The people that have influenced me.

Whenever I have to think of someone that has influenced me, my mind usually wanders to various musicians. Throughout middle school and high school music was my life, and the same went for a huge portion of kids I went to school with. My high school was a little music scene within itself. Everyone seemed to start their own band with their friends in someone’s basement or garage, probably because their was nothing else to do. What has had a huge influence on me isn’t just one person, but a group of people. When I was a junior in high school some of my friends had stumbled across an underground record label called Shaman Records. They and other people in the scene had shows at their houses, coffee shops, record stores, warehouses; anywhere they could. There was once a power violence show going on in the back room of a building while there was a quinceañera party going on in the front. We were a bunch of kids from a town with nothing to do, bored and misunderstood. Every weekend we’d find a way to wherever the show was at, hear awesome music and meet awesome people. Everyone pretty much knew who everyone else was, it was cheap and fun. By that time I’d gone to enough concerts where I payed too much for bands with too little talent, and too large of crowds. I was sick of seeing people fawn over celebrities and seeing girls freak out over some skinny nerd in eyeliner with a guitar. I was sick of songs about things that didn’t matter and didn’t apply to me. This underground scene was real, the people were real, what they wrote about was real, it wasn’t thought up by a marketing team. By that time I’d heard so many different versions of what “punk is” and it all seemed like hypocrite after hypocrite. When I started going to these shows it was like I’d found the real thing. No one cared what you looked like, dressed like, what brand of combat boots you owned, or anything stupid like that. I’m sure my parents would disagree, but all these shows, and all the bands and people at them have influenced me in a surprisingly positive way. Until then it was like I was always trying to fit in somewhere and there I learned it doesn’t matter. I’ve learned to think for myself, and have a voice. I’ve learned to know what I think is right and wrong, regardless of what anyone else says. I’ve learned to be myself, instead of aspiring to be like someone else.