Music can be so much
more than a cool beat or a sick drop. It can be the difference between life or
death for some, or an influence on an important life decision for another. A song
to one person can mean something completely different to another person. Music
speaks to us. We don’t always choose how it speaks to us, but there always
seems to be that one song that truly calls to us. We all have that one song we
go to when nothing seems to be going right. That one song, soft and mellow or
fast and upbeat, always seems to turn your mood around or give you that extra
push you need. Or that one song that you can’t help but want to dance to. No
matter where you are, you can’t stop yourself from squirming in your seat or
tapping your feet. Music is an amazing thing. A therapy you can always turn to.
A friend that will always be there to tell you what you need to hear. Our lives
wouldn’t be the same without the music around us…
This time, I'm trying something different. I’m not
writing this entry on my own. I’ve collected experiences from friends and
producers about how music has impacted their lives and how they use music to
impact those around them. Not only will you read their experiences, but mine
also. Per the request of the participants, personal experiences will remain
anonymous…
“Welllll once upon a time I drank an entire bottle of whiskey
and drove through a canyon at 90 miles an hour, hoping for the worst, and if I
wasn't dead by the time I got to a pre-planned point in the canyon, I was going
to crank my wheel off of a ledge, clipping the end of a guard rail and spiral
into a ravine. But five miles before the point, "Amber" by Stick To
Your Guns came on shuffle.
[I] pulled
off into [the] gravel. Sat and bawled for hours until I sobered up, [and] drove
home in the morning.
I
essentially wouldn't be alive if it weren't for that song. And now every time I
hear it, I'm reminded of how I deserve to be here, and I'm not the only one
who's going through shit.”
“As I was laying in my room bawling, I thought of all the
wrong in my life. All the mistakes, all the hurt, pain, and tears. I was done.
I didn't want to be around anymore. I thought, “what's the point?” There are so
many other people out there in the world. It's not like anyone will miss just
one person. I don't make any difference. Of course like any dramatic moment,
like in movies, music was playing in the background just making me go into a
deeper thought of my life and all the bad. All the sudden a song came on, “You
Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban. Right then I realized all of the people, memories,
sadness and happiness, and mistakes in my life as well. But instead of looking
at it negatively, I thought of who it’s made me become today. How strong it
really has made me. How it has brought me closer to other people that needed to
be in my life, and away from people not as needed. Everything and everyone
makes an impact on you. They all can bring you down, but at some point you'll
have to be raised up. [It] made me notice, if I didn't have [the] bad in my
life, I wouldn't have noticed the good. And one day, I hope to make an
impact on other’s lives as they do mine, positively.”
“I thought I had fallen in love with him. He was all I could
ever think about. Day and night, he was on my mind. I couldn’t get over the way
he made me feel when he talked to me, or even just smiled at me as I walked
past him on campus. How could someone so perfect be so imperfect for me? He
broke my heart, and I couldn’t accept it. Around him, I pretended like everything
was just dandy. I pretended like nothing had changed, when in reality, I’d cry
every time I left his home or dropped him off. It killed me inside to know what
we used to be was no longer anything to him.
One day, after dropping him off at home, I came home and
started drinking. Drinking had always seemed to numb the pain I felt inside,
especially heartache. I had the music on my phone cranked and I bawled as I
chugged bottle after bottle. Why wasn’t I good enough for him? Why couldn’t he
feel the way he once did? In the middle of my emotional breakdown, “Wasting All
These Tears” by Cassadee Pope came on over my speakers. It was like a movie
scene now that I look back at it. The first line of the song “I tried to find
you at the bottom of a bottle” couldn’t describe what was happening any better.
I looked at the empty bottles on the floor around me. Was he really worth this?
The way I handled the situation was hurting me more than losing
him was. I was wasting all my tears on a guy that was never truly worth it in
the first place. Yeah, we had some good times, but I missed out on so many
other opportunities and good guys because I wasn’t myself and I couldn’t move
on. This song helped me realize I was doing nothing more than wasting my tears.”
“Music has always impacted me in one way or another, but
there is one night and one song, that will forever stick out in my mind. About
a month or so, I noticed some concerning posts on my friend’s page while I was
watching a movie at a friend’s. He talked about how he wasn’t worth it and he
made comments about how nobody would miss him if he was gone. I panicked. I
sent countless texts, doing anything I could to make him believe how amazing he
is and how much I value our friendship. This went on for nearly an hour without
any response on his end.
