Prog for the Existentialist

I've been listening to a lot of Pain of Salvation and Ayreon lately, and thinking a lot about what those band's albums, particularly BE, Into The Electric Castle, and 010101110101101001010111, all mean. The common thread in all of those, of course, is the nature of a god or gods, and the purpose of humanity. Now, I'm not intending to turn this into some kind of theological debate, but lyrically, this is a very proggy topic, and it's related to many of the themes I touch on in my own work. I am fascinated by it, and have written what might turn out to be a concept double album regarding the subject, to tell the truth. And nothing gets more proggy than a concept double album, now does it?

My little brother and I were debating about the fabric of reality earlier tonight. He presented a worthy argument: numbers do not exist because they are not real. They are only symbols on paper, you cannot "show" someone what a 3 is, other than using an outside example. I refuted him with the obvious:

3 exists. The symbol itself is just a representation of a concept. That's what variables in algebra and calculus are. Especially in calculus. It doesn't matter what number it is, it can be x. It can be k. It can be n. It can be Ä, or µ, or a picture of a Mudkip or a guitar solo. It doesn't matter, if I assign the symbol to the concept it is valid. That's why a lot of equations start out as "Let x = 2" or something, because it doesn't matter what the symbol is.

... that's a representation of 3 dots.
qqq that's a representation of 3 q's.

If you take one away from them and separate it, it'll become .. .
Or it'll become q qq

o even if you have something that represents 3, and take something that represents 1 away (3-1), you end up with something that represents 2.

I mean, if you want to get really technical about it, language does not exist. All of the words we have are simply representations of concepts within our universe. Can you show me what a book is? A book is a collection of dirty pieces of paper with words on them. A word is a combination of abstract symbols we assign meaning to. What if the letters B-O-O-K meant what we call a guitar? What if the letters G-U-I-T-A-R meant what we call football? What if the letters F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L meant what we call progressive rock music?

All of our numbers and language exist only in our heads, a construction of what our culture has come up with and created so that it can fully express the things important to them. That's why it's said that the Eskimos have so many words for snow, because it obviously surrounds them and is a big part in their lives. There are over 100 words for Jesus in English because of the importance we as a culture place on him.

3 is the symbol we made to represent the concept of there being one and another and another. It is not a thing, but it exists. This same argument could be used to illustrate progressive rock. There has been a long-standing debate over the years as to what constitutes "prog", whether it is used in a literal sense: progressing and pushing the boundaries of music, or by following the genre, being the same as the original "prog bands". Both camps have a valid argument and are certainly entitled to their own opinions, but to be looked at objectively, does "prog" exist at all? Some genres are bordering on extreme nitpicking: for example something like Extreme Death Prog Folk Jazz Metal for Opeth's latest album, while it would be accurate, provides no insight into the actual sound itself. It is perhaps a curse of the word "progressive" in that the genre is so diverse, because it's really hard to explain to people that I like some of the most brutal, technical metal and at the same time, ethereal post-modern wisps of songs, and they are both part of the same genre.

Let me go off on a tangent here: there is objective reality, and then perception. Only something encompassing ALL PERCEPTIONS in the universe can be considered objective. Thus, the only thing that can be truly objective would have to be God or some other similar, omniscient being. The existence of multiple, autonomous beings proves this. There are multiple perceptions of reality, and thus there IS reality. If we were all part of one single meta-organism, the only reality that would ever exist would be the one we all perceived. But because people are different and have different experiences, different opinions, different beliefs, objective reality exists because events actually happen. For all we know, everything that "happens" to us could be an illusion fed to us by our brains, but because people with such diverse origins all experience them, it can be deduced that reality exists.

If my brother did not exist, my life would be changed significantly, but I'd be normal. If I never existed, my parent's lives would be WAYYY different, but they'd be fine. If my house or school or church or city didn't exist, things would be different. The universe would be able to function just fine if humans never existed, or if Earth never existed. But what if there was no universe? That means that there would be NOTHING. Ever. There would be no reality, nothing would exist or ever exist. There would be no universe, there would be quite literally NOTHING at all. Can you even wrap your mind around that? There would be no plane for any reality to exist on. THAT is objective reality.

