Play The Way You Love. Love The Way You Play.

       When I worked at Guitar Center in the drum department, I came across a lot of drummers who had, years ago, stopped playing. Just as bad, they had sold their kits. Now, they were in the market for new equipment. From a strictly selfish standpoint, that was okay with me, because I loved helping them choose new gear, and it put money in my pocket. But from a humane perspective, it made me sad that they had stopped playing music, and even taken it so far as having gotten rid of their tools. I could feel the pain of that.
       As a musician, it’s important to keep playing, no matter what. And not just any music, but the music that stirs your soul. At least some of the time. Why? Because that’s why you started playing in the first place (I mean, after you realized that playing in a band was a way to meet girls….or boys). Something long ago got stirred in you, and you discovered that it gave you something you couldn’t get anywhere else. You brought to life an energy within. If you stop playing, or if you stop playing the music that moves you, that energy inside diminishes. It can even die.
       The good news is, you get to play Dr. Frankenstein any time you want. You get to raise the dead. You get to bring that unique energy within back to life, no matter how long it’s been dead. And you don’t have to rob any graves to do it (but if you play an electric instrument, you do get to fuck around with electricity, just like Dr. Frankenstein did). All you’ve got to do is start playing again. And start playing music that moves you.   
       I’m not sure if it’s worse to play music you don’t like, or worse to just stop playing. But I do know that going through the motions playing music is like going through the motions when you’re having sex. In the long run, it can actually make it worse.
       Think about it. If you have sex, without passion, without fire, without feeling, for long periods of time, what happens to your interest, to your desire, to your fire, for sex? It evaporates, slowly but surely. Now, what if you don’t have sex for a long period of time? That void actually creates desire. And that desire can spur you to action to seek what you want. As opposed to just being on auto pilot, which usually has the opposite effect.
       Playing music is the same way. Because it’s from deep inside. You can’t fool your heart. At least not for long. If you keep trying to kid yourself at that level, you get soul rebellion.
       Whatever you like to play, at whatever age, play it. Find a way and play it. Don’t waste time playing shit you don’t like. Don’t waste time jerking off. I don’t care how old you are. If punk or metal or disco does it for you, find people who are into it too and play it. Nobody but you and your band has to hear it (although I also strongly urge you to perform live, but that’s another blog). But you need to play it. And when you play it, you need to bring it.
       Play the music you love the way you make love. Make love the way you play music you love. Find your flame, stoke it, and let it burn. Play and fuck with passion, with fire, with reckless abandonment, with red hot love. Throw all of yourself into it. At once harness, and surrender to, its beautiful power.   

Photography courtesy of Pedro Blanco Photography

©2014 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.

SomeWhere SomeOne

To add a dose of reality, a splotch of immediacy, and a practical methodology to this poignant offering, I would add that this "SomeOne", and that this "SomeWhere", is often closer than we realize; If we just open ourselves up to those possibilities. I share with you some hard won wisdom that I have come to over the last few years: The Life We Envision - the one that often seems more like an out of reach Hollywood movie - is sometimes so close to us that, thanx to our own blindness, we can not, we will not, we do not, see. Sometimes, and here's the Really Good News, all we need to do is......wake the fuck up.

©2014 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLc, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.

She's Your Favorite Song

Tonight
She’s your favorite song
Tonight
She’s the music that sets your soul ablaze, whenever you feel it
Tonight
Feel her that way
All the way down to your bones

She’s the painting you can’t take your eyes off of
She’s the movie you can’t watch enough
She’s the car you covet
With every primal, lustful cell in your body
She’s the taste of something
You lick your lips for

She’s the feel of passion
Rubbing up against your naked heart

Make love to her
Make love with her
Make love about her

Create a fire
And let it burn
Don’t dare try to control it
Be of it
And just surrender
It’s more powerful than you are
It's more powerful than she is
It's more powerful than either of you are
Without it

©2014 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved

Jupiter & Moon

       This morning, at ten minutes before six, I stepped out of my foyer and instinctively gazed up at the city sky. And there she was. A lone, tiny, slightly yellowed jewel shining brilliantly against a midnight blue canvas. Jupiter. I stared at her like a lover, frozen in a familiar trance. After what felt like an hour but was in actuality just a few minutes; after it felt like every thought I have ever had in my life had somehow just floated through my mind like a series of clouds; after the eternity of this moment gave way to this moment in eternity, I shook my head in stupefied wonder and moved on.
       As I crossed the street, I felt something behind me. A presence. I turned around, and there she was. The moon. Nearly full. Radiating her magic. Another lover in the sky. Once again transfixed, I happily surrendered to her mesmerizing beauty, and gave her all of my attention. Then I suddenly remembered Jupiter. So I turned back to look at her again. And of course, she was still there.  
       The totality of my existence was just the three of us. Three crazy lovers, silently going at it, in this metaphysical bedroom of just one infinite moment.

©2104 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.

Eye(s)

“I’ve miscalculated plenty. I’ve overstepped my bounds, gone too far, and crashed. I’ve over-shared, over-exposed, over-expressed, over-whelmed, over-shot, and over-wrought. I’ve missed the mark, I’ve missed the target - hell, I’ve even missed the whole side of the whole fuckin’ barn. I’ve leapt before I looked, shot before I’ve aimed, and tried to blow bubbles without enough soap and water in the wand. I’ve said too much, not enough, and opened my mouth when I was still chewing. But the difference now is that I would gladly be all that than the alternative. I would rather risk missing the mark than not trying to hit the target at all. I would rather risk painting a monstrosity than not putting my brush to the canvas, and paint what is in the depths of my heart. I will risk living my entire life as an art project, knowing that the world may not connect to my own self-defined masterpiece.”

                                                                             - Clint Piatelli

©2014 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.