Upbringing

I think this is my first post of the new year, not really sure.
I been thinking about how I go to where I am today, musically. I guess also in life since music has a big impact on the way I look at things and the way I try to understand things.

I guess the best way to start is from the beginning and I guess its only fitting that I listen to Bad Religion while I type this post. I guess till freshman year of high school, all I did was listen to Indian music. Indian music was what was played at home, and since we didn't have a radio I never payed much attention to anything else. The fact that I attended three different middle schools didn't help the cause also.

My freshman year of high school, attending Alexis I. DuPont High School in Delaware. A friend of mine who was on the soccer team like me and lived in the same neighborhood was the one who broke the barrier. I remember being in his house, no one was home. He asked me if I had ever heard of a band called 'Metallica' Obviosuly I said no, so he played me their new album 'St.Anger' on the stereo for me. I know most Metal fans would say that getting into Metallica by listening to St.Anger is unheard of. Thinking about it today, I agree. I wouldn't recommend that album to anyone but at that time, to my 14 year old ears it was awesome.

St.Anger didn't hit a home run automatically, it took quite a few listen to really get into it. At the same time, I also discovered VH1 Classic. I remember watching a Documentary made by a Canadian Anthropologist Sam Dunn titled 'Metal: A Headbangers Journey.' This film is still one of my favorite even though I do not listen to Metal as much as I use to. It introduced me to tons of bands mostly what people would consider today Classic Rock. This film also introduced me to the field of Anthropology, maybe that's one of the reasons I am an Anthropology major. With the help of Limewire and VH1 Classic, the first two years of high school all I listened to was Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.

During my junior year, my parents forced me to move to California with them. It was while in Irvine, California that I started listening to the radio. I remember, I was still angry and sad for leaving Delaware, so all I would do those after school was just sit in my room and listen to 106.7 KROQ. Boy, I remember at that time KROQ played the coolest music ever. I learned about the Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Rise Against, Bad Religion, Red Hot Chili Pepper and many more. It was like I had hit different gold mine. After finally, getting over the fact that I was stuck in California, I decided to run Cross Country my senior year. I ran XC while I was in Delaware but didn't play any sports my first year (Junior Year) in California. A kid named Chris Miller on team who is still a big Pink Floyd fan is who I credit for getting me into buying CDs. Once a week after practice, we would walk over to UC Irvine to this tiny music shop called Noize. It was there where I bought about 50% of my CD collection. I also remember the first CD I bought there was Siamese Dreams by Smashing Pumpkins. The reason I bought that album was cause of the song Disarm which I had discovered cause of KROQ.

It was also during the spring of my senior year in High School when I attended my first concert. It was March 26, 2008 at House of Blues in Anaheim. The act was Bad Religion. This is was right when New Maps of Hell came out and KROQ was pushing the song New Dark Ages a lot on the radio. I don't think I will ever be able to describe how awesome that night was. It got me hooked to live music.

Everything else is history (at least to me)

I don't expect anyone to read this, but for me personally, its nice to write this down so I can look back to it few years from now.