Musix has always been an important topic to me. From a very young age I remember obsessing over the LPs my parents had. Reading all of the album notes, paying attention to who the engineers were, who the producers were, who played on which tracks and who all of them thanked. Before I started buying albums on my own, I would dig through my parent's collection of music.
My mother listened to a lot of folk music, but I don't remember her listening to the more popular artists...She didn't have any Bob Dylan or Joanie Baiez that I recall...But the Chad Mitchell Trio were definitely a favorite. Dad had very different musi9cal selection. The Beatles, Abba, The Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack...We went to dinner theatre a bit with Dad. I remember going to see 1776 more than once, and listening to the soundtrack when we traveled. Neither were particularly into the counter culture that would become such a huge part of my life later on. Not a huge amount of variety now that I think about it. Mom sang a lot of hymmns and nursery songs when I was very little. But before Middle school, those were my options.
In Middle school, my older brother started bring the undesirables home. When I first heard punk rock, there was something about the speed, the aggression, and frankly the DC musical scene had been firing on all cylinders at that point. So, not only was I being introduced to new music for my trusty-dusty walkman, but suddenly I could go see shows and get some of the anger out. Then, one day while skipping school in my freshmen year, I heard Skinny Puppy and everything changed.
quickly.
I had heard Skinny Puppy on one of the many tapes of my brother's radio show, (he had a show at his college radio station) but on this particular day, a friend of my other brother's played ViviSectVi on some amazing speakkers. I sat and listened through the entire thing. I remember listening to "Punk In Park Zoo" and being utterly baffled that music could sound like that. I couldn't even fathom how it was made. I only knew this was incredible beyond belief. I needed more of this industrial. Ministry came to me next. Coil, too. Then, when I was sixteen I went to Ohio to visit a friend and saw a show that would change my life forever. In several ways.