Do you realize there is a story in every piece of music you listen to? Well….most anyway. Some of the modern music has become commercial bullshit and has lost its story line in favor of what’s popular. What’s trending. I know, I’m hateful, but I’ve never been a trend follower, preferring to be my own person. I do my own thing. And you should too. So think about this. Music, songs, they typically tell a story. A good poem that reaches the heart is a story of some sort.
I have always found writing outlets in music for my story demons. I played music for years, mostly heavy metal, playing the bass guitar, but I dabbled with keyboards once in a gothic band, and can play a little guitar, a little drums, and even tried to play cello (ugh). Bottom line is, I’m a bass player at heart, and can play enough guitar to be dangerous. That said, the bands I prefer to play in, were ORIGINAL music bands. Oh sure, I did my fair share of playing in cover bands, but it didn’t hold the magic that writing and playing, and performing your own material did. And that’s the rub, the performing part. Because it’s yours! Your creation. You wrote it, you play it, and you perform it, the way you feel it. I helped write and release several albums through the years, I played in a heavy metal band called Verbal Narcotic, that I founded in early 2000, that became a very popular underground metal band and we released three amazing albums, World of Corruption, Blind Aggression, and Dead Heaven. I helped write much of the music. I played in a gothic band called V prior to that and we released two, much more obscure albums, called Shadows, and Faces, which I helped write, though had much less involvement in the process, but did have some input. Then most recently, my friend and I developed a viking project called Trip the Gray Line, and released an album called Viking Revolution, which is currently out on Spotify and many streaming outlets, and most of the songs were written by me. But here’s the other thing, not all were. My co-conspirators in each of these projects were all talented writers and world creators on their own. I didn’t do it alone, we did it together. Surround yourself with like minded people. Bounce ideas.
The point is, the reason I was so obsessed with music, is because it was a writing outlet. A creative outlet. As a writer, look for those outlets for yourself. Offer to write song lyrics, or try your hand at poetry. You might surprise yourself and find a whole niche you didn’t know you needed…
