Rock N' Roll Friend (Part III a.k.a Final Part a.k.a. Let's just get this story over with)

In the Previous Episode...

I showed how my war-ish musical interaction with Friend (Mr. Rock n' Roll) has impacted my music taste. On the plus side, it has made me more critical of what I listen to. It has also made me more open-minded to other genres than what I grew up on. On the negative side of things, my taste war with Friend has made me somewhat apologetic on stuff that I like but know that others wouldn't like. I used not to give a BEEP about what others thought about music. I had the best taste. Period. That feeling of being the god of music is now a bit weakened ... (Just a bit!)

Also, in the previous episode, I told  how I provided a carefully selected raggae playlist to Friend to open his taste buds to the genre (to those one drop drum rhythms .. to those skanky guitars.. bubbling organs and  mysterious vocals). I mentioned how the dude had nerve enough to think, later on, that HE was the final arbiter on what's good and bad raggae. Also while in conversations with Moi! ME!... The same wise old prof who provided him with Raggae 101! Laughable..right?.

Finally, I pointed out that the end of the friendship somehow coincided with this.
  

In this Episode...

Questions echo. What has silly little friendly discussions on music got to do with the core of the soul of a friendship?  A whole LOT if you ask me. In this final episode, I will show how some of these "trivial" discussions CAN, if you really think about it, reveal your friend's true world view and true character.
 
 Listen to a Burning Spear Track:

             

Now Here is Maxi Priest:

                                   

Using these two artistes and songs as metaphor for a typical discussion between Friend & I, Friend's stance will be:

Burning Spear is Raggae. Maxi Priest is bubble gum... Pink & Sweet. Embarrasingly pink & sweet. In terms of the instrumentation of the songs, Friend would argue that Burning Spear's track  is full of authentic  sounds and live instrumentation while Maxi Priest's  is awash with synthesizers, samples, loops and digital sequencing. In terms of the general attitude of the artistes, Friend would prefer the ecologic, au naturelle, rural vibe around Spear to the urban, neo-rastafarian posture of Maxi.

Not that I completely disagreed. I understood his preferences. If you give ANY  vegetarian punk rocker the choice presented above, it shouldn't take  freudian analysis to predict that on the average (way higher than average, actually),  punk rockers will prefer Burning Spear. And this, among many other reasons, because of Spear's dignified simplicity and "poor"-by-choice-and- therefore- rich-in-spirit attitude. I understand why this will find fertile ground in punk country. Punkhood afterall is anti-mainstream by definition. I don't  know if these days, punks are LINKED IN to TWITTER around like birds or whether they have their faces booked on FACEBOOK - but back then it WAS all about avoiding all things modern... all things mainstream... all things high tech. Within this framework, I could rationalize my way to understanding his preference and a lot of his viewpoints on these matters.

The point I am struggling to make here is that I disgreed to some extent  but understood his stance. The problem is that he did not understand MINE. So What was MY preference? What was MY stance on these matters?

My preference was not to have a preference. One is apple. The other, orange. Both are fruits. But incomparable.  And I enjoy both! Let me digress a bit to paint the picture more clearly. Witness (In words. Enough with those videos already!)  the following back stage conversation between soul singer Jill Scott and your typical interviewer.  (from Dave Chapelle's "Block Party")

INTERVIEWER approximately goes like: So Jill tell me... Erykah Badu is on stage doing her thing, as we speak. Coming on  strong. How do you feel about getting on stage AFTER a STRONG act like that?

And JILL SCOTT goes literally like: HA..HA... HA...HA... HA...(and this laughter goes on for some time). Have you ever heard me sing? Erykah has her queendom. And I have mine. Her queendom does not compare to mine. Neither does mine compare to hers.

Along this same line of reasoning, and back to the Spear-Maxi framework, the two should not even be compared. Spear represents the organic, raggae-in-its-natural-habitat side of the story while Maxi represents a subsequent step in the path of the organic evolution of the genre.

So..beyond music, beyond spear, beyond maxi, beyond raggae... reducing everything to bare essentials what can the above show about a  "Friend"?   

Friend (and the typical observer) will be right to point at me and say  "...But Rob..I'm  entitled to MY opinion. MY taste shouldn't coincide with yours. I don't have to agree with YOUR stance.. As friends, we can agree to disagree"

On the surface, it looks like I am guilty of intolerance. But think again. How would you feel about the following:

1.   You REALLY do understand your Friend's viewpoint but he/she doesn't understand yours
2.   You choose to see things from the big picture perspective. He/She talks from a tunnel.
3.   You introduce a friend to something/someone. Soon and without any form of humility..without   pausing to acknowledge that YOU were there first, your friend claims expert and/or monopoly-like status.

