Welcome to Why Make Music…, a podcast where we dive into the world of creativity and inspiration,
and to explore why we make music.
Welcome to why make music.
Episode seven.
Let's talk about influences.
I'm your host, ThinkTimm.
And I am here to discuss with you today.
Our podcast, Why Make Music….
On this podcast, we dive into the conversation that I like to have about making music.
And in this episode, I'm going to tell you, I am going to confess to you, I am going to break down all the influences that made me who I am.
As far as a music creative.
Now mind you, I am not a professional paid musician.
I am not a professional paid producer.
I have made absolutely nothing from making music.
I am doing this for the love of music because it is something that I've always done.
I consider myself a hobbyist, a home studio musician, recorder, producer, artists.
And this day and time, the year is currently 2024.
And I have, we all have the technology to put our thoughts into the world.
But for those who may be new to our podcast, I have to explain myself each and every podcast to let you know that I am no different than you.
I am no different than anyone you know that is trying to be creative and put their ideas into the world.
And I want to just constantly share that with everyone to let them know that it can be done.
It can be done.
We all have a idea, a thought, things in our head that we want to go through with.
And unless you take that first step to do it, it will never get done.
So enough about me, even though we will be talking about all of my influences as I grew up in this world.
And I want to share and thank you all for tuning in to Why Make Music…, episode seven.
And let's talk about influences.
Normally every episode, I tend to start the episode off with a story about my, I guess the catalyst that made me do music.
Since this whole episode is about influences and unlike all other episodes so far where I did not necessarily even go into great detail about the names of artists that influenced me or talked or discussed about, discussed anything about their music, whatever.
This is going to be that episode.
Never anything negative, just props given where props are needed.
And obviously if it influenced me, I must like it.
So therefore, there won't be anything negative to be said.
But once again, let's start at the beginning.
Let's start at the family roots of music.
So as I said before, that there are members in my family.
I have an uncle.
I have a stepfather.
I grew up in a musical household.
My uncle was or is still, I guess once you're a musician you're always a musician so you don't really stop being a musician but he's not a going out gigging playing musician but he was a vocalist and a
from bonus, but he also played other instruments you know everyone tends to pick up a lot of different things you know so but the funny thing is he's left handed, and I am also left handed.
But he tends to play his guitar.
Left handed, but he doesn't restring the guitar left handed he just flips the guitar over and plays it that way where I play traditionally with the bass or guitar facing the more traditional way made for a right handed person.
I never actually tried to play it left handed but I'm sure that's a thought in your brain that you have to then, I guess sometime and somehow adjust to more or less but in the 70s, he was with, he had bands in 70s so let's get everything out, out there.
Think Tim.
I am located here and outside of Philadelphia currently, I'm older, I moved outside of Philadelphia but I'm still a stone throw away from Philly.
So it's not a big to do, but my uncle in the 70s was from Nice town, North Philadelphia, and he was in groups, musical groups back in the day.
In the early to mid 70s called the Saboteurs.
They were vocal, group, band, live band, a big band I'm like I'm talking vocalists, keyboard players, guitar players, drums, percussionists, horn section, not a horn player, talking a full fledged horn section.
He was also in a group called Cannabis.
Did they cut records? No. Did they do shows within the Philadelphia area, probably possibly Jersey or whatever the situation was, I'm like you know they stayed local.
And they got down like that.
In the last episode I mentioned that he was the first person that I had an interaction with as a young kid, as a little kid, a little kid under, under five, under three, probably three years old that basically be rehearsed in my grandmother's living room and full band, everybody doing their thing and me sitting there watching that occur.
And from there,
I go to my stepfather who, once again,
I guess it was something in that timeframe just like nowadays people have hobbies and they get together and they do what they do.
But he also was a musician.
His weapon of choice. His main weapon was bass guitar.
The prettiest looking and prettiest sounding bass guitar. I do believe it was a Gibson bass I think was called the subcategory for what I believe the Ripper, if I'm not mistaken, from just pulling off the top of my head and now I'm an old guy so I'm reaching back into the bowels of my mind to do this.
But my man was great. He was good. He was the one he was first and foremost, personally, he was a very very cool laid back mellow well respected man. So, household wise, he was respected as a father, and it was he was a fun dude.
Musically I believe he was just didn't necessarily have the tools at his disposal that we have now to get the stuff further. He did have friends at home recording studios and he did write the music and we did have real to real tapes of recordings that he's done.
I think he actually pressed the album of record at one point I think the song was called brass monkey.
