I've been playing one thing or another since 4th grade...picked up the bass a few years later and played in a rock band through high school, then in a duo/trio/quartet playing the Jersey shore until I pretty much left the music biz for a dozen years. I picked it up again in '92 when I bought a Casio keyboard in a pawn shop, along with a Sequential Max synth, and started writing some odd pieces while I taught myself to play keys. In '99 I wrote a computer program to turn images into music, using the pixels mapped to MIDI notes to create the music and have pretty much been using it ever since, tweaking the program through the years. Most recently, I've been using MIDImage 3 (the current iteration of the software) and Sonar Platinum with a slew of plugins, generally doing the final processing in SoundForge or Vegas (if I make a video). I still don't know what genre to choose when uploading the music. Some of it's ambient, some of it's just generic instrumental, some of it's just...odd. One person said "impressionism", which I found pleasing. Basically, it's niche music to fill the cracks and crevices all the other music leaves. I usually put my music out there under the "band" name 'The Door Into Summer', but the 'band' is just me. Unless someone wants to overly some nice guitar parts or whatever. I have ZERO objection to that, and have been looking for someone to do that for ages. Hint, hint.
I like creating things. I'd like to make movies, but it involves too many people (and you know how people are). I'd like to write fiction, but my writing sucks and there is someone second-guessing you. Music...I can do without someone looking over my shoulder.
To be in a band again. That'll have to wait a while, though. I haven't picked up my bass since 2005 or so.
My childhood childhood? Like The Royal Guardsmen "Snoopy" songs, or Tommy Roe's "Dizzy", or The Association's "Windy"? Or do you mean after I started playing? The first song I learned was "Silver Paper", so that one's definitely memorable for me.
In no particular order: Crüxshadows, Brian Eno, Steppenwolf (and John Kay solo), Alan Parsons Project, Brand X, Steve Gibbons, Phil Manzanera, Klaus Schulze, Lisa Dalbello, The Monkees (don't judge me)(and Michael Nesmith solo), Harold Budd, Lou Reed, John Cale, Jefferson Airplane/Starship/various incarnations, Eric Carmen/Raspberries, The Damned, EAV. Oops, almost forgot Soft Machine/Robert Wyatt (Oh, heck, Kevin Ayers, too.) And Therion.
I just have to.
No message, just listen and relax. (For now.)
Nervous, at first. So much after the first set. But I'm a bass player, so I can hide in the back, if I want.
I'm not out there in public, so I really can't say.
I like it a lot. I'd like to spend more time on it, but life gets in the way.
Getting it *almost* right. What I hear in my head never quite translates properly.
So very few live venues these days. At least not that I've found worth bothering with. And, again, life interferes.
Promote yourself. Have confidence. Give good value.
I don't know who you haven't heard of. All the ones I can think of are long gone (probably). All I can think of are bands like "Jane" (German band from the 70s). I liked them well enough to buy all their albums, but "awesome"? Probably not, all things considered.