I don't know about you..Dear Reader.. But for moi, these are no laughing matters. If you make concessions in friendly discussions but your friend doesn't move  1% of a micro meter towards your standpoint; I will bet my rock bottom dollar that it's just a matter of time before this same feature of your so-called friend manifests in an area more serious than those trivial discussions.

 Zooming in on point 2 a.k.a. Forest & Trees a.k.a Conclusion
 Friend hated all things "synthetic" when it came to music. To him good music occurred only when 4 or 5 dudes (preferably with long hair) came together to churn out some rocky stuff. No need for horns (that's jazz..ewwww).. No need for violins and orchestras (that's wanksta...) And definitely no place for a computer in real music!

I remember. I remember like yesterday. I remember trying to get MY FRIEND to see the phenomenon of music on a 'cosmic time scale'... From Classical to Techno. From Mozart to Moby. To get him to realize that the evolution of music cannot be stopped. One form of music simply gives way to another... without a fight. And each step on that evolutionary continuum contains masterpieces of this magical artform.  Friend didn't show any appreciation for this fact so I went on a step further. I tried to get Friend to realize that his cherished rock  wiped out some other genre to gain popularity just like rock will one day be wiped out. I pointed out to Friend that the type of drummer he is (one man sitting down playing the kick, snare, toms, cymbals) replaced for example, the orchestral rhythm section in which 4 seperate people played those same rhythm components. That change took place because it made sense at the time. Well..with that same logic, why not get rid of the 1-man drum machine and replace him with a zero-man drum machine a.k.a. computer?

Now, for the record (no pun intended), I 'm not advocating a mass ditching of live instrumentation. I'm just saying that Mother Music is large enough for all of us. There should be space (and respect) for orchestral rhythm sections,  1-man octopus-like drummers, robot drummers...beat boxing..kitchen pan banging.. whatever! As long as what comes out is balanced and entertaining/pleasing to the ear.. I'm cool with it.

Looking back, the fact that I couldn't get Friend to see these things was quite unsettling. For me, these thoughts about music and music technology's evolution that I shared with him was truth. My truth. I will go as far and say THE truth. Cos it remains so today. It will be true in the future as well.  Universal truth. Call me strange. Call me self-conceited but I still think that when you look at music in its full historic context, there is no other sensible conclusion to be made. Locking oneself in on one tiny point on music's evolution curve and disregarding/disrespecting all points before and after one's chosen lock point is absurd.  It's not even like seeing the trees instead of the forest. It's more like picking up a single leaf in a jungle and thinking that the leaf is the universe.

But hey.. that's just MY opinion. What's yours?

Gotta go.. Gotta go..

Peace out!

Rock n' Roll Friend (Part II)

In the Previous episode....

We met Friend. An ex- friend of mine who didn't just love hard rock (& Roll).  The dude breathed in hard  rock and sweated rock & roll from his skin pores. (Did I mention that he was an experienced rock drummer?) We also met me...a person positioned on the other side of the musical spectrum... fanatically preferring softer, groovier and more melodic musical genres. So , we met  2 people both crazy about music but crazy about radically different types of music.

The stage was set for a showdown.. a clash of musical civilizations. I described how I believed  that Friend thought of my taste as ridiculous, unartistic...lacking spine and edge. In short, Wanky. I, on the hand, thought of his taste as noisy, unrefined and unromantic. Wanky, in short.

I felt put on a musical defensive. You'd feel the same way too if your best musical stuff was not taken seriously and never allowed to play to end. So I decided to launch my own  offensive against Friend.

Let the Musical Imperialism Continue...
How did I fight back? Here's how. For some reason, Friend really wanted to play in a raggae cover band that I was trying to put together. This desire of his continues to remain a mystery to me. He was a fantastic rock drummer. That could not be disputed. But at that time, he knew nothing about raggae ...much less, the attitude, spirit and  techniques needed to keep raggae rhythm and dress it up in ways that support that kind of band. So I was skeptical. But I didn't say so. To be fair, what he might have lacked in prior knowledge of the genre he compensated for with enthusiasm for the band project. The enthusiasm created a certain amount of curiosity for the genre. I decided to cash in on this curiousity and use it as weapon in the our music cold war.

I made Friend a mix tape (Literally cos I mean cassette tape ..yep..this is an ancient story!) with songs that would form "the band's" repertoire. I remember the first song on the tape was a tune called "Ravers" from a band called "Steel Pulse".

