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"Thanksgiving""Who would you like to thank for your musical success, and for what?" |
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In first place, I thank God for giving me what talents and
abilities I have and the desire to do something with them. I thank my
mother and father for bringing me into this world and for giving me an
endless amount of love and support. I'd like to thank my friends for their
love, support and goodnatured psychotherapy over the years. I'd also like
to thank everyone who's bought any of my CD's, wrote me a letter telling me
how much they liked my music or just enjoyed my work. Finally, I'd like to
thank Apple Computer for making great tools. - Brett Smith: of Caul
Over the 14 years in my musical 'career', one of my top priorities has been
maintaining an artistic freedom, whether I'm
officially signed to a label or producing the releases myself.
For more than a decade, I've been receiving tremendous support from my
parents, who have been respecting my work from day one.
More recently I've a lot of gratitude for my wife Martine since she too
grants me the complete freedom to realize the music, I want
to achieve. As the music is more an obsession for me, its process demands
a lot of time and energy and partially conducts the way how
Martine and I live our lifes. It's not an easy task to understand that,
but Martine continues to be my companion throughout this ongoing
intensity. Thanks to the originators, to the creators who make their works in isolation, regardless of any attention from press or public, who make their works as an expression of who and what they are, because it must be expressed.
Thanks to the gurus, to the spiritual teachers whose most difficult path
leads them away from the world of other men, but ultimately feeds back so
that our lives can be enriched.
There's quite a few people to thank for my musical "success"- first of all,
I'm thankful to my parents for actually giving me a guitar as a Christmas
present. I'm also very thankful that I had a very patient and talented
guitar teacher- Steve Cotton.
Regarding the music that I am NOW playing, there are some very influential
people to thank. First and foremost, Brian Eno. He simply changed how I
listened to music with recordings like "Music for Airports" and "Thursday
Afternoon". In later years, I got in touch with Steve Roach, and I am
thankful to him for giving me good advice regarding gear that made a big
impact on where I would take my music. And I've always loved the beautiful
music of Erik Satie- so full of mystery without a hint of ego.
Most recently, however, I've begun to realize that a lot of my success
comes from the people I know who have been so encouraging and enthusiastic
about my music. My wife and daughter would be at the top of this list, but
there are so many people like this, that it would take a LOT of space to
list them- people like Mike Griffin, Barry Stramp, the crew at Spotted
Peccary, Bill Binkelman, Vidna Obmana- and many, many more!
I probably wouldn't have gotten around to making a record--much less
five records--without Grant, the other half of Mandible Chatter. He is
open, but disciplined; he is diplomatic without being a "yes man"; and he
has graced our records with guitar passages of great beauty. I thank
him for staying with me for seven years.
There are many people who are listed in the "thank you" part of my liner
notes... too many to list them all, but the biggest thanks has to go to my
family... they are my support and inspiration...
I would mostly like to thank Dan Burke of Illusion of Safety and Thymme
Jones of Cheer Accident. They really taught me how to create with sound
and how to listen rather than worrying about technique. when I was
working with them, it always amazed me what kinds of sound they could
come up with and with what materials! I still have a tape of Thymme and
Dan cutting up an old piano with electric saws! They started their own
label "Complacency Productions" and their fan base has really grown over
the years. They have done all this on their own, with their own
resources. To this day I am still inspired by Thymme and Dan's intense
focus on what they enjoy doing.
Success ????? What musical success??? -- a few CD's and a few good
reviews???? (I hide the bad reviews)
Maybe success is being able to continue to make my work.
Thank?!
Sometimes I think "the force" is with me!
endure - persevere!
Many thanks go to all the friends who have encouraged me, and to my
father and grandparents who have always been supportive. A big thanks
also to inspiring musical collaborators, but by far the greatest thanks
go to my mother. She introduced me to a wide variety of music as a child
and always encouraged me to pursue my creative intuition. She was a
great audience and a constructive critic. I miss her feedback.
I would like to say thank you for all the people who sent email to me.
Because they taught me internet has a lot of potential effects.
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