I'm not dying! No seriously, I'm not dying. Some may say, "hey pete, everyone is technically dying at varying speeds," but I say "wrong." Yes we will all meet our maker one day, but how many times during your day, your week, your life have you said "oh well, I'm a day closer to death?" Unless you are a very morbid individual the answer is probably not too often. The truth is most of us, including myself, live life with a sort of blind sense of hope that guides us through our days on this planet.
I'm Not Dying Album Art. Artist: Scooter Sebastian
It is this hope that helps us make decisions, that gives us motivation, and helps shape our view of humanity and our universe. It is the hope that we will live to see tomorrow, or next week, or if we're lucky next century. It gives us reason to leave a legacy. Now I'm not trying to be all cliché and such, but we are such optimistic creatures (most of us) that we tend to think of being in a state of living, not a state of dying in which we inevitably reach the end of our waking life. Songs have been written, poems recited, and canvases splashed with the goal of putting a finger on exactly what this optimism is and where it came from. Sometimes it is as simple as Eddie Veder put it: "ahhhhh uhhhh ohhhhh I'm still alive ehhhhh." But the endeavor of uncovering the mystery of humanity's hope for tomorrow is a more complicated task. The key is understanding that we all have this optimism in us, but everyone's is slightly different and made under different circumstances.
That is what the goal of this latest burst of musical expression has become for me. (Burst is actually a terrible word to describe it. It's been more of a sticky stagnated attempt at expressing myself. Take a half full jar if honey and turn it upside down. Yea, you get the picture.) I have attempted to create a sonic arrangement of the things that keep me moving. From the love of life, to the love of women. From overly sober days wasting away in the studio to debaucherous nights that I can hardly remember. These are the counterpoints that make life interesting, and give us reasons to see another day. Hence the title I chose for this album: I'm Not Dying. This album has been a labor of introspection and honesty; the search for the real me. So take it as you will. I hope you all will like the music, but that's not really point of making it. It's simply a joy to realize I'm alive and definitely not dying. Seriously I'm Not Dying.
It won't be long,
Pete