Post by Jeremy Baker on Dec 29, 2007 1:21:20 GMT -5
Mmkay so my earliest recollections of music are with my father, James Baker. From the time i could crawl he had me listening to bands like AC/DC, Sabbath, Ozzy, Styx and Guns n' Roses. I used to love these bands with all my heart, i can remember pickin up my toy guitar and doin all the stage moves of Angus Young and watching "Killroy Was Here" over and over again.
As the Nineties came around my dads tastes changed and mine along with his. Soon we were listening to bands like Green Day, the B-52's, Soundgarden, Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers, Counting Crows and Jackyl.
On my 7th Birthday I remember getting my first guitar. It had the amp built right into the body of the guitar and weighed a ton! Back then i wanted to be a rockstar, but had niether the resources or motivation to teach myself so soon afterwards i gave up and never touched the thing again.
Not long after that my mom and dad got a divorce. My mom won the custody battle and i only got to see my dad 4 days a month. This took a toll on our relationship that has never been truly fixed to this day. With the lack of my fathers influence and my mom listening to stuff like the BeeGees and ABBA I fell out of love with music altogether.
It wasnt until 1999 when I discovered Limp Bizkit that I ever gave a crap about music at all. Looking back now i realize that Limp Bizkit was just Fred Durst's way of Exploiting the Angst of teens, but i was an angsty teen and the album "Significant Other" really spoke to me. Suddenly I was curious and lucky for me my mom started dating Ron Straley, local metal head and drummer.
Ron burnt my mom any cd she wanted and simultaneously turned her onto the metal acts of the new millenium. After taking a dangerous liking to rap music such as Ludacris and Eminem, This was the first time that me and my mother really shared musical interests. Ron also started introducing me to bands like Korn and Linkin Park. At the time these bands were the heaviest thing I had ever heard and I found emotional release in them.
Then one day I was watching Mtv after school and this band comes on, theyre a fairly new band with only one other album out and a cult following named System of a Down. Their breakout single "Chop Suey!" was aired every day and I made sure to catch it daily. On a whim that Christmas I decided i wanted the album. This would be the first actual album I either purchased or had purchased for me since Greenday's Nimrod album.
Ironically the man who introduced me to music in the first place, my father was the one to buy me the cd. At first ill admit, other than "Chop Suey!" I really didnt like the album. It was loud, abrasive and obnoxious, but something about it kept drawing me in and soon it was in my cd rotation non-stop. My love for SOAD was definately a turning point, for the first time in years I honestly loved music. Soon afterwards I got Rage Against the Machine's "Battle for Los Angeles" and Slipknots "Iowa" my love for music was in full bloom once again. But being a musician? That still seemed like something that kids who had been playing since they could walk could do, not me.
But that all changed my sophmore year of high school when I met back up with a friend from junior high, Bobby Phillipps. I knew Bobby played and played well but i never actually saw the man play until i shared an advocacy class with him. He rocked my socks every Thursday and just days after the release of Systems "Mezmerize" he was tearing thru its tracklist like butter.
I was amazed. How could this guy, this average joe, play my favorite tunes with ease? Thats when I started thinking "Well if Bobby can do it, What is stopping me?" I started bumming guitars off of friends until that summer when I was able to buy my first real guitar, a Behringer Vtone guitar and amp combo.
I remember slowly finding my way thru the chorus for "Aerials" and Slipknots song "Before I Forget" out on my back portch every night after work. I practiced every day rain or shine and realized that while guitar was something that took alot of effort, it wasnt at all impossible like I had once thought.
After a year and a half of non-stop practice, failed bands and a constant need to be better than I was yesterday, here I am. Im playing rythm to a man who can be called nothing less than my idol and im loving every second of it. Today I listen to everything from Dimmu Borgir to the Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
My sound is a very thick and crunchy Nu-Metal sound but since ive been in this band ive been forced to try new things every day and i love it.
