GOTTA DO WHAT’S IN MY HEART…

How do you love something that never loved you back? Easy…you don’t argue, don’t over-explain, just walk away and close the door.

That’s exactly what I did after the failure of my latest cd.

Also, not being accepted by the gatekeeping metal world forced me to re-think things. Do I still love heavy music? Absolutely. It’s in my DNA. But after years of hearing “I hate when you do that” and “Can’t you write something normal?”, it’s time to give up the ghost. Like Ricky Nelson once sang, “Can’t please everyone so you gotta please yourself.”

Been listening to Cory Wong/Vulfpeck, Mark Lettieri, High Fade and other funky acts as of late. Maybe it’s the pompous ass in me thinking “Yeah that’s where I belong” but my gut instinct is telling me “Yeah, that’s where you fit.” Even when I write heavy stuff, it has a swing and groove to it. As much as I love Iron Maiden and Slayer, I take my cues more from Living Colour and fusion acts like Tony Williams Lifetime and mid-70s Jeff Beck.

I’m not going to say I’m a funk expert at all. I cut my teeth in a funk-metal band in 1990, as well as my own music since 2003. Though some have told me “I don’t really hear funk in your music”, it’s there. Once in a while I throw in a Jimmy Nolan funk lick, or a Prince vibe. Oh and I played with TM Stevens, who seriously educated me. I thought I was funky then.

Nowhere close.

Will I go pure funk? Probably not. I still need doses of metal distortion in my diet. I could easily do a radical 180 and throw people way off-axis. (OH THAT WOULD BE SO MUCH FUN!) But I think my days of wanting to melt faces are over. I want to see smiling faces, people dancing, not just stand there and think “I hope he covers Metallica poorly.”

As I listen to this new Cory Wong album STARSHIP SYNCOPATION, I am taken aback by the purity of the guitar tones as well as the overt 70s disco/funk/R&B vibes. High Fade is a power trio (hmmm…) that has a guitarist who can turn his phrases on a dime (another hmmm…) Of course, when I chuck on Living Colour, that to me speaks volumes. Hearing them back in 1988 sent me over the edge, got me thinking “THIS is for me!” I said the same thing about thrash metal early on but I wasn’t cool enough to hang with the metal crowd even in high school.

Idiots.

So where is the music taking me? Right now, I am in NO rush at all to do anything. I have been writing a lot of demos since last September (even before my last cd came out…go figure) but listening to them now, they sound so trite and angry. I don’t like that. I have no problem tearing everything apart and starting over again. I’ve done it before. And sometimes the results were better. I have to do what’s in my heart, and if doing more funky music is the way to go, then fine.

There are plenty of metal bands doing it better than me anyway.

Too much competition anyway.

Still not cutting my hair though 🙂