Eric Garland profile picture

Eric Garland

About Me

Hello.
I play the drums.
I write music.
I teach drumset lessons.
I learn every day.
And I really do enjoy longs walks on the beach.

-I think a goal of mine that has been emerging over the last year or so is to explore what it means to be creative. How it feels physically, emotionally and mentally for myself and anyone I remember to ask. It's (so far) been endlessly fascinating to me to look into this part of being human. If you feel comfortable doing so, please let me know what being creative means to you, how it feels when you are creative. I want to know about the process in others as I explore it in myself.

-I think if i had a long term goal it would be to find ways to use my creativity to help others get in touch with theirs. Not exactly sure how yet, am slowly getting ideas.

-I remember dancing to Bola Sete in my kitchen when I was 10 years old. Rhythm has always moved me in an intensely visceral way. From the gut. I got my first drumset around 11 years old and began a journey that continues to this day.

-Writing music has been an exercise in learning to trust myself, a process that continues, ebbs and flows everyday.

-I keep a journal and my blogs reflect that inner processing I do with words on my own in a personal way that I try and share with others here in myspace land.

-The songs you hear on this page have not been changed in a while, so....patience please. They will eventually.

-I am a late bloomer. I am in bud state at the present moment. I should hit my stride when I'm 60 I think. Hope you're around to share that with me.

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Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/6/2005
Influences: Like any musician I have a gazillion influences, so heres a few crucial ones, sort of in chronological order from when I was a kid onwards: Bola Sete, Simon and Garfunkel, LED ZEPPLIN, the BEATLES, Phil Collins (sorry, but I have to be honest), Dire Straits, AC DC, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, the Pointer Sisters, the Who, Buddy Rich, WAYNE SHORTER, Janet Jackson, De La Soul, Marcus Roberts, Wynton Marsalis, Bradford Marsalis, MILES DAVIS, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Kenny Garrett, DUKE ELLINGTON (big one!), Louis Armstrong, Tribe Called Quest, Herbie Hancock/Headhunters, Paul Scriver, JAMES BROWN, Stevie Wonder, Prince, the Abbysinians, the Congos, Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, PORTISHEAD/DUMMY, Bjork, DJ SHADOW/ENDTRODUCING, Amon Tobin, Photek, Rebirth Brass Band, the Meters, the Roots, Common/Like Water for Chocolate, Jungle Brothers, RADIOHEAD, Chris Potter, Dave Holland. There's more, but that's all I can remember right now.
Sounds Like: Well, instead of saying what I sound like, which I think is more in the ear of every listener then just me, I'm going to list my friends I'd like ya'll to check out on my space:spaceheaterthe shotgun wedding quintetdublinbrass monkey brass banddj Aspectmore to come!
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

MLK thoughts - 3 - Interdependent

I read this quote this morning and wanted to share. I know I have a tendency to isolate myself in my head, in my own emotional pain, just being human like every other human. It's good to remember how ...
Posted by on Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:00:00 GMT

MLK thoughts - 2 - Happy Birthday!

Today is Martin Luther King Jr's birthday (born Jan. 15, 1928) and I was thinking last week about how Martin Luther King Jr Day was coming up on 1/19 and wondering how to use some of my time this week...
Posted by on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:31:00 GMT

MLK thoughts - 1

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is coming up this Monday, Jan. 19 and his birthday is tomorrow, Jan. 15, so I wanted to share some of the things I'm doing for myself to reflect on who he was, his ideas an...
Posted by on Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:34:00 GMT

wait....really? That's it?

Three hours. Three hours without sto...
Posted by on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:46:00 GMT

scrabble haiku

Had an idea after playing Scrabble last night.....After finishing a game of Scrabble and before you take the pieces off the board, each person forms a haiku using only the words on the board. 5 - 7 - ...
Posted by on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:43:00 GMT

reading emotionally

I've been reading Hamlet lately, I tried last spring but only made it through part of Act II. I started over again a month ago and am taking my time, going slow. Poor Hammie, he's going through a toug...
Posted by on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:38:00 GMT

Go see W Kamau Bell’s show!

I meant to do this a week and a half ago, but...life....stuff....things.....anyways, this is just a short note about you going to go and see a brilliant thinker, speaker and comedian, W Kamau Bell. It...
Posted by on Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:19:00 GMT

End of an era - and smashy smashy to top it off.

Ah Bruno's. I've been playing there with various bands for over ten years, and now, I think perhaps finally, and not of my own choice, I'm done. Last Friday the owner told Adam Thei...
Posted by on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:06:00 GMT

One election day thought

Today was a first for me.Don't get me wrong, I don't expect Barack Obama or anyone to fix what's wrong with this country anytime soon, but today was a first. The first time I really felt like I was vo...
Posted by on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:06:00 GMT

rain

It hasn't rained in awhile here,and tonight I saw rain depicted in a moviecoursing down a window pane as an old man stared out.I was reminded of the feelings I get when I do the same, looking out a wi...
Posted by on Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:43:00 GMT