I've been playing an instrument of some sort since I was pretty young.
I don't recall exactly how young, but I'd guess about 6 is when I was forced to take piano lessons.
My mom always told me I'll wish I had stuck with it when I'm older.
I guess she can go put another point up on the scoreboard.
In middle school I was in the band playing the baritone, though at the time I was wishing I could be playing the trap set.
Drums in the house weren't an option, though I can't imagine why.
I gave up that after a couple of years, too.
I'm not too upset to have lost that skill.
I think I could still play a scale and empty the spit valve pretty efficiently if I were to pick one up right now.
Then puberty hit (I was about 19) and so did my fascination with loud, obnoxious music.
An afternoon with Nirvana's Bleach and Green Day's Kerplunk were enough to keep me occupied.
"Come As You Are" is the first song I learned to play on my mom's old acoustic.
The thing is older than I am, and I still have it stashed in my closet.
Anyhow, this isn't really going anywhere at this point.
I could be mistaken, but I believe I started writing my own songs at the ripe old age of 13.
Actually, I don't know if these could be scientifically classified as "songs " Considering what I was listening to at the time, combined with my absence of skill, I can only imagine that they were out of tune symphonies of C-G-C-G-C-G-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D.
Or something close to that.
I don't know if it was the Smashing Pumpkins or Rage Against the Machine that saved my life, but somewhere along the age of 15 I realized that it is possible to write a song WITHOUT POWER CHORDS.
After recovering from the ensuing shock and awe brought by this discovery my songs toned down and got better, and it's been a downward spiral ever since.
The first band I was ever in was called The Sheds.
It was comprised of my cousins Brad and Lance, and myself.
We got together a few times a year at my grandma's house, at which time we would promptly lock ourselves in her toolshed and begin writing and recording.
A single-mic tape recorder is what we used, along with an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and a medley of boxes, tupperware, and screwdrivers as percussion.
Some interesting recordings came out of those sessions.
It's pretty safe to say that anwhere from 64-93% of any given song was improv, and resembled what I imagine Sonic Youth sounds like while they are sleeping, or otherwise incoherent.
Band number two, SilverTwinkie, was more along the lines of being called actual "music." The philosophy was much the same as The Sheds: pick a cool riff, then press record and see what happens.
There were only two of us in this band.
The third member, the mysterious J. Stetson, was actually a circa-1989 Casio keyboard, the kind that had the octogonal drum-pads and absolutely superb grand and rock piano sounds.
With SilverTwinkie we actually had a small, but loving, fan-base.
We had girlfriends, too.
But, alas, all good things must come to an end, and then you have to break up with your girlfriend.
There was a while there when I only recorded by myself.
I think this, more than anything, influenced the way my music turns out these days.
Maybe not so much the songs themselves, but the way I go about writing them.
It's difficult to record 2 guitar parts, vocal harmonies, and some sort of percussion with only 2 cassettes, a boom box, and a single-mic tape recorder, but I pulled it off a couple of times.
It was during this time, now being about my senior year of high school, that I chose to go by my first initial and middle name: c. layne.
I don't recall ever capitalizing it either.
So...
