JasonShadrick

Describe your first experience playing music.

My first experience really playing was going to my drum kit that my dad had bought me (an old Leedy kit, made by Ludwig  with WFL snare) immediately following the Beatles’ first performance on American TV on Feb 9, 1964. I had not been inspired to play anything in particular until that moment, and suddenly I was digging in like my life depended on it!

What has been your most significant musical experience?

That live TV broadcast was the seminal one for me, but the one that made me decide to go on living when I was at my most down-moment was hearing Ivan Lins sing “Daquilo De Eu Sei” for the first time (the original version on the Philips label). It was transcendental.

What is the best advice on pursuing a career in music you were ever given?

To focus on playing one instrument- bass!!

What is your favorite sound?

I think it would be the sound of natural water movement; waterfalls, ocean waves, rivers & streams, etc.

Name some of your biggest non-musical influences.

I like to give credit to anybody with  positive message. That would include people like Jesus, Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay, Krishna, Tony Robbins, Ghandi, Obama.

What is the most memorable concert you ever attended?

Brian Wilson’s band of the last few years has been mighty impressive, from a perspective of well-played parts & great singing. Also there have been some Tower Of Power performances that I have seen over the years that were so funky, it smelled like something the cat dragged in!!

Put your iPod on shuffle and name the first 5 songs that come up.

1. “Song of The King” from Rogers & Hammerstein’s “The King & I”

2. “Respect” by Otis Redding

3. “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles

4. “Pamela” by Toto

5. “Driftin’” by Will Lee (Wow, that’s embarrassing, except that Jeff Beck is on the track!!)

Visit Will at www.willlee.com

Describe your first experience playing music.

When I was very young around 3 or 4 my parents used to sing folk songs with their friends at parties. I would sing along an pluck on a ukelele or bang on the table or whatever. My mother was studying classical piano so I heard her practice. I remember liking Bartok’s Hungarian and Rumanian folk songs . Later I took up piano and violin before I took up guitar and played in the elementary school orchestra in Berkeley California. we backed up the jazz band and played songs like Oh Happy Day and Mercy Mercy Mercy. I didn’t start guitar until I was 10.

What has been your most significant musical experience?

Tough question. For me there is no other thrill better than writing some music and then hearing it played by other people. In High School I had a class with Art Lande where we had to come up with a song or small composition for a group every week. It was the deadline that did it and I ended up writing my first songs.
What is the best advice on pursuing a career in music you were ever given?

Well I was never given much career advice it seems, but I do remember one of my early guitar teachers saying that you should make yourself indispensable in a group situation.

What is your favorite sound?

If this was the actors studio I would say something like my first born laughter or something. I am going to be boring and just use music. I like the human voice best.

Name some of your biggest non-musical influences.

I like art, film, literature, food, nature. I think art and film are huge influences…I will really want to play or compose after I see some good art. Music will never be as abstract as painting though. Making scores or writing down music on paper seems like the closest sometimes. I like making a visual image that somehow corresponds to music. I used to like to draw for hours while listening to music and it made me think of how shapes, colors and form can be similar in both fields.

What was the most memorable concert you ever attended?

Well when I was young and not as jaded I got something out of nearly every concert I went to. I can’t say which were the most memorable but Top 5 today are probably Led Zeppelin, Prince (before he was famous) Charles Mingus, Elvis Costello and the Carla Bley big band.Tomorrow I will have another top 5 list.

Put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 5 songs that appear

Dr Lonnie Smith “Turning point”
Aphex Twin “To cure a weakling child”
Franco   “Na Basani Yo Te”
Will Bernard  “Nature walk”
Soul Children “Hearsay”

Go see Will live.  He tours constantly.  www.willbernard.com

Describe your first experience playing music.

I can remember my Mom teaching me some piano snippets as a young Kochling. She has secret powers. She taught me a 12 bar boogie pattern early on and those three chords have hounded me every since.

What has been your most significant musical experience?

I used to do a duo with a legendary keyboard player named Jr. Brantley when I was a teenager and he taught me many things. One of the things he told me was that I would never have to worry about money. That certainly didn’t stop me from worrying but it gave me the confidence to trudge ahead and his musical lessons were invaluable.

What is the best advice on pursuing a career in music you were ever given?

Somewhere along the line I heard some semblance of the following….

If you can’t take occasionally hearing that your best ain’t shit, that everything you think is cool, ain’t, that you ain’t ever going to amount to a hump of scat and/or if you can’t stand seeing cheese elevated time and time again to the heights of success while truly gifted folks live in squaller, GET OUT NOW! BUT, if you can take it, try hard, stick to your guns and treat people the way you want to be treated, you’ll always do fine.

