It is late Christmas night here in the land of snow, ice, Santa Claus and heavy metal. This moment surely is the right one to start my column for Hard Blast. Thanks to Maila-Kaarina for asking, this is a very pleasant honor! I understand nothing else about music than how it feels and actually after this year, when I've been helping three bands with their upcoming albums, I've learned that I don't need to know too much about music theory and technical stuff as there are other people who do.
My taste of music is wide, from quite limited selection of death metal to the generous world of hard rock with progressive flavors reaching easily to the classical music. The main factor is that good music has to raise emotions. I want to forget the typical borders between different genres and try to keep my mind as open as possible. I believe in the positive and constructive feedback and if there is a band or album that really sucks, I rather not mention it at all than spend any of my or your precious time in telling how bad it is. Music is like books, films, paintings or any other art: the experience is born in the listener's mind and heart and the artist can't really influence so much to that after he/she has released "the baby" to the world. It is a bit short-sighted to make final conclusions based on the first listening as it can happen that an album, a book or a film does not touch at first, but after some time, months or even years later, it will be experienced differently. That is very much to do with what the listener's inner world needs and what is happening in life at that moment.
My family has spent again a Christmas without presents to anyone else but the children. It feels good and I've really enjoyed the presence of friends and my children (daughter 20, sons 17 and 19). Families and softer values will also be needed during the following years and especially now when the financial news and business estimates for 2009 are very pessimistic. But why not focus on anything that we can personally influence on and just ignore the news? They come and go and vary from source to source. The estimates in Finland are said to be the most negative in Europe and only time will show, who had the most accurate crystal ball. Money is made for moving and we need new kind of globalization, leadership and management. I believe that the new era is about to start and I will write more about my thoughts later on. By putting everything on the positive attitude, ignoring the pessimists and encouraging and supporting the musicians, the fans and even the competitors who play fair game, we will survive this downhill.
Anyone's success around us is our success too. Anyone's joy around us is our joy too. May that be the spirit for the New Year! I greet you all with a happy heart. |