Not like the Beastie Boys’ Brass Money or any other Brass Monkey but it was a Philadelphia thing Brass Monkey I don't know if it ever got any airplay but I played it at my house because I heard it in my house.
And the dude was good. I'm like, multi talented.
He was the reason that I really want to say that me personally me and my brother have musical talent because not only was he playing but in our household we had the bass guitar, I play the Gibson we had to get some bass we had a few Fender knockoffs, we had a think I think at one point we had like a
Rickenbacker bass guitar there. There was the.
I call it the bathroom guitar with the little electric guitar that never get really got played in but if you walk past the bathroom you can hear them playing away and don't doing this little rhythm guitar thing on that but we also had a Les Paul guitar down in the basement.
I think you believe we had like a Hohner keyboard down there organ or whatever back in the day full set of drums.
I spoke before about the Sun speaker cabinets that we had, we had a huge, huge speaker cabinet back then, or even now currently when you are a guitar or bass player you need to plug your bass or guitar up to an amp, and then that amp and in turns goes into a speaker.
To three feet by three feet cube Sunn -speakers plus two other things like it had to be at least five feet or six feet tall by two or three feet wide sun speaker cabinets also that was hooked up and we were wired for sound our household was a very loud household down the basement,
and that's where live music was played and that's where I hung out with and played my records and funnel the sounds that I wanted to hear when I got to that point through those huge speakers.
It's funny because people were it wasn't the odd thing to sit back and say back then that oh you knew someone that was having a cabaret or having to get together and you had a live band and the live band was basically a live local band.
They did covers. They made it a few original songs or whatever but how we got basically introduced to music was at home.
That's where the popular tunes were and a lot of times they were pretty much R&B pop standards or whatever, whatever they were listening to at the time. My pop, my dad had a dude in the band that loves Stevie Wonder so we did they did a lot of Stevie Wonder covers a lot of cool and the gang cameo.
All of that stuff was being played live in the household. Now, mind you, we lived, not in a single home we lived on a block a street that had basically what every city street we grew up in.
We grew up in West Oak Lane. So, city block had 60 houses on it, row houses. So, when you made noise in your house in your basement, it will come out that first out that front window out that back door.
So, fortunately, people were a little bit more forgiving than what they are nowadays as far as calling the police calling the authorities on people who were making noise and doing things, but maybe they didn't because it sounds good.
And like I said, my pops was a respectable dude so therefore, it wasn't like he was some idiot or whatever or some type of a bitch roll line crosser. So, that was just that household, our family in their jam and it was a good sound.
And I really couldn't tell you a lot of times what it sounds like from the outside because I was always inside listening to it. And then plus that situation was that whenever someone took a break, my brother and myself was able to sit in my brother is a hell of a drummer to this day still, but like me.
It's not something that we do professionally it's just something that we can do.
It is what it is I'm like if ever the opportunity came around and we could get together play live I'm sure we can do it and try to play some people wanted to table off the stage whatever the scenario may be.
But, like I said, when you're when you grow up in a situation.
We all speak English, we all play music so we did not necessarily think that we were better than anyone else that played music.
We did not necessarily have any type of musical income coming in because that was a time when people had responsibilities so you adhere to what you're doing and you make sure your family was taken care of.
My dad at any given time coming to the house I like I know there's comedians that make jokes I like I think there's a movie where Samuel L Jackson is talking, and I think it might be it might be Kill Bill, the scene when they're in the wedding chapel, and he
he's playing he's playing a organ player, and he says something to the fact that “oh I was a Temptation. I was this that Spinner, I was a Bar Kay”, blah blah blah there was a group called the Bar Kay’s or there's still there's a group called the bar case.
They had this dude in the group named Lloyd.
The reason why I remember Lloyd, because first and foremost, Lloyd was a brown skinned dude, and Lloyd had the prettiest long hair.
Like I'm talking long straight hair down his back whether it was processed straight whatever the situation may be.
He was a guitar player, and he wasn't like he wasn't like rhythm lead, I'm like soloing guitar player. And from time to time, this dude would be at my house somebody that's so it's like, you have to understand a young kid and his team.
And from time to time you have someone in your home that you saw that you can actually literally say oh this is you on this record now. What function did he play was he a higher gun for that time frame was he a journeyman musician or whatever, but it was a connection that
I know people could make a living doing music. These are the things that I want to talk to everyone about when I say, why make music. I always say in this podcast that basically, if you ask a creative person, why they do something, why are they doing what they're doing.
