''My first musical memories'' by Aidan Casserly

Listening to or creating music, is always more than the sum of its parts. If you talk to a music lover you will get a totally different dynamic, to when you talk with a music creator, composer or songwriter .

I grew up in a music loving family. Some relatives were professional musicians or performers, others where creators, inventors, writers, national radio stars and lovers of the dynamics of music, its form and charm. My first musical memory is of being 8 years old, and being inducted into school choirs and singalongs by teachers. This is my earliest memory. It is a memory of excitement and finding out who I was, by nature. A memory of creating, as I always had that part of me, that used to sing different melodies, to those that we were played in the songs we were taught then. I call this memory and experience "my musical blood". The DNA of which, is within me still and easily recognisable for me in others. I am drawn to those types, much as a vampire would be drawn to its prey and blood lust.

Being Irish/Catholic and growing up in a fiercely run Catholic education system, poetry, hymns and devotion where literally beaten into us. But my reaction to the content, is what made me different to the rest of my peers. When we were taught poetry, I instantly could hear my inner self create my own poetic verses. The sea, the wind, the heat, cold and solitude, even at 10 years old, were voices speaking to me, through the heat haze of sun, breaking through the school room window.

Just as I would sing to myself, a new song over the intro's of piano songs at family reunions and events. My adrenalin would rise, as I would be exploring and expressing this angst and sadness.

Through my teen years, or the informative years as I call them, I grew to be the person I am. Music was either a lonely road or a road laced with similar and like minded friends. These two different aspects and parallels, are what I still draw on when writing songs and composing music.

The inner glow and the excitement like a heart that skips a beat, when the realisation that music could and would be my life saver, is hard to put down in words. It's like asking a man who has just been saved from drowning, to explain how much that life saving breath of oxygen felt, as it invaded his lungs.

I have been lucky to work with many talented and individual musical people, co-writers and producers. Yet the true artist, the one that holds creating above his or her own being, are the ones who still inspire me. These artists are one in a 100,000. They are the outsiders, who explore and expose themselves to the world, literally going against the fabric and nature of who they are by doing so. The brave kind, who cannot but stay creative, when every force of nature, family, work and social commitment is against them. Yet they succeed in the end.

My "Dusk memories and Music" are these inspiring souls. They are the ones I fall in love with, console with, create with and whom I hold dear, long after those in real life reality have let me down. Music has no barriers, has no rules or limits. Incredibly musical, well versed and highly trained people can either create very little or create vast works of art, depending on if they have that need and want. It is beyond talent, in itself. Then those who have limited musical training, or should I say no formal training or skills at all, can make you cry, and fill you with pride at the honesty they unveil in their music and craft. That therein, is the magic of music and the goal that all of us chase in our creative lives.

©Aidan Casserly:[vocalist, songwriter, electronic artist & producer]