I never wanted to be a singer or a frontman. I wanted to be the next Jimmy Page. The guy who does everything but sing. After graduating high school and deciding that a career in music was what I wanted to pursue, I began to realize that putting a band together was hard, with the most hard part being the search for people who wanted to play the kind of music I play. I soon thought that maybe I could sing until I found my Robert Plant. This was my goal, that is until the summer of 2017 when things went in a whole new direction…
That summer when I was 19 was a very important one for my musical development. Hungry for new inspirations, I went through my dad’s old CD collection and found Bruce Springsteen’s Greatest Hits. I remember listening to that CD a bit when I was 7. Songs like “Born in the USA” sounded so cool to me (even though I had no idea what it was truly about at that age). While it didn’t turn me into a fan at the time, it gave me the basic knowledge about Bruce’s music so that I would know it was him if he came on the radio. Back again to when I’m 19, I decided to give Bruce’s music another chance. By now I was already a big music guy, but Bruce was not the kind of artist I would have listened to when I was in high school. As you would have seen in my previous blog posts, I was more into artists like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Rush, and Jimi Hendrix. However, I feel like I became more adventurous in my tastes once I finished high school and got out into the world. When listening to Bruce again for the first time in years, the song that caught my attention was “Badlands.” I went and bought that song’s album “Darkness on the Edge of Town” on vinyl, and listening to that album was another major moment for me, no different than when I discovered The Beatles or when I discovered Led Zeppelin. That album made me want to be a frontman…
I finally “got” Bruce and his message. The message being how he captures the pleasures and struggles of everyday life, and it was so powerful to me. I don’t think an artist has made me feel things the way Bruce has. That being said, it was at the right time for me to start listening to him. I don’t think I would have appreciated him as much if I got into him when I was younger. Once I became an adult and started to see the things in his songs happen in real life, it all made much more sense to me. Most importantly, Bruce gave me the blueprint for how I could be a frontman. Bruce has a fairly low singing voice (though he can hit some impressive high notes). Additionally, he’s not the most polished vocalist ever. As someone with a deeper voice who was beginning to take the steps to learn how to properly use my vocal range, he was the perfect guy to learn from. It’s similar to why Jimmy Page had a profound impact on my guitar playing. Jimmy isn’t the most technical player, but his style of playing is super emotive which makes up for the lack of technicality. I also started watching footage from his concerts and was blown away. The way Bruce performs is the exact way I want to perform, which is at 100% all the time. I appreciate Bruce so much because he’s a normal guy who just happens to be an incredible musician, and as soon as I made that connection, I knew that was how I could present myself as an artist. I’m still a work in progress, but I wouldn’t be on the right track if I never decided to listen to that Greatest Hits CD. I would have never sung on stage without a guitar in my hand if it wasn’t for Bruce.
