Monday 13 February 2012

Long live Rock n Roll!



Going to start by saying that this was the best speech I heard in a very long time:


"This is a great honour, because this record was a special record for our band. Rather than go to the best studio in the world down the street in Hollywood and rather than use all of the fanciest computers that money can buy, we made this one in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine...
"To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what's important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do.
"It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head]."

Dave Grohl delivered it last night at the Grammy's, after the Foo Fighters deservedly won Best Rock Album. 
I couldn't agree more with his words. The music industry has to start paying more attention to what true art really is. Spend less money designing puppet performers, disrespecting true talent and diminishing the real deal musicians out there.  It's cool to wear freaky clothes and weird make-up if behind it all, there's a brain capable of writing and performing brilliant tunes. And don't get me started on auto-tune...
I want to believe we, as an audience, deserve a bit more respect. And having said so, I hope that I, the musician, do treat you with the respect you have earned.  
It's not cool to be played along...