Prime

High school is the prime time, the prime time to begin establishing a foreground in music. Just look around. Most alternative bands, or bands in general for that matter,  have a background in experimenting with music, with connections, with people.

It's something I've considered. With friends as my foundation, they have supported and stabilized me in realizing and achieving my dreams. Reminding me: even if it the first attempt crumbles, when the drive for music is prominent there will be no question in picking up the pieces.

But where does the notion come from that to form connections in the music industry you have to be on the end of creating music?

Nowhere.

It’s the unstated assumption.

Although my music education can trace back to learning the piano at the age of 7, I only began because of the backbone of my mother. It was at 14 where I took the weight upon myself to enjoy the hours of practicing. It was not just a learning experience anymore, but a stress reliever and a growing passion.

I found the classical route was not the intended path on my part. After years of borrowing, learning, playing classical music, I bought a few sheets of popular pieces including Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. Endless amounts of time spent sitting in front of ivory keys to play these familiar tunes.

To this day I still have a passion for piano; however, I teach myself. No teacher, but on my own time.

From day one, music had only been a hobby. I never considered a career from music. It is not practical, not in today's world. But only recently a new door had been open.

Audio engineering. Or Acoustical engineering call by its formal name. It's attaining the knowledge behind electrics and physics of sound—live or produced.

 
It's my time to learn now, while I'm in high school. It's time to search the surface of what my future may hold.

Light Never Dies

The world is in a balance—in both positive and negative ways. Yet, sometimes it does not seem as if. The negativity penetrates the happiness we try to fulfil in ourselves. At times, hardships seem impossible to overcome. Bleakness. Darkness. Blackness. It’s all consuming. Or that’s what we engrain in ourselves.

The difficultly of taking a step backwards to breathe from our situation increasingly grows with time. We are blindfolded. We cannot seek the help necessary. We lose rational frame of mind that it’s more than one of us in every situation.

Hope for the Day, a non-profit organization, was created to restore our faded hope, our wretched lives. A life ring is thrown out to sea. In over our heads, swallowing what we cannot digest, know we can be uplifted from the weight dragging us under.

More than one of us has felt this way. It’s in stories, narratives, lyrics, books, where we recognize we are not alone. Never alone.

Restoring Force

A sea shell is more than an artifact of the ocean. It connects us to the elemental aura of water—the power of emotions, of truth, of creativity. According to Mesa Creative Arts, sea shells are healers, messengers and tools of transformation.

Although for Austin Carlile, lead singer from Of Mice and Men did not outright say this about their upcoming album cover, it might as well be true. The reason for a dark cerith shell to be the image of choice is to have a direct link to their previous album The Flood.

“Restoring Force is more than just a collection of songs but fundamentally a return to equilibrium,” Carlile said in an article with Alternative Press.

This album composed of material to solidify the band’s status in the music industry. For this third album, Carlile could not help but seek new horizons.

“[We are] pushing ourselves to write the most meaningful material Of Mice & Men has ever released,” Carlile said. “This was by far the most in-depth writing and recording processes we've ever been through.”

It is all influenced by life, this process of writing. After receiving open heart surgery in 2010, recently after acquiring his dream of becoming a musician, Carlile finally grasped the true meaning of gratitude.

“[The surgery] changed my entire world,” Carlile said in a recent interview with Pure Volume. “My heart was out of my chest on ice for two hours—I was being pumped full of somebody else's blood. It just made me see how precious life is all over again because even though the technology today is good there was still a 30- or 40-percent chance that I wouldn't survive the surgery.”

Just one situation influenced life. A new outlook equals a new person.

I am excited to see a reflection in Of Mice and Men’s music. From their metal vibes, now converting to a hard in-your-face aggression of rock ‘n roll as Carlile likes to put it; the sound will definitely have an impact on their fans.

Whether that is positive or negative impact, I don’t know. But I can tell you, I rarely, if ever, listened to metalcore genre. The screams were not appealing. Never could I decipher the lyrics, the meaning, or the pieces that hold the connection. But there is always room for compromise.

With knowing background, my eyes open to a whole new world, a world I never knew. One that I merely brushed away. In less than two weeks new fans will arise, while particular past fans will tear apart from the Of Mice and Men Family. Those who stay show loyalty. And for the loss, will be from their decision to reach equilibrium in life.

Waves lapping at the shore leave hints of the hidden lives that are altering, with little reminders that life leaves a legacy for others to find, for the calmest of water have reached a balance between the world above and below.