  

                                     
As it turned out, I couldn't have chosen better tune to bait someone like Friend into the world of raggae. It's rebellious. It's lively. And coming from where he comes from, it's different and exotic. Also, let's not forget the context he is listening to this in... it's for the making of a band. A band in which he would be drummer. And there is plenty of interesting things the drummer does in this tune. Allow me to point just one of those interesting drumming elements out.

In the video above from position 0:20 till 0:27, the voice sings: "In the mood for love and you feel like dancing ..tonight.. Rub-A-Dub Rub-A-Dub Rub-a-Dub." Notice how the drummer joins  the voice for the Rub-A-Dub Triplets and concludes the series with a wicked crash.

Cool stuff..any drummer will tell you that!  Friend actually pointed this out to me.  So in ways like this,  Friend slowly opened his ears to let raggae in. First, he opened them up technically..as a drummer. To learn his part. But then gradually and sub-consciously, the spirit of the genre also got to him.

And the Winner is.....

Long after the band project idea (which, by the way, never saw the light of day or even the dark of night) the dude was still listening to Steel Pulse. He had researched his way to other raggae acts like Burning Spear, Culture, Peter Tosh, Luciano, just to mention a few.

As it turned out, there was  considerable natural common ground between punk rock and raggae. The beginnings of raggae outside the mainstream of popular music as well as the anti-establishment , anti-capitalist posture of the early prophets of raggae are just 2 of many elements that would make a punk rock head feel at home with raggae. That was the case with our Friend.

I planned and schemed to crusade my taste (or a part thereof)  on Friend. The raggae seed that I cleverly planted in Friend's consciousness grew into a tree. He did not abandon his rock ways but  I succeeded in  shaping his music taste in a significant way. Can I claim victory? Did I win this silent cold war?

Not really. Here's why not. In war, you attack and get attacked. His "attacks" had  impact on  me. I started questioning some of the stuff I thought was good music. (in a healthy way, I still do). I realized from the war that indeed  music can be "too sweet". Too fluffy. Candy-like in a way that can be pukey. My eyes and ears opened to spot that. Don't get me wrong.. I still like my sweet music. And no one can stop me from thinking that Boyz II Men's "end of the road" for example, is good music. Good music inspite of the boy band vibe, the targeted-at-the-ladies lyrics and all that. Despite all that: Those boys CAN sing! Those harmonies are GOOD!

I started to scan songs through what you may think of as a Too-wanky-? filter. If the verdict is positive, that alone  does not make me dismiss the song as candy floss and therefore garbage. I try to see if there are redeeming factors (should it be taken with a sense of humour? what is the over-all emotional impact? Do I still like the tune for some unexplainable reson?). Also, I have  stopped pre-approving on the basis of genre, artist or album. In other words, I take each single song on it's own merit. Just because a tune is from a particular genre or artist doesn't make it good or bad in my ears. I let each song justify whether it deserves my ear's time or space in my collection (now all digital, by the way).

In my humble opinion, that's how things should be. So I see this outcome as a positive impact of the war. But I must admit that I have  carried some wounds too. I would have liked not to have to vet songs so carefully. I sometimes miss those days when I didn't have justify or apologise (to myself or others) for any song I liked or disliked. That's an era that I have lost for good.

I would like to be a fly on the wall of Friend's mind to see first hand, what the impact of the war has been on him. Or whether he even sensed a war going on.  I can only guess. I think he was much more fanatic about his taste than I was. I don't think he questioned his taste much. I don't even think that he acknowledges the truth about the path raggae took into his life. I don't think he admits to himself now, many years (centuries!)  after, that he owes the origin of his raggae taste to that tape that I made for him. I know this because some years after the tape, he started to TRY to lecture ME on what GOOD raggae music was! He started to hint that he knows raggae better than I do! (What a cheeky young fella..right?)

M.N.B.W.S.P 

When I look back, I realize that the begining of the end of the friendship coincided with this. Now, I know what you're thinking.. "What does the music have to do with the friendship? ...Isn't it far-fetched to connect the end of a friendship with friendly discussions on music?"

 I think I have (again!) far exceeded the maximum number of bloggable words for  a single post  (who made those "rules"..anyway?) I am one of those grumpy old men who need a lot of words to make a "simple" point. I think that so-called "Simple points" are most often not THAT simple after all. The devil, they say, is always in the details. I like to chase the devil from the details to the surface..and that takes words.. so can we please, have an increase in the Maximum Bloggable Words for a Single Posting (MNBWSP) ?

