Post by scott on Apr 16, 2010 22:29:13 GMT -5
Jeremy was the sort of person who didn't ever judge anyone else. The way he saw it, people weren't very good judges of character, so he just never did it. People always tended to jump to conclusions about outward appearance or about the way a situation went down. They were all about first impressions, and in Jeremy's opinion, first impressions were almost always completely misleading, and judging someone on a first impression was not only wrong, but also inappropriate socially. People were a lot more complicated than a first impression could impart... besides, he was horrible at first impressions, so if everyone judged him by their first impression of him, he would live an extremely lonely life, and he didn't like being lonely for long.
All of his songs were written about people, but none of them in anyway judged the character of a single person. When Jeremy heard things, they became songs in his head. All of the conversations he would hear slight blurbs of would somehow mesh into one song. all day everything he would hear was somehow musically related, and at the end of the day he would have a new song. Conversations became lyrics, sounds became music notes and instruments, and when he put it all together it somehow worked out to actually sound decent. It was impressive, to say the least, that he could connect completely irrelevant conversations and make them into a perfectly sensible song lyrics or that he could take the sound of the flag blowing in the wind, hurried footsteps of campers, laughter, and the sound of canoe paddles in the water and turn them into a musical composition.
No one ever doubted Jeremy's skill in music. Since he was a little kid he was always stretching out rubber bands to make a "guitar" or pounding on the piano keys. When he was five years old he started getting piano lessons, and by the time he was eight, he had mastered that and wanted to move on to another instrument. He picked up guitar, and by the time he was ten, he had mastered that as well. From there he moved on to keyboard and playing the keyboard set to the sound of other instruments. About 12 years old he first started singing and writing his own lyrics, and by the time he was 14 he had recorded his own song, playing each instrument or recorded instrument on the keyboard one at a time and overlaying the tracks.
Honestly, what people said most often about him was that he was a musical genius, such that hadn't been seen in years. Sure there was "the king of pop" or "the king of rock" and all that sort of thing, but Jeremy's talent was beyond that. People watched him in wonder as he went to work writing his music. He would get into this mode where he would just go. For hours he would sit there and just write music notes on blank scales, or lyrics on blank paper. He didn't believe in the use of margins, nearly every inch of the paper was written on. No one doubted his skill in this area, and in fact some questioned whether or not he had some sort mental disability since he seemed incapable of focusing on anything except music.
After graduating high school, he heard about a camp in the middle of nowhere... also known as Nevada... and he knew right away that was where he wanted to go. No, not to learn... there wasn't a thing on this earth that anyone could teach him about music that he didn't already know... but to work. He loved young people... mostly because he still acted like he was a crazy kid... and he loved music... where better to spend his days than at a camp where there was both? So he promptly sent his resume, and shortly after was interviewed, and very very shortly after, was hired. Who better for the job than a guy completely obsessed with music who could totally relate to kids? If there was someone... well, they sure weren't there.
This afternoon, Jeremy could be found sitting on the dock, looking a little out of place. Not because he shouldn't have been there, and not because he felt out of place... but because there was no guitar in his hands. It was one of those situations where, say, if you saw someone who ALWAYS had a hat on and they didn't, they would be described as seeming "naked." Only Jeremy didn't have his guitar, and without it... something just seemed not right. Jeremy without music was like summer without the sun. Upon closer inspection though, one was apt to notice the slight movement of his fingers on his right hand as if he was playing chords on an invisible instrument beside him, then the two wires coming from each her and joining to travel on down to the ipod in his left hand, and lastly that look on his face.
If someone wasn't a musician, they would never notice any difference in his expression... but anyone who knew music would see it. The differences were subtle, but certainly there. He appeared focused on nothing at all, though his eyes were narrowed slightly. Where there was normally a smile, his lips formed simply a thin straight line, and his jaw was set just slightly... that was the look of a musical genius at work. No doubt as he was listening to the song on his ipod he was making up his own cover version of that song at the same time. He couldn't help it. Half the songs he made up in his head while listening to music never made it to paper because there were just so many he would probably kill the rain forest if he wrote them all down.
He was indeed brilliant when it came to this sort of thing. He wrote countless songs for his own enjoyment, he could come up with music and lyrics in a split second, he could sight read like he was born reading music, and if you handed him a set of your lyrics, he could have you an entire band's worth of music written by the time 24 hours had passed. People had seen it before where he got into that music making mode so deeply that he didn't even realize how much time had passed. Sometimes he would just keep going until someone finally stopped him and reminded him that he was human, and did, in fact, need food, water, and rest.
