writing and we formed a band with Jamie Hunt with a great singer from the US.

 

Again, I can't remember the exact time line but my internet ramblings and music caught the eye of Lebanese maestro Amadeus Awad and we struck up a musical relationship that led to recording with Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison. The EP called Schizanimus featured the incredible talents of Danny Boy-Maron and Elia Monsef. Remember those names..

 

Amadeus being pleased with our produce called me up one day and told me all about a bassist he was looking for to play on a much larger project featuring Russel Allen and John Macaluso from Symphony X, Kevin Moore from Dream Theater, Amanda Sommerville from Avantasia/Trillium and a pile more of talented individuals.. that bassist could have been anyone but he wanted me, so we recorded that album and the EP mentioned above subsequently came out as a limited edition on that album too. "The Book Of Gates" and our band was called Eon.

 

Elia and Danny (yup I said remember them) are part of the Lebanese cinematic progressive metal band Ostura. After working with them previously they called upon me to record all the bass for the incredible album The Room (I know I played on it, but wow, it's a masterpiece!). My ole rhythm section monster Thomas Lang joined me once again along with .. and yes, get this The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra!! 

Marco Sfogli (James Labrie, Jordan Rudess bands), Arjen Lucassen, Michael Mills (Toehider and Ayreon) and Turkish guitar legend Ozgur Abbak joined us on this epic production! 

 

Somewhere in this timeline showing off my love for prog and catchy grooves and music, I was contacted by Dec Burke (*Frost) to be touring bassist for his new band AudioPlastik put together with Simon Andersson (Pain Of Salvation, Scarlet, Darkwater) but a some internal politics with another band member meant that the tour didn't happen. Aside from that, they are now amazing people to know . 

 

I'm going to stop there for now as there are many other branches to this particular story! So, you can see how one particular album may (or may not have) set some fairly huge wheels in motion for me! I still love that album and I am hugely grateful to everyone listed and many who aren't for these opportunities I've experienced. I guess you could say it is life changing! Can't wait for the next twist and turn to this tree! 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Dood

[Crawford13]

This thread has just made me think of the episode of the It crowd when they showed you Richmond's back story and how listening to Cradle of Filth totally changed his life from being a corporate high flyer to a Goth. 😂

 

I'm afraid I don't have a real life story for this as I'm far too shallow to attach a huge amount of meaning to any particular album. I do go through periods of being obcessed with bands / albums but I wouldn't say they change my life. 

[yorks5stringer]

This thread has changed my life....very slightly!

[4000]

On 15/09/2021 at 16:13, Barking Spiders said:

changed their lives, what do they mean?

 

I'm not judging anyone. It's just that, sure, I have fave bands, albums and songs that remind me of the good times when I was younger but beyond that I can't say music has had any great impact on my life. This also leads me to ask what people mean when they say 'music/football/whatever else is my life', unless literally it is this what pays the bills etc

Sounds like you’re not very passionate about anything. Some of us are. Music is by far the most important thing in my life (well, bar my cats) and has been for most of my life. This week I’ve listened to music I’ve never heard before that has caused me to break down sobbing, because of how moving it is. If I was told I could never listen to music again, or never write music again, I would end my life. Seriously. 😡

[4000]

On 15/09/2021 at 16:41, Jus Lukin said:

I believe it may just be hyperbole.

🙄

[Nail Soup]

I don't know if I can say there is a particular album or something which changed my life.

I'm more of  a 'music is my life' kind of guy.

Many years after first getting into music (and many years ago !) I got his track by CSS which comes closest to summing up my relationship to music. Example lyric: "Music is where I meet my friends".

CSS - Music is my Hot Hot Sex

 

[Oopsdabassist]

I used that line in the 'live albums' thread.  In that context I meant that it made me realise that music wasn't just the pre-packaged 'same every time' item that i heard on the top 40 every Tuesday lunchtime, it was alive, fluid, ever changing, never the same twice.  This revelation made me 'get' why people went to see bands live over and again, you may hear the same songs, but the experience is never the same, this was part of my growing up, and truly did change my outlook on life.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Oopsdabassist

[SH73]

I would say music inspired not changed. It was the bass guitar sound and the sparkly royal blue fender p bass played on the Live After Death that inspired me to start playing bass. 30 or so years later I managed to owe one, thanks to a BC member.