On the verge of losing it emotionally, I got up and left the
movie. I couldn’t find back the tears anymore. I ran to the car, tears swelling
in my eyes. I got in my car, cranked the radio, and drove. I did what I do
anytime I’m upset. I picked a road and followed it. I didn’t care where it took
me, I just had to get away. The road I happened to take this time took me into
the canyon. I was bawling by now, so my vision wasn’t the best. I realize now
that I shouldn’t have been driving, but at the time, I could’ve cared last. I didn’t
realize how fast I was going, I was taking turns in the canyon at 75-80 mph.
Turns that shouldn’t be taken at more than 45 mph seemed to be little curves in
the road to me now. If my friend couldn’t handle this fucked up world, how
could I? I’ve always looked up to him for his strength while everything crashed
down around him. But now, he’d given up. How could I do this on my own? Just as
I was approaching a sharp turn in the road near a ledge, “Keep Holding On” by
Avril Lavigne started playing on my phone. I slammed down on the breaks of the
car. As the car was trying to stop, I hit a small patch of ice in the road. The
car slid out and went off the road, just before the curve in the road. I put
the car in park, and I just started screaming. I was sobbing and screaming like
never before. At this point, I was out of the car, kneeling on the ground. I
just sat there and cried for what seemed like hours. I was alive.
Who knows
what would have happened if this song hadn’t had come on. I might’ve been fine,
but I also could’ve hit the ice just right at 70+ mph and gone off the road.
This song made me realize that I can’t give up. I need to keep pushing through,
and my friend would make it through this as long as I stayed by his side. If I
gave up, what would that tell him?”
I also had a
chance to talk to some producers I know about their music and how they feel it
impacts the people that listen to their work. Here’s what they had to say…
“Writing and listening to music always seems to calm me down,
no matter how crazy life gets. I can just put on my headphones and tune out all
of the negativity going on around me, and be calm.
I like
to make music to make people happy. Everyone has to deal with problems in their
life, but if I can provide them with some joy in their day, that makes it all
worth it for me.” (Decadon)
“Believe it or not, music is the easiest way to express emotion.
It is the most universal AND the easiest way to communicate with someone else.
Almost every #1 song on the charts since the 1970s has had hand claps in them.
Why? Because it is the easiest way to involve someone else in your art.
My parents had always emphasized
music during my childhood, they had always pushed me towards studying it more
than the regular school subjects. When you have the discipline and the drive to
practice scales for hours a day, those skills are transferable. It's a
discipline. As someone who makes their living off of composing music for others
to listen to, it doesn't impact me in the same way it would someone who
doesn't, but it makes it easy to empathize from an outside perspective. There
are many way we subconsciously discern the emotion from music rather than the
lyrics on the page: the beat or time signature (is it danceable?), the tempo
(how fast is it?), the key signature or mode (Major, minor, lydian, etc). Want
to know how I'm feeling? Listen to my iTunes playlist.
My career in the music industry is
three part. The first part is a film composer. I have scored music for movies
all around the world and have worked with every major film composer that is
still alive today. The late Jerry Goldsmith said, above all, film composers
need to be good dramatists. Watching a movie without the music is literally the
most boring thing ever, film composers play the characters, what they're
feeling, what they're doing, where they are, what they will do next; they bring
the story to
life.
The second part of my career in the
music industry is owner/founder of SIM Sound Music Group, which is a company
that protects musician’s rights as artists by representing them as their label,
publisher, and manager. I use my skills as a business-man to collaborate with
other companies throughout the United States and represent artists on their
behalf.
The third part of my music career is as
a producer/songwriter. The best way to explain A&R and performing artists
is like Cinderella and her slipper. When you write a song, it may not end up
being your own, you may end up selling it off to another artist. Every song has
the perfect performer to sing it. The best part of being a producer is when
you're working with an artist and you write the song together. Your job is to
help them make their dream come alive, and it's amazing to create art with
someone else. You really get to know them on an intimate level.
All in all, music is integrated into
everything we do. Your heart beats in rhythm, you speak with inflections, and
everything makes a sound. A great mentor of mine once said, "you're only
worth what you give away," it's my job to give away everything I have and
to serve everyone around me, as far as my arms will reach.” (Simon Jay)
Now you have
it. Music makes some of us who we are. It represents what we stand for and
impacts us emotionally, mentally, and physically. For some, music is the only
thing that has kept them alive and well. Next time you hear a song that stands
out to you, listen to the lyrics a little more. See how they make you feel. How
do they speak to you? Let the song be your own personal therapy session…who
knows, you might just find the answer you’re looking for…