There will be a story behind what they're doing. And I do believe that the story I'm telling you is one of those interesting situations where you understand why I make music.
I make music and I'm sure other creative people do what they do, because there's no other choice, but to do it.
I do believe that the things I was around growing up and let me like leaves me no choice but to have a love for wanting to make or create music.
So, with that being said, it's funny because back then, I told you there was a dude who loves Stevie Wonder there was this horn player dude that was a white guy.
I don't ever get in the race or whatever like that, black or white, indifferent, whatever, we're people, we're all human. But, considering the fact that he would come to West Oak Lane and pull up and he was one of the best trumpet players and he would come in there and run down the horn lines or whatever.
We had a nice little situation when my brother had talent shows or shows at daycare. This wasn't even in school, this was daycare. We're talking about a kid, seven years old, six, seven years old, on stage playing drums, full set of drums with a bunch of adults.
And at that time I would do, I would work the soundboard and whatnot. And it was a fun childhood growing up around good music. And at that time, we were young and we did not necessarily, we weren't picking the music that we wanted to listen to.
We were listening to the music that was played in our homes. In our house at any given time, you had, so you figure this was the mid, the late 70s to the 80s. Like I didn't start buying records for myself until I guess the 80s or so.
In the household, at any given time, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Motown folks, the Doobie Brothers. Anything that was popular that was on, like we were not limited to what was being played on the radio.
Fortunately, my household, like most households back in the day, you had your mix of eight track tapes, those big rectangular block tapes and records.
The turntable in the basement, turntable in the living room. When there was downtime, like it wasn't a lot of TV watching, music was on. You understand what I'm saying? The music was on so we were listening to it. And this became the soundtrack of me growing up.
Between listening to the music that was playing in my house, so then like as a kid when I'm watching TV, some of my favorite shows are like variety shows. You know, you think Soul Train, American Bandstand.
I don't know if people are familiar with The Captain and Tenille. They song songs on their show. You had the Osmonds, Donnie & Marie Osmond. They had people on there. So when you had a show like that, coming through those shows were the popular artists of that timeframe.
You would not necessarily think that, oh, you're going to catch somebody cool on Hee Haw. But this is how you saw it. The Muppet Show had musical guests. Soul Train had pseudo live people go up on stage and not plug their instruments in and just sing over top of the tracks or lip sync over top of the tracks.
It was what we saw. American Bandstand, you had, what's another crazy one? Solid Gold. You know, like you had these shows that were on that gave you a glimpse into what a live performance of a musician looked like at that time.
And you had your performer performing the song that you were familiar with and that you liked and you knew them for. But it wasn't necessarily at your, it wasn't at your fingertips the way it is now.
So now it's like, oh, you like whomever. You just type it into your device, your computer. You pull up a video. You stream the song whenever you want to stream the song.
There was a big to do where you had to call a record, you had to call a radio station and request the song and see if they could play the song there and you set your cassette tape to record it.
It was a whole different time than what it is now. And I would never want to exist in a time that we didn't have that. I'm like, I'm not saying the world outside of music was perfect by no means.
Like we're still going through things today in 2024. But if I could, if I only could listen to what I wanted to listen to and not necessarily be exposed to other things, I think that my musical taste would have been, I guess,
boxed in, bottled neck. And I would not have experienced other sounds to say, oh, I like that. And what if you combine these sounds together, would you get something else?
Growing up in the 70s and the 80s, in the early 70s now, people that are pop icons now, they're gone. People from the Motown era, people from the 60s, your Elvis Presley's, your Michael Jackson's, your
Miles Davis's, you had people who were great that are no longer with us. I'll get into that a little later. But I kid you not, not until, so sad to say, Michael Jackson has been famous my entire life.
I originally thought of Michael Jackson as part of his group with the Jackson 5, with his brothers. I thought of it more like a variety act. I never thought that he would ever become what he became or become the quote unquote controversial person because of his personal situations or whatever.
Musically, it's, I guess he is what he is. And I don't know, I am one of the few people that kind of attributes Michael Jackson's success to his choice of producers.
By saying that, I say that because, like I said, Motown had a team of writers that wrote the hits, and the artists went out there and they performed the hits. So therefore, technically, even though you were fond of the artists, but there was a production team that put together their material.
Same thing goes for the Jacksons. Some of their popular songs were not necessarily written by the Jacksons and they didn't necessarily have the power that artists have now to have themselves put on to the writing credits or the production credits.
Not saying that people do that, but it's been known to happen.
But the first track that I liked that was not necessarily within the air shot of the Motown era, which might have still been Motown or was it later, Epic era.