What is your favorite sound?

Strats, Teles and the growl of an expresso machine…

Name some of your biggest non-musical influences

Fight or flight reflex….Negative reinforcement…kruesening…unkruesening

What is the most memorable concert you ever attended?

The first time I saw Eric Clapton with Albert Lee…Summerfest, Milwaukee, 1983…

Put your iPod on shuffle and name the first 5 songs that come up.

“Girl” The Beatles
“Sunset Over Broadway” Roy Buchanan
“Spiral Dance” Keith Jarrett
“Your Time is Gonna Come” Led Zeppelin
“Water of Love” Dire Straits

Find out more about Greg at www.gregkoch.com

Alex is one of my favorite guitarists.  We met right after I moved to the east coast at a Labor Day BBQ of a mutual friend.  It was a bit surreal to see a guy you had listened to for quite a while ask you to pass the bread.  Anyways, Alex is not only an incredible metal guitarist, over the last decade he has established himself as a jazz guitarist.  This past summer we were lucky enough to have him as a guest artist in McLean, VA.

Please check out his website at www.alexskolnick.com

Describe your first experience playing music

I believe it was at a friends house or a friend of my parents who had a piano. I tapped out the riff to ‘Smoke On The Water”

What has been your most significant musical experience?

I think that may have been it! Also, hearing Miles Davis with of his electric bands while flipping channels on TV. He combined screaming electric guitarists (probably it was Scofield or Stern, not sure) with world music percussion, funk bass grooves and jazz harmony. It had the power of metal.  Right then it was clear that how deep music could go and how it was all universal.

What is the best advice on pursuing a career in music you were ever given?

“It takes ten songs to write one good one.” Several people have said something like this to me and I’ve found it to be true. Then there is the quote by the late Hunter S. Thomson:

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”

What is your favorite sound?

The ocean

Name some of your biggest non-musical influences.

Books, especially those by Erica Jong, Tom Wolfe, Thomas Wolfe, Philip Roth, and Henry Rollins, to name a few. Also, food and chefs, especially Anthony Bourdaine and Thomas Keller.

What was the most memorable concert you ever attended?

Prince, ‘Musicology’ tour 2005. He made the Continental Arena in NJ feel like a small dance club and was played guitar as well as any great rock guitarist I’ve ever seen.

Put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 5 songs that appear

“Better Off Without A Wife” (Tom Waits)

” Now He Beats The Drum — Now He Stops” (Chick Corea)

“Mercy Street” (Peter Gabriel)

“The Art Of Fugue, BWV1080: Contrapunctus I” (JS Bach)

“Thunderbird” (ZZ Top)

Our next participant in the 7 Questions project is one of my favorite guitarists on the “jamband” scene.  Jake Cinninger is currently the guitarist in jamband via prog rock outfit Umphrey’s McGee.  They tour A LOT, so make sure to check out a show next time they are around.

An interesting side project for Jake has been OHMPHREY which pairs him up for an improv heavy album with Chris Poland (OHM, Megadeth).

Describe your first experience playing music.

The first real memory I have is when I was about four years I played with Tommy Shaw, from Styx.  He was living in my hometown of Niles, MI and my parents were friends with him.  There was a party at my parent’s place and Tommy was playing Beatles by the campfire and I dragged my whole drum set out from my bedroom and joined in.

What has been your most significant musical experience?

I have had a lot of significant experiences, but just this last summer, two late night shows at Rothbury Music Festival.  As far as the eye could see were little heads and Umphrey’s never sounded so tight and proud.  I remember walking off the stage at 5AM feeling like we had connected better than ever, it was great.

What was the best advice you pursuing a career in music you were ever given?

To create something new, you have to fall on your face once in awhile, get up, scape off the bad bits, and go back to the drawing board.  Great songs are like great stories, you need more than one draft.

What is your favorite sound?

My dog does a mean John Coltrane impersonation, she sounds just like a sax when she is happy to see me, it is my favorite sound.

Name some of your biggest non-musical influences.

My parents and wife, the rest really are musical.

What is the most memorable concert you ever attended?

Todd Rundgren’s Adventures in Utopia Tour 1980 in South Bend, IN.
Put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 5 songs that appear.
She’s got Balls, AC/DC
Great King Rat, Queen
Nobody’s Fault but Mine, Led Zeppelin
Brand New Morning, Bob Seger
Burnin’ For You, Blue Oyster Cult.