(no subject)
After having looked at Mike's post about the smashing pumpkins, I figured I would talk about my musical roots, since everyone who is a musician had to start somewhere.
I'll never forget when I was in third grade and I got my first walkman. It was a bright-ass yellow tape player and the first cassette I ever bought was Candlebox. Yes, some silly grunge band from the 90's was the first album I ever listened to. I LOVED it. So much that while I was singing along to "you" I got in trouble for it. (The dude screams FUCK YOU in the middle of the song. My grandparents were home hahahahaha) After that came Soundgarden's Superunknown. Also a fantastic album... with less of the "fuck yous" in it.
But, the first album I got that actually started me in the punk direction was Green Day's Dookie. I got that on cassette when I was in... 5th, maybe 6th grade? I don't remember. I was young. But, it was so simplistic and fun and upbeat that I remember being like "Hey, I wanna be that when I grow up." 6th grade, I got my first electric guitar, and I played the shit out of that thing. Every day I would jam on it. I would always need a band to play with. Always. Back in the middle school days, Martin and I would jam out and play in assorted "bands" until about 8th grade when none of us wanted to be in those types of crappy bands anymore.
Around 8th grade or so, I was introduced to Rhiannon, a girl that I met at church camp (of all places, wtf.) She was such a punk rocker I thought, and I loved that girl when I got to see her. She got me into more bands in the Epitaph Records genre - Rancid, NoFX, Ten Foot Pole, all of it. I started to listen to the punk-o-rama CDs as if it was my air supply. I couldn't get enough of it. This was when I started to write songs about anything I could think of. Girls, projects, anything. It was my escape. Even if Blink182 wrote about poop and sodomy, I was writing about what I believed in... which was close to nothing.
In high school, I made sure people were aware that I was into punk rock, although my style severly lacked in that department. I think New Found Glory came out around this time, and many a band that wanted to be a punk band were forming. I was playing with Derek and Heather in a band called "Schroeder" at this time, and it was fun. We just weren't good. At all. Derek and I loved to play guitar and sing about nothing important. He wrote songs, and I wrote songs. But, sometime during my junior year, a couple of gentlemen approached me about singing for their band at a show in January of '03 (keep in mind, I was an AWFUL singer at this point, too.) I said yes, and guess who asked me - Joe and Mike. This was when Brunswick first started.
High school was essentially nothing except learning what other bands that are affiliated with the pop-punk genre. I got into the Ataris, Fall Out Boy, Midtown, Dashboard, the works. I'm pretty sure if I was a senior in high school now, I would be all about All Time Low and all those other bands that are, to me, in the shadows of their predecesors.
But, I have my former roomate to thank for steering me away from the same routine crap. Kyle is my friend from Minnesota - he's graduated now and living the dream, but during our sophomore year together, he introduced me to the wide world of independent music - Indie, for short. These were bands that weren't tied down by the fibers of the music industry and could essentially do whatever the fuck they wanted. Since my highschool sweetheart ditched me to never talk to me again, I needed a change. Enter Minus the Bear. I am still all about this band and will continue to be about this band until they're done being a band. Then Maritime, more Death Cab, American Football, the Promise Ring, and bands that really did have a talent for music. It wasn't about girls or looking good - it was about making a record that was truly worth listening to. This is the kind of music that I want to make for the rest of my life - something worth listening to aside from the glitz and glam and faggotry of the music industry.
Well, there's my musical background in a nutshell. I didn't include the whole Brunswick biography because it's not really necessary. I just want to give you all out there some perspective about my listening "career." Everyone has to start somewhere, and hopefully, everyone evolves just the same. If you started off listening to Metro Station, I hope that in 20 years you will grow up and learn to appreciate bands like Led Zeppelin, Blink182 (for making punk into pop, really), Cap'n Jazz, and the bands that really made the footing for the current musical acts today. Or maybe, Metro Station will be the next big thing and really be the next big footing in the music industry. Who knows? I sure as hell don't think so, but it could happen. Nobody expected Blink to take off after the grunge years passed us by.
