For our last installment of The Band That Changed Everything guest blog series, we caught up with Light FM! Find out how discovering The Cure opened the door for a ton of new bands! Be on the look out for our November series coming soon!
I always thought it wasn’t cool to listen to what your parents listened to so, I missed out on the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, etc. Basically all of the originators of rock’ n’ roll. I listened to whatever my older brother listened to. He was a skate punk and listened to The Circle Jerks, Black Flag, The Meatmen, Minor Threat. It was exciting and energetic but not very melodic. One day he brought home The Cure’s “Head on the Door” and I was completely obsessed with this record. Robert Smith’s voice was so unique and the music had melody which I was missing from the hardcore and thrash scene. I loved the way Robert Smith dressed and wore his hair. Everything about the Cure is unique.
Discovering the Cure was then a chain reaction. There’s The Smith’s, Jesus and Mary Chain, New Order, Bauhaus, PIL, Echo and the Bunnymen, etc. I was obsessed with Brit pop. It made me realize that you could still have melody in music and be punk rock.
I didn’t start creating music until I was in college. I had always played drums but had abandoned them once it came time to be in the high school marching band. Those kids got tormented, teased and beaten up. I picked up a guitar because I was sick of playing drums in bands that had no melody, no hooks, no structure.
I had discovered My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, and Lush in college and fell absolutely in love with those bands. It was a very exciting time in music. I still listen to all of those bands. I’d like to say the new-wave innovators and shoegaze brit pop scene influenced me immensely even until this very day.
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