For a blogger, I’m one hell of a private person. I keep a lot of things to myself. This is one of those posts where I’m gonna talk about me – and my feelings – a little.
Back in January 2006, my life was pretty different. I was married and living in Alaska. True to form, I’m not going to go into all the details here, but I will tell you that I wasn’t very happy.
I will tell you that my life was kinda dark and bleak. Not just because it was winter in Alaska, and there wasn’t much sunlight, but just stuff in general that made it one of the crappiest times of my life.
One day, I bought a new compilation CD, got a coffee, and started driving around Alaska to listen to the new music. I was at the corner of Binkley and Sterling Hwy when a song came on – and I can’t describe it, but it just “struck me.”. My first thought was “Who is this???” and I reached for the CD jacket and saw that it was by a band called Motion City Soundtrack. By the next day, I had the two albums that MCS had out at that time.
To me, the music was a breath of fresh air. It was like the first color I’d seen in my black and white world for a very long time.
The lyrics are what really got to me. If you listen to their music, especially the earlier albums, you’ll know that Justin Pierre, the band’s front man, was suffering through some addictions and other stuff. The way he could write about these things – along with break-ups, failures, and other self-deprecating topics was just amazing to me. Sounds like some gloomy topics – but there was also a hopefulness to this music.
And for some reason, I got the feeling that I wanted to be friends with him. We lived thousands of miles apart, we didn’t have any friends in common, but I thought that I was going to be friends with him. Kind of crazy, right? Well, sometimes crazy stuff happens.
I wrote him and he wrote me back.
This was in the first half of 2006. This was well before this site existed – I wouldn’t get the idea for this site until August 2006. This was before I was “famous on the internet;” back when I was just some random person, living in Alaska.
Next week, Motion City Soundtrack is releasing their fifth album, Go. This summer is the fifth anniversary of my website. Five is my lucky number. (funny how that all fits, huh?)
As always, I think Justin has hit it on the freaking head with the lyrics. I don’t know what it is about him, but there is always gonna be some lyrics on each album that just hit me to the core – that are so true to my life at that moment.
Timelines is one of those songs. You can listen to the song by clicking here. In the song, Justin asks the question “Do you ever wonder how you got to here?” and proceeds to reminisce about all the phases of his life.
The idea of time is something that has been on my mind lately. I’m turning 35 soon and that kind of scared the hell out of me – but I ended up deciding it was like chapters in a book, and starting the next chapter is kind of freaking exciting. You can read this post for all the details.
Listening to Motion City Soundtrack, it’s impossible not to think about the past, all the changes that have come and gone, and I can’t help but smile when I think about it. And sometimes, I just can’t believe it.
I used to imagine myself living the kind of life I live now. Slowly but surely, I made it happen. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it’s mine. And I’m happy with it.
Now, back to the song, Timelines. In it, Justin ends his reminiscing by singing about being 35 and knowing exactly who you are, and how “it’s not a matter of time, it’s just a matter of timing.”
As I mentioned earlier, I was already set on being excited to turn 35 and start the next chapter. This song just solidified it.
There was a time in my life, when I wondered if I ever would ever get to “here” — the place I am in now. I thought that might be impossible. But I did it. And I’m totally gonna take on the next chapter, even when it seems scary as hell.
As for Justin – I’ve kept in contact with him over the years. We don’t write each other all the time like we used to (I’m actually in more contact with his girlfriend, Lindsay, via Facebook comments / likes, than I am with him now.), but there was that moment in time, and I will forever be grateful for that.
Knowing that someone thought my ideas were cool (like the idea for this website) – especially someone who didn’t have to care one iota – made a big difference in my life back then.
Because of that, any time Motion City Soundtrack releases a new record, I am going to write a blog post and tell you to go buy it. It comes out June 12 and you can pre-order on Amazon and iTunes. So, go listen to Go now (by clicking here) and once you realize that it is amazing, you can go pre-order it!