I am many things, but among them being a rock guitarist is the dearest to my heart.
Rock music is the most intense kind of music. You have to go all in. You can’t rock when you’re hold back. I crave that reckless abandon. I tend to think too much so it feels good to get immersed in that sea of energy that is rock n roll.
There are many healing and uplifting things in life but that is the one that appeals to me the most. Not as a listener, but as a player playing part in creating that experience.
Life doesn’t feel good when it’s not flowing. Not being of good mental health is the state of being blocked. Rock n roll can’t fix your problems but it is like a torrential river that can remind you of what it’s like to flow. Many people report being helped by music during tough times. As a musician, “helping” isn’t my #1 goal — I make music because I have to, and I write what I want to hear — but it is among the most gratifying of the side benefits.
Music doesn’t need words to be powerful, but it is magical when words and music work together to make something you can relate to. It’s like talking to a dear friend and being able to be honest about something. Take, for example, U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” That song has the greatest opening of all time, and the music feels like you’re flying through an open sky. And the words paint the picture of someone who wants to “tear down the walls that hold me inside”. It doesn’t tell a cohesive story yet it’s all the more powerful. Most importantly the words and music work together.
Ah, to create such music! It makes me feel alive. I feel so grateful to have found my “ikigai” (Japanese word for “purpose of living”). The thing that gets me out of bed.
What gets you out of your bed each day? If you haven’t found it, I hope you do, soon. I know mine but still many days I spend blocked and out of touch with it. So I know what it’s like to live without it. I hope you can find yours, and spend every single day immersed in it.