But it also inspired me to learn English which led to changes in my life.

[Barking Spiders]

11 hours ago, 4000 said:

Sounds like you’re not very passionate about anything. Some of us are. Music is by far the most important thing in my life (well, bar my cats) and has been for most of my life. This week I’ve listened to music I’ve never heard before that has caused me to break down sobbing, because of how moving it is. If I was told I could never listen to music again, or never write music again, I would end my life. Seriously. 😡

Errm, I did say I was not being judgemental just curious. Anyway you're wrong about me not being very passionate about anything I was talking about music only. I enjoy music a lot (listening and playing) but I have several other long standing interests that compete for spare time. I've spent long chunks of my life when music was barely there e.g. when I've been on extensive travels and I didn't miss it. If I was told I could never go travelling overseas again then I'd definitely think life was over.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Barking Spiders

[4000]

To be honest I’m extremely surprised that a musician would express difficulty in understanding why some people say “music changed my life”. If just put forward as a point of discussion then ok, I get that, but otherwise I just find it baffling. 
 

In my case, there are many ways in which music changed my life (not the least of which was becoming a musician, which has directed my life in more ways than I can count), but there are times in which it has actually saved it. I spent most of 2019 struggling with the desire to end my life. One of the main things that got me through - just - was Sandy Denny (ironic given her short and somewhat turbulent life and penchant for melancholy songs). Something about her music - possibly its apparent shared understanding of pain - gave me something to cling onto. I will never, ever forget that. 
 

 

[Barking Spiders]

24 minutes ago, 4000 said:

To be honest I’m extremely surprised that a musician would express difficulty in understanding why some people say “music changed my life”. If just put forward as a point of discussion then ok, I get that, but otherwise I just find it baffling. 
 

 

But it was just put forward as a point of discussion and I did qualify my statement saying if someone makes their living from music all fair and good and understandable. Some of the anecdotes clearly explain how music changed someone's life. I'm referring more to those who don't make a living from music in any way. BTW I'd never call myself a musician. I'm a hobbyist that plays some instruments. Yeah you're partly right, music isn't an overriding passion of mine but a great interest.

[4000]

I’m only semi-pro. But even if I made no money at all from music - as I have for much of my life - it would be the same, because of how it makes me feel. It’s not a casual enjoyment, a bit of fun, it is everything. Although I have other interests (art, film, books), without music I would be completely, utterly lost. 

[fretmeister]

At some point I heard music that did change my life as it inspired me to play an instrument (piano) then later change instrument to guitar, then bass. It has given me opportunities to compose, meet people, perform etc etc that I would not have otherwise experienced. But it's also the emotional response to music that is amazing. Hearing something that stops me in my tracks.

 

I saw it in my eldest spawn (about to turn 18 in a few weeks! arrgghh) when she was 2 years old. She was just walking around the lounge and I put some Mozart on. It was the Clarinet Concerto in A Major.

 

She stopped dead and tilted her head towards the stereo and didn't move for a good 10 minutes. It was fascinating to watch her be so absorbed by it. 

 

Did it change her life?

 

She's a really really good clarinetist now. I think I can spot when that seed was planted!

[4000]

3 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

She stopped dead and tilted her head towards the stereo and didn't move for a good 10 minutes. It was fascinating to watch her be so absorbed by it. 

Me, Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond, aged about 14. Transfixed. Completely blew my mind, changed my perception of, well, pretty much everything. 

[fretmeister]

1 minute ago, 4000 said:

Me, Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond, aged about 14. Transfixed. Completely blew my mind, changed my perception of, well, pretty much everything. 

Amazing isn't it!

 

The only downside was when I discovered how expensive good clarinets are. Us bassists have it cheap in comparison!

[4000]

Just now, fretmeister said:

Amazing isn't it!

 

The only downside was when I discovered how expensive good clarinets are. Us bassists have it cheap in comparison!

My parents had earlier - twice! - tried to interest me in picking up an instrument (as mentioned many times, my dad was a jazz musician) by buying me a clarinet, which I wasn’t at all interested in. 😂

[4000]

52 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

 

But it was just put forward as a point of discussion and I did qualify my statement saying if someone makes their living from music all fair and good and understandable. Some of the anecdotes clearly explain how music changed someone's life. I'm referring more to those who don't make a living from music in any way. BTW I'd never call myself a musician. I'm a hobbyist that plays some instruments. Yeah you're partly right, music isn't an overriding passion of mine but a great interest.