Can you feel it? That was a Jackson song or whatever and that was kind of cool.
But in that timeframe, you also had major producers. You had Quincy Jones that was transitioning between being a jazz composer, conductor, writer, crossing over into R&B music.
And he ended up linking up with Michael Jackson. And I think from that point on, that's what catapulted.
Music producer.
With that being said, around the same time frame when this was going on, bubbling in the city and bubbling around my way, we started listening to radio. We're getting a little older. So like I said, Philadelphia, we had a station called WDAS-FM-105.3
And on that station, it was traditionally just pretty much R&B and urban contemporary adult music.
And that's what our household listened to 90-something long and I realized there were other stations that I could go up and down the dial to.
And in 1977, I was a young kid and fortunately, we went to the movies and we saw Superman in 78 and prior to that, the year before that, we saw Star Wars.
And both of those movies left a lasting mark on me forever. Totally unaware at the time that you had George Williams.
John Williams, the composer, composing both this theme for Star Wars and all the music of Star Wars and all the music in Superman. The soundtrack, these are iconic sounds that I heard as a kid.
And I was just like, I'm done by that. But what was more so a lasting memory to me was when I went to go see Star Wars, when I came home that weekend, that Saturday, on the radio,
I can hear either the record being played or the radio station playing their song. It was Earth, Wind & Fire. And I do believe the song was The Way of the World.
So even to this very day, this very, very day, this moment now, when I hear that song played, it makes me think of Star Wars. It gives me that feeling that I had when I came home on a Saturday afternoon,
seeing a movie that basically changed my life as a young person, not knowing. I'm like five, six, seven years old, six, six years old, five years old.
You see something as monumental as Star Wars. And it's 2024. It still exists. It's still going on now. It is still as fascinating today as it was in 1977.
The Donald Williams theme. Fast forward to being a little older and I had a friend named Rick that, best friend, we're still best friends to this day, good friends.
And unfortunately, he doesn't live nearby, but he was in his high school marching band. And he played the trumpet.
And he had at his house, along with his collection of records, he had to soundtrack the Superman.
When I found out he had to soundtrack the Superman, it was like the best thing in the world. It was almost like giving a kid candy.
I borrowed the record from him and I will go down into my basement. And as I told you, we had these huge, super huge Sunn speakers.
I would blast the Superman soundtrack during the day, during the summer, every day.
Like I was insane. Just to take that sound and like you have to understand, like nowadays, I think that, like I said, if you could only listen to what you want to listen to, you would not necessarily grow.
Do I think it's normal for a child, a young kid, maybe at this point I was probably 10 years old or so, time has passed or whatever.
And there is a big age gap between me and Rick, not a big, like, like it's whatever. I guess it wouldn't be like my big brother, more or less so.
But a 10 year old, 11 year old should not be blasting John Williams. Like it's a contemporary boom and 808 song, the way people put it in blast music nowadays.
And once again, like I told you, I don't know what was going on. Time must have been a more peaceful situation. No one called the cops. No one came knocking on my door, told me turn it, turn it down or whatever.
But I had an appreciation for the composition of instruments, of sounds.
These are the elements that go into when you have a fascination with music. Music could be anything. Music could be from the drums, the percussion, string arrangements.
You really get an appreciation for everything. And the sooner people realize that music is something that brings us all together and it connects us in such a way that is something that we cannot live or do without.
Even if you think that you're living without music, you are not living without music. Every aspect of your life has a musical, you have a musical attachment to everything.
There's few things I think that people do that is as common as music at one point or another in your life, whether you're working out, whether you're running, whether you're listening to a podcast.
There's always some type of sound in the background, your favorite TV show, your favorite theme song from an opening TV show. It's all relevant.
And we, it's so normal that we don't even process it as what it is. You understand? Music is almost like air. Music is like water.
I'm like it's something that we basically have and we use and we need and we're not even aware of how we process it, digest it and how it makes us feel. We don't realize the psychological ramifications of sound and how it can be calming, how it can hype you up, how memories are related to music.
You can hear a song and it can take you back to the place you were when you first heard it or attach you to a feeling that you feel, that you felt while listening to that song or an emotion that you didn't necessarily even know was fully connected to that song.
So it's a very interesting thing and I think it should be respected and I think this is part of, this is actually, this is the main reason why I make music. This is the reason why I wanted to do the podcast.
I know maybe earlier podcasts people might have listened and think like, oh this is going to be a gripe session every week. No, I love music. I don't just love my music. I love music as a whole, as a general, and I think everyone does and I think this is our opportunity to connect on the making of music.