In objective reality, 3 exists. It is there in groupings of things. A number is simply a representation of a grouping, so yes, 3 does exist. The symbol does not physically exist, but then again, letters do not physically exist.

One of the questions I tend to ponder in my own mind is what music would sound like on a planet that creates planets. When I ask this to people, most take it at face value, but like the Forevers in the Ayreon saga, or the title character in BE, it can pose some interesting questions about our perception of what, exactly, is.

What if there was a culture where literally everyone was a God? Not necessarily a religious figure, but a world where everybody could create and control things on a whim, everybody had immense power? What would their culture be like, a people who do not worship anything because they are the ones that are worshiped? I ask about the music because I'm a musician, but that's the bigger question. How do you think the culture of Gods would be? Are we in their image, are they in our image? Is God, like I said earlier, our universe itself, the objective reality? Would this race of Gods be simply massively powerful, but normal to each other, or would they be all-powerful and able to control even each other? Would we be able to tell? Is there only one God? Are there actually different Gods, or are polytheistic religions perceiving the various qualities as various identities? Why is God here, why are we here? They're tough questions, and I'm not expecting anyone to answer me. Let me reinstate that I do NOT want this to turn into a religious debate. I am not talking about the Christian god or any specific god, but just the concept of deities in the first place, and this concept's effect on human belief and behavior.

We can never know, because we can never know objective reality. For all we know, humans are simply experiments by these "gods" to find themselves. As well, for all we know we could be the smartest, most advanced race in the universe. The only things we can compare to are each other. And because of this, the efforts of our creativity, the things we devote ourselves to as musicians and artists and people, can only be real and can only be "true", so to speak, by creating the music we truly want to create; being what we want to be; doing what we want to do. As Sean said in his previous post, you can only go so far with 3 chords and a desire to "rock out". In my opinion, there should never be any self-imposed limits on any band: one shouldn't have to stick into a preconceived notion of "rock" or "metal" or "prog", but on the other hand, we can't expect our favorite artists to change and experiment just because we want them to keep progressing. That, in my opinion, is true prog: not necessarily progressing music, but progressing ourselves. I have grown a lot since I first stumbled upon Progulus at the tender age of 14, and it is my every intent to continue to grow in my appreciation for all music as I grow as a person.

And that is why I love prog. It has given me hundreds of bands that play amazing, unique, and beautiful music. They can, essentially, be considered gods in their field. There is every sound possible, there are no limits: the artists are only limited by themselves. There is no objective, unbiased truth as to what prog is or isn't. It is merely a representation of whatever we want it to be. It exists, but it is not real, and thus, better off as a genre for it.

"The meaning of life is to give life meaning
Go too fast, move too slow
Restore the balance between thinking and feeling
Open up and let it flow"

"I feel every mountain
I hear every tree
I know every ocean
I taste every sea

I see every spring arrive
I see every summer thrive
I see every autumn keep
I see every winter sleep

For I am every forest
I am every tree
I am everything
I am you and me
I am every ocean
I am every sea
I am all the breathing BE."

The process

There are many different avenues I use to complete a song and I thought it might be fun to discuss them. I'd like to hear from Ray and others about their creative process as well. Since I write different styles of music and I don't have a particular workspace I write in but I have a number of different modes. Adding lyric writing to the mix brings up even more variety to the process. Variety may be one of the best attributes to my process. I may not always write what I intend but I can almost always write something. I think it is a good exercise to just keep music flowing even if it isn't what you wanted or even if you toss out what you just wrote. One note on discarding ideas, don't be to quick to toss something out. I have a pile of short clips of music that I haven't used yet. I have complete or nearly complete songs I haven't found a home for. I rarely discard something outright. If an idea makes it to paper or a recorded form I'll use it somewhere eventually.

