Visiting an Old Friend

December 7, 2009

Yesterday, I reconnected with another old friend, Kirby, and we had rejuvenating conversation. As I expected, Kirby challenged me, which is really why I went to him, and force me to vocalize my personal plans.

Kirby has been there for me providing moral support ever since I became serious about music. It was because of him that I published my very first demo CD when I was 16. He explained to me that I will never feel completely ready to move forward or to make a leap, and that one simply must leap. Also, he explained to me then to never let anyone be the reason why you don’t pursue a dream because otherwise one will always resent that person. I’ve caught up with him over the years since then, but 11 years later, I am in the same boat in similar waters, just on a different part of the river and with more complex obstacles for consideration while navigating.

Because my plans are somewhat innovative, conveying all the concepts required effort to overcome predetermined facts of the music industry that are considered the norm. Basically, I walked away feeling that my efforts towards personal growth (which yielded the innovative ideas for business models) were not wasted efforts. Many people around me do not see the work I put in to educate myself about the world, and instead, people around predominantly see that I am not making music. I always knew this was a price to pay since I chose not to jump into the normal path of an aspiring artist, but Kirby also made me feel the price was either less than I currently believe or that it will yield greater fruits than I currently imagine.

I also met some interesting people at Kirby’s place. This was my first close encounter with a deaf person, a friend and collaborator of Kirby’s, and my first close exposure to sign language. This was the first time a deaf person’s thoughts were directed towards me and were translated from sign language, and it was the first time my thoughts were translated into sign language. The one thing that took me most aback was when the deaf person asked that I explain the kind of music that I do. When I was first exposed as a kid to the problem of explaining sound or music to a deaf person, I quickly concluded to never put myself into that kind of position, but there I was. For electronic dance music, we explained the culture of drugs and parties (although I don’t do drugs), and very hypotonic minimalist music. Then for the other kind of music (I left out Trip Hop) Neo-classical, it was described as where Bach and Beethoven would be today, excluding film scoring; it’s very jazzy and anything goes.