Love Letter To A Record: Crocodylus’ Mikel Salvador On Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’

Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.

In this series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.

Here are their love letters to records that forever changed their lives.

Mikel Salvador, Crocodylus — Pink Floyd’s The Wall

The Wall,

Our first meeting was completely by chance. Hearing you float out of my friend’s car window and being introduced as, “My dad’s music” I remember inspecting the cassette tape in my hands and thinking, “I have no idea what this is even about.”

I was young and at this point you were older, your gravitas and loaded emotions were too much for my barley teenage mind to fully comprehend. But somewhere inside me, you hit a chord. I was drawn in by the theatrical, dramatic nature of the music itself, while your true meanings and implications flew miles over my head. At the end of the car ride I remember thinking, “Cool music, I guess”.

Fast-forward years later in the midst of a teenage wasteland and something inside me perks up and remembers your majesty and the hair-raising excitement of those first chords out of seemingly nowhere. I call it fate. Call it whatever you want, it started this snowballing interest that would go on to see me completely enthralled in your world.

Except this time, I didn’t focus on the majesty and the instrumentation of songs like ‘Another Brick In The Wall.’ And the badass rock n’ roll guitar riffs of ‘Young Lust’.

This time, I focused on what you were actually saying, and it irrecoverably changed me. Your words and emotions were dour and brooding, mental anguish and heavy atmosphere. However, with the faintest trace of hope at the end of the whole ordeal, which since ingesting has left me with a certain sense of loose existential peace. It took me a while, but I had finally grown up enough to engage in your themes and your message.

There was a moment of clarity and understanding between you and I. In 10th grade History class (ironic I know), our teacher showed us his example of “The cultural and civilian reaction to the Blitz” and he showed us the ‘Goodbye Blue Sky’ film clip. The raw emotion in that clip, as horrible as it is, eternally cemented my love and appreciation for you, and appreciation for art as a form of expression. This titanic concept and work of art, which still affects my life to this day.

Thank you so much for awakening me, and for helping me take at least a little step closer to understanding myself and everyone around me, the happiness, the pain, and the badass.

Mother, should I trust the government?

—

Crocodylus have just unleashed a surf-drenched, garage-tastic new single dubbed ‘My Love’, which you can take for a spin below. Also catch them on tour in support of the release this May.

Thursday, 17th May
The Lansdowne, Sydney
Tickets: Oztix

Saturday, 19th May
The Bearded Lady, Brisbane
Tickets: Oztix

Saturday, 26th May
The Tote (Upstairs), Melbourne
Tickets: Oztix