I've kind of given an overview of the development of my tastes, and musical journey many times, but why not go again!
So as with many of us, my musical influences came from my family. I'm one of 5 kids, and am the middle child. I have an older brother and sister, as well as a younger brother and sister. Growing up, and being one of 5, my parents were always busy and often stressed, and their love for music wasn't as apparent as it was as we all started to become more independent, and life was a little more relaxed.
My only early memories of listening to my parents music was in the car. My Mum liked Randy Travis and my Dad loved The Beatles. My Dad would always pull out his Beatles mix tapes for long car rides, or holidays, and me and my siblings loved singing to certain songs. That stuff started to lay the ground work, but my other influences came from my other siblings. Ironically (with how obsessed I am with music now) I was completely uninterested in music growing up. My main interests were computer games, football, and just hanging out with my mates.
My older brother was my biggest influence as he was born in '75 and got into hip hop in the mid 80s and then metal by the late 80s/early 90s. I wasn't actively interested in anything he was playing around that time, but he did have an Atari ST, that I was VERY interested in playing computer games on! Whenever we were gaming in my brothers room he'd have music on, by this time (late 80s) it was mainly metal. He started with thrash then moved onto all the death metal greats. My soundtrack (unbeknownst to me) was heavily Metallica, Slayer, Obituary, Morbid Angel etc. The music was seeping into my DNA even if I wasn't aware of it. I remember showing interest in the album art, as art was something else and my older brother had in common. My other memories of him, and music are from around '94/'95. I was 11/12 then and we'd sit at the dining room table most evenings drawing fantasy art and listening to music. He was picking the soundtrack as I didn't really care what was playing. The soundtrack to this period was heavy on Metallica's Black Album, Nirvana's Nevermind, Led Zeppelin I and Dummy by Portishead (which was actually my older sisters CD but my brother became obsessed with it). Those albums (excluding Nevermind) have always been top all time albums for me, but not at the time.
Moving on to my older sister, she was born in '79 and very much into the grunge and britpop scene, as she was 15 in '94. I remember she got a CD player for her 15th birthday, along with her only CD, Parklife by Blur. Again, I wasn't interested in any of the music she was into at that time but she loved Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Suede etc, as well assome other eclectic music coming out at that time. She also started to pick up on some of my Dad's influences at that time as well, such as Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan. My Dad was starting to share that love of music with her as well, and was all in the background of my journey.
My younger sister was into all the pop music at this time, mainly boy/girl bands, so still like Take That, Spice Girls etc.
The final influence from my early years was the music from my favourite films. Being a kid who grew up in the 80s/90s I had a passion for all the great 80s films, especially the sci fi. I love Star Wars, and anything with a John Williams soundtrack (ET is one of my all time favourites, and I still play the soundtrack regularly) as well as films like Wayne's World and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Again, these films sowed the seeds for my love of rock and metal. I particularly loved the Bohemian Rhapsody scene in Wayne's World and the Play With Me scene in Bill and Ted, I'd watch them over and over!
The next influence for me came from my beloved computer games. With the release of the PlayStation, which I got in '97, you final were able to have real music on games. For anyone who remembers games like Wipeout, you'll remember how big a deal the soundtrack was. My older brother helped me come to appreciate babds like The Prodigy around this time. It's weird that looking back, none of my friends were really into music either. This era of video games exposed me to two of my greatest loves. First is the music of composer Nobuo Uematsu, who composed all the music for the early Final Fantasy games. I got Final Fantasy VII when I was 14, and that game changed my world, and perception of what a computer game could be. I don't specifically remember loving every part of the soundtrack at the time, it was mainly the various battle music scores I loved, but it was all shaping what I look for in music. Fast forward a bit to the late 2000s and the moment I discovered the live orchestral versions of Final Fantasy music (Distant Worlds Orchestra) it brought together the world of Final Fantasy and the world of John Williams, bliss.
The other big influence came from the Tony Hawks Pro Skater computer game, and shortly after the Crazy Taxi game. Both these games had outstanding punk rock soundtracks and helped develop my other great love, which is punk rock. Goldfingers Superman was pretty monumental to me, abd the Crazy Taxi soundtrack was heavy on the Offspring and Bad Religion, which became huge bands for me. I actually purchased my first CD (Americana by The Offspring) shortly after, at the very late age of 17.
Around this time I also got really into Eminem, and some other rap from that time. This was again courtesy of my older brother who put the first album on cassette tape for me. I have vivid memories of listening to the Slim Shady LP daily on my way to college.
So, all of this laid the groundwork for what my tastes would become. Now I was starting to actively get into music and discover stuff on my own. This coincided with a big change on my life as I moved to live with my Dad (my parents had divorced 4 years earlier and I'd moved up north with my mum and two younger siblings). This period, from 2001 - 2003, I was mainly listening to a lot of hip hop (Dr Dre's 2001 was a big album for me at the time). I was also big into wrestling, and me and a few buddies used to watch Raw/Smackdown every weekend. This led to me getting into stuff like Creed, Rob Zombie, Kid Rock etc.
Mid 2002 I fell in with a group of friends who ended up becoming, and forming my solid friendship group since then. A big part of what we all had in common was music. Everyone in that friendship group was into alternative music, mainly metal and punk rock. One friend in particular was obsessed with Green Day at this time, which ended up with them also being my favourite punk band for a few years. I also discovered (or rediscovered) Metallica at this point, which led to a long period of listening to just them.
By 2003 I'd started to branch out with punk, and metal, and the core group of bands I was listening to was expanding all the time. I'd also turned my back on rap and hip hop. I remember turning to my older brother in 2004, and asking him to recommend me some other bands that could scratch that Metallica itch. He sent me the following albums in the post (for which I was eternally grateful). Megadeth - Rust in Peace, Slayer - Reign in Blood, Sepultura - Arise, Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power and Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge. I mean, what a set of albums for a budding metal head to get into. I know he also gave me a burnt CD, maybe the following year, that just had Machine Head scrawled on it (I didn't know if that was the band, or the album, or what).
These helped expand my metal repertoire, and get into slightly more aggressive vocal styles. The first really extreme band I fell for was Children of Bodom. I can still recall the moment when a friend stuck one earphone in my ear and said I HAD to check this band out. His cousin had recommended them to him and sent him the mp3, he only knew the band was called 'children something'. The song he played me was the Tokyo Warhearts version of Lake Bodom. That shit blew my mind and was the first time where I had to kinda push past the vocals as the music was just too good, I had to work out a way to be able to enjoy this.
By 2005 I was getting into melodeath, more extreme metal, loads more punk rock and subgenres. The big metal albums coming out at that time were great and I've often said 2005 was the best year I music for me. I discovered Coheed and Cambria, Mastodon, Dream Theater, NOFX among so many others. The rest is all history from there on out really, and my obsession and thirst for new bands has just grown kind of out of control.
Wow, it's nice to get that all out. I'll definitely be referring back to this in the future when it inevitably comes up again!