addicted.

Hi, my name is Nathan (hi nathan..), and I'm addicted to music.

When I was 7 or 8 years old, I first tried it. I started with easy things, not too much weight. Back in the day, K-LOVE was the majority of what I listened to. Yes, K-LOVE, and the 10 songs that they play over and over again. I loved it. Avalon, Point of Grace, Plus One (the christian substitute for boy bands), Third Day, and many more were the joys of my early childhood. To this day, I could sing lyrics to most Avalon songs, and I can still hear the incredible harmonies. Entering middle school, my musical taste began to shift to heavier more addictive forms. To get my daily fixes, I turned to gradually more "edgy" styles of music for the time. I still can remember how mature I felt going into the Christian bookstore (ha) and purchasing the Skillet CD, Collide (which I still love), and I remember being embarrassed to let my family hear the grating guitars and the pounding drums.

Though Skillet was definitely big, no one was, has, or probably will be as influential as Relient K has been to my musical development. It is fairly embarrassing to my now hopefully-cultured musical taste to reflect on the roots to my musical selections, but hey, it's what I liked. As a qualifier, I'm not talking about Relient K being uncultured. By no means. I love them. Really. I have every album that they have (and all the EPs), but its really sweet that I've actually bought all except for the first when they actually came out. I got to see them mature, right along with me. As with Avalon, I know every Relient K song lyrics; just ask anyone who knows me. Right about when the Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek came out (6th grade-ish), I got a drumset. Starting by jamming at my friend's house occasionally, I began to learn the ways of the skin set, and I have never looked back. Until now that is. After getting my drumset, I spent the next year annoying the daylights out of my family and keeping my neighbors up at un-godly hours of the night. Yea... sorry. I started playing along to songs, a lot of Relient K and Skillet, and that is about the time that my musical taste really began to evolve.

Middle school was my great expedition into the world of secular music. Whole new genres opened up and I found tons of new music. Linkin Park (another quality group...) was definitely a great new addition, and many others came along. I started to discover heavier and heavier types of music. My first heavy bands were definitely Dead Poetic and Demon Hunter, both good solid christian groups, but to this day I still listen to both (Demon Hunter only occasionally ha). At that point, I thought Underoath was a bit grating. Oh, how far I've come. Along with these bands, I started listening to Living Sacrifice, my first truly "metal" band. They are pretty intense, and to this day, they are probably one of the heaviest bands that I listen to. It really suprises me to think how much I liked them when I first heard them. My afternoons during middle school were comprised of hours spent on purevolume.com, an online music site. There I discovered Tooth and Nail Records and Solid State Records, still my two favorite recording groups.

To put aside my hardcore aspiritions for a moment, I also began to become personally very involved in music. I loved concert band. Since the 5th grade, I played trombone, then I learned the euphonium (google it), and eventually in high school, I played the Tuba!. Outside of school, I began to play drums for a worship band at church with Deej, Spence, RJ, Christian, and Staci (for like 2 seconds). Luke Mitchell started us playing together and we loved hanging out, jamming, and playing worship. As middle schoolers, we were not too bad. I'm certain that we definitely overrated ourselves for how good we really are. Again, I've come a long way. As a short aside, I tried to sing Sadie Hawkins dance in 7th grade, since I was the only one who knew all of the lyrics. Needless to say, they still make fun of my for it, and it scarred my singing abilities for years. Singing is definitely not my gift, but I have, again, come a long way, and I can now sing adequately. We played worship for the middle school and this was definitely where I began to feel the pull towards music.

My addiction was now unbreakable. Between school, home, and church, I was always immersed in music. Back to my personal music, I have always had a unique musical taste, and middle school was no exception. At any moment, I could be listening to my christian classics (Relient K, and the likes), my newly-discovered hardcore music, classical music, or classic funk (Oh, Earth, Wind, & Fire is so amazing). In general, however, I definitely was leaning towards metal and hardcore. During my freshman year, I began to listen to tons of new music. Recently discovered were The Showdown, Underoath, Chiodos, and along with others I became more inclined towards heavier music. Another prominent group who I have neglected to mention is P.O.D. They have done much to shape my music as well, for better or for worse (ha). It does well, however, to mention that during my freshman year I saw Aerosmith play with Lenny Kravitz, if that says anything for how weird my musical taste was. During my sophomore year, my hair started getting long (ugh..), and I started going to shows. The hardcore scene, especially the OFY shows, became the focus of my musical, and much of my social life.

Strangely enough, much of what I listened to was not hardcore. I developed, mostly through my Dad, a love for Jazz and soul music, especially listening to Tower of Power, the W's, and other ska like the O.C. Supertones. For smooth jazz, we had the 101.1 Talk FM Smooth Jazz weekend (its your time....) where I discovered the joy and beauty of jazz music. Jeff Lorber and Dave Brubeck are only two examples of the wonderful genre in which I often find myself today. Through high school, I have played in the Jazz band every Wednesday after school. After learning the ins-and-outs of Jazz, I began to play improve solos, and now I have become one of the cornerstones for our Jazz Band. It's incredible to see how far I've come.

Back to the hardcore scene, Mitchell and J.P. introduced me to shows, and I had lots of fun hanging out, being with musicians, but most importantly--dancing. Hardcore dancing cannot be described in words; if you really want to know what it is, ask J.P. sometime. It is hilarious to watch, but it is suprisingly fun, and is a great way to feel like you are actually awesome (I definitely was not ha). Being on the outside of the scene, I began to play more frequently with our church band, and we were definitely improving. We began to play some stuff outside of church just for fun, and we wrote some songs. I spent many Saturdays and Thursdays in the High School room disturbing the peace, playing lazer tag, eating someone else's ice-cream, and who knows what else. Those were definitely good times and we all developed a lot as musicians.

Due to various issues and changes within worship at the Core, I now play as part of the worship team, not as part of a specific band. It's been fun more recently to play a lot more percussion and make use of my music theory more than just playing in a band. I knew all those years of concert band would pay off eventually. But, I digress. To fast forward to today, my musical taste has gone through many changes, additions, and all sorts of evolutions. I have gone through harcore phases, jazz phases, classical phases, punk/pop phases, jam band phases, reggae phases, hip-hop phases, indie phases, and even more. I could talk about music for hours, and I have spent enough time discussing my addiction, and I'm sure you're tired of it. As music began to take over my life, I sat back and basked in the wonders of music. It is God's gift to me, and one of the ways I best worship and hear from him. I am, however, hopelessly addicted. But, I see no end to it anytime soon. That's perfectly fine with me. Thanks for listening.

nate.