I toil with the fact of doing influences because I did not want to get into a praise fest of, oh I like this artist, I love this artist, you should like this artist, blah blah blah.
No, I'm just telling you honestly, these are all the things I listen to. I listen to everything from The Beatles. I'm like when I was younger, I was introduced to The Beatles, I was introduced to Elvis Presley, I was introduced to Buddy Holly, I was introduced to The Whispers, The Spinners, The Temptations, The Doobie Brothers.
The Doobie Brothers was on What's Happening and that was a bootleg episode back in the day where they bootlaid the tape and they got in trouble or whatever. That was my introduction to bootlegging music, the term bootlegging music. You understand what I'm saying?
Like I told you, my dad, my father, my stepfather, great guy, he took me to see Star Wars. I went to go see Superman. I saw the Blues Brothers with Bill, oh my god, Jim Belushi, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd and the theater with Carrie Fisher.
This was like right after around the same Star Wars thing. So like I only knew her from Star Wars and it was a crazy role. She played like this crazy nun in the movie. And the music was cool. Aretha Franklin was in the movie, James Brown was in the movie.
James Brown, do you understand the influences that we've had in the past? The list goes on and on and on and on and on and we cannot really think about all the things that we had.
In my house, we had collections. If you had a turntable, you bought records. There were record stores. You go in there and it's just nothing but records. The world that we have today, some of the little small things I miss so much.
As a kid, you don't understand, you would go to the mall. You wouldn't have a dollar in your pocket, but you would walk around the mall. You would go as a teenager into the record store, Tower Records, Record Theater, Sam Goody.
And you would just look and peruse and look at the records and look at the record album, look at the cover, read the back of the cover. You couldn't read the whole line or notes inside of it, but you would look at it.
I'm like, it's so much stuff to me today that's no longer there. But the internet gives you such another look, another world. I'm like, it's another view. Obviously, money is still being made, so therefore, there is no comparison.
I think probably more money is being made today than it was being made then. So, anywho, but the list goes on. Growing up, at any given time, you had George Clinton, Parliament, Sly and the Family Stone. You had James Brown. You had Minnie Rippleton, Dionne Warwick, Sister Sledge, The Pointer Sisters, Gladys Knight.
The first concert I went to was with my grandmother. And I'm assuming it had to be some type of church thing or whatever because I can't see my grandmother just taking me to a concert or a humbug or whatever.
But it was Gladys Knight at the Valley Forge Music Fair. And the Valley Ford Music Fair is a stage in the center that spins around. I don't know if it still does it now, but I haven't been there in forever. But it's spun around, so no matter where you sat at, the stage in the middle was spinning or whatever.
I knew who Gladys Knight was. I didn't know. I knew a lot of the songs. She was singing. I was a young kid. When I came home, the only thing I remembered was, I don't know what time the show was, but by the time we were home on the news that day, they were interviewing her.
And my biggest thing was like, oh my gosh, she doesn't look anything like she looks on stage because she had her makeup off or whatever. And then she might have the wig on. She took the wig off or whatever. She was looking like a normal person. It made me realize that this music thing is a job.
You don't necessarily have to be that person all the time. You can be that person from time to time when it calls for it. But, anyhow, yes, music. So when I started to get the chance to listen to music, when I discovered that the radio station doll moved, when I discovered that I could borrow records or I could listen to the records that are downstairs and I can dig through the records and I can pull up and I can put on.
I can put on whatever gently, you know, by putting the record on the turntable down the little peg in the middle. Use the little spacer for the 45s or the little rectangle, cartridge, triangle dip and they could drop down or whatever.
You'd be very gentle placing so you don't want to scratch your record and ruin your record forever because it's hard to get out to get a record, a scratch out of a record if ever you could ever get one out. There are plenty of songs, not until the digital version of the song came out that I actually heard the song without having the scratches in it.
Not the DJ scratch, but the scratch from the record that made the record skip or jump at that point. Whatever. But when I started turning the radio station down from DAES and this is before we had our R&B hip hop stations, Power 99, Q102 and all the things that are popping in Philadelphia.
The beat, what are those three? I don't even know if the beat still exists or whatever. But, anywho.
There was pop music. And I'm talking pop music. I'm talking Phil Collins, I'm talking Chicago, I'm talking Aerosmith, Rolling Stones.
That was being played. I remember songs like Human Touch by Rick Springfield. What's the other thing back in the day? My Angel Is A Centerfold. This other song called 69 Love Affair. These are songs that were being played on the radio station.
