Music and Family

 

For my blog, I chose to interview my Dad, Scott Garrett. He was born on April 9th, 1965 and he is head of inventory at Oilmens Equipment. He has definitely been one of the biggest influences on the music that I listen to and the musician that I am today. He introduced me to so many different genres, bands, and styles of music growing up and music has just been one of the things that he and I have always bonded over. I thought it would be fun to interview him just to get to know more details about why he loves the music that he loves and the history of how he came to have his music preferences. I also wanted to see if there was music that he liked that I didn't know about and what he really thinks about the music that I listen to. 

First, here is a pic of the man himself along with some of my fav pics we've taken together. 

Here is how our conversation went: 

So Dad, what would you say is your earliest memory of anything music-related? 

    ‘It was the Burt Kaempfert orchestra “That Happy Feeling”. My brothers and I would sit on the floor and listen to it on our record player in the living room. 

Oh yeah, you've played that for me before! When you listened to it, how did it make you feel? Did you dance, did you just sit and listen, or were you just vibing?

    Honestly, we would just sit there and listen to it and nod our heads along. You couldn’t listen to that song without being happy.

(My dad played this song for me many times when I was growing up, but I didn't know that it was part of one of his first memories of music.)

Next question, what are the earliest artists or styles of music that you remember listening to?

    Elvis is one of the biggest artists that I remember listening to. His concert in Hawaii was one of my favorite things to watch and listen to. It was on TV so I tapped it on a cassette recorder and then we played it so much that it started messing up. We had another record that was a gospel record called the Family Reunion Gospel Choir. It was a gospel group that had five or six men and women in it. I remember listening to that a lot. I also remember listening to BJ Thomas' “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” which was also played a lot. That was one of the only records that we had so we would play it quite often. We didn’t have much to choose from so we would play what we had.

(I was shocked to hear that "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" was one of the earliest songs that he remembers listening to when he was younger. I've heard that song many times, even with my dad and he had never mentioned that before which was neat)

 What kinds of songs resonated with you when you were younger or DIDN'T resonate with you when you were younger? Child, tween, teen, young adult, etc?

    

    When I was in my early teens we had the Electric Light Orchestra album Out Of The Blue and so we played that one a lot. I really grew to love that album. I liked ELO because it had that kind of orchestra feel that I like. It was cool because the band was an orchestra, but it was also music of that time. Even though it was modern music, it still had that orchestra feel that I connected to from listening to Burt Kaempfert's orchestra when I was little.

What song from the ELO album would you say was your favorite?

    

     "Telephone Line" from that album would have to be my favorite. It has sad lyrics, but still somehow makes me happy. In the song, they're trying to call someone they love and they're not answering and even though that’s sad the music itself doesn’t really make you feel sad.

(My dad introduced this song to me a few years back, and even though the beginning of it is kinda techno I absolutely love it. It's probably on my list of fav top twenty songs. I wasn't surprised to see that this song resonated with him.) 

That's really interesting! Are there any other bands that you remember really enjoying while growing up?

    

    As I got to be an older teenager, artists like Lionel Richie and Foreigner started to do their thing. I liked Chicago, I didn’t care for the early Chicago stuff, but the '80s Chicago stuff was good. Thriller came out by Michael Jackson when I was in High School which was massive and I also really enjoyed the BeeGees. Disco was cool, not that we were dancers or would exactly dance to it, but I liked that genre of music. I listened to ZZ Top's album a lot. The song "Rough Boy" was probably my favorite. Bruce Springsteen’s "Born in the USA" is one that we played a lot too. "Purple Rain" was another that I would also listen to on repeat. The love songs of Lionel Richie were a big thing. "Truly" and his early stuff was good. "Say You Say Me" and that album was really big. We played that so many times it was crazy. Dancing on the Ceiling was a big album. There's no telling how many times we listened to that.  Lionel Richie was definitely the biggest artist that resonated with me.

