I Just Wasn't Made for these Genres

As you may recall, I often wonder why I get such little satisfaction out of one of my major hobbies, recording music.

I think I stumbled upon the answer this week. The truth is, at the end of the day, Pop/Rock is not really the avenue that I'm wired up for. When I look at my past, the first pop music I got into was the Beatles, and that was deep into high school, really. The first pop CDs I ever got were OK Computer and the Byrds Singles, I was 15.

Before that, I listened mostly to classical music, and the radio, of course. And then in high school, while I kept up with popular music, I was really a jazz head. Going into college, I never thought of really making conventional pop music. Even in the midst of my first music collaboration with my cousin, I was always pushing the envelope, wanting to add Indian drones and stuff to my cousin's songs that really didn't need an Indian drone.

I guess that getting majorly into Weezer and then the Beach Boys pushed me towards pop? But I really think that may be the wrong avenue. The most satisfying stuff I've recorded was the Aeijtzsche & H Hitt Facktoree material in college with the inimitable Stephen Hunter.

That music is pretty out there, and I could do better today, I'm sure, especially with production. But I'll take the three sound collages we did then to any recent song. I still have a certain Mahavishnu Orchestra thing going on too, I can't approach the guitar properly to play pure pop.

I think I was lured by the promise of popularity and a big audience, which of course is a dream anyway. If I were to pursue my real muse, even if I was successful in that, it'd be a small following because it would be more challenging music. More instrumental at times, certainly. But I feel kind of lead to go down that road a little bit.

For those of you that really like my 2:00 pop songs, well, I'm sure those will still turn up. I'm really interested in collaboration also, with people who play exotic instruments better than I do. Also, I think I owe it to myself to take guitar lessons again. Too much on my plate...

So, let's see what happens.