Next time, (Soon. I just have to get this blogging rhythm thing tight... soon) I will continue the story. I will show how simple, trivial discussions on frivolous things like music can actually shed light on where people stand on deeper topics like world view which in turn  indicate whether people really share ANY common ground...any basis for friendship.

So stay tuned for Rock n Roll Friend (Part III)

Till then, drop me a feedback note to let me know you've been here. Tell me what you think of my topics, issues raised..whatever. Also, if you are a fellow blogger, let me know where I can find you so I can check your stuff out and (hopefully) get wiser.

Peace.

Ciao!

                                     

Interlude: How Weeks Turned to Months and Months into An Apology

My dear Friends and Fans (hopefully I have a few fans and YOU are one of them)

There has been a long time between my last blog posting and this. Awfully mighty long time. Shamefully long time.

Why did this happen?  Or more accurately, why did I allow this to happen?

I was planning to just gloss over this gaping space between posts and sound as if  it didn't happen. As if it doesn't matter. But then I thought of many real-life friends (as opposed to cyber buddies and DIGital admirers) that I have lost along the way.. People who didn't make it to my present and future precisely because they sometimes behaved in ways that I felt had to be discussed. Situations where an apology would not just be in order but REQUIRED for the spirit of the friendship to heal. The now forgotten friends acted like the situation didn't happen at all.. or they'd put on that Let's-not-waste-precious-friendship-time-on-it attitude. I judged such "offences" against me very harshly. (I still do!) It's a principle thing for me. A cornerstone principle  if you ask me.

Since I require this high level of thoughtfulness from others in their dealings with me, what then gives me the right to just resume blogging without addressing the fact that I have been AWOL?  Why should I continue as if there hasn't been a quarter of a year between my last post and this? As if that's OK. As if I haven't broken a written promise to remain committed to this open dialogue I have initiated with you..  who have cared enough to spend your precious time on reading my earlier stuff.

When I started pondering this moral issue,  the cliché miniature devil in the cute little red cloak came to perch on my left shoulder like a pirate's parrot and started whispering to my mind's ear... "Nobody really reads your junk anyway so if you still want to continue your fruitless endeavour then just continue without as much as one second's hesitation! Just continue. Nobody will notice that you've broken a promise. Nobody cares about stuff like that anymore."

To balance the equation, a cute little angel flew in and landed like a butterfly on my right shoulder and whispered... "if even there is ONLY ONE READER who just ONE TIME checked for follow-up posts and found nothing then an apology is not just in order but REQUIRED to mend the broken promise." The angel went further to state that even if ZERO readers have been waiting for  follow-up posts, the morally right thing to do is to practice what one expects from others.

Two compelling lines of argument. Each with it's own strong set of inherent merit and logic. Each side passionately argued by a creature on my shoulder.. with my mind caught in the crossfire!

So, which of these creatures won the battle for my mind's ear? The angel, of course! The angel always wins (except when the devil disguises himself as the angel)

I decided that before I continue any other topics I should write about the principle of showing respect by admitting faults even if nobody took offence and my internal dialogue on the principle as it relates to my   blogging sabbatical.

So, my friends, what you have read is a piece OF me..it's a piece written BY me to acknowledge failure. An acknowlegement of a broken promise on my part and an attempt to pick up the pieces and fix what I broke.

Now that we got THAT out of the way.. the follow up question becomes.. "So..Rob! What did you use the free time on? An apology is one thing but an explanation is something else. What's the explanation for your absence? "

My answer to that is a question: Do you want the truth? Do you dare to hear the truth?

 

 
I think Good Ol' Jack said it better in the movie (A Few Good Men) than I will ever be able to. You can't handle the truth! 

The "TRUE" reason I've been absent from my self-imposed blogging duties is that I was kidnapped by aliens. I was taken from earth by  aliens who transported me to their far away home somwhere on one of Jupiter's moons. I was rescued by a commando unit of a  rival alien tribe who freed me and beamed me back to Earth. Now I'm ready to blog again!

Now...Unless you are some messed-up science fiction freak, there's a big chance that you don't believe this.

That explanation is, of course, one huge bag of creepy nonsense. The real truth is much more simple. And it goes a little something like this: I kept postponding what I knew deep down I wanted to be committed to doing. Hours turned to days. Days to weeks. Weeks,  months. End of Story. It's shameful. But it's the truth. One thing I have noticed is that when I strive to be able to HANDLE TELLING THE TRUTH even when it makes me lose face,  the power of truth gives back some of the supposedly lost dignity. 

