Bill Gleed

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Influences

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What is music to you? What does it give you?

Music is life, which is totally corny and completely true. How else would you like to filter the world?

What is your music dream?

To make people smile, and maybe think a little.

If you could change the world - what would you start with?

People ought to have a right to live a decent life, with enough to eat and a chance to see a doctor regardless. The world needs to take better care of the least among us.

Which is the most memorable song from your childhood?

The very first record I ever bought was American Pie on an old 45. I think I was nine years old. It was so long you had to flip the record and get the end on the other side. Then it was Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding with one speaker in each ear on the floor of my bedroom. The White album dropped into my experience like a tsunami after that, and then The Kids Are Alright. But my older sister was a Stones fan since she saw them at the old Boston Garden in 1964 or 65, so I knew the words to Get Offa My Cloud and Time is On My Side even before any of that.

Who are your favorite musical artists or bands?

The same ones as you, for the most part. A little of everything. Especially if it happened between say 1964 and 1995. But also classical music, and Jazz. I went to summer school at Berklee and minored in music as an undergraduate in university. Oh yeah, and let's not forget that I like a good pipe band or marching band and indian music, too.

What inspires you to make music?

Being awake. In all the ways you could mean that.

What is the message you want to send with your music?

I don't have a message. I try to write to give the audience an experience that I had, or to share a feeling. I'd like a thoughtful response. I put a lot of thought into the creation, and I'm trying to have a conversation with you.

How do you feel when you perform in front of an audience?

Lucky and grateful.

How do you see the musicians’ reality nowadays? What could be improved?

That music is about the expression, like any other art form. Get the art right and if the money and fame doesn't follow, fuck 'em. That's no reason to be creating the stuff anyway.

What do you think of Drooble?

I love it.

What frustrates you most as a musician?

Usually, other musicians. Being in a band is the best thing in the world, usually. You know what I mean. Mostly my own limitations as a technichian, either as an instrumentalist or an engineer/producer, are the things that frustrate me the most.

Do you support your local scene as a fan? How?

Yes. When I can.

What qualities should a musician nowadays have in order to get their music heard by a larger audience?

Why would you ask me? Drooble is helpful. A forum like this is fantastic.

Share some awesome artists that we’ve never heard of.

Little Joe Cook and the Thrillers. They used to play at the Cantab on Mass ave. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pure R&B of the oldest of old schools. Blow your face out! Also Jimmy McCulloch, from the Stone Crows and also Wings.