Exposing myself for my 500th post
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 7:51 amI thought for my 500th post I would share something personal and maybe even downright embarrassing…what the hell!
25 years ago I was a punk-ass teenager living in a remote coal mining/industrial town in backwater Nova Scotia. Today, with the internet, cheap air travel and the globalization of the world economy, it is hard to even imagine the isolation I felt growing up then and there. My brother and I often dreamt of wild plans as to how we would escape one day.
My brother and I were always close, and we shared a love of synthpop. It’s a long story, but we came to “acquire” a couple of low, low, low end keyboards in the early 80’s. Although we had no musical training (or talent!) we started writing our own songs on these tinny “instruments”…it was part of the whole fantasy of escaping our prison. We shared a lot of laughs and never took it too seriously.
Then one day my brother became very ill. He had cancer. He battled it for a good 6 years before he passed away, on Christmas day, just before his 19th birthday. In those last few years, when he was bed-ridden and couldn’t see well, goofing around on a keyboard was one of the few things we could really do together. It brought him a little happiness and a few moments right out of a Michael Landon production.
Attached is a snippet out of one of our songs, recorded live to cassette tape with my brother on a Casio, me on a Yamaha and singing (if you can call it that!). Don’t expect too much…we were not Georgie Rockwood after all. I’m sharing it with you guys not because it is good, but as a tribute to my little bro (hey, it’s Remembrance Day to boot!).
http://www.zshare.net/audio/48410458732630/
The One That I Love
I do think it is pretty amazing that synthpop music of that era brought so much joy into our lives, and created remarkably happy memories for me during such dark days. This is not to mention how it encouraged a couple of shiftless youths in a backwater town to experiment with creating music, regardless of the end product. One thing is for sure, these simplistic efforts of ours gave me a whole new appreciation for good music.
Cheers,
zill
PS Feel free to have a laugh at the song, we always had fun with it!
25 years ago I was a punk-ass teenager living in a remote coal mining/industrial town in backwater Nova Scotia. Today, with the internet, cheap air travel and the globalization of the world economy, it is hard to even imagine the isolation I felt growing up then and there. My brother and I often dreamt of wild plans as to how we would escape one day.
My brother and I were always close, and we shared a love of synthpop. It’s a long story, but we came to “acquire” a couple of low, low, low end keyboards in the early 80’s. Although we had no musical training (or talent!) we started writing our own songs on these tinny “instruments”…it was part of the whole fantasy of escaping our prison. We shared a lot of laughs and never took it too seriously.
Then one day my brother became very ill. He had cancer. He battled it for a good 6 years before he passed away, on Christmas day, just before his 19th birthday. In those last few years, when he was bed-ridden and couldn’t see well, goofing around on a keyboard was one of the few things we could really do together. It brought him a little happiness and a few moments right out of a Michael Landon production.
Attached is a snippet out of one of our songs, recorded live to cassette tape with my brother on a Casio, me on a Yamaha and singing (if you can call it that!). Don’t expect too much…we were not Georgie Rockwood after all. I’m sharing it with you guys not because it is good, but as a tribute to my little bro (hey, it’s Remembrance Day to boot!).
http://www.zshare.net/audio/48410458732630/
The One That I Love
I do think it is pretty amazing that synthpop music of that era brought so much joy into our lives, and created remarkably happy memories for me during such dark days. This is not to mention how it encouraged a couple of shiftless youths in a backwater town to experiment with creating music, regardless of the end product. One thing is for sure, these simplistic efforts of ours gave me a whole new appreciation for good music.
Cheers,
zill
PS Feel free to have a laugh at the song, we always had fun with it!