"I am your D.J. I am what I play."
Lyrics by David Bowie
Music by David Bowie, Brian Eno and Carlos Alomar
("D.J." from the album "LODGER" released May 18, 1979)
Such true words.
Now that Synesthesia has been released to the world, I would like to open this site with a similar tactic I utilized when I gave birth to my initial blogsite Savage Cinema and completely inspired by the 1996 film "Jerry Maguire," Written and Directed by Cameron Crowe, the celebrated writer, rock music journalist for Rolling Stone magazine and lifelong music fan: the mission statement.
My love for music is vast and everlasting. I could never imagine my life without it. Music has been with me since my arrival into the world and it has been an endless source of joy and inspiration, solace and release, introspection and exhalation ever since.
As my profile states, I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and throughout the entire breadth and scope of my formative years, music was always there for me. Radio stations and the mysterious disc jockeys opened up a universe to me. My life would have been profoundly emptier without the soul of WJPC and most especially, the rock and roll of AM radio that enveloped me on WLS? (All hail Tom Joyner and Larry Lujack, the two most influential DJs of my upbringing, as well as the childhood DJ fantasies that were only enhanced by religious viewings of "WKRP In Cincinatti.") By 1980, I discovered FM radio and again, I would have been lost without the rich musical tapestries found on WMET, WLUP ("The Loop"!), WCKG and to this day, WXRT 93.1 FM remains the best radio station that I have ever had the pleasure to listen to and every time I return to Chicago from Madison, my radio dial immediately goes there.
I came of age with the album and I will forever view the album as a piece of art, just as essential as the greatest paintings, sculptures, literature and films. I will forever cherish the time of my life when the act of listening was the event. Where there was just nothing else but the music. Some of my most favorite musical memories were forged during those periods when I would sit with the album jacket in hand, studying the images, lyrics and liner notes in front of me while the music itself burrowed its way into my soul.
I am a drummer and I began taking lessons as a small child. While I cannot remember the exact period when I started, by third grade I had a snare drum and not too long afterwards, a full drum kit. By the end of Middle School, I achieved some rock star dreams of being a member of a short lived school rock group originally named "The Generics" and forever more known as "Ground Zero" (complete with handmade band t-shirts, created in the school's art studio). I took to carrying my drum sticks in my jeans pocket and even now, I carry them nearly everywhere I go in my satchel, because...you just never know!
I became a full fledged DJ during my college years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's student radio station, WLHA-FM. I hosted a weekly three hour radio show on late Saturday nights (prime radio listening) for every single year barring my final semester, between 1987-1991 under the handle "Savage Scott," a high school nickname that I still utilize for purposes like this one. That time, in that musty smelling basement, surrounded by archaic equipment and powered by a booming half-watt of transmission, it was yet another childhood dream achieved. And believe me when I tell you that I miss it to this day.
Now, we arrive at Synesthesia, what I am calling the official blogsite of WSPC, a mythical radio station whose call letters bear my initials. Over the past few years, I have taken to playing virtual DJ upon my Facebook page, linking songs from You Tube and other sites to somehow create an approximation of what a radio show from me would sound like. I've had a blast doing this and it just makes my heart burst when someone responds to something that I have "played." The next logical extension of sharing my love of music led me to this point, to this new blogsite which I hope that you will visit from time to time.
I find writing about music to be very difficult, as it is something that is so ethereal to me. Writing about film is comparatively easier. Even so, with Synesthesia, I pledge to write about music with the exact same passion with which I write about film on Savage Cinema. I desire for Synesthesia to be a warm, inviting place that will hopefully engage you to think, listen and converse with me about music as excitedly as children do when they wax emphatically about sports heroes while trading baseball cards. For these musicians are heroes to me and I want this site to be a place of celebration and not criticism.
When I share my thoughts with you about an artist, album or piece of music, please do take my musings not so much as critical judgments but as your trusted friend and DJ who is just so, so excited about something he has heard that he just wants for you to hear it, experience it and hopefully love it just as much as he does.
Some postings may be lengthy. Others may not. It is still all so mysterious to me as to what this site could actually be, much like music itself.
But, I promise to write as best as I am able, hopefully inspiring you to take this musical journey with me.
Are you ready?
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