I hope that is the case here as well. 

I hope you have been entertained.

I hope we all find the inner strength to live up to the promises we make to ourselves. 

Happy New Year.. Whoever you are ..Wherever you are!

And that's my Word!

 

Rock n' Roll Friend (Part I)

Once Upon a Time...
Not so long ago, eventhough it seems that way to me now, I had a friend. A close friend. Let's call him Friend.

Apart from  the fact that we both lived and breathed music, Friend and I had very little else in common.  Even on this single piece of common ground, we were as different as night and day. Initially, the types of music that I listened to must have sounded to him not just like a puzzling and mysterious foreign language (like Russian to a Mexican farmer), but more like the way Martian communication would be perceived by an Earthling! This feeling was mutual cos his stuff sounded to me like something from literally, another planet. No Joke. I mean it!


Which one is Junk... Punk or  Funk? .. Depends on Who you Ask
Friend grew up on a musical diet of punk, hard rock and rock n' roll. Nothing wrong with that. He invested a considerable portion of his  teen and subsequent years, towards acquiring an impressive library (mainly records and cassette tapes) of music that he liked. He also had extensive knowledge on individual artists. Friend  knew in amazing detail, the life stories of legendary rock musicians/bands and their contributions to grand scheme of music things. He really does know his stuff.

Now me, I grew up consuming funk, soul, raggae, jazzy instrumentals and a pinch of country. Coming from the kind of cultural and family background that I come from, this was  natural. My older sisters listened to Dolly Parton, Don Williams, Kenny Rogers and Linda Ronstadt. My older brothers listened to Kool & the Gang, Bob Marley, The Whispers and Earth Wind & Fire... to mention just a few. I was caught in the crossfire and didn't have a choice. I inherited this wide taste. And I'm glad I did. I spent a great deal of my formative years chasing for a complete understanding of my musical heritage. So, I also do know MY stuff.

Let the Musical Imperialism Begin...
So what happens when life brings  two people with such radically  different musical tastes face to face with each other? Do they become  "taste imperialists" ? In other words, did I think that Friend should abandon his "Loud, screechy, strange & freakish" stuff and enter my musical world... what I was convinced was a better world.. a world in which  music has "melody, soul, rhythm and smooth edges" .. a world where music is literally pleasing to the ear? Did Friend on his part,  try to get me to leave my   "softish, poppish, conformist" taste in favor of what he genuinely was convinced was a better musical world...  one with " edge, attitude and a spirit of rebellion "? Yes and Yes.

Now, these superiority complexes were not battled out openly.  The battles were in a sense, even more intense because they were  unspoken.

I knew a taste battle was  going on when Friend would come to hang out at chez moi but would refuse to  "trust his ears to me". I knew my taste was under attack when Friend would  look, with disguised frustration, through my collection.. what I think of as an impressive music collection, shake his head, look at me and ask  ".... don't you have anything with Iggy Pop?". And I ask back.. "what the hell is Iggy Pop?" (in my rock n' roll ignorance I imagined it to be some kind of sub genre within the punk metal speed death whatever rock world). Friend would look at me with genuine pity in his eyes. The kind of look a wise old professor would give an ignorant college freshman. Friend would take a deep breath and decide to educate me out of my rock n' roll ignorance. Friend would, at this stage,  like parents do, walk me to my first day of school .. in this case a trip to youtube. A video or two or three. Followed by a lecture on a great, legendary "monster" of  rock n' roll. (Monster is a good thing in this context)

You feel your taste is under attack when you are playing your most  rebellious and rough stuff, in honour of your friend, but Friend still won't let a single one of those songs play to the end.

Friend never said explicitly that he thought  my taste was wack. But it still doesn't change what was going on under the surface. I felt my  taste was being ridiculed. Imagined or real, I could sense attempts to re-wire me musically.  Now, that to me is a crusade against my musical heritage. That's warfare.

How did I respond to the call to battle? You guys don't think I took those punches lying down.. do you? Did I give that impression? My bad.. sorry.  At the time, I had serious ambitions to crusade my "superior" taste to all corners of the earth! So I fought back.

I'd very much like to continue but I have a feeling  that I already exceeded the  maximum "bloggable" number of words for a  single posting.

Next Upon another Time...
How I fought back and what the point is in all this will have to be the subject matter of another one or two or three postings.

So let's stay tuned...It will all make sense.