That was not necessarily the quote unquote urban city radio station. This was made for more of the majority, more of the pop music audience or whatever. And I listened to it. I felt nothing wrong with it. I'm like, and I got into it. I'll tell you a secret. It's not a secret.
One of my favorite songs to this day is the theme song from the Greatest American Hero, Believe It or Not. I was so proud of the fact that I knew that song. I knew that song had a second verse.
You know, like I love that song. I got teased by my mom one day because she was like, oh my God, you're sitting in your room with your headphones on and you're in here screaming the top of your lungs. The Believe It or Not song from the Greatest American Hero.
That's how you got familiar with things. You heard songs and I probably liked that song more so than I even liked the TV show, the television show. That was the 70s. That was the 70s and 80s. The biggest influence I have happened to me and it did not occur by my choosing.
This is the honest truth here. Somehow in my household, the single Soft and Wet by Prince made its way into my house. I'm assuming it's my mother. She bought the single. I listened to the single.
I loved it. Too young to really be into the Soft and Wet scenario, but it was the late 70s, early 80s and it had a monumental effect.
I paid attention to that song. A year later, I paid attention to I Want to Be Your Lover. Third album, Dirty Mind. By the time Dirty Mind's album rolled around, my friend Rick was three albums deep into the Prince thing.
So therefore I would get cassette copies of the Prince album from him because I was too young to go out and buy records and I would listen to it. I'm telling you, the way people have iPods.
I was a kid. I had a little component set in my bedroom. They had a tape deck player and I had a record player in my room and I would borrow records. If you had to go to the library and borrow records, I would sit back and I would listen to it. I would make the cassette tape version of it.
I would sit with my headphones on and I would listen to it over and over and over again. That's when I started reading the line I know is between Prince, between looking at the artwork on the Parliament Funkadelic album, between reading all the crazy astrological, otherworldly things on the Earth, Wind & Fire album.
It made me realize that these people were doing more than making music. They were building worlds that you could immerse yourself into that basically made you think that you were actually leaving where you were at to journey to where they were making music from.
It made music something other than worldly. It made music something that was almost like a gift that was being delivered to you.
Because they spent the time to create these images, these point of views that immersed you, costumed you.
It started translating over to early hip hop. If you look at early hip hop artists, you look at when rappers first came out, they were dressed like they were still part of rock groups or part of George Clinton and the P-Funk all the stars.
I remember when Planet Rock first came on, you would walk up and down my block, I told you, that there's 60 houses, you might have heard that song 60 times, 60 different spots in the song because everybody was playing it.
The message, Rappers Delight, Run DNC, The Fat Boys, LL's been around forever, LL's still around now, LL just put out another album, like 5 decades of putting out albums, 50 years, that's crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.
Public Enemy, Houdini, Special Ed, Salt and Pepper, Queen Latifah, MC Lytton, KRS-1, these are groups, these are people that were, that's the sonics, these were the forefront of music that we take for granted nowadays.
And there's tons of people that I'm leaving out, I'm not even mentioning their names, I'm not saying the names escape me, but this is like, you could just make a list forever of how music has been around and it has changed.
When Aerosmith and Run DNC did walk this way together, that was one of the greatest things in the world, it changed it, it blended, it made a blend of rock music and rap music, the video captured that, it changed marketing.
Do you stout? Or the book called The Tanning of America where it talks about the effect that hip hop music has had on the marketing industry, do you realize they told us in the very beginning that hip hop was not going to last, hip hop was not going to be around.
Here it is, this is now almost like the main genre of music, hip hop sells just as much music, I think the only thing that's really outdone by is probably what you hear in music, and I think that's just a demographic scenario because there are more people who buy country than there is that buy hip hop.
And the thing with that is that some people who buy country also buy hip hop, but the favor's not returning where people don't necessarily buy countries that solely support hip hop.
But anyway, I like all types of stuff, country start, if I left it out, you have Dolly Parton, you have Kenny Rodgers, you have, yo I like Garth Brooks back in the day, and then Garth Brooks decided to do poppin' changes named Chris Gaines.
Who did you know blowfish? Johnny Cash, I'm like you cannot dislike any type of music. Elvis was country, Elvis was, Elvis stole the money, it was what it was.
I'm like, what is country music, country music was created by African Americans, I can't wait to hear the history of it all, I'm like it is, it is what it is, no lie, no truth, this is it.
They say now they have no cap, this is it, it's the truth, it's how it goes.
