What first drew you to music ?
As a kid I remember pretending to play guitar with a tennis racquet listening to Dad ’ s Dire Straits CDs . I don ’ t think I ever perfected the tennis racquet , but I moved onto an actual guitar from there and never looked back . My Dad is a musician and I grew up around some very talented songwriters so I guess music was just a natural part of growing up .
Do you remember the first song that you connected with ? The one that made you think , " Wow , music is really powerful ?" If so , what was that song and how did it make you feel ?
Perhaps this is not the first song that I had a connection with , but I remember clearly the goosebumps I got , and still get , when listening to the Tool song Pushit . In particular when Maynard James Keehan gives off a powerful Freddie Mercury style note towards the end . The song is a journey and it builds to an incredible crescendo where you feel like you ’ ve just wiped out while surfing a massive wave . You are whiplashed so violently you barely stay conscious . After somersaulting , cartwheeling and doing some weird underwater dance , you find yourself 10 feet below the surface trying to work out which way is up . When you finally break the surface you only have about a second to get as much air in as possible before the next wave strikes ! Sorry for the overly dramatic description !