Sometimes the hardest thing about getting older are the war stories.  When I meet a young musician, they want to open things up, play with them, create something new, then get another toy that helps inspire them to do the same.  When I meet up with friends my age or older, they often want to talk about things that happened 30+ years ago.  It reminds me of guys I knew that would glorify how high they were in the 80’s, how much they drank, how many girls they slept with…  they’d always end it with ‘i’m lucky to be alive’ but it was a way to glorify the rings around the tree.  It’s not as boring as it is constant.

We’re also in the age of disclosure.  If we were magicians instead of musicians, there’d be no more magic shows or magic wands.  All the tricks are freely given away to anyone willing to subscribe.

This was unheard before the internet owned us all.  You think I could find out Bob Clearmountain or Chris Lord-Alge’s process, entire list of boxes, chain etc.?  Only if I were their 2nd engineer.  That’s literally the only way you could find out someone’s secrets… if you had to set them up.

Now with YouTube everyone is showing everything.  There’s a lot of fun in this of course.  I love finding out the secrets I always wondered about.  9 times out of 10 the answer is much simpler than I thought… but the mystery is gone too.  Not the worst thing.  No need to have all this mystery… not in professionalism or in fame for that matter.

It was just different… back in the day.  There see I just did it myself 🙂