No Retreats, No Regrets

So, as you may or may not know, I'm headed to New York City next week. I'm going to find a job. Let's face it, the economy sucks. And as my dad's friend told me, my personality is what hooks people. So I've got to use it to my advantage. Rather than just send out resumes all over the place and wait for them to come to me, I'm going to them. And I'm going to keep going and going until I find what it is I want, and I get what I want. Sounds a little arrogant, but trust me, in this situation, its your attitude thats going to make the biggest difference...

In preparing for the upcoming interviews, I am counting on that one (or two) question/s (remember, I'm in the music industry), who did I get into music, or who influenced me music wise? I figure that in prepping my answer, I'll use this as my moment to let you in on why it is that I do what I do, and why I am so passionate about it.

Most people that I know within the industry got into music because of their upbringing. Most of the people that I actually ask this to are into somewhat the same style in music in me too, so that should also be taken into consideration. I'm used to getting answers like "I grew up listening to my dad's old Beatles records" or "My mom and dad were huge fans of Pink Floyd" or "there was always some Miles Davis or Billie Holliday playing at my house growing up." Seems fitting. It's kind of like that whole "nature v. nurture" debate. If you grow up listening to something, it should sort of stick with you, right? But what if you didnt grow up with it?

I didn't. In fact, growing up I would wake up every Saturday morning to my parents BLASTING the Mexican Mariachi group Los Trio, or my dad's extensive Yanni collection of records AND videos. In fact, the closest thing to rock n roll (or "good music" as I like to call it) is my dad singing The Doors' "Light my Fire" every birthday we celebrated at the house whenever we lit the birthday candles, and I had no idea what it was until years later! At the same time though, one of my best memories are when I would drive from El Paso to Chihuahua (in Mexico) with my dad on his business trips every couple of months and we would put Cher's "Still in Love With You" on repeat and we would both sing it at the top of our lungs in my dads beat up little white truck. Yeah, its Cher. But I am not embarassed to admit that she is one of my musical heroes (heroines??) I'm pretty sure that wasn't even a released single ever, but I knew every word to that song, and I would sing it like I was still in love with someone at the age of 8.

Unless it was traditional Mexican music (or Yanni/Enya), music in my house wasn't a big deal. So, my getting into music was by complete accident. In the summer of '96, Donna Lewis' song "I Love You Always Forever" was a huge hit. Now when I listen to it, I'm like 'what is this?' But I loved it, and with my allowance I had my mom drive me to Blockbuster Music where I bought my first music item... Donna Lewis' "Now In A Minute" CASSETTE TAPE, with that song on it. I remember asking my dad why the tape was called Now In A Minute if there wasnt even a song by that name, and he explained that an album is the title of the entire collection of songs recorded in it. There you have it... my first real music fact!! And a few years later, I bought my first CD- The Offsprings "Americana" because of that song "Pretty Fly For A White Guy". As soon as my parents saw the cd booklet inside with pictures of a kid with mutant limbs, they took me straight to Wal Mart and demanded that I get an exchange. I opted for N SYNCS debut self titled album. There began my boy band fanaticism.

The N Sync album didn't have the lyrics inside, so I sat for hours and hours listening to each song, puasing and playing after every three words, so that I could write them down. Eventually I had the words written and memorized (years later I found out I had heard the words wrong), and I still have that notebook with me. My love for "rock" music developed in high school when I began to hang out with friends of mine (Aryan and James!) that played the guitar and I started to find out about bands like The Goo Goo Dolls, The Foo Fighters, A.F.I, etc. *I must say though that I was still a huge pop fan with a huge obsession for BSB, NSYNC, Enrique Iglesias, and still Cher--- I snuck into her concert and watched her from the front row all by myself*

By the end of high school my KaZaA (I know...) had about 3,000 songs and my CD collection had grown to about 300 CDs. Living in El Paso, there isn't much of a music scene, so my new musical tastes came from the exact following way: I would go to CDnow.com and get all the song names from an artist I wanted to download on Kazaa, and then I would go to recommended artists, and download those, and so on. I was able to discover Sugarcult, MXPX, The Movielife and Pollyana that way. Senior year of high school I started to go to house parties where bands would play, or I would spend Saturday nights at Double Dave's Pizza where a local band from high school, Toast, would play. That's how I got into live music, but my friends werent as into it, so I never had a chance to go to shows. 

When I moved to California in 2003, it all changed. The first time I opened The Reader and went to the music section, I immediately called my friend Aryan and I perfectly remember saying something along the lines of "I can't believe it! Most of the bands on my computer are playing shows here! The Ataris, Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Something Corporate!!" I was absolutely in awe, but had no friends yet, so I had to miss those shows too...

Then, I met Ginger. I still consider her one of my best friends, and if it weren't for her, I probably wouldnt be where I am right now... working with her at Chevy's I found out we had the same musical tastes. We would swap CDs at work, and eventually we started going to shows together. She would stay with me til the end and we would meet the band, and take pictures, and buy merch. I think the summer we met, we were at a show about 2-3 a week, and we started going to music festivals and we continued to get more into the San Diego scene. If it weren't for her coming to those shows with me, I wouldn't have felt the need to keep searching for new music to show her, and never realized that my real passion was in fact the promotion of new music. *Ginger-- wait til I get a car finally, and wait til Eva Lily becomes a little rockstar, and everything will pick up right where we left it*

Three years after that, here I am, with two record label internships, one music management internship, and one booking job under my belt, and headed for the Big Leagues. Without really realizing it, I fell into this industry. My itunes collection now boasts 9,000+ songs and I still continue to buy CDs, and my most prized posession is my autographed Tom Petty "Hard Promises" Vinyl. I have written and am in the process of getting published, a Bruce Springsteen Rhetorical Criticism, and can beat most of my friends at music trivia. 

Ok, so I may not have grown up listening to Elvis Presley or Bob Dylan, but I'm 23 years old, and am unbelievably proud to say that I think I have made up for that by now, and actually today, listened to Bob Dylan's bootleg album "No Direction Home" while driving through town.. and probably being affected by his music just as much as the people who first heard him at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival were.