Bus Stop Boxing

Since I bought my first CD (The Offspring – Smash) I have been in love with everything musical. My first love will always be pop-punk but my tastes have been growing since that day and I, just now, feel like there isn’t a type of music I don’t enjoy. It’s a strange feeling to look back on my musical tastes and understanding of music as I have become older. I was the stereotypical kid, the one who listened to whatever was popular at the time. When the backstreet boys came out, I listened to them (didn’t buy a CD but listened to them). I would listen to the radio for hours just to catch whatever was the flavour of the week and record it onto a mix tape; some of which I still have lying around.

Whatever was new and exciting, as deemed by much music, I would instantly love and join in with all my friends who were exactly like me. This trend continued for a long time until a met someone who became a very close friend in gr.9. This person introduced me to the popular bands of the punk genre, specifically the pop punk genre. It felt like a new world open up to me and I rushed to get that first Taking Back Sunday CD and try to find every Used song on napster. I look back at those days and laugh at myself. I thought I was listening to some super underground band, something different, but I really wasn’t. I was listening to the mainstream version of punk, just as I had done for rock, pop and rap. I would basically brag about these bands that a lot of people at school knew nothing about and feel elitist about it. I knew about bands 2 months before they got heavy rotation on TV and radio. The funniest part was that I always got a sense of joy from seeing people who would say “these guys suck” and then 2 months later when they broke, they would be saying “OMG, NEW FAVOURITE BAND!!”. Really, I was the definition of an elitist douchbag and it’s not something I am slightly proud of but their is a silver lining to all this. That same person who introduced me to pop punk introduced me to local shows and got me changing my attitudes when it came to music.

I had always enjoyed music but it wasn’t a passion for me. After seeing my first local show, that all changed, music became a huge part of who I am. There is one band that I attribute this “transformation” to and that would be the all mighty Charge. They played that first show and I was blown away. I always thought that anything that wasn’t played on the radio or shown on TV wasn’t any good. The Charge changed all that, they showed me that music could be more then flashy videos and lyrical hooks. To see 3 people up on a stage, giving it their all because they loved to play music, it did so much for me. I wouldn’t be doing anything music wise if it wasn’t for that show or that band.

Which is funny in a way because though they inspired me, I didn’t rush out and buy a guitar or bass or drum set. Instead I started to help run the local shows. I would do what I could; post flyer’s, give out hand-bills, be door bitch (which I will never do again), help bands load in/out, and just try to make friends. During all of this, I never once tried to learn a instrument. I’ve never really understood why I have always focused on the behind the scenes aspect of the music industry. Usually everyone wants to be the rockstar but except for a year in gr.5, I have always wanted to be the guy running shows, doing sound, being a roadie, selling merch. This is an idea that is still with me to this day, I still sell merch, be a roadie, help run shows and do stuff behind the scenes. In fact, tomorrow (or i guess today) I am heading down to Toronto to pick up 500 7inch vinyl albums that I helped finance for the band Acid Party. I spent a large sum of money (well large to me) to put out other people’s music and I’m not even doing it for money.

I know, everyone says they are never in it for the money, they are in it for the music and it’s usually a lie but this is different. I truly don’t care to make money on this, I don’t care if I end up just breaking even or making a load of cash or even loosing out. I just wanted to get music, music that I love, out to people. I wanted people to enjoy this band as much as I do on the only true tangible media format in music. If we break even, that money goes right back into another release and so on until it just doesn’t feel right anymore. Along time ago someone decided that music was more business then art and we have been paying (both literally and figuratively) for that decision.

I’m not even sure anymore where I was going with this entire speech but in the end I just needed to write down my musical evolution. Everyday I think about picking up the guitar in my room and trying to learn something new or turning on my synth and fooling around. Yet, everyday I do not and instead of spend it listening to others music and figuring out ways to be part of the industry from the background. It’s not that I don’t want to have a musical piece to call me own, its that I find I get more enjoyment from others music, from their art, then I would ever get from my own.