But um, you listen to all this stuff, and all this stuff pours into you being who you are. In the 80s we had this flourish of musicians, of artists, whether they were produced or whether they were self written themselves, that raised the bar super high.
You had the Madonnas, you had the Bruce Springsteens, you had the Michael Jacksons, you had the Princes, you had all these people that went off and caused other people.
There would be no Lady Gaga today if there was not Madonna. You understand what I'm saying? There would probably be no Coldplay today, or you too if there was no Bruce Springsteen.
Prince has influenced everybody from rappers to singers, musicians, me.
There's an offshoot of producers that came after him.
Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis.
They went on to produce so many other hits. SOS Band, Human League, Janet Jackson, Freddie Jackson who was also part of the Minneapolis side, not Freddie Jackson, but Andre Alexander O'Neil.
It's countless.
All I'm saying is that these are all the influences that a person takes in. You take all of SOS.
I'm not saying that okay if you read every Stephen King book, you read every Michael Chrichton book, you read every book by John Grisham, that all of a sudden that just because you read those books you're going to turn around and write a book.
It's different with music. I think that if you take in a lot of music, if you are open, if you're a musician, and you're listening to a world of music, when you go to put the music out, when you go to create your own music, all these other influences will somehow be there.
So, you're going to be doing what you're doing.
I told the story on the other episode where I said back in the day I put an ad in the trading times, trying to get a band together. This was in the 90s, 1990s.
And before that of course so you had to put it out on the paper, find it, whatever.
And the influences I said, if you're a fan of Prince, Miles Davis, George Clinton.
I used the word alternative at that time frame because I just was trying to say something different.
So these are the people who influenced me. Sly and the Family Stone, Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham on bass, Larry Graham reinvented the bass thumping.
You know I'm saying that's Larry Graham something that people do every single day. Stephen Vai on the guitar. Oh my god these people, Eric Clapton, Robert Plant.
So many different people. The Who, Led Zeppelin. These are people that if you isolate yourself to one genre of music and listen to one thing all the time, you will never experience everything that there is to have.
Your influences. These things go into you. It's like almost like being well versed, well spoken.
You may not be well traveled around the world. You may not be able to travel around the world and go from place to place. Musically, you can listen to everything from reggae.
Oh my god, reggae.
Who would have, I'm just like saying like if you have not taken the time in your life to consume everything that there is to consume and listen to everything that there is to listen to.
It's crazy. This is the episode number seven of Why Make Music…The Influences. Talk to me. Tell me what influences you.
Heartfelt. Seriously. Like I haven't been getting the comments. I told you. I tell you seriously. I'm trying to interact and build a community.
I enjoy talking to whomever is listening. It's a very humbling thing. I checked the numbers out and we're doing okay.
People are tuning in listening. Tell a friend. Email. Send. Text this episode. This is the episode that I think I have finally found a comfort level where honestly you had to get tired of me complaining about social media.
You had to get tired of me talking about the music industry as an independent artist if you're not an independent artist. This is a relatable topic of listening to your favorite things.
Talking about something that the average person talks about. What influences you in music. What makes you you because of what you listen to.
Now I say that because as of lately I've been introduced to newer things like the world I'm experiencing the Taylor Swift effect.
I am so blown by the way this young woman has taken over her business and her distribution to get her music out there to the world and to take ownership and to financially benefit from that.
I am outdone by Billie Eilish and her brother Phineas who produced their albums basically in their home using Logic Pro and can give you an award winning album.
These two people in the last two years have won two Oscars for two songs for two movies. They won two arms full of Grammys and vocally the music is stimulating and as far as production wise it is excellent.
It can be done. You can be a home artist a home basement dwelling studio person making music and you can always find your way because there are people doing it.
We have the technology George Lucas himself said that with the amount of technology that you have on your device in your pocket you should be able to make a movie.
I'm not telling everyone to step out of their comfort zone and become creators but what I'm telling you in 2024.
There is no excuse that you cannot do it. There is no excuse whatsoever that you cannot make it happen because you have everything you need at your disposal in your pocket and you can make it happen.
You know it's amazing. I don't know what else is I don't know what else to tell you. I don't know what else to say about it but you can do it.
I sit back and I think like oh when I was growing up around my way we had people who were.
As I'm telling you this right now I'm thinking about the folks that I knew growing up on my block and there were people that were rapping singing doing music production and they didn't necessarily do it.
They got some airplay. There was a rapper named Jazz. He had a rapper partner named Rich that used to hit up things called rap. Rich looked up them on block and Jazz frequently looked up them on block.
