None of my siblings have a real interest in my music (the one I
play and the one I release). Although my mother has rarely ever
played more than once any of my releases, she is in charge with
my mail order.
- Dimitri: hushush
My mother has long been supportive of my musical leanings, sending me
to piano lessons and then guitar lessons as a child, buying my first
electric guitar when I joined a rock band in the 8th grade, driving
me and my equipment to sketchy clubs when I formed M-1 Alternative in
high school, and tolerating my band practices in her house and our
first performance in her garage - even as the neighbors were calling
the police in complaint. Other members of the family simply humor me
and quietly wonder why I cannot simply go to law school or the like -
"still doing music?" - but a few have actually been interested in the
music itself. One amusing recent example: I visited some relatives
in another city, and one of my cousins told me her son would like my
music; the cousin had never heard my music, knew little about my or
her son's taste, and was simply reasoning that since her son listened
to music and her cousin made the stuff the former would want to hear
the records of the latter, but one look at the clothes of her early
teenage child let me know he would not even be slightly interested;
he listens to hip-hop, I told her, and will not like my music at all;
she responded that, no, she was sure he would want to hear it; in
answer to her question - "what kind of music do you like" - he
answered, of course, "hip-hop," ending the discussion.
My mother has
my rock records on her shelf, but she plays and likes my electronic
records. Workmates have usually been understanding, and several have
even bought my records, but I am also fortunate to be working in an
office with several other musicians whose music I quite like. In
high school our first garage performance seemed to confuse many of
our classmates, several of whom gave us peculiar looks that night and
then stopped speaking to us for the following years, but most close
friends have been supportive and even enthusiastic. Of course I have
not taken the ideal path, as far as most families would map such
things, but those surrounding me over the years, while occasionally
tilting their heads a bit perplexedly, have been quite happy to watch
me go along a creative way.
- Joshua Maremont: (Thermal, Boxman Studies, The Archipelago)
I'm very lucky that most of my friends are into music (or are
musicians) and have at least some appreciation for what I'm up to,
and my family has been very supportive. My mother was really into
music, and that was a big influence on me and opened up my awareness
to different genres (esp. jazz, blues, folk, classical). My wife is a
rather good violinist, with a background mostly in classical but also
in ethnic music, so it has been fun to share what I do with her.
Mostly I do music for my own enjoyment, but whatever thought goes
into it beyond that is in knowing/anticipating sharing it with my
friends.
A funny story... on a recent visit I was talking with my wife's
father about music and trying to explain a little about what I do,
about how sounds can be musical even if they're not from a
traditionally musical source, and maybe a bit about John Cage too. I
said something like "Frank down the road might think that a certain
sound is musical, whereas you might just find it irritating." To
which my father-in-law replied, "Well that just goes to show what an
idiot Frank is..." Uh... right... ;-)
- M. Bentley: the foundry
Increasingly they do understand it and support it. Luckily many of my
friends are serious music fanatics with open minds and diverse tastes, so
their belief in the kind of music I do is not so much something they had to
open up to as a friend of mine, but merely a pre-existing part of their
approach to music and sound. My immediate family members understand pretty
well, though I doubt they spend too much time listening to the music other
than out of curiosity.... "I wonder what Mike's up to now?"
My mother, who
works in the sales department of a Porsche/Audi dealership, told me she was
listening to Viridian Sun PERIHELION on her PC speakers at her desk, while
helping a customer finish the paperwork associated with a car purchase, and
the customer, hearing the sounds coming from the vicinity of the computer
on the desk, asked, "What's wrong with your computer?".
- M. Griffin: Hypnos Recordings
my parents used to pretend to understand my music. and have even gone
to a few gigs. i think now they might understand it less, but
appreciate it more.. as they can relate a bit more to the artistic
side of the music as opposed to the techno that i used to do.
- taylor deupree: ambient/electronic artist @ 12k/line
Well, I've been lucky since my first day in 1984, working in the more
industrial/harsh style of music, I never lost the uncompromising support of
my parents. They bought me my first synthesizer, the infamous Korg MS20,
while funding several of my early projects. I can't do anything else than
to express my absolute gratitude for this as my parents gave me the
opportunity to develop my own sound and discography. Without their help,
this wasn't possible. Now that I've met my kindred spirit in the form of
my wife Martina. She has been supporting me from day one when we met at
one of my concerts and our work together on the visual side of my work
proved to be a very fine and inspiring combination, which will be
continued.
- Vidna Obmana: ambient/electronic artist @ www.vidnaobmana.org
My family, as consisting of my wife and daughter, are quite supportive of
what I do, and, in turn, I try not to let my pursuit of art come before my
family. Now, my family as consisting of my parents and siblings? That's
probably another story..... :)
It's not easy being a musician, but it's probably just as tough in some
ways being the parent of a musician. My parents were very supportive of me
being involved with music and taking music lessons when I was in high
school- I think, in their minds, it was something that would "keep me out
of trouble" at the time. However, when they saw that music was such an
important part of my life....well, very few parents want a child who is
unemployable and destitute. So attitudes were changed a bit at that point,
and gentle lectures encouraging me to "be practical" and "be realistic"
became the norm of the day.
To this day, my music is not exactly a subject of conversation that's
regularly brought up- at least not in my presence. In my parents defense,
it WOULD be pretty tough to brag to your friends about you child who makes
music so quiet that it could put fish to sleep and doesn't make a lot of
money doing it.....
- Jeff Pearce: ambient guitarist
Many of my friends understand and really like my work, but I don't choose
my friends by whether or not they like my music. My family would probably
prefer that I had chosen a more "respectable" or lucrative profession;
except for my father, who is a good jazz guitarist and seems proud of me to
have followed my own path.
- Robert Rich:Soundscape Productions / Amoeba Music
Can other artists relate to this? ..."Get a real job, you lazy #$%^&* ".....!!
- Dino Pacifici: Music-Language of the Spirit
They stay as silent as possible as to not offend me.... ;-) Well my mother likes it, it is her job.
- Anthony Wright: a.ka. Ashera
It's more what they don't say that let's me know what they think and
understand about our music. Early on in my harmonic overtone singing
attempts, Patti (my wife) nicknamed me "hoover" - so friends would come over
to our apartment looking for me and she'd say: "Oh, Jim's hoovering
upstairs in the bedroom - go right on up." - or: "It's the Hoover at it
again, listen!" Many of my friends kid me about how esoteric our music is
or how we should do something more popular, with a beat, more normal -
something that more people might actually listen to, etc.
For all the ribbing I take from them, I have to say that my family and
friends also support me and our efforts to the utmost, even if/when they
don't "understand" the music.
...Now would you like to hear about the non-verbal cues they give?...!...
- Jim Cole: Spectral Spiral Music
My wife "understands" my works but doesn't actively seek out "ambient"
music, per say. I've never heard her standing at the CD rack and saying "hey
were did that Neroli disc go?" When friends come over and they ask about my
music, I attempt to describe it as atmospheric music. I usually get the old
"deer in headlights" reaction so my wife just says " His music is like
Yanni" ......ohhhh I cringe each time I hear that......
- James Johnson: Zero Music
most of my family don't really "get" it (whatever that means) .... they
tend to use words like "relaxing" or "good" or "weird" --- my friends would
use words like "delicate" or "cool" or "mean"
- Jon Sheffield: living room
producer
| 
