Thursday, March 6, 2008

Three Albums I Want to Write

Music is rooted deeply in my heart. The emotion it stirs, the stories it tells and the truth it declares all keep me coming back. There are three albums I would like to record in my lifetime that depict all of these aspects.

The first will be called "Inkblot." I want this to capture the reality of emotional experience everyone has. In the spirit of David Wilcox's song "Leave It Like It Is" I hope that inkblot will allow people to see that emotion just is and is experienced by everyone.

The second will be called "Shades and Values." When I was in high school art class we did value drawings that resembled a very pixelated image. That exercise taught me that the closer you look at anything what you actually see are shades and values of colors and tones which make up this world in which we live. This album will try to pixelate the core values of life to create a meaningful portrait worth listening to time and time again.

The third will be called "Storyline." Recently, I saw the movie "Into the Wild" which is base on the book by the same title by Jon Krakauer recounting the final years of a young man named Chris McCandless. Sean Penn who directed the movie did an incredible job visually and artistically expressing the story Jon had written. What struck me was that Chris was able to tell his story through the trail of influence, passion and adventure along with a journal to declare what he was learning along the way. What I would like to leave is this two lens perspective on life, telling the storyline that I experience and have it interpreted in reality by the lives that I have the opportunity to influence.

Don't look for these albums to be released any time soon, but realize that your life is writing the music that others will listen to. Will they learn from it, come back to it and be changed for the better because of it or will they throw it on the clearance rack to be sold for 2.99 to the next poor soul who has the misfortune of wasting time they will never get back by listening. I hope and pray that mine is the former.

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