What's your story?
- Kelly Sundown Carpenter
- 29 juil.
- 4 min de lecture
I’ve always found it interesting to hear about how my favorite musicians got started in music. If we think back on it, we all have a little story about how and why we chose this path. So, here’s mine.
BACK IN THE SUMMER OF '88
In the summer of 1988, a buddy of mine picked me up at my house. We were on a mission. We had heard about this huge music store Houston called The Drum-Keyboard & Guitar Shop. Our friends said it might just be the biggest music store in the world. At that time, I played electric guitar, so I was excited to see all the shiny new axes they had hanging on the walls, the amps and guitar pedals etc.
As we pulled out of my driveway, my friend turned to me and said :
” Man, you gotta hear this!”
He slid a cassette tape into this car’s player and the speakers came to life. The first thing I heard was a cinematic intro with the sounds of a hospital, a nurse's footsteps, complete with voice acting, setting the mood for a piece of music that would change my life forever.
The album That Changed my life
This music was full of dramatic ambience, twin lead guitars and technical, syncopated drumming. It was breathtaking, but my mouth dropped open when I heard what the singer could do. He had a huge range, incredible power and an emotional delivery, filled with passion and prowess. He was stunning! The guy was what we call in the business, “a killer.” The album was Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime, the singer was Geoff Tate.
I was completely silent on the trip up to the music store, just absorbing the whole thing. The album was a finely tuned work of art.
We arrived at The Drum-Keyboard & Guitar Shop and looked around for about an hour, it was massive and packed with countless treasures, a thing to behold but it paled in comparison to what I had just heard in the car.
On the ride back to my house, an overpowering feeling hit me and a voice inside my head said “you have to be able to do what that singer can do”. As we pulled into my driveway, I turned to my buddy and said :
“you gotta give me that tape”
He looked at me, a bit confused and said, “I just got it, what are you talking about?" I said, “just give it to me”. He stared at me for a second or so and then pressed the eject button on the tape player and handed me the tape. I snatched it out of his hand. As I walked away from his car I said, “dude, I’m sorry man but just have to have this." I’m not proud of my selfishness at that moment but I wouldn’t change it for the world. That’s how it all began for me. I took that tape and taught myself how to sing to that album.
I sang it in my car, in my room and in the shower. I was possessed!
After about a month, I had it all down. I could sing every note. I felt myself getting stronger, more confident with every stratospheric I could reach and hold. I finally had something to do with my energy, something to focus on.
I wanted to be great and nothing was going to stop me.
No pain, no gain
I remember the headaches I got from constantly belting out those songs. I did it all wrong, sometimes I would even vomit from the headaches but that didn’t stop me from running at the walls until they fell down.
Being stubborn and relentless in the building of my voice has brought me further in my career than I could possibly imagine. It’s given me pride and a belief in myself that nothing else could. But it started with a simple desire : to be able to do something that was very difficult.
THINGS I'VE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY
One is that if you want to make music, you have to be obsessed. You have to consume music and let it consume you.
Another is that it all begins with that one step but if you keep it up, one day you just might turn around to see that you are standing on the top of a mountain wondering how in the hell you got there.
These days, we come across a lot of people who want to be famous, crave the spotlight, they want to be stars. Few of them want to do the work or even know what the REAL work is… So to anyone who’s thinking of throwing their hat in the ring, I ask a simple question :
How bad do you want it?
We built Myriad Voice on the desire to be good guides and mentors to people who are passionate about music and expression. We enjoy sharing and helping singers by drawing on our many years of experience in the music world.
It’s a joy to see someone unlock their potential and take flight. In the end, it’s the hard work that will build your wings.
So, again I ask , how bad do you want it?
Sundown
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