Dave Grohl, a noted musician who's musical credentials include having been a member of Nirvana, the founding member of Foo Fighters, and Them Crooked Vultures (a supergroup consisting of him, John Paul Jones of led Zeppelin, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age), as well as Probot. He delivered the keynote address for the "South by Southwest" musical conference, which is a tradition now for two decades in Austin, Texas. Grohl admitted that it was going to be tough following up on Bruce Springsteen, who delivered last year's keynote address.
"I congratulated him on last year's amazing keynote, quoting him on his insight and humor, and told him this year's keynote speaker was me. He started at me for a moment, then slowly cracked that famous smile that we all know and love, a smile that can light up an entire stadium, and then he started laughing. At me. As if to say, 'Good fucking luck, buddy.' But truth be told, that's not the first time anybody's said that to me."
The theme of Grohl's address was "The musician comes first". He urged musicians to find their own voice.
"There is no right or wrong – there is only your voice. Your voice screaming through an old Neve 8028 recording console, your voice singing through a laptop, your voice echoing from a street corner – it doesn't matter. What matters most is that it's YOUR voice. Cherish it. Respect it. Nurture it. Challenge it. Respect it. Stretch it and scream until it's fucking gone… Who knows how long it will last? It's there if you want it."
Grohl continued on this theme, mentioning how technology allows the artist more liberty than ever before in the process of creating:
"Now more than ever independence as a musician has been blessed by the advancement of technology, making it easier for an aspiring musician to start their own band, write their own song, record their own record, book their own shows, write and publish their own fanzine -- although now I believe you call it a blog. But now more than ever you can do this and it can be all yours, and left you your own devices you can find your voice.
Grohl mentioned how music drove him, which led him to drop out of school in pursuit of a career in music:
"I burned inside. I was possessed and empowered and inspired and engaged and so in love with life and so in love with music. This was rock 'n' roll. No matter what shirt you had or what fucking haircut you had, this was fucking real. It had the power to incite a fucking riot or an emotion or to incite or start a revolution – or just to save a young boy's life."
One particular influence on him was Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein", an all-instrumental piece released in 1973, that had a profound effect on Grohl. There are no lyrics in the song, yet Grohl recounted that what he heard in all of the solos in the piece were the personalities of everyone in the band. It made him want to play music. Before too long, he had obtained an old guitar, and it was this, "and a Beatles songbook", as he described, "that ultimately set my life in one direction".
"Never one for lessons, or direction, I was left to my own devices, and devoted every waking hour to music. It became my religion, the record store my church, the rock stars my saints, and their songs my hymns."
Since then, what success he had, he says can be directly linked to the inspiration upon hearing "Frankenstein":
"I've been left alone to find my voice since that day I heard Edgar Winter's 'Frankenstein.'"
Musing about how difficult it is to come up with a name for a band, he recalled how his first band, a garage band in the truest sense of the word, applied as "nameless". He joked that coming up with a band name was the most difficult aspect of a band.
He shared a story from the Nirvana days, before they became megastars. There was a meeting with Donnie Lenner, of Columbia Records, and Grohl explains:
'Donnie turned to Kurt (Cobain) and asked, 'So what do you guys want?' Kurt…looked up at Donnie sitting at his massive oak desk and said, 'We want to be the biggest band in the world.' I laughed. I thought he was fuckng kidding. He wasn't."
Dave Grohl
"Remember that simple reward of just playing music.You are still and will always be that person at your core, the musician and the musician comes first."
Grohl was in town to deliver the address, but he was also screening a new documentary, "Sound City: Real to Real". Also, he will be playing a show on Thursday night at Stubb's with the Sound City Players.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1552202/dave-grohls-sxsw-keynote-urges-artists-to-find-their-voice-chides-negativity
Here is an additional, and informative, article on the address that helped me in writing this blog, as well:
http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2013/03/14/dave-grohl-sxsw-keynote
Here are a couple of other articles on the address:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5287992
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/entertainment/ci_22038816
Finally, if you want to watch and listen to the address on your own, here is the link on NPR. I would recommend it. Grohl is witty and informative, and there are plenty of laughs. Give it a shot:
http://www.npr.org/event/music/173331505/dave-grohls-sxsw-2013-keynote-speech
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