I have spent a long time honing my skills that I can use to write music. I do sit down as often as I can for regular writing sessions. I have a BA in music and I've played guitar for 20 years. I'd never claim to be the best but I do have a lot of knowledge and skill to call on. I can just jam to a tape recorder and let the music flow but I can also go back later, transcribe what I played, and think "I bet an Augmented 6th chord would sound cool in this part." There is a saying, "If all you have in your toolbox is a hammer you'll treat everything as a nail." I think that is very true of music. There is nothing wrong with a 3-power chord punk song. I might write one myself if I feel like it. But if all I know are power chords I would be very limited. I enjoy learning and growing and applying new skills to my writing. One of my current self education projects is to teach myself more about orchestration. I want to know how to score out songs for concert bands and symphony orchestras. Never stop learning. Lyrics are a bit trickier. I'm not verbally inclined to start with. But when I have written some lyrics I like I do go back and edit, think about the meter and flow of the words, and turn to my thesaurus to be sure that I am saying what I mean in the way I want to say it. In a more mundane sense I write music on paper, into my notation program on my computer, or I record audio. All seem to draw different things out of me and I like to switch up so I don't get into a rut.

That's more the technical side of it. Where to the ideas come from the begin with? Anywhere and everywhere. I'm like a sponge, I am always soaking up information. I read or watch or listen to something and my brain can eventually filter that to my hands on my guitar. I have over 4,000 songs in my iTunes. I think I own over 600 cds. I read a lot of books from Stephen King to Bertrand Russel to Marvel comics. Most of my lyrics are based on something that happened to me or something I heard about. Music is not directly related to what I soak up but I can call on different experiences and different moods to guide to song.

About half the time I start with a stanza or two of lyrics or a riff or two of music. Once I get some music set to the lyrics I can often finish the lyrics and most of the time the music and lyrics will leapfrog each other as I go. I usually have a similar process for instrumental music. I may start with a guitar part, then switch to bass to come up with an accompanying part. As I finish the bass for that section new idea will pop into my head and I'll flow into the next section of bass and go back to guitar after that. It's rare that I stick with one instrument through the end of writing a song. The same leapfrogging happens in Strange Land, only it occurs between people. One of us will bring in a riff or a section or even a skeleton of a whole song and then the others will take that and run with it. The collaboration goes back and forth until we're happy with it. Luckily we don't have huge egos and we're not hurt if something we wrote gets altered or dropped from a song.

My other main process is to have pieces I want to put together but they don't just flow one from the next. I have to write connective tissue to bring all the sections together or play them enough to see if they can just "go" without any intervening music. It can work both ways. Strange Land works this way often. Quite a bit of my solo acoustic music is done this way as well.

No matter how a song is constructed there is a long period of editing and rehearsing. Even though I approach music with an intellectual bent everything still has to feel right. Sometimes parts just don't fit and you have to be willing to let them go. Sometimes songs aren't ready to be finished and you have to wait. As we say in Strange Land, no matter how proggy and 'out there' you get, you still have to "serve the song." Say that either in the voice of a monk or a kung fu master, it works better that way :-)

I have a feeling I'm not the only one that works this way. I'd like to hear from you out there how you work when you write.

Musician's Thanksgiving

Last year I had a lovely dinner with my band-mates at our drummer Brad's house. It's tradition in his family to go around the table and mention a few things you are thankful for. He mentioned it to us and we thought it was a good idea. I have to say that I have personally had a rough two years but I still have plenty to be thankful for. As I think about it now it really boils down to people. My various projects have either moved forward or not, sometimes in my control, sometimes not. I have grown as a person. I have made progress professionally. It seems a little silly to be thankful for my guitars (although I can be thankful none needed major repairs this year).

