I have played a few shows over the last few years i guess you could say, nothing to immaculate, but hell its been a lot of fun and i think thats where the real feeling of rock n' roll is, whether it be sitting in your room jammin to your favorite tunes or up on stage jammin em to a crowd, its all about enjoying and celebrating the feeling of rock n' roll, its not the money or any of that stuff, its the haze and excitement you get from it all. But right now for the moment im kind of flying it solo, writing tunes, learning how to be a guitar player ;p jammin with whoever has the desire to and just picking up stuff along the way. Lifes a learning experiance and so is bein a musician. Every musician, whether seasoned or fresh out of their first music shop has something to offer. No matter how good you are, there always seems to be a new trick to learn, which i love about music. Its the same as life, theres always something more to learn and understand.
See the thing about me is im a philosopher in a warriors world. Darwinism to be the basic principle of existence. "Survival of the fittest" hell you could argue it to the end, but in society, we all know it to be the way of all living things. The strongest always prevail. But for me im a man of words and thoughts, someone who ponders every aspect of existence, historically, theologically, philosophically, futuristically, Phychologically, it all. Enough lly's to make your fuckin head spin ;P But if i have discovered anything about my quest for understanding and wisdom, its the fact that we spend to much time thinking and speaking, when we should be doing, experiancing and putting our ideas and words into action, because in the end, words are only words, thoughts are only thought, action is the product of the base we set up with such things, but constantly we say "oh i wish i had this," "oh i wish i had that," "I want to do this," etc. But we never take those thoughts and put them into life as action. Action is the only way to accomplish anything. If i turn on a focet and walk away and tell you "oh my god someone should really turn that water off... oh wow look how much water they are wasting" but never myself take the action of turning the water off, it will stay on and i will keep wasting the water. Now apply this to time. I keep saying i want to do all of these things, but never do i take the actions needed to get there, and time just keeps passing on by, wasted by my inaction. A rude awakening to us all, is the fact that time is not endless. It ticks away and we get caught up in the stupid petty things of life, wasting precious time we should have been spending on enjoying life and accomplishing our desires and dreams. What im saying is stop thinking so much and start living. Im not saying throw out questioning, or common sense, im just saying dont get to caught up in thinking and miss the opprotunity to live.
Another huge fact of my life is that im a huge history buff, i love ancient history, ancient battle strategy/technique, ancient architecture, ancient literature, art, philosophy just everything about ancient history fascinates me. I also love learning about and studying theology, im actually writing a book about my philosophies of life, theological understandings and many of life's questions that i wish to answer through my own personal experiance and study, im not sure how long it will take to write, but i have a lot to experience and to learn before i can ever come close to finishing it, and of course i also have a lot of wisdom to gain, I may be "wise" to some, but im no Ghandi, or Buddha, or Jesus, or Muhamad, etc. so this book may be finished on my death bed, who knows.
One of my biggest loves is music as you may already know. I gave up everything for it, only to gain back that and so much more in return. Trust me it is worth every moment you put into it, its a lot of work, but anything you have a hell of a lot fun with is. Really the hardest part is getting past the first big bump, which is starting, getting down the basics and just getting comfortable. Every musician had to start somewhere and let me tell you, none of them were pretty in the very beginning and i speak from experiance, i cant tell you how many fuckin times i played Smoke on the Water or Iron Man, let me just tell you that it was enough that if you were around me in those days you forever will hate those songs ;P But ultimately those were thing types of things that started me out. Even then my biggest regret is thinking "hey i want to be a rock star, fuck the fundementals!" hell now i kick myself in the ass as i go back and learn all of that shit. Really all you need to do is just learn the chords and scales, get comfortable with timing and rhythem, goof around and make stuff up, learn about keeping things in key, etc. LEARN THE FUNDEMENTALS AND BASICS so that you can be a guitar player and not a fuck head like me. Dont get frusterated when things dont work out, just keep trying and practice. No matter how great of a player you end up being, you will always have to practice. Stevie Ray Vaugn practices 8 hours a day and as a result he is one of the greatest players in the world and gets to play guitar as a living! how fuckin cool would that be? and the only reason i know this and say it now, is not because im a seasoned player, its because these are the things i struggled with and had to learn to move to the next point. I learned these ethics from the multitude of players i have had the blessing of coming accross. If you dont like me, listen to them.
