Clear, floating surgical staples:

There is this reoccurring theme in my life...music motivates me.

I think for a lot of people, music is the language that activates this very special part of the brain, serving as an amplifier of mood. "40 oz. To Freedom" by Sublime can make any beach day brighter, sunnier, more eventful. "Pretty Handsome Awkward" by the Used could very well cause you to get a speeding ticket.

Fore me, this musical motivation also stirs up the feelings of wanting to be more involved with the process of musical creation. When I listen to a song, I daydream about what it must have been like for the singer to decide to hit certain notes. Did the drummer set his drum set up on a rug to prevent vibration, or was he going for more reverb?

At this juncture in my life, I work hard at a job I love, I have a fiancee that is head over heels for me, and a new house with two dogs terrorizing the backyard. I know I have it great.

When I played in a band in Tallahassee, I got a taste of what it was like to have a fanbase. We had merch. We had demos. We had newspaper articles. I was music, and music welcomed me in.

I want to be on stage playing in front of wide-eyed crowds who allow music to take them to another world. I want to be in a studio writing these great little melodies that may one day wind up in a song. I want to support live music, big and small...long distance and local. I want to promote bands that I feel as though deserve much more press.

A lot of this feeling of "more, more, more" comes from a fear of growing older and not being a part of "the scene." An even bigger portion of this feeling is made up of knowing how great music is. Knowing that musical bliss is a power chord away is exciting, and every time my mp3 player cues up something that I know would be a crowd pleaser, I daydream of being that musician, making people smile with the music that I am taking from my head and transmitting it through a tube amp.

For me, music is like clear, floating surgical staples. It is an abstract and airborne way of healing, a free trigger for your happiest neurons. So while music motivates me in a beautiful way, it also is a reminder that I need to always continue listening. I need to continue creating. I need to break into the industry and help an 11-year old who is missing something in his life to find that perfect CD that he can put on loop, stare at the album art and imagine. Music amplifies the beauty, and reminds me that I can never let it go.