Yeah, that’s totally a rational human being at work doing something important.

“Music is stupid.” That may sound like an odd thing to hear coming from a musician.  But I think it explains a lot about my approach to music.  Let me explain….

This last weekend, my girlfriend and I were celebrating our anniversary in a nice hotel in Monterey, CA.  We’d had a day on the town, a fantastic dinner at Passion Fish, and we were just tucking into the champagne and cheese platter the hotel so thoughtfully left in our room for us.  Ok, mostly the cheese since neither of us drinks. 🙂

I flipped through a few channels and discovered a replay of this year’s Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.  And that was the rest of our evening… Yeah, we party hard. 🙂

I hold music in the highest reverence.  I’ve built my life around it.  It’s played an active daily role in my life since age 8.  It makes me happy.  It makes me angry.  It supports the mood I’m in and pulls me out of moods I don’t want to be in.  I idolize the people that do it well and vilify the people that, in my opinion, don’t.

When I watch the Grammy awards or the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, I’m riveted by the heartfelt emotion, the industry tales, and the camaraderie that all plays a part in the music industry.

When I listen to or watch music, the good stuff makes me want to play out of inspiration.  And the rest makes me want to play out of spite.

That being said, the logical part of my brain can’t help but see music as the ridiculous activity it really is.  A guy plunking some wires hooked up to be amplified. Another guy beating on plastic heads with some sticks like an out of work Geico caveman.  Some weirdo up front yowling into a microphone in barely understandable similes and metaphors instead of writing or speaking like a rational person.

Everybody just moving the air to try and appeal to the almost most reptilian part of your brain.  Maybe even getting you to shake your body parts around for no real good reason except to attract a mate.  Base ridiculousness all the way around.

But then again, nobody makes sense all the time.  Think about your best friend.  Obviously that person has qualities that you admire.  But they also do some stuff you don’t mind giving them shit about too, right?

Sometimes you want to tell everyone you know, “My friend is doing great work and saving the world!” (ie. U2 or Louis Armstrong).

Other times you want to call up your friend and just say, “Eh, you remember that time you got drunk and banged that meth skank in the back alley?” (ie. Justin Bieber or KC and the Sunshine Band).

So let’s just say that as much as I admire and respect my friend music and enjoy paying homage to all that music is, sometimes I just want to call it up and give it a good dose of harassment for screwing up sometimes too.

All in good fun. 🙂