Just to clarify something that may be being lost in translation, whilst many people’s lives have been directionally changed by music (in my case directionally in that everything I’ve done on a day to day basis, short of the stuff to pay the bills or eating and sleeping, has been dictated by music), when I say my life has been changed by music - and I’m sure many others are the same - I mean emotionally.  It has enriched my life, deepened my emotional understanding, expanded my consciousness, however you want to put it. 

[Woodinblack]

Apart from my anecdote, it is hard to say that music has changed my life because there has never been a place without music. There was always music at home, my parents always sang round the house, I learned the piano when I was too young to remember not playing the piano, I don't remember a not playing time.

So to not have music somewhere seems odd, like something is missing, and I can only really concentrate on something if music is playing.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited March 15, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[4000]

7 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

It may be purely semantic, but this why I don't take the notion of any single event as having 'changed' a life very seriously.

Philosophically speaking, there is no 'what could have been'. Alternate timelines and so forth are science fiction and a thought experiment, all we have is what is.

Music has been a very deep part of my life from the very beginning, and has been my living for many years; not only that but many of the decisions I have made have been influenced by the place of music in my life. Who I am now might make very little sense if music was removed from my existence, but did music change my life, or it it just significant part of the life I have lived so far?

Surely, things would be different had I not gone to school, had the religious upbringing I did, fallen in love with that particular girl and eventually married her, been hit on the head by a falling scaff clamp in Trafalgar Square...

I too, fell in love with Shine On You Crazy Diamond the moment I heard it, along with The Meters and Hank Williams, and Morbid Angel. I find it hard to consider that any of those things changed my life, rather that they are my life, along with all the less notable dull, dreary, boring bits which have filled the majority of my experience.

It takes nothing away from the richness of our experience, or the palpability of influence upon us, but 'what might have been' doesn't and can't exist outside our imagination- all we can possibly do is retrospectively obverse the singular course our lives have taken, make the best decisions we are able in the present, and remain prepared to deal with the difficulties which we will inevitably encounter as best we can.

This is true (and is also semantics😉), but as someone who has spent several years of his life in therapy, partly - although in no way exclusively -  over “might have beens”, this isn’t really how I see things. 😉 😂

[SteveK]

@Barking Spiders

You say that you have "several other long standing interests". Would you say that one of those interests has had an impact on your life? Surely, any interest that you regularly commit a part of your life to can be said to "impact on my life"... even going to the pub!

Thinking about it, regularly going to the pub has probably impacted some peoples lives more than intended😟

[Waddo Soqable]

I've never thought of it as "it changed my life"... but for instance, if Punk had never happened, I wouldn't have done the things I did, been in the bands I was, met the people I did, and took the path I did... 

so in that sense yes..

[4000]

I guess that while your life is your life and there are no “alternate realities” (or are there?😉), your life is also not set in stone, it is a fluid thing that is affected by every event experienced, every decision made. So I personally feel that any event or experience potentially “changes” your life because it dictates the course of the rest of it. Again, semantics. 😁

[chris_b]

On 15/09/2021 at 16:13, Barking Spiders said:

. . . .  I can't say music has had any great impact on my life. . . . .

 

How can you be a musician and decide music has not had "a great impact on your life"?

 

I had seen live music before, orchestras, the cheesy dance band playing at the holiday hotel, but the first "proper" gig I went to, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, was an earth shattering moment, one of the greatest impacts on my life, as was the urge to buy a bass, learn how to play it and get into a band. Those two linked events were responsible for the path my whole life has taken.

 

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by chris_b

[tegs07]

5 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

How can you be a musician and decide music has not had "a great impact on your life"?

I can’t speak for the OP but I wouldn’t describe myself as a musician. I’m just a ham fisted bodger that noodles around on the bass. They are frequently in bits as much as in a playable state. I would say music did have a big impact on my life. Any teenager with pretty much zero interest in football and the usual blokes banter should get into a band and or get a bike/skateboard.

It will definitely open up new possibilities and IMO a greater range of possibilities.

Edited September 18, 2021 by tegs07