A big thing for me is the love i have for my family and friends as well as all of the people who have helped me throughout the years, i wouldnt be where i am without them. Sure i have been a dumb ass plenty throughout the last few years, but the ones that meant the most stuck around through thick and thin. These are the people i love with all my heart and would shed every drop of blood in my veins for. Some of those many great people are Steven Potterf, my brother and best friend for the last 9 years, for the rest of my days and far beyond, He is my other half, we are like yin and yang and always have been. Without him i am nothing, he is my counter part always, my wing man if you will. inevetibally he means the world to me. I know that may sound rather gay, but i love the guy more than anything. If it wasn't for him i wouldn't even be close to the person i am today. If god is kind, we will die at the same time, because without him i would be nothing more than a shell to be honest. My parents Lonnie and Bill Matthews, who without i couldn't imagine where id be. They have supported my every ideal and are one of the only reasons i am where i am with music. They have always been great and funded my endeavors for the most part. My brothers Jason and Jonathan, who although we have had our ins and outs over the years, i love you both. Jason you will always be my partner in crime, as it was when growing up. Jonathan i love you lil bro, i know its only 11 minutes that we are apart, and we haven't been the nicest of people to one another throughout life, but ill never let anything happen to you man. Id sooner die than watch you fall. Jimmy Forman and his family, you guys are the greatest! I love you all with all my heart, you guys have always been there for everything and without you guys, i would be at a very different point in life. Wayne has meant a lot to me and changed my life, through all of you. Each of you are a part of him, as are his friends and thats why i feel as if i have always known him. Becuase i know you as i know myself. The times we have shared are to many and to great to recount and i cant wait for the many more to come. ALL of the guys from Top Heavy/Skin Kandy, Shawn Claudin, Tom Foraker, Russ Taylor, Rob Ramirez, Mitch Bitterman, Todd Peterson. You guys mean the world to me. Ever since i first heard your tunes as a kid, i have been mesmorized by it and all of you have been there time and time again for me since i have met you. You guys have been my greatest influences musically and even in life many times. Your guyses friendship and guidence means the world and i would do anything within my power to commemorate that. I hope for many more great times together and many more great stories from the good ol' Top Heavy days ;P I could go on for days about all of the people i wish to thank and commemorate on how much they mean to me, but i really should stop. Another add on to this is ALL of Wayne's friends from Storm Front, etc. You guys are the same. I love you all and thanks for everything. Im sorry if i didn't mention you, its nothing personal. Just trying to hit a few of the many highlights.
But basically what i would like to say to everyone is just hey have fun with life, enjoy every minute of it, just be yourself and fuck everyone else, don't feel the need to be what people and the world thinks you need to be, be who YOU want you to be and don't give me any of that crap, that you have to be this way, you don't have to do anything, we have one gift as humans, the power of choice, you can use it or you can disregard it, thats up to you. You can be something you don't want to be and do something you absolutely hate because you were told to or do something you love and live happy. No im not saying don't listen to your parents and friends, etc. You should always take advice and learn from everyone, they all have something to offer as individuals. Just dont be a pawn of the whole of society. Be the king of your own destiny. Take what you need from peoples experiance/guidence and maybe use it to help influence your decisions, but ultimately, its your choice. Your true friends and loved ones stick by you through it all, none of that floaty fake school bull shit. Life's to short, theres no need for senseless fighting and bickering, just move on and have fun, enjoy yourself once in awhile. One thing i would like to add, is just respect people, respect what they have done for others and for you. Don't be selfish, enjoy what you have and give everything you can, our society is fucked up enough, we don't need to be adding to it. Well hey just enjoy it all while you can. Thanks for reading my rant and pointless commemoration to my life im done now. ;P
If your wondering what i do musically/what my gear is, i play lead/rhythm guitar as well as sing back up and lead, but typically for lead i prefer just straight up vocals as oppose to the dual attack on both guitar and vocals. I have a Peavy Triple X half stack(oh my fucking god is it awesome), a 1991 GSP 21 Digitech effects processor, a Crybaby Wah, a 1987 Gibson SG Elite, an Ibanez RG350DX, an Ibanez RGT6EXFX with EMG's, an early 80's B.C. Rich Raven, an early 90's Jackson Dinky and a Cort Acoustic. If you really are interested, i use Standard E flat or standard typically(my favorite tunings), but i also use drop D on a couple originals. But ultimately i pretty much use everything from standard E-standard-standard/drop B when it comes to covers, but mostly E flat or standard for originals, but at times i mix it up a bit. Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this, talk to you guys later, have a good one.
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