I was born on the fifth of June, 1988, in Sydney Cape Breton, a happy healthy 7 pound bundle of fun. When I was 7 my family packed our lives into a truck and looked towards the golden land of Halifax. I spent elementary school being an awkward fat nerdy kid who acted obnoxiously to get over being an awkward fat nerdy kid. When I was 11 I discovered Weezer. When I was 12 I discovered Blink 182. I spent a brief period of time in grade 7 listening to a lot of shitty shitty shitty rap rock and nu-metal. In Grade 8 I heard Black Flag for the first time, and then a few months later saw the video for "Invalid Litter Dept." by At The Drive-In on Much Music. That one song changed all the preconceptions I had about music. I started playing bass. I 'm still not very good at it. I started playing guitar the next year, once again, not very good.
In highschool I became fully immersed in music, and eventually wormed my way into the local scene thanks to a handful of people who were really receptive and welcoming to a fat awkward nerdy teenager. I spent the rest of highschool not caring all the much about highschool, and caring more about being a smartass. In grade 11 I made the life choice to become straight edge, it wouldn't last. That same year I spent I week in London England, it was a lot of fun and I really really really want to go back. I graduated highschool in 2006. I spent a few minutes being really sad that I was done, and immediately got over it. The summer of 2006 was a good one, I made my first real punk rock roadtrip to PEI with a bunch of friends. I had the single best week of my entire life right near the end of that summer, nothing has topped it yet. That was the summer that I really really started to appreciate Bruce Springsteen.
That fall I started university and started a band. After three months of learning about what a bunch of books meant, and having to hear a bunch of people ramble about a bunch of things I didn't care about, I started getting antsy. The combination of these things, along with the song "For Exes" by Crime in Stereo, and Ryan Allen's shit or get off the pot speech lead to me quitting university after one semester. Spending a semester at Dalhousie taught me a valuable lesson in how to make anything I write/say seem convincing and legitimate. Seasonal depression/general remorse set in after about a week, and I started back into my campaign of feeling like shit. Within 3 weeks of dropping out of school, I broke the edge (and lost your trust). It was a decision that I stand by. My reasons for being edge in highschool were legitimate then but really began to lose a lot of meaning to me. I spent the next 3 months bumming around and doing nothing of any real value, for the most part, I made excuses up for not doing anything. I had a girlfriend for the first time ever.
In April of 2007 being a smart ass finally caught up with me and I got beat up pretty bad. It was kind of a wake up call, within a month of getting beaten up, I had found my first full time job. In July of 2007 I moved out of my parents house to become an adult, it hasn't happened yet. I went to Montreal a few times, drank a few beers, changed jobs, had a good summer.
This past September I started back in school, at the NSCC Dartmouth Waterfront Campus taking the Music Business program. For the first time in the history of my life I care about my education. My teacher is a man who I've known for over three years because of messageboards, it's a strange situation. Since starting school my eyes have been opened to a lot of different things. While in Liverpool Nova Scotia I had a moment of clarity wherein the rest of my life appeared before me and everything kinda almost made sense. Since that vision of divinity I've been pretty inspired/ambitious and just generally optimistic. For the first time ever in my entire life I have a pretty good sense of who I am, and have a good feeling about where I'll be a few years down the road.
This month I started a blog and drank a lot of egg nog. Christmas is in like 4 days, and I don't feel ready or anything like that. I've opted to only get presents for 2 people this year, which makes me feel like kind of a bum, but I think everyone understands.
I love you all
-Andrew
