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.
Sean Caskey, Last Dinosaurs – The Strokes’ Room on Fire
Dear Room On Fire,
My love for your creators seemed forever star-crossed when I first went to Sanity as a small child escorted by my dear mother to purchase your preceding album Is This It. Much to my disappointment (as an 11-year-old — not so much a turn off anymore) I was presented with a naked lady’s rear end, which my mother assumed was representative of the musical content. She refused to buy it for me so I was forced to let the idea of exploring the Strokes go.
Years later, while in Tasmania for the velodrome national cycling championships, I had a very brief moment in a CD shop which presented me with you. I was overjoyed to find a G-Rated cover. Now I think about it, though, I was well and truly old enough to not need mum to buy me stuff. I guess I was so heartbroken about Is This It I managed to block you out of my mind until I saw you with my own eyes. I spent a significant portion of my pocket money to buy you and it was the best 10 or 15 bucks I have even spent.
You became the soundtrack to my life for many years afterwards. The thought of you still gives me goosebumps. You showed me how good guitars can sound, and how lead guitars and rhythm guitars can interact with each other. You opened my mind to another world of high school dances and drinking forties. My young, two-dimensional heart suddenly expanded in all directions and I was overwhelmed with emotions I’d never felt before. These emotions are still burning strong within me to this day because of you. You started a fire in my soul that will never go out.
It took me a couple of years to realise but I had some very serious issues with depression as a kid that never got dealt with. No one really knew the true extent of it, except you. You were the only thing I wanted to hold on to in the hardest times. You never left, you never changed. I only got to understand you better and the more I grew the more I understood.
Thank you for inspiring me to put on skinny jeans.
Thank you for inspiring me to start playing guitar.
Thank you for teaching me guitar.
Thank you for showing me what the future held.
Forever bound to your beauty and genius,
Sean Caskey
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Catch Last Dinosaurs touring nationally in March of 2019 off the back of their brand new album, ‘Yumeno Garden’.