People are what I'm thankful for. Despite my best misanthropic tendencies, people make the rest of life worth fighting through, over, under or whatever you want to call it. I want to take a moment to thank some specific people. Thank you Chad and Brad for being great band-mates and understanding all the stress I was going through this year. Thank you Leah K. (Mrs Brad) for letting Brad come out and play :-) Thank you Kassy for the studio help and the coffee talk. Thank you Leah D. (and the cats) for the home. Thank you Kate for being open, honest and accepting my openness and the situation I am in, and thanks for burning away the hours over conversation. Thank you to the Progulus tag-board regulars and those of you I have also connected to on facebook. Who knew I would find to many good, like-minded virtual friends all over the world.

I would still probably do all the things I do without these people. But I am sure without them my stress level would be greater and my enjoyment would be less. Happy Thanksgiving

Blockhead Radio

Rod from Blockhead Radio has been playing some of my music for a while now and he invited me to be on his new indie musician show. We covered a lot of territory. He played some of my solo tunes and some new Strange Land songs from the upcoming Catharsis cd. I also got plugs in for Progrockin' and Progulus. Thanks to Rod for having me on and for being a supporter of independent artists of all kinds. The show runs 90 minutes.

Marco Sfogli - There's Hope

There are a lot of hot new guitarists these days from Italy: Alessandro Benvenuti, Massimo Izzizzari who are both using Greg Howe’s legato phrasing style, as well as long time guitar veterans Filippo Marcheggiani of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Alex Masi, Gianluca Ferro who has played with Time Machine and Heart Of Sun, Fabrizio Leo who plays with the modern fusion trio Citriniti, and the lesser known artists Marco Ferrigno and William Stravato. And that’s only naming a few. I’ve heard bits and pieces of Sfogli’s work on other CDs, such as Alex Argento’s solo CD, and James LaBrie’s “Elements of Persuasion” and he's played on a few others. Marco Sfogli proves on this album that he has the chops to compete with the best of the best from around the world.

I think that every guitarist dreams of one day releasing a solo CD. I get a lot of these in the mail and many of them are, unfortunately, mediocre at best. I’m happy to report that this is NOT one of them! The poor ones typically seem to fall in one of two categories: The first type is nothing but endless soloing over vanilla-sounding background music. Many albums come to mind here over the years, but perhaps the biggest stinker I can think of in this category is Michael Harris’ “Hurricane X”. The second category of boring solo guitar CDs tend to be technically proficient guitarists who make overly-artistic albums that for whatever reason fail to entertain or excite the listener. Any instrumental guitar CD these days has got to be top notch in order to hold a listener’s interest. That means they’ve got to show style with a good balance of originality, technique, as well as displaying songwriting talent that’s more than just bland music set to a 4/4 drum computer.

Now on to the album. “There’s Hope” kept my interest and held it throughout. What you can expect here, according to his press release, is "11 tracks with a mix of influences Marco has absorbed since he took up the guitar at age 9." That’s a pretty good overview. He’s carefully studied all of the greats, and he plays them on this album like a montage. Elements of John Petrucci, Joe Satriani, Greg Howe, Dave Martone, and to a lesser extent Steve Vai can all be heard here. His biggest strength is that his technique is flawless. He can play technically impossible phrases with seeming ease. The biggest problem here is that he lacks his own unique playing style.

The first track, “Still Hurts,” is a great opener and features a nice keyboard solo by Labrie’ solo CD veteran and Dali’s Dilemma keyboardist’ Matt Guillory. The 2nd track, “Andromeda,” is a tip of the hat to Satch and one of the more forgettable songs on the album though it has some jaw-dropping John Petrucci-esque moments on it. “Seven” is a nice slower track that starts with acoustic piano and an accompanying guitar melody. The title track, “There’s Hope” is easily one of my favorites on this CD. If somebody played this for me without telling me who it was, my first guess would be that it came from John Petrucci. “Spread the Disease” is a great blues shuffle that sounds like something Dave Martone would write. “Farewell” is a page from Joe Satriani’s songbook, and is one of the 4/4 cookie-cutter songs that you probably hear on one too many guitarist’s solo albums. It's a good thing it is short. “Genius” is a heavy, ferocious number that also appears on Alex Argento’s latest solo CD (Alex plays keys on the track). It has a Planet X vibe and is one of my favorites on the album. “Sunset Lights” is another piece that is all over the map in showing Sfogli’s wide range of influences, including some legato runs in the style of Greg Howe. Otherwise it’s not a very memorable song. “Never Forget Me” is another slower ballad track that falls into the Pertucci mold somehow. “Memories” is a slow, beautiful piano/guitar duet that reminds me of Brett Garsed. The final track “Texas BBQ” is a fast-paced country-dixie style 2-step that is not far off from Steve Morse or the Dixie Dregs. This one is fun. Other guitarists such as Guthrie Govan, Joel Hoekstra, and Dave Martone have included such country romps on their CDs so we might expect Sfogli to follow suit.

