![Norman C. Brannon ”Concession Stand”Demo, 2008 • Download
GPOYW: The I’m Also a Hack Musician Edition. This diptych, shot by John Mockus at a Texas is the Reason show at Maxwell’s, has always been one of my favorite photos of myself — if only because it doesn’t look like a chaotic rock show at all. We could have sounded like Sigur Rós and you’d never know it by looking at this.
I’m posting this photo for a few reasons today: Firstly because I’ve been thinking a lot about making music again lately — largely because I haven’t been doing much of it — and seeing a picture of myself playing guitar reminds me that, oh yeah, I do that. Secondly, because earlier this week I read an amazing quote by Doug Martsch from Built to Spill that would have caused me to spontaneously high-five the guy if we were within arm’s length of each other:
“If you send me into Guitar Center, I’d get laughed out of there,” he says. “I’m technically not a good guitar player at all. I never took lessons, I never practiced. All I did was grab onto a few ideas and played them with a lot of confidence. [Dinosaur Jr. and Neil Young] know their way around the neck, which I don’t. I just took their aggressiveness.”
This idea — that he plays badly confidently — is the driving force behind ever believing I could make music at all. I realize that there are people who think this is modest speech, but no, seriously! I know people who can “play guitar” and I’m not one of them.
At any rate, the third reason is because I wrote a whole mess of songs at one point in 2007 and 2008, and it occurred to me last night over a dinner conversation that only a handful of people have ever actually heard them. During the writing process, it seemed like I was working towards an album, but when I finished writing, I didn’t feel a compelling need to share. I wrote these songs to get my head right about something, and when I felt good again, I put the guitar down.
But this week’s been weird, and I’ve been feeling kind of sharey, so today I’ve decided to put one of these demos out there — if only to prove that this thing I made actually exists. If you like it, you can share it, too.
I remember thinking that “Concession Stand” was a breakthrough of sorts for this collection of songs — that its delivery felt authentically fragile, whatever that means — so here it is: What it sounds like when I’m left alone in a room with a guitar. It’s not perfect, but I like the mistakes.](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/nervousacid/1048960267/1/tumblr_l82vvoNB0m1qz4yil)
Norman C. Brannon ”Concession Stand”
Demo, 2008 • Download
GPOYW: The I’m Also a Hack Musician Edition. This diptych, shot by John Mockus at a Texas is the Reason show at Maxwell’s, has always been one of my favorite photos of myself — if only because it doesn’t look like a chaotic rock show at all. We could have sounded like Sigur Rós and you’d never know it by looking at this.
I’m posting this photo for a few reasons today: Firstly because I’ve been thinking a lot about making music again lately — largely because I haven’t been doing much of it — and seeing a picture of myself playing guitar reminds me that, oh yeah, I do that. Secondly, because earlier this week I read an amazing quote by Doug Martsch from Built to Spill that would have caused me to spontaneously high-five the guy if we were within arm’s length of each other:
“If you send me into Guitar Center, I’d get laughed out of there,” he says. “I’m technically not a good guitar player at all. I never took lessons, I never practiced. All I did was grab onto a few ideas and played them with a lot of confidence. [Dinosaur Jr. and Neil Young] know their way around the neck, which I don’t. I just took their aggressiveness.”
This idea — that he plays badly confidently — is the driving force behind ever believing I could make music at all. I realize that there are people who think this is modest speech, but no, seriously! I know people who can “play guitar” and I’m not one of them.
At any rate, the third reason is because I wrote a whole mess of songs at one point in 2007 and 2008, and it occurred to me last night over a dinner conversation that only a handful of people have ever actually heard them. During the writing process, it seemed like I was working towards an album, but when I finished writing, I didn’t feel a compelling need to share. I wrote these songs to get my head right about something, and when I felt good again, I put the guitar down.
But this week’s been weird, and I’ve been feeling kind of sharey, so today I’ve decided to put one of these demos out there — if only to prove that this thing I made actually exists. If you like it, you can share it, too.
I remember thinking that “Concession Stand” was a breakthrough of sorts for this collection of songs — that its delivery felt authentically fragile, whatever that means — so here it is: What it sounds like when I’m left alone in a room with a guitar. It’s not perfect, but I like the mistakes.
