Tuesday 29 August 2017

My Earliest Influences

So it's been about 2 months since my last blog post. During that time I've holidayed with my family in Europe, I've played a live gig with my old band as a 20 year reunion and now I'm learning to video edit the footage of that gig into something presentable.


In between all this, I'm doing some music here and there. I'm playing with everything from more Djent, to 1970's style recording and Nine Inch Nails industrial soundscapes.

Growing Up - My Parents Albums

While I was visiting my mum in Malta, she showed me the collection of albums I used to listen to as a kid. At the time I would have been around 10 years old and living in semi-rural Sydney on acreage. I would play these on a small portable record player at full volume in a tin shed, playing air guitar and singing my heart out!

Led Zeppelin IV - This album started it all for me! Jimmy Page would make me want to start playing guitar and would influence the way I play for decades after I first heard this album. John Bonham's drumming would stay with me as I continued to look for quirky time signatures and rhythms in what I played.

These albums were my mum's and although she didn't still have it - I listened to Jimi Hendrix Are you Experienced and Santana Amigos for days on end. Both amazing guitarists and again huge influences on my playing. 

These next three were my Dad's collection. These were all the #1's from The Beatles, so it was a good mix of their songs. Their writing got more complicated in the later albums and I really thrived off some of that weirdness Strawberry Fields and melancholy like Eleanor Rigby.

 
And these guys also influenced me heaps - again, lots of guitar. These accomplished musicians would feed my desire to play guitar in more than just distorted rhythms in 4/4. I never really learned to play acoustic to these levels of skill, but the harmonies and melodies would stay with me a lifetime.

The Teenage Years

At first I was a huge Van Halen, U2 and Guns n Roses fan. But I cut my teeth as a teenage guitarist soloing along to Pink Floyd Delicate Sound of Thunder and Led Zeppelin IV. Sadly, only recently did acquire a great admiration for early Black Sabbath.

Only on my trip to Europe this year, while watching the Syd Barrett documentary, did I realise how much of an influence David Gilmour was on my soloing style.

My Twenties and In The Band


So when you're in a Doom Death metal band, you're gonna start listening to a variety of styles and influences in metal. The list would be huge, but the ones I still remember are: Type O Negative, Sepultura, Cynic, Paradise Lost, Testament, Entombed, Pantera, Metallica, Anathema and Therion.

Bands like Korn, Deftones, Tool, Rage Against The Machine, A Perfect Circle, Rob Zombie, Monster Magnet, The Mars Volta, System Of A Down, Filter and Nine Inch Nails would come later, by which time I would have returned to Australia and stopped playing guitar - but in hindsight influenced me just the same.


Fast Forward to Today

So some of those mentioned would stay with me for decades. If I was to call out my top favorite bands, they would be (in no particular order)
  • Type O Negative
  • Tool
  • Deftones
  • Nine Inch Nails
  • The Mars Volta
To be honest, I love listening to these bands but I am still influenced by anything that I hear. As I get into more Djent - listening to bits and pieces of Meshuggah, Mastodon and Periphery - I expect to see my guitar style change again and hopefully morph into something unusual and unique.

See you on the flip-side!