I am usually someone who overthinks. And so, a tweet from @StonerJesus sent me down one of those rabbit holes.
I am a professional Twitter lurker, but here I was betraying my reputation.
Not doing any justice to the great question, but I found myself looking back at how the hell I ended up in this neck of the (music) woods.
Introduction to music
Music was always a background feature of my life. I used to listen to music in a part-lamp, part-radio thingy.
I originally used it to keep listening to cricket commentary, but when my hometown got a couple of FM channels, listening to songs filled in the gaps when there was no cricket to “listen” to.
Introduction to music appreciation
For a lot of us, our time in college hostels and dorms is a time of us being exposed to diverse people, their cultures, tastes and attitudes.
I entered college as a fan of slow, mellow, melody-heavy music – primarily the Bollywood music. Always skeptical of rock and heavier forms of music.
One memory that stands out probably marked the beginning of my tryst with rock and subsequently blues music.
One afternoon, my friend “convinced” me the skeptic to listen to Time by Pink Floyd. (I think I was a music bigot based on how he had to convince me to give 7 minutes of my life to a new song).
I listened to this song on crappy speakers on a Nokia E series phone.
And yet here I was – not able to get the lyrics out of my head. And the first time that I learned of this concept called a guitar solo.
Blackstratblues and Soulmate
After Time, I was hooked to classic rock and the sounds of the 60s and 70s. Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix et al became staple music for me.
Then, a friend who himself played guitar, introduced me to Blackstratblues and Soulmate – two independent bands from India.
Soulmate was an out-and-out blues band, but Blackstratblues was more like rock, even though they had blues in the name.
I was stunned to find this music coming out from India. This was my first introduction to alternative/independent (for the lack of better words) music from India.
Since then, I’ve listened to, and enjoyed, multiple bands, both live and otherwise. But these two are probably going to be my all-time favorites forever.
Not having lived in a big city until after I graduated from college, I leapt at the chance to go to concerts after moving. In the 6 years since graduation, life has taken me to cities in various countries, and I have caught a band playing live in almost all those cities.
A Man And The Blues
One of these nights, I was winding down a week my flatmates. Under no influence, we were listening to Pink Floyd. Specifically, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, I think.
Inexplicably (since I was under no influence), I recognized similarities in Pink Floyd and the blues songs I’d begun to like. The over-analyzing idiot I am, I found out how blues is the bedrock of all things rock.
I think it was also around the same time that I heard this gem of an advice from Blackstratblues’ Warren Mendonsa. He said something to the effect of, find artists and music who influence your favorite ones, and you’ll find more music to love.
That set me on the path of listening to music that influenced Pink Floyd, Blackstratblues, Beatles. And I came to rock, rock and roll, blues, jazz and everything in between.
I have since been listening to music from the 20s to music from the 70s and 80s. And my life has been so much more wholesome because of it.
I am at my happiest, content-with-my-life, when I am listening to an album from start to end, with my phone on silent and nothing else to distract me.
That is also why I have started collecting vinyls from my trips abroad, but that is a story for another day.
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