But back then they were like stars. I didn't have the heart to tell them that the time frame because I didn't have to tell them that the time because you know you don't necessarily know what celebrity looks like. We don't know what it looks like to be that person.
But yo these cats were walking around rapping all the time and I will put them up against anybody that's out right now. Anybody. I'm not saying Philly is strong, rappers but Philly got it . Philly has always been strong on rap.
Filly has always been the spot. You got Questlove and The Roots oots of the representing & BlackThought,,, The epitome of rap.
I'm like I know he may not selling a million records. He may not necessarily be on everybody's list but he is the guy.
Looking down on my shirt in this joint. Guns n' Roses. Don't sleep on rock groups. Don't fall victim to a stereotype. You can like anything you want to like.
You can listen to what you want to listen to. You can be who you want to be. You can do what you want to do.
You understand? You feel me? Yeah you do. You feel me.
But anywho. Growing up, listening to music. You suspect anything about your personal journey.
A lot of the people who I like. A lot of the people who I admire are gone. They're gone. They're dead. You won't get any more music from them.
Fortunately not everyone had a large catalog like Prince did that music is going to still be put out long after you've gone.
Even the quality agents aren't there anymore or whatever. You can't say that. It's always there.
The time that a person spends to create something and to put something together will never ever go away. Music is timeless.
Music is something that's going to always be here. You cannot escape the fact that every aspect of your life is crafted, designed by music.
Everything you do. You know that? Everything you do.
So once again I want to tell you. Why do you make music? Tell me why do you do the things you do? Why do you create? Why do you make music?
Get back at me. Let me know. I'm curious. I really want to know.
I do. But I know when I met this out I did not think that I would be 60 minutes in on a rant about influences.
And I haven't really touched on a lot of things. But I think you need to think about the power of music and creativity.
And think how the exploration of an artist can fundamentally change your approach to making music.
Not until I saw...we all know the phrase. I might get it out of order. But is it written, arranged, composed and performed by...
And I say that because it was written, arranged, composed and performed by one person. Did it give me the green light to think that I could do everything by myself?
And if it was originally by picking up a bass, guitar, playing drums, playing the keyboard. You realize that you can do everything.
Not until they ended up with...over here you have four tracks. You have the four test cam four tracks. You have drum machines.
And then you have all these digital audio workstations that have now become the catalysts of everything.
It has completely leveled the field for creativity. It has completely said that oh, there is nothing I cannot do as a creative.
Like George said, George Clinton, if you ain't in the funk, you are the funk. I don't know if that doesn't make it up.
But anyway, it ain't nothing but the dog in me, homie. You understand me? There are leaders. There are followers.
What are you going to be? Are you going to be a creator? You can be a creator and a listener. You could be a maker. You could be a molder. You could be a shaker.
You understand what I'm saying? You could do whatever your heart desires. You could be whatever you want to be. The world is yours. The world belongs to you.
What are you going to do? What are you going to be? Why make music?
That's the podcast. This is episode seven. Let's talk influencers. Talk to me. Tell me what influences you.
I ain't afraid to say it. I was influenced by Star Wars superhero movies. By Prince. By my family. By my friends. By my mind.
And I'm just letting you know, it's about that time. We're going to have to walk our way out of here. We're going to walk our way to the door.
I'm going to take you. Hit me up on my social media platforms. Like it. Subscribe. Listen. Tell a friend. I'm not going nowhere. I'm old.
I'm going to be in for at least another 30 years. Hopefully. So. Every week for 30 years. Tune back in. ThinkTimm . T-H-I-N-K-T-I-M-M.
W-D-M-N on your FM dial. Tune in. I'll catch you then. I'll catch you there. I am here and there. I am everywhere. I was also influenced by Dr. Seuss.
Tell me what were your influences? Do you have an influence? Are you influenced by the air you breathe? The water you drink? The beds that you do?
The shows you watch? The sneakers you wear? The team you like? Influences are everywhere. I am ThinkTimm. ThinkTimm… if nothing else.
Peace. Love. Be wild. Enjoy. Make music. Ask why. Make music. Ask yourself. Ask your friends. Ask the creator that you know.
Why Make Music… Why Make Music…. ThinkTimm. Social media. Instagram. Twitter. Reddit. All those things.
We got a following y'all. We build the community. I just need y'all to speak out. I need y'all to pass it on. Let's do something. Let's video chat. Hit me up. Let me know what can I do.
I want to hear from you. Yeah. We can do this. ThinkTimm..
Peace.