Music and Life
Part 2



Emerging from the "dark ages" was a slow process that was facilitated by a new love interest (and still a current love interest, actually). I was 15 years old when I met a girl who came to change the way I treated myself and the way I considered my own life. I held a crush on this girl for four years before it found an outlet in a relationship that is still ongoing

My changing attitude was reflected by changing musical interests. From Manson and Zombie, I took to listening to the music of my parents' childhood. The Doors, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Van Morrison and other populate this era of my musical life.

Also during this time I began to take a greater interest in edgier alternative rock bands of both the national and local persuasion. These included Sublime, Primus, Incubus, Presidents of the United States of America, Deftones, 311 and Live on the national level. Locally, I got into Pinch, Bedford, Teenage Girls, and SEV.

It was shortly after this time that I began to look back to my roots and expanded my CD collections to included dozens of classical and traditional Irish albums. Amongst my favourites of the classical were Tcaikovsky's The Seasons, Dvorak's New World Symphony, and Beethoven's 9th Symphony Choral. On the traditional Irish side of things, there was the Chieftains, the Clancy Bros., Tommy Mackem, and Paddy O'Brien.

After a while my interest in Irish music bridged to include rebel bands. I became heavily into the Wolfe Tones and the Irish Brigade. This now seems to me as if it should have happened much sooner than it actually did considering the amount of Irish history I had consumed in the three years prior to my 16th birthday.

For the last four years, my interests have spanned everything listed above as well as dabbling in country music, showtunes, and jazz. Needless to say, I pretty much enjoy all forms of music as long as they are talented.

The music currently in my CD changer is a perfect reflection of the variety of my tastes in my music over the last decade. At the moment: Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack, The Guess Who Live American Tour, Anti-Flag's Die For Your Gov't, Teenage Girls' Initial Assault LP, The Who's Tommy, and Alice Cooper's Love It To Death. As the old adage goes: variety is the spice of life.  ¶ 3:36 a.m.