The Eyes Behind the Screen
"I have so much to say, but who would
believe
The atrocities committed by the eyes behind the screen?"
Eyes Behind the Screen
My good buddy Rafael told me that including a biography of yours truly would make this site more "interesting" (what, you mean my songs are boring?). So, in an attempt to chronicle my life, what better place to start than...well, the start?
Me was found alive (but not really kicking) by doctors on Saturday, 5th March, 1983 at 0805 (I checked with my mom). As a result, my mathematical (not) brain informs me I am 19 (not for much longer, though). I was born in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, although I am Sri Lankan by birth. Customary of all Sri Lankans, I am a fan of the SL cricket team when we're winning, and deny their existence when they lose.
For 13 cold, dark years, I was schooled at St. Mary's Catholic High School, an experience that has left me with mixed feelings, a love-hate relationship; a love for my friends and a hatred for my school. I could go into a long assault against the school for being too disciplinary, too authoritarian, too bloody communist at that, but it taught me many things, outside of the classroom. The most important lesson was that power corrupts, but hey, absolute power rocks!
I mention on my songs page that I'm a Liberal Arts major, the seeds for that being sown in my days at school. I was barely scraping average at math, and I sucked at the science subjects, Physics, Chemistry and Biology (although I was kinda okay at bio). I rocked at English, and at History (sometimes), which set the scene for me choosing political science as a field of specialization. Another reason why I didn't like school much was the rather limited choice of subjects, offering nothing by way of the arts, stressing more on the so-called "practical" subjects.
I don't want to bash my school around too much, 'cause it did provide me with the foundations for 13 years of my growing years. There are quite a lot of memories from those days I treasure; some of the best friends God could have given me studied there with me, and continued to study there even after I moved on, poor fools though they may be :).
For two years, I studied at the Centre for American Education, which was where I decided on my major of political science. A nicer (albeit smaller) place than St. Mary's, it provided the foundation for my college education, which led me to the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (what else?). Which, incidentally enough, is where I find myself now.
Well, enough of that, onto the more interesting stuff...
I just checked my MSN conversation with Raf...he told me to include some of the things that inspired me. Hmm... lemme see, what inspired me? I'd say the music I listen to and the books I read. There, am I done? Oh well, I guess an explanation is required...
When I was much younger, I listened to simplistic music, the usual pop stuff - the Backstreet Boys, the Spice Girls (ha ha), Boyz II Men, etc. Then as I grew up and became the cynical skeptic that I am today, my music also changed. My first memory of my current taste in music was when my sister introduced me to Aerosmith's "Cryin'" - still one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. Of course, I was too young to get the whole "sex, drugs, rock 'n roll" thing, but I fell in love with the blusey-rock feel of the song. The chords are really groovy, too - A, E, F#m, C#m...ahhh, music music music.
(Subsequent to my writing this, my sister informed me that she did not turn me on to Aerosmith. Thus, I have little to no clue as to how I came to hear one of my favourite bands. Oh, for shame, for shame, for shame.)I can't really remember when I stopped liking pop, but when I did, I turned to rap instead. That infatuation didn't last long, and soon gave way to the new metal revolution that swept the world. Starting with everybody's favorite, "Nookie" by Limp Bizkit (goodbye, guys) and the anthemic "Bawitdaba" by Kid Rock (Raf and I used to sing that pretty well), I bought into the phenomenon that I now find only slightly amusing, and mostly annoying. I even rated "Wait and Bleed" (Slipknot) as one of my favorite songs. Oh, the folly of child.
It was this new metal trend that led me to sampling Metallica, and I first encountered them by hearing the awful "Better than you", off their very mediocre Reload album. It didn't particularly excite me. What did excite me was hearing the SF boys perform "Creeping Death" (originally off Ride the Lightning) at Woodstock '99. That is to say, I bought the CD, not that I actually saw them (I wish, tho). What's not to get excited about? Pounding drums, fiery solo, hard-as-nails-riffing, based on the Ten Plagues of Egypt (it's in the Bible, folks!). It's ironic... I bought the CD for the new metal songs on it - KoRn's "Blind", "Bawitdaba" by Kid Rock, "Show me what you got" by Limp Bizkit, "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine, et al. Now, however, I get a major kick out of listening to the "true" metal songs - the aforementioned "Creeping Death" and "A Secret Place" by Megadeth, taken from their Cryptic Writings album.
It was from there that I started listening to true metal, and since then, I've never looked back. I had my flirtation with death metal, black metal (I even wrote an English term paper on Cradle of Filth), doom metal, and power metal for a little while, but my heart lies with the speed and riffage and the double-bass of thrash metal - Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica. The Big Three, if you will.
My songs reflected the kind of stuff I listened to; when I was into death, I wrote (or tried to write) really violent songs that fell flat on their face when I tried to make them too violent, or too gross. The same thing happened when I tried to write black metal. I really love the poetry, the depth, and the imagery of black metal, but when I tried to do the same, I found myself pushing the words to the point where it became contrived, and obviously so. It's the same when you see these black metal bands, where the members take the names of the Greco-Latin words for "hell" or "demon", dress in black all the time, and paint their faces white, with their eyes/mouth either red or black. Groovy when you first get into it, and pretty laughable once the initial euphoria is neutralized.
With thrash, the lyrics were simple, plain English, which I happen to be bloody good at. Since then, I've found my niche there. Being a political science major, the topics of thrash, if you will, are right up my back alley. Holy war, government conspiracies, priestly pedophilia, insanity, school shootings, rape, just plain old war, the enslavement of humanity...
Nowadays, I write from whatever I listen to. I'm not the biggest new metal fan, but I love "Chop Suey!" by System of a Down, off their well-rated Toxicity album. So much so that I wrote "Father" after listening to the song over and over. If you read the lyrics for the SOAD song, and compare what I've written, you might see some similarity.
Sometime in the future, I plan to go into extensive detail on most all the other songs I've written. But for now, it's 0113, March 2nd, 2003. Hope you liked it this far.
