Tales from a Bruised Mind

I am not one to wear headphones every single moment of the day, or get to the point where I HAVE to put music on when I go for a drive.

But, I love listening to music a lot, and I guess that all started with my Dad.

Dad grew up around the piano, and became a very good player. When I was very young, he introduced my brother and I to loads of artists and bands, and would play the best CDs he had in the car on the way to school.

I remember lots of Coldplay’s Rush of Blood To The Head album, as well as INXS Live Baby Live, The Clash and more. It was these early years that solidified my love of music.

Prior to Spotify being invented, one would have to buy a physical CD at a music shop like JB HI FI, or go onto iTunes and buy it that way. It was old school, but you really learnt to savour every ounce of an album, rather than just clicking through the highlight singles.

An album which changed a lot for me is the Little Comets album, Life is Elsewhere, from 2012. For some weird reason, my brother Ben found the album in physical CD copy in, yep, JB HI FI, and we no joke played the shit out of that album.

It was one of those collections of music that were so awesome from front to back. We’d listen to it everywhere, and in those moments, I felt comfortable, happy and at peace.

Our family spent an Easter camping out at Girraween National Park, around three hours from Brisbane. I had my L plates, and so Ben put on Little Comets and we could go and drive around the country roads with those fantastic guitars and vocals singing out through the car’s speaker system. It was bliss.

True story: Ben still has that very CD in his car, and we often put it on and listen when we are together in Brisbane. It’s just so bloody special.

I play music to cope

I recall starting piano lessons when I was around three years old, but I absolutely hated it back then. I was really not a fan at all.

I didn’t want to do theory or music exams, and I didn’t want to put myself through the stress of performing in front of others. It was tough.

But around 2014/2015, I fell in love with the piano.

I had been listening a lot to Billy Joel, the Piano Man, and I just felt so inspired to try my luck at replicating his performances from the comfort of home.

The first song I aced was New York State Of Mind, one of Billy’s most famous songs. I could pretty much play it from start to finish, by memory, after not very long at all.

I am a crap music reader. I used to be able to read bass clef, because I played the cello extensively, but I struggled to read both treble and bass clef together. I just didn’t have it in me.

So, instead, I would literally type into YouTube ‘how to play Billy Joel’s piano man’ and, sure enough, a how-to lesson would come up, free of charge. I literally watched someone else play and matched their chord shapes with mine. It was weird, but it worked. It’s not a technique I would recommend, but it worked for me, which was ace.

Most recently, I have been working on my own music. I no longer go to YouTube for help – I have tried to write from the heart, which is hard.

But I am still as in love with music as I always have been. Nothing has changed.

I hope to share some music with all of you soon, once I have the guts to do so!

Love,

Zak