I find it Ironic that as I write this, im listening to the band that single handedly reinvigorated my love for music, System of a Down. Just thought that was an interesting side note
I hope this has given u some insight into me and my history with music. Seems how its something that I dont talk about a whole lot, and most of all I hope its been interesting for you, the Reader, cause if it hasnt been... then ive wasted my time ;D
As the Nineties came around my dads tastes changed and mine along with his. Soon we were listening to bands like Green Day, the B-52's, Soundgarden, Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers, Counting Crows and Jackyl.
On my 7th Birthday I remember getting my first guitar. It had the amp built right into the body of the guitar and weighed a ton! Back then i wanted to be a rockstar, but had niether the resources or motivation to teach myself so soon afterwards i gave up and never touched the thing again.
Not long after that my mom and dad got a divorce. My mom won the custody battle and i only got to see my dad 4 days a month. This took a toll on our relationship that has never been truly fixed to this day. With the lack of my fathers influence and my mom listening to stuff like the BeeGees and ABBA I fell out of love with music altogether.
It wasnt until 1999 when I discovered Limp Bizkit that I ever gave a crap about music at all. Looking back now i realize that Limp Bizkit was just Fred Durst's way of Exploiting the Angst of teens, but i was an angsty teen and the album "Significant Other" really spoke to me. Suddenly I was curious and lucky for me my mom started dating Ron Straley, local metal head and drummer.
Ron burnt my mom any cd she wanted and simultaneously turned her onto the metal acts of the new millenium. After taking a dangerous liking to rap music such as Ludacris and Eminem, This was the first time that me and my mother really shared musical interests. Ron also started introducing me to bands like Korn and Linkin Park. At the time these bands were the heaviest thing I had ever heard and I found emotional release in them.
Then one day I was watching Mtv after school and this band comes on, theyre a fairly new band with only one other album out and a cult following named System of a Down. Their breakout single "Chop Suey!" was aired every day and I made sure to catch it daily. On a whim that Christmas I decided i wanted the album. This would be the first actual album I either purchased or had purchased for me since Greenday's Nimrod album.
Ironically the man who introduced me to music in the first place, my father was the one to buy me the cd. At first ill admit, other than "Chop Suey!" I really didnt like the album. It was loud, abrasive and obnoxious, but something about it kept drawing me in and soon it was in my cd rotation non-stop. My love for SOAD was definately a turning point, for the first time in years I honestly loved music. Soon afterwards I got Rage Against the Machine's "Battle for Los Angeles" and Slipknots "Iowa" my love for music was in full bloom once again. But being a musician? That still seemed like something that kids who had been playing since they could walk could do, not me.
But that all changed my sophmore year of high school when I met back up with a friend from junior high, Bobby Phillipps. I knew Bobby played and played well but i never actually saw the man play until i shared an advocacy class with him. He rocked my socks every Thursday and just days after the release of Systems "Mezmerize" he was tearing thru its tracklist like butter.
I was amazed. How could this guy, this average joe, play my favorite tunes with ease? Thats when I started thinking "Well if Bobby can do it, What is stopping me?" I started bumming guitars off of friends until that summer when I was able to buy my first real guitar, a Behringer Vtone guitar and amp combo.
I remember slowly finding my way thru the chorus for "Aerials" and Slipknots song "Before I Forget" out on my back portch every night after work. I practiced every day rain or shine and realized that while guitar was something that took alot of effort, it wasnt at all impossible like I had once thought.
After a year and a half of non-stop practice, failed bands and a constant need to be better than I was yesterday, here I am. Im playing rythm to a man who can be called nothing less than my idol and im loving every second of it. Today I listen to everything from Dimmu Borgir to the Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
My sound is a very thick and crunchy Nu-Metal sound but since ive been in this band ive been forced to try new things every day and i love it.
I find it Ironic that as I write this, im listening to the band that single handedly reinvigorated my love for music, System of a Down. Just thought that was an interesting side note
I hope this has given u some insight into me and my history with music. Seems how its something that I dont talk about a whole lot, and most of all I hope its been interesting for you, the Reader, cause if it hasnt been... then ive wasted my time ;D