I liked this CD in general and think that what Sfogli lacks in originality he makes up for in technique. He’s an excellent guitarist with monster chops and those who like to hear this sort of jaw-dropping playing, and fans of John Petrucci in particular, should find his CD interesting. Sfogli shows strong songwriting at times, but some songs come across to me as ‘just another guitarist’s solo CD.’ His weaker songs are a patchwork of his influences that never show us Sfogli is original enough to stand out from the crowd. This is not an ‘essential’ album, and I hope that Marco Sfogli will work to show us a more original style in the future. He seems to have a great chemistry with keyboardist Alex Argento, and I hope they two of them continue to work together on future albums.

Marco Sfogli's Official Website

My favorite game (not!) and old socks

The waiting game. The new Strange Land cd is done. Has been done for 3 months. I finished the art 2 months ago. A hearty thanks to MAV for the awesome logo that almost no one has seen yet.

When we set out to release this cd one of our goals was to have strong label support behind us. We thought that it would happen but, as they say, the ink isn't dry yet. I don't even feel like I can say which label we are talking to. I am hoping it will still happen. We have finally started exploring other options. Let this be an example that you should explore all your options, keep everything on the table.

This is a short post, but I just felt like venting my frustration. Its another example of the conundrum of having to treat art as business. And how irritating it can be to leave the fulfillment of your artistic vision in someone else's hands.

And I must confess my fascination with Antiques Roadshow on PBS. :) There is some guy on right now with socks from the Civil War. Holy crap! $2,000 for a pair of socks! I am rambling and I have so not gotten enough sleep lately. What the heck do old socks have to do with prog?

Fromuz - Overlook

Fromuz is a 4-piece instrumental band that hails from Taskent, Uzbekistan. They are a new band to me, having just heard their 2007 release 'Audio Diplomacy' (2007) a few months ago for the first time. 'Overlook' was just released in 2008 on the U.S. label 10t Records. They bill themselves as a Jazz Rock/Fusion band although I personally hear very little fusion in their playing as I would choose to define it. What I hear is an interesting blend of styles ranging from hard-driving chordless melodies that are not far off from Planet X, to progressive odd-metered heavy chordal passages, to moments of synth-driven psychadelia. Fans of Spaced Out, Bolt, Speechless, Von Frickle, Static, Headshear, Planet X, and A Helmet of Gnats should find themselves right at home with this album.

No songs on this album clock in at under 10 minutes, yet a few of the songs themselves are broken down into several smaller 'songlets' that don't seem to really be connected with one another. The first track, for example, contains 4 or 5 smaller songs that are strung together end on end. There's seemingly no logic behind this, except that some of the slower passages tend to be placed in the middle of the songs. So within these songs we usually get a heavy-sounding intro at the beginning, more artistic or experimental middle section, followed up with a bigger finish. For example, the middle section of 'Other Side Of The Water' sounds very Pink Floyd - Animals-era psychadelic rock with lush synths and acoustic guitars. The production on this CD is excellent, especially considering that there are probably not too many state of the art recording studios in Uzbekistan. The band plays very tight throughout the album, proving that they are not only worthy artists but also perfectionists as well. The band have also found interesting cover art to suit both of their albums.