Know your roots.
Support music, not musicians.
I'll never forget when I was in third grade and I got my first walkman. It was a bright-ass yellow tape player and the first cassette I ever bought was Candlebox. Yes, some silly grunge band from the 90's was the first album I ever listened to. I LOVED it. So much that while I was singing along to "you" I got in trouble for it. (The dude screams FUCK YOU in the middle of the song. My grandparents were home hahahahaha) After that came Soundgarden's Superunknown. Also a fantastic album... with less of the "fuck yous" in it.
But, the first album I got that actually started me in the punk direction was Green Day's Dookie. I got that on cassette when I was in... 5th, maybe 6th grade? I don't remember. I was young. But, it was so simplistic and fun and upbeat that I remember being like "Hey, I wanna be that when I grow up." 6th grade, I got my first electric guitar, and I played the shit out of that thing. Every day I would jam on it. I would always need a band to play with. Always. Back in the middle school days, Martin and I would jam out and play in assorted "bands" until about 8th grade when none of us wanted to be in those types of crappy bands anymore.
Around 8th grade or so, I was introduced to Rhiannon, a girl that I met at church camp (of all places, wtf.) She was such a punk rocker I thought, and I loved that girl when I got to see her. She got me into more bands in the Epitaph Records genre - Rancid, NoFX, Ten Foot Pole, all of it. I started to listen to the punk-o-rama CDs as if it was my air supply. I couldn't get enough of it. This was when I started to write songs about anything I could think of. Girls, projects, anything. It was my escape. Even if Blink182 wrote about poop and sodomy, I was writing about what I believed in... which was close to nothing.
In high school, I made sure people were aware that I was into punk rock, although my style severly lacked in that department. I think New Found Glory came out around this time, and many a band that wanted to be a punk band were forming. I was playing with Derek and Heather in a band called "Schroeder" at this time, and it was fun. We just weren't good. At all. Derek and I loved to play guitar and sing about nothing important. He wrote songs, and I wrote songs. But, sometime during my junior year, a couple of gentlemen approached me about singing for their band at a show in January of '03 (keep in mind, I was an AWFUL singer at this point, too.) I said yes, and guess who asked me - Joe and Mike. This was when Brunswick first started.
High school was essentially nothing except learning what other bands that are affiliated with the pop-punk genre. I got into the Ataris, Fall Out Boy, Midtown, Dashboard, the works. I'm pretty sure if I was a senior in high school now, I would be all about All Time Low and all those other bands that are, to me, in the shadows of their predecesors.
But, I have my former roomate to thank for steering me away from the same routine crap. Kyle is my friend from Minnesota - he's graduated now and living the dream, but during our sophomore year together, he introduced me to the wide world of independent music - Indie, for short. These were bands that weren't tied down by the fibers of the music industry and could essentially do whatever the fuck they wanted. Since my highschool sweetheart ditched me to never talk to me again, I needed a change. Enter Minus the Bear. I am still all about this band and will continue to be about this band until they're done being a band. Then Maritime, more Death Cab, American Football, the Promise Ring, and bands that really did have a talent for music. It wasn't about girls or looking good - it was about making a record that was truly worth listening to. This is the kind of music that I want to make for the rest of my life - something worth listening to aside from the glitz and glam and faggotry of the music industry.
Well, there's my musical background in a nutshell. I didn't include the whole Brunswick biography because it's not really necessary. I just want to give you all out there some perspective about my listening "career." Everyone has to start somewhere, and hopefully, everyone evolves just the same. If you started off listening to Metro Station, I hope that in 20 years you will grow up and learn to appreciate bands like Led Zeppelin, Blink182 (for making punk into pop, really), Cap'n Jazz, and the bands that really made the footing for the current musical acts today. Or maybe, Metro Station will be the next big thing and really be the next big footing in the music industry. Who knows? I sure as hell don't think so, but it could happen. Nobody expected Blink to take off after the grunge years passed us by.
Know your roots.
Support music, not musicians.