Music has been an incredibly important part of my life.  Throughout my life, I have always had trouble connecting with and understanding people.  It's hard to be understood the way you feel inside, and it doesn't happen often.  Maybe you can relate.  But, music is able to do that for me.  It comforts me when I'm hurting.  It lifts me up when I'm down.  It adds to my happiness when things are going good, and it's a lifelong friend that's got my back.  It is the background to my dreams of what I wish life could be, and sometimes is.  I don't know if we are anything other than science and physics and neurons and cells, but if there's anything about life that's unworldly and magical, it's gotta be music.

There's 2 kinds of music experiences in particular that really stick out, to me anyways.  One, is finding that new song that just stops everything in your world, because it's that good.  A friend of mine once put it as "finding the holy grail of music", and I think that's a good description.  It doesn't happen that often.  Sure you might find a song that's catchy or that you really like, and those are good too.  But I'm talking about a song that seems to stop time.  It gets your full attention.  Kind of like falling in love.  That kind of feeling.  One example was the first time I heard "Sometimes It Snows In April" by Prince.  If you don't know that song, and you're a Prince fan, oh man, you're gonna be surprised.  It is beautiful beyond words.  And, bittersweet now that he is gone.  And you hope that others like it, but even if they don't, it's still your creation and you're proud of it.  And you'll always have it.

The second kind of music experience is when you're writing music, and you write that one hook or idea or passage that you just know is something really special.  And you play it over and over.  Just the right chord progression, or shape of the melody.  Maybe just the right vocal and accompaniment, or the right instrumentation.  Or maybe just the perfect lyric that says exactly how you feel.

That's why music.