The musicians in this band show that they know their instruments and can really put out some stellar riffs when they want to. "13th August" is a great example of this. The whole track just sizzles with bombastic chops. However the album as a whole takes a more conservative approach with an emphasis on artistic development instead of displaying their technical prowess. The final 17-minute epic 'Return to W.I.T.' shows a more slower paced, artistic side of the band. This track reminds my of another band, Helmet of Gnats, who took a similar approach on their debut album. There is great depth here in these songs, and after several repeat listens now I find there is still so much more to hear on this CD. I hesitate to call this album a masterpiece, because there are definitely a few flaws and more experimental sections. One of the weaker points on the album is near the end of track 1, where the song breaks down and we hear several minutes of jazzy guitar noodling, which is about the only time I would dare to call this CD 'fusion'. Other places on the album breakdown with far more interesting results, such as near the end of 'Crashmind' which features an interesting guitar solo vamp and a soft piano ending with a twist.

Overall this is a great slab of close to 70 minutes of art rock, and I highly recommend that everybody who enjoys good instrumental progressive rock to pick it up for their collection. There's plenty of heavy riffs to keep the metalheads happy, and a more prog rockin' side for the proggers. This is a CD not to be 'Overlooked'.

Porcupine Tree > Lightbulb Sun 2007 remix - a review

In the year 2000 , when Lightbulb Sun was initially released, it was somehow a change of dogma. Being a rather trippy band, with lots of atmospheric sequences, long melodies, and a rather depressive way of singing, but with complex rhythms and time signatures, and some real great drums, they released an album that went into another direction.
Their sound suddenly went into more compact song structures, almost like a new brit pop band it semed at that time.
Many fans jumped off the train since then, but as the band went forward, they gathered even more fans.

One thing we Munich fans thought about the cd was that it was perfect in sound; a production value never heard before, and we bowed to it.

So why do a remix of a perfectly produced album? I got curious.
It arrived, and contained 2 discs, a CD containing the 2007 remix, and a DVD-A containing 4 songs mixed in 5.1 and the entire album in its original mix.
So I started listening to the remix, and at a first glance there was - nothing....... hmm...... oh, wait... it sounds warmer.
yes, I can hear everything a good tad better. --- That was my first impression.

"The differences are small, but there are some sonic improvements..." Steve Wilson states in the booklet.

So what are the differences?

I think the original mix was done to meet industry standards, making it radio friendly. Removing that was their goal, I guess.
The overall sound is less aggresive, they took much more care to not overload the trebles, not to distort waveforms, and keeping all as transparent as possible.
The entire sound is warmer, in a vinyl style somehow. the loudness of every instrument is matched perfectly, so one doesn't disturb the other, and yes, they made it so good that one doesn't miss one note.
Some slightly different effects have been applied to the guitar for not bleeding all other instruments out, and such things.
Seperating all instuments and make it a new sonic experience, well that's exactly what they did.

In 2000 I thought "wow that sounds like the band is playing right in my living room".
In 2008 I can only top that by saying "nice of the band to stop by in my humble home".

I haven't listened to the DVD-A, as I do know the original version very well, and the 5.1 remixes of those 4 tunes make no sense on a stereo environment.
One thing I can say for sure: I recommend the cd to everyone. It is such a great new sonic experience, you shouldn't miss it!

The elusiveness of inspiration

As a follow up to my last post I was thinking about all the music that has really inspired me in my life. I now think that musical enjoyment comes in 3 forms for me. These 3 categories overlap like Russian nesting dolls. I can be just entertained, entertained and inspired, or entertains, inspired and imitative. Let me run down my categories.

1. Entertainment - As I've gotten older I think I find more and more examples of music I just like listening to. Doesn't matter what genre (metal, jazz, americana, whatever), I can just enjoy listening to a song because I like it and I think its well done.
2. Inspiration - I hear something and it makes me feel like working on my own music. Gives me a little kick to keep going. It's motivational entertainment. I often get this from live shows as well as from listening to music at home.
3. Imitation - I hear something and I want to actually write a song like that. A song that either sounds like that or a song that makes me feel the same way. Sometimes the end result doesn't really resemble my source of imitation at all but somehow, for me, the mood remains the same.
   

