Absolutely Nothing To Do With Music – an editorial by J. Hayes

I had a porch swing growing up. It was a wide one big enough for 3 people if they liked each other and 2 if they didn’t. Which comes in handy in most families. And that has nothing to do with music but porch swings do have a rhythm all their own.

I’m moving now; packing and preparing. I’m moving to an island that starts to get quiet this time of year and when I tell people I’m moving there, they say “Oh, it starts to get quiet there this time of year!” like that’s a bad thing. And I just say, “I know.” And that has nothing to do with music but there is something about the sound of the waves crashing on the beach when no one is around.

I told a friend that I wanted to take up birding and he humored me, which I love him for, and sent me information about a highly rated bird watching “app” for the iphone. My wife has one, which she lets me use and although I used to say I would never pay for an app, this birding one really looks pretty cool. Which in and of itself is a fairly significant feat for a birding app. And that has nothing to do with music but I’ve always admired folks who can recognize a bird by its song.

I’m looking forward to chopping wood this fall to heat my home. I can’t cut much on my property so I’ll get some logs from nearby farms, but I’ll split them myself. And that has nothing to do with music but there’s nothing quite like the crack of the axe and the echo against the cool, crisp autumn air.

So I have this friend that I worry about sometimes. For many of us in the music industry it can be all consuming. I mean we have music friends. We talk about music, we’re in the studio during the day or at a rehearsal, then at night you might have a gig or maybe you’re out catching a friend play at a local spot… and then it continues into the rest of your life. I suppose it can be like that with any career if you let it. And that’s okay to an extent because we are doing something we love and we should remember how lucky we are. But at the same time art needs inspiration like a plant needs air and sun. You can’t keep it in a box all the time or it will die. Inspiration should be life and air and sun and everything around us. We, the consumer and creator alike, connect to music that speaks of our world or the world we want. Music can be the groove of a porch swing, the dynamics of the mid-winter tide, the melody of a birdsong or the power and guttural eloquence of steel against wood. It can be a childhood remembrance or a blossoming fascination. It can tug the heart strings or engage the mind simply by conjuring little bits of the everyday in honeyed reverence.

In the end, I find, the most moving sounds come out of all those things that have absolutely nothing at all to do with music.

Live Well and Listen Closely,
J. Hayes

read more articles by music writer J. Hayes at: http://www.examiner.com/x-4161-New-American-Music-Examiner
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art direction & design by www.hayesmusicdesign.com

special thanks to my family, friends and my editor Kellee Webb