How I Got The Idea

When I was between ten and fifteen, my brother and I would listen to everything from Michael Jackson and R.E.M. to U2, REO Speedwagon, Neil Diamond, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Verve, Candlebox, Dave Matthews Band, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Stone Temple Pilots, Marilyn Manson, White Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, and Tool. Later, when I was around fifteen to eighteen, it was Bush, Staind, and Linkin Park that dominated my playlists.

During junior high and high school (1995 – 2003), my friends and I dove even deeper into that same sonic world—Michael Jackson, R.E.M., U2, The Offspring, Tom Petty, Nirvana, Dave Matthews Band, Stone Temple Pilots, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Bush, Linkin Park, Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, 311, Trapt, Taproot, 3 Doors Down, Switchfoot, Our Lady Peace, Chevelle, Sevendust, The Beatles, and Bob Marley.

When I was twenty-eight, I discovered Led Zeppelin—and for two years, from 2018 to 2020, I listened to almost nothing else. I spent days immersed in their albums, playing them front to back and realizing how seamlessly one flowed into the next. At the time, I drove a ’93 Chevy pickup with a still-working tape deck. I recorded every Zeppelin album onto cassette, listened to them out of order, and noticed the same magic: the music just worked—no matter the order. I even loaded high-quality files on my phone and shuffled them, and again, the flow was undeniable.

In 2023, something shifted. I began to not only hear music but see and feel it in a way that went beyond what those words usually mean. My connection to sound deepened. I started rebuilding my music library from scratch—revisiting familiar artists I hadn’t heard in years, adding new ones that resonated under specific conditions, and curating until it all came together. What emerged is the collection that exists today.