As I mentioned, my age has mellowed me a bit and I can just find enjoyment in a good song. When I was a teenager everything I listened to had to be just a certain style and it had fit the second two categories. Inversely, as I've gotten older I find it harder to find new music that inspires me. Maybe its that I'm exposed to far more music through the internet now and there's more to sort through to find what really speaks to me. Maybe the more of my own music I make the less of others music I get into. I have more than once read interviews with artists who, when asked what new music they listen to, say they don't really listen to anything new or list one or two bands. I often find myself going back to my older music for inspiration and it seems like in most cases what inspired me long ago still does. To use one band as an example, Dream Theater, I find Systematic Chaos fun to listen to but it doesn't get to me, doesn't get under my skin. I can still pop Images and Words in and I feel like a starry-eyed 16 year old again. I have reached the point where I don't expect to always be inspired and thats ok. Sometimes its just good to listen to good music. Getting inspired also means working and I can't work 24/7.

Even though great moments of finding something new are fewer, they are sometimes more satisfying and exciting. They seem to come in brief bursts. After college the first big 'new music' explosion happened in 2001. I was already a little familiar with Symphony X, but attending ProgPower USA 1 exposed me also to Pain of Salvation and Zero Hour for the first time. Here I found new music, stuff that sounded fresh and like it was forging a new path. I was also introduced to Spiral Architect and Vauxdvihl that same year. Back in 2001 pretty much everyone else I heard was trying to be a Dream Theater clone. 2001 was a great year for finding new music for me. Over the subsequent years I never had such a big explosion of discovery like that again but every once in a while something grabs me when I'm not looking and shows me a new perspective. I had those moments with Porcupine Tree - In Absentia, Sieges Even - The Art Of Navigating By The Stars, and most recently Everon - North.

I wonder if people who don't play music feel like this at all. Am I in a unique position as a listener and a composer, you do others find similar circumstances of inspiration and imitation, though maybe not for creating music, but for doing something else? All in all I still love listening to music. Almost as much as I love creating it.

I'll end with a quote by John Coltrane, one of my favorites about being a creator and consumer of music:

"Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before. Being so inescapably a part of it, I’ll never know what the listener gets, what the listener feels, and thats too bad."

Everon - North

The new cd 'North' by Everon has quickly become a daily habit. Its been a while since I've discovered a new (to me) band that made a big impression on me. One thing I really like about this cd is that the music if fairly uplifting and hopeful. It had its dark moments, but as someone who loves Fates Warning and Pain of Salvation, Everon is a nice shift from the melancholy and intensity of bands like that.

What got me the most excited about this band though were the lyrics. I don't often pay that much attention to lyrics... or at least I pay more attention to the music. Put another way, I can listen to a song I think has good music and bad lyrics, but not a song that has bad music and good lyrics. I think Everon's lyrics are some of the most poetic I've read. Here are some samples:

(from the song 'Wasn't It Good')

"Nostalgia is a dangerous poison
If mixed with bitterness and grief
Makes the past look so much brighter
Forms illusions of relief
Makes what's lost still seem an option
Though it failed the test of time
Pretends the years have done no damage
That we're still in our prime"

(from the song 'Running')

Still lies the ocean deep
Such grace never met the eye
A whole world in peaceful sleep
Under a star covered sky

I find in the first example an expression of something a lot of people might feel but not know how to say, and it is said without either being too simple or too mired in metaphor. In the second example I think we have just a beautiful image painted in words. Oliver Philipps has great skill with the English language even though its not his native tongue. Reading these lyrics has given me a little kick to put more effort and thought into my own. I usually only write lyrics when very inspired. Unlike music, which I can sit and write anytime, lyrics come on their own time. But I'll be more aware I think of finding the best way to say what I want to say.

So go get this cd. Its a complete vision and I don't think I'll get tired of listening to it.