Well...it appears I'm quite a bit younger than everyone who has posted in this thread already. As such, my experience is quite less than all and I don't have much actual work to show for my efforts...nevertheless I felt the urge to contribute to this thread.
Inspiration: My parents were not that musical. My mom had a piano in the house when she was a kid so she can tinker around on that conditions permitting. Sure, they listened to music but by no means to a high degree. However...When I was in elementary school (third grade to be precise) the school brought in a man with a variety of orchestral instruments (trumpet, saxophone, flute, etc). They gathered all the kids in the all purpose room and had him do a presentation...talking about music and introducing all the different types of instruments that were out there. He went through all the major ones but the one that resonated with me more than anything else was the saxophone. I don't know why (still can't explain it) but I loved what I was hearing. Next year (the first year they let students join a musical ensemble) I started playing saxophone. Unfortunately, I didn't last long as I had quite stubby fingers and couldn't properly reach all the right keys for particular notes. I quite after a few months and switch to drums, which I played all through my school years and still play to this day. (Though I was I had a saxophone now to try and learn again.)
As for musical influences...I didn't really care about music (aside from playing it in school) and didn't listen to much at home (just radio in the car). My dad is a fan of classic rock mostly, and my mom doesn't really care for music listening on any serious level. Starting in high school I started buying CDs (for unknown reasons) and then one day (in 2003ish) I found King Crimson and my path to prog was set. Music then became my interest and I started to get as much as possible. Over the years I branched out into other realms (avant-garde, metal, and most recently jazz) but prog-rock still remains my favorite and was certainly the biggest jumping point for me musically.
Phases: As I said, I played drums all through school. Joined the marching band in high school and did various things around town (parades, walmart openings..., etc) in the drumline, but we weren't really a competing band and only did one true competition (which we failed at quite spectacularly). During my freshmen year of college I jammed a bit with a few people I met but nothing really came out of these things other than laughs and injuries. In 2008, I formed a band with my cousin which was much more musically interesting and produced alot of good stuff (IMHO of course). He mainly played bass, I mainly played drums, and we both played various other things intermittently. In 2010, me and my cousin started a new band with an additional member on guitar. Both bands are currently still running, although the first one was put on the backburner a bit with the formation of the second. Both bands have a fair amount of material and hopefully one day we will record it (or record some things better) or just release what we do have. We have played three gigs in and around town, mostly to people we know, which were fun to some degree. The main problem with continuing things further is all logistical, as we don't really live close to each other and my cousin spends a good part of the year out of state.
As for myself...I've tried to conquer other instruments to limited success. I can dabble on the keys slightly and can strum a guitar. I've tried to write things for a 'solo career' type thing but have since learned I do not have the instrumental prowess nor technical intelligence to perform the music I want to perform or record it if it does get played. Yet...I still try and write as much as I can and come up with ideas as one does in this type of thing...randomly and without warning.
The future: Hopefully the two bands can do something more in terms of producing actual things. For myself...I keep trying to learn new instruments and have realized that I need to scale down the 'solo' stuff. Atm working on solo instrumental pieces and more ambient keyboard dominated stuffs. I would also love to start a band with people who live closer to me so we can be more consistent in practicing/working ideas out/jamming/etc. Luckily I do have many musical friends, though we share very few common grounds in music, and we all seem to be at different levels of proficiency which makes whatever jams I do have...interesting to say the least. But...I'm still very much at the beginning of the path than the end so hopefully there will be more to write here one day.
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