Why I Play Music
We here at Eight Track Mind.net want to bring you more than just another band website. We have contacted almost every single musician we know from all walks of life and styles of music and have asked them to contribute writings to an anthology of sorts. We call it "Why I Play Music". The goal of this piece is to give you, the casual reader, some insight into what makes us "musicians" click. Every few weeks we will be adding more stories from musicians.
I am not good looking. I don't have a lot of money. I don't have a very interesting job. I wasn't cool in high school. I'm no good at sports. My eyesight is poor. I have no skills with girls. I'm not really smart. I didn't learn a whole lot in college. I don't shower every day. I'm overweight and a glutton. The armpits of all my shirts are permanently yellow with sweat stains.
I play music because if you're in a band people are suddenly happy to ignore all of those things. Someone gives you a cool nickname and it sticks. Everyone knows you. People call your name out at shows and buy you beer. They clap for you, whistle, hoot, and holler. They want to ask you questions about yourself. Suddenly you're interesting, mysterious, and cool. Why? Because you play music.
Pappi Feducci
Songwriter for The Black Hand
12.09.04
Pappi Feducci is currently on hiatus from his full time job as a alt-country-rock star.
Why I Play Music
It takes a certain level of self-awareness to think you have enough talent to show other people your skills. Somewhere along the line you have to say to yourself, "I'm good at this. Other people should see what I can do. People actually might have interest in watching me do it." This reigns true for most any artistic endeavor, whether it be playing music, writing, acting, producing, drawing, painting, dancing, etc.
My first real musical memory is more a conglomerate of three memories. The first was when two of my friends and I put on a KISS concert in first grade for our class. We took wooden blocks and drew guitar strings and buttons on them, spray painted a KISS banner to hang behind us (fully aware of 'stage presence' even at that age), brought in a tape recorder with 2 songs on it and proceeded to lip sing in front of about 60 of our fellow students, in full KISS makeup. The following year we did the same for the Doors. I remember my friend Matt playing a wood block replicating the saxophone solo on "Touch Me". The third memory consists of sitting in my brothers' bedroom playing the intro to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" about 250 times in a row. "I am Iron Man!" For some reason I was fascinated with the effect on Ozzy's voice. I think I played the tape so much it warped.
At the age of 14 I bought my first guitar and things were immediately on the move. I had spent the previous years putting on fake concerts in my bedroom to live albums, pretending to be lead singer and guitar player while prancing around the room doing my best Eddie Van Halen. Because of this I actually developed a good sense of musical timing and structure. I knew how to move my fingers on the fake wood block/guitar in exact time with the music. A friend of my brother had given me some initial guitar lessons a few years earlier, which helped, but I wasn't ready for lessons. I just wanted to hear him put his distortion pedal on 10 and play Judas Priest songs.
For the next 5 years I formed and played in three different bands-all during high school. We put on concerts at the local firehouses, parks, and auditoriums. For a small, suburban, New Jersey town, we kicked ass. There was actually one point where there were five full-out bands in our high school. It was at one of the early benefit shows at the school auditorium that I realized something that still is one of the few factors I actually hate about playing music: competition.
I have never played music to be better than the guy playing next to me. If anything, I feed off the guy next to me—especially if he's better or doing something more interesting than me. The concept of a Battle of the Bands basically is the anti-thesis of what I stand for musically: MUSIC IS NOT A COMPETITION. There are no winners or losers (well, maybe some losers) when it comes to music. It's a subjective art form, like most art forms. There isn't one contract out there, or one fan, or one label, or one radio station. Millions of people listen to music and no two have the exact same taste.
I will admit that I don't think like most musicians do, but I know how musicians think. There is a great joke I heard a while back that goes, "how many guitar players does it take to screw in a light bulb?" The answer? "50. One to do it, and 49 to say 'I can do that'" How true that is. Why can't musicians, including myself, look at other musicians without comparing themselves to them? Is this why so many bands seem bitter when playing gigs with bands they don't know? Is that why they spend sound check making sure the drummer isn't better than their drummer? Singer isn't better than their singer? I have always tried to judge an artist on the basics: do I like what they are doing? I could care less if the guitar player has a doctorate from Julliard or the drummer is Miles Davis second cousin. Would you rather hear Yngwie Malmsteen play guitar like he's on crack with no soul or Santana hold one note for 30 seconds with full-out passion?
For years my band spent most of its energy playing gigs, writing songs, and trying to "make it." What happened was simple: we forgot to have fun and let our inner creativity drive us. We spent too much time making music for other people to enjoy, all the while forgetting why we were playing in the first place. Now we did have what some call "artistic integrity." We never wrote "pop" songs and always tried to be as original as possible and a step ahead of our contemporaries. We didn't look at the Beastie Boys as what we wanted to become, we looked at them as peers. We might have been cocky to some, but like I mentioned earlier, it takes some level of cockiness to play music. After all, you're basically saying to people "watch and listen to me, I'm good."
Now that I don't play music for "other people" I feel as if I have been creatively liberated. I now play music for pure selfish reasons: my own enjoyment. Sure I want people to like what I do, and sure I respect others opinions. But where five years ago I might have lost my shit if someone said, "eh, I don't really dig that song", now I simply say, "thanks for being honest. I like the song. Sorry you don't." To me, creating the best music you want to create is the best part of making music in the first place. Whether you're a solo artist, producer, or a bass player in a 10-piece funk band, play for yourself and you will find it to be the most rewarding.
Steve Rubin
Eight Track Mind
12.02.04
Steve Rubin is the lead singer and guitar player for Eight Track Mind
