Diario → the soundtrack of our lives

People sometimes are baffled by what I listen to sometimes. Wondering how I arrived at what I enjoy listening to now. It's all over the map. Two things happened that freed me up from my hair metal/hip hop daze: grunge and art school. I don't think I really began to listen to music, really listen till college. One could relay it to being born again. I grew up in a rural wasteland in the early nineties. Through some freakish accident, 'grunge' hit at the right time and set me on the path of obscure. The underground was starting to leak in to the sticks. It wasn't enough to just listen to the Pixies, Nirvana and or Pavement. No, I wanted to seek out the influences. I had never heard anything like Wave of Destruction before. It was a struggle to find anything like it in my hometown. Where Garth Brooks and Boys II Men ruled the racks.

Fortunately, I moved to a town that was flush with great record shops and a kick ass library system that stocked everything from Brainiac to the X. It really took hold after a teacher had given me the encouragement to take an hour. Once a week or in between classes and haunt the library. It was meant to look through artists and design books but I also checked out music.. and film. Obsessing over it. Ingesting it. It's gotten to the point where I can pick out influences and (stolen) riffs. It enriches the whole experience for me. Comforting in a way. It's always a thrill when I discover a new favorite for the first time. A lot of the ones I enjoyed the most never really hit it big. Truly a music nerd for life.