(One of my Dad's all-time favorite artists is Lionel Richie. He absolutely adores that man, and I understand why. I wasn't shocked at all to hear that he was the biggest artist that resonated with my dad. I was a little surprised to hear that ZZ Top was one of his favorites. I've heard that band name maybe once before and didn't know my dad liked their music that much.)

Do you have a favorite musical artist or genre now?

     I still fall back to the 80s music. Like the band Tears For Fears. I liked them back in the day, but they are one of my top favorite bands now. I really like their sound and feel that all of their music has that 80s vibe that I like. On the more classical side, I also like to listen to Andrea Bocelli. His rendition of Time to Say Goodbye is so good and Romanza is also very good.

("Head Over Heels" by Tears For Fears, one of my dad's favs and mine)

(Romanza by Andrea Bocelli) 

What do you think of mainstream music that comes out now?

    I don’t mind Taylor Swift’s stuff, a lot of it’s catchy. I think she and Adele, are gifted songwriters, but I just don’t listen to that kind of music much. The music now just doesn’t have a lot of emotion behind it, if that's the right word. Besides a few artists, none of it has the feel of what music used to have. It just doesn’t speak to me. It’s not like it sticks with me. For me it doesn’t make me happy, it’s almost like they are just in it for the money, where the music we grew up with was speaking to us and through us.

What's your favorite song by either Taylor Swift or Adele?

    It would have to be the song "When We Were Young". That is really just a beautiful song. You can tell that Adele has been through a lot and she expresses that with her music. It has feelings and emotions that connect to a lot of people. Adele speaks through her music and can write some really great songs.

(Not gonna lie I'm shocked that my dad is a partial swiftie. Was NOT expecting that and am kinda disappointed, but his feelings are valid and I agree with everything he said about Adele. He and I have listened to her album 25 so many times I couldn't count and "When We Were Young" truly is a great ballad.)

What are your feelings about the music that I listen to?

    I like some of it. I like Stephen Sanchez's music. He’s good. Some of Laufey’s stuff is okay, but some of it is just too drawn out and slow, and a lot of it sounds the same. I really like that version of Clair de Lune by Cody Fry that you listen to. That song itself is like a whole movie plot in just one song. Harry Styles has some good stuff I think. My favorite that we both listen to, which you should know, would have to be "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" that’s in Ferris Buellers’ Day Off.

(I discovered Cody Fry and his music almost a year ago. He has a song called "Photograph" that he wrote back in 2022, but last year he came out with a version of the song that was intertwined with Clair de Lune by Debussy. The song is pure magic and I showed my dad the song back in the summer when we were on vacation. I think it's neat that the songs and artists that I have introduced to him have stuck with him like the songs and artists that he has introduced to me have stuck with me. His comments about Laufey's music did kind of hurt my feelings though lol. Also if you haven't heard of Cody Fry PLEASE go listen to his music!!!!)

Lastly, for fun, what is your favorite movie soundtrack?

     The soundtrack from Dirty Dancing, every song on that, even though it was older music, for some reason during the time that the movie came out became new again. When that movie came out, all the songs on the album were old, but the songs became so popular it was like they had just been released. Patrick Swayze’s song from the movie was popular even though he had never released any music before then. My favorite song from that album would probably have to be "Hungry Eyes". "Some Kind Of Wonderful" by The Drifters from that soundtrack is also really good.

(One thing that I think is so funny about my dad is his love for Rom Coms. He loves them. He might not admit to it, but he does, and Dirty Dancing is one of his favorites. He listens to songs from that soundtrack I would say at least once a week. I also have to admit that the soundtrack is pretty top-tier. Can't go wrong with Patrick Swayze and 50s music.)

Thoughts: 

This interview with my dad was honestly really fun, and I learned a lot more about his music taste and his music journey, especially the music that he listened to during the earlier part of his life. It was great to sit down and ask him these questions and learn more about someone who has had such an impact on my music journey.