I love Mike's playing. And Derek's. But they both have made themselves look pretty bad with their comments in the last little while. This kind of thing does affect how I feel about music - to a greater degree than I'd like, tbh. I'm not really very interested in it now.
Don't feel bad, how can it *not* affect you? There are many of us who feel the same way.
The only thing I feel bad about is that the other guys won't be getting my support all cuz of one person and that's not fair to them but that's what happens when people think their actions have no consequences.
It's always been that way with me. And these days, with so much music to explore and musicians being so accessible, I guess cracks and traits are more obvious.
I do seriously love Mike's drumming though. Just so we don't forget that.
I'll just add that's the way it works for
everyone. If anyone tells you they can separate what they know about musicians entirely from the music they produce and not let it affect their listening experience in
some way, you know you're dealing with someone not introspective enough to realize that is simply impossible. They deny their very humanity. The subjective experience makes perfect compartmentalization an unattainable ideal. Even image affects our opinions of bands and, in some way, their music. I mean, Therion was way cooler before they started dressing like losers too lame to gain admittance to a steam punk convention, right?
If Decapitated was your favorite band, would you be as psyched for their next album as you were last week...?
Anyway, this is why I try to learn as little as possible about actors or writers I like. It can be more difficult with musicians when you spend too much time on goddamn forums. I'll never get over finding out one of my favorite musicians and lyricists, Paul Craddick, is a pseudo-intellectual tool of the worst kind.