Meanwhile..what do you think? Do you have a "FRIEND"? What is your taste in music and/or other artforms? Have you felt your taste under attack? Have you felt "justified" to crusade your taste on others? What do think of the narrative? Feed me back!

Another Music Blog?

Yes... another One!

But Here is What Not to Expect on this Blog

My definition of music will beg to differ from the Melody, Harmony & Rhythm perspective. In other words, we will not be exchanging views on Beethovens 5th here.  (Sorry, classical heads. Its just not that kind of party)


So then, am I going to be doing album/song/artist reviews and recommendations?

• Does my big idea for this blog revolve around constructing  those endless series of "official" top 10, 20, 50,100 lists? (eg. Top 10 songs every man should have on his iPod ..and by the way click on this link to nicely-priced iPods... Top Zillion songs of the 80s.... but hey, remember to check out these cheap flight tickets)
• Is the agenda to  promote my own music..? or that of some obscure Indie Punk Rock band ? or some  wanna-be raggae singer who also happens to be my best friend?.. or some "up-n-comming" female neo-soul screamer who (among other things!) I'm acting as manager for?

No, No.. and Never. Again, its just not that kind of party!

 Here,  My Friends, is What to Expect On this Blog
A-not-so-direct definition of music. Music will be used as metaphor. A point of departure to discuss adult life themes. Consider the following quote:


"Many  people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out " ---- Oliver Wendell Holmes


Notice what the word "music" contributes to the meaning of the quote. Note the position of the word "music" in this quote.  If we replace it with words like "life" or "dreams" or "ideas" or "energy" or "mojo"; won't the resulting quotes still make sense?


I think everybody has "music" inside. I think so because I feel  the  "music" that I have inside me and I am one of those people who honestly (and perhaps, naively) believe that deep down, we are all the same.


Up until this point, I have been delaying my "life's song" and postponding the performance of my "music". Up until this point, I have always been "getting ready to live". In recent years, a series of events including very much, the entering of a very special somebody in to my life that has forced me to realize that the time is now.


I realize now that rehearsal time is over and that I am already on the stage in front of a waiting audience. So here I am, at the center of this little stage of mine. I know I have something to say. I know it would have to be said through the metaphor (and sometimes, medium) of music. But that's all I know. Perhaps, that's all I need to know at this point. Things have a way of falling into place once you start taking the proper actions.


"Life is one grand, sweet song. So start the music!"    ----Ronald Reagan                                                    

So without further ado, I am saying ..Welcome, my friends, Welcome.
I know that now that our paths have crossed you WILL enrich my life in some way and vice versa. I promise sincerity. I promise to stay committed to  this open-ended dialogue that I have initiated with you. I promise to always accept feedback (even when it comes in a red envelope ). 

Welcome. 

PS. Questions, objections, modifications, suggestions, recommendations and all types of comments are hereby invited.

On Air for the very first time

Some people make music for the commerce in it. Others do it for the magic in it... At the risk of stating the obvious, let me say that I think the best music happens when it is heart-felt. When music is pursued simply because it is intrinsically rewarding, thats when I believe music releases its mysterious magic to any one who has a good ear.

Being a shy musician who has made only little effort at getting others to hear my stuff, I have grown to love just making music. Period. I have only 1 fan... the best fan in the world. Thats my girlfriend! She puts up with (she even loves!) hearing the looped part of a song while I work on that part. This will drive most girlfriends crazy.. Not mine! She never complains over how much time I spend making music nor does she even ask me to use headphones.. This way she has become my inspiration and a part of my music creation process.

Long story short... I love this Alicia Keys song called "No One". It is one of those few songs that I really, really, really wanted to make a remix of! I heard Alicia's own original raggae version... I mean It's banging and all that.. But I missed those sweetening elements.. Those of you who like that old school lovers rock flav know exactly what I'm talking about.

So I got to work... Got hold of the acapella and here is the result. Apart from tolerating the noisy process of the remixing, my girl/friend also suggested that I put the finished work on youtube.. just for fun. She insisted. Really insisted.

After chewing on it for a while.. I was like "OK... but then you should make the video for it!". Then I left for work one day and came back to this. My initial reaction was what yours is going to be like.. a hint of cheesiness.. a certain disconnect between story as told by the sound and that suggested by the visual.. but wait a minute.. is there really a disconnect? is it really cheesy? Isn't it more like simple and intentionally childlike ? Anyway, I think she just found a way to transform a beautiful romantic love song into a beautiful universal love song.

And what use is a universal love song if we dont share it with the world? Here it is. Enjoy, think and act!