I love sitting and watching the numbers jump from zero to 150 in two days in Jonny's "Electronic Voyage" Facebook group.
Really!
It's good to see people flock to his show like that. For exactly a second I felt a bit annoyed that he did in 2 days what took me 5 months but I buried that feeling quickly.
Lets start off with what the purpose of www.rock4rookies.com was in the first place.
Every day, I would wander my University campus with Metal music blaring from my headphones. I got a lot of crazy looks and a lot of people telling me the rock music is just mindless screaming. This bothered me more than anything! There is no way someone could hear Serj Tankian of System of a Down, singing his heart out with intermingled bursts of screaming, doing his high pitched jabber voice, and all this to electric mandolin, and consider it all noise!! Impossible.
I finally started the show up with help from the amazing David Leitner (who manages the site) and Jonny, who was not only my on call encyclopedia, he also wrote the article for the "Rocking Chair"!! I surrounded myself with people who were willing me to accomplish the rock show, not just out of loyalty to me, but because they actually cared about the music!!
During all that time, my wife was pushing me to continue, pushing me to ignore the people that joined the Facebook group and left just as quickly. You guys only have to listen to the show once, my wife hears it fifty million times as I am putting it together.
Several times in the first months I had Jonny guest star on the show with me or even replace me when I was unable to do the show because of the one thing that would stop me, Miluim!! (Army Reserves)
But there were others who always had comments for me or bits of advice and tips. All of you are amazing but out of them all, 2, besides Jonny, approached me and asked if they could get involved. At the time I was unsure how because both were not CRAZY about my music, they both had Genres that they loved more.
After having a conversation with Jonny about Electronic Music, something I know nothing about but happen to love. (My time in the army exposed me to a lot of trance music).
A few days later my Father surprised me with an amazing gift, my own server. He said, "Consider this my helping to further the music cause." It was amazing. You have to understand, he was the one who when first hearing my idea, left the room and went ahead and immediately bought the ROCK4ROOKIES address! He's amazing. He hates the music but still, amazing.
With this new server I approached those who had approached me and the Rock 4 Rookies Network was born.
There are so many types of music out there and so many incorrect ideas about them. Electronic music is not just a massive base beat playing over and over again. Country music is not just hicks complaining about their dogs dying! Indie music isn't just....okay that one didn't work but still, Jon's music grows on me, because its basically rock that pushes the limits. I am all for pushing the boundaries. That's what I thought my rock was.
So, now that the Electronic Voyage will soon bypass, the original Rock4Rookies group, I'm okay with that. Jonny was there at the beginning and I hope hell be there for along time to come. Please, listen to Jonnys show, listen to all the shows, learn something. Put away old feelings and prejudices about certain music. Nobody listens to everything, they say they do, but they don't, not for real.
But now you can listen to it all, on the Rock 4 Rookies Network.
PS: Anybody want to do a rap show?