It was fascinating really, and most people around here had made it a habit to interrupt him, just to make sure he wasn't on the verge of dehydration or something of the sort. He never minded being interrupted, he could pick up where he left off days later without writing anything down. In fact, he reveled the opportunity to talk to people... they just had to take the initiative and break him out of his trance first.
All of his songs were written about people, but none of them in anyway judged the character of a single person. When Jeremy heard things, they became songs in his head. All of the conversations he would hear slight blurbs of would somehow mesh into one song. all day everything he would hear was somehow musically related, and at the end of the day he would have a new song. Conversations became lyrics, sounds became music notes and instruments, and when he put it all together it somehow worked out to actually sound decent. It was impressive, to say the least, that he could connect completely irrelevant conversations and make them into a perfectly sensible song lyrics or that he could take the sound of the flag blowing in the wind, hurried footsteps of campers, laughter, and the sound of canoe paddles in the water and turn them into a musical composition.
No one ever doubted Jeremy's skill in music. Since he was a little kid he was always stretching out rubber bands to make a "guitar" or pounding on the piano keys. When he was five years old he started getting piano lessons, and by the time he was eight, he had mastered that and wanted to move on to another instrument. He picked up guitar, and by the time he was ten, he had mastered that as well. From there he moved on to keyboard and playing the keyboard set to the sound of other instruments. About 12 years old he first started singing and writing his own lyrics, and by the time he was 14 he had recorded his own song, playing each instrument or recorded instrument on the keyboard one at a time and overlaying the tracks.
Honestly, what people said most often about him was that he was a musical genius, such that hadn't been seen in years. Sure there was "the king of pop" or "the king of rock" and all that sort of thing, but Jeremy's talent was beyond that. People watched him in wonder as he went to work writing his music. He would get into this mode where he would just go. For hours he would sit there and just write music notes on blank scales, or lyrics on blank paper. He didn't believe in the use of margins, nearly every inch of the paper was written on. No one doubted his skill in this area, and in fact some questioned whether or not he had some sort mental disability since he seemed incapable of focusing on anything except music.
After graduating high school, he heard about a camp in the middle of nowhere... also known as Nevada... and he knew right away that was where he wanted to go. No, not to learn... there wasn't a thing on this earth that anyone could teach him about music that he didn't already know... but to work. He loved young people... mostly because he still acted like he was a crazy kid... and he loved music... where better to spend his days than at a camp where there was both? So he promptly sent his resume, and shortly after was interviewed, and very very shortly after, was hired. Who better for the job than a guy completely obsessed with music who could totally relate to kids? If there was someone... well, they sure weren't there.
This afternoon, Jeremy could be found sitting on the dock, looking a little out of place. Not because he shouldn't have been there, and not because he felt out of place... but because there was no guitar in his hands. It was one of those situations where, say, if you saw someone who ALWAYS had a hat on and they didn't, they would be described as seeming "naked." Only Jeremy didn't have his guitar, and without it... something just seemed not right. Jeremy without music was like summer without the sun. Upon closer inspection though, one was apt to notice the slight movement of his fingers on his right hand as if he was playing chords on an invisible instrument beside him, then the two wires coming from each her and joining to travel on down to the ipod in his left hand, and lastly that look on his face.
If someone wasn't a musician, they would never notice any difference in his expression... but anyone who knew music would see it. The differences were subtle, but certainly there. He appeared focused on nothing at all, though his eyes were narrowed slightly. Where there was normally a smile, his lips formed simply a thin straight line, and his jaw was set just slightly... that was the look of a musical genius at work. No doubt as he was listening to the song on his ipod he was making up his own cover version of that song at the same time. He couldn't help it. Half the songs he made up in his head while listening to music never made it to paper because there were just so many he would probably kill the rain forest if he wrote them all down.
He was indeed brilliant when it came to this sort of thing. He wrote countless songs for his own enjoyment, he could come up with music and lyrics in a split second, he could sight read like he was born reading music, and if you handed him a set of your lyrics, he could have you an entire band's worth of music written by the time 24 hours had passed. People had seen it before where he got into that music making mode so deeply that he didn't even realize how much time had passed. Sometimes he would just keep going until someone finally stopped him and reminded him that he was human, and did, in fact, need food, water, and rest.
It was fascinating really, and most people around here had made it a habit to interrupt him, just to make sure he wasn't on the verge of dehydration or something of the sort. He never minded being interrupted, he could pick up where he left off days later without writing anything down. In fact, he reveled the opportunity to talk to people... they just had to take the initiative and break him out of his trance first.