Finding my Musical Identity

I had a plan, and it seemed so clear and logical to me, that I couldn't understand why I hadn't "seen" it before. One of the things I realized that I needed to do was to believe in my plan, which really meant I had to believe in myself. That was what was different. I believed in myself. I believed, for the first time, that my goals weren't fantasies, they were just going to require a different approach, perseverence, and hard work. I realized that since a band is a team, I was going to have to find other players who could see the logic in the "plan", and have the willingness to be a part of it. Everyone having the same level of committment was essential to making it happen. And I knew that for that to be true, I was going to have to have a lot of the "pieces" in place before recruiting band members. The first thing I thought I needed was good strong musical material. And it had to be original. Something that was "accessible", but fresh. I had always had a gift for finding obscure, unknown bands that were playing music that I thought was great, and two or three years after I started listening to them, the world would catch up, and those bands would become huge commercial successes. So I knew, with certainty, that I was good at anticipating what the public would like. And so I looked at what was happening in the business at that time, which was "disco", and I knew with that same certainty, that very hard rock was going to be the next "big thing". And that was exactly what I had always liked and had tried to develop, so I was in the right place musically to be "ahead of the wave". I knew I had to start writing music, and I had so many ideas racing through my head, that the whole process just flowed out of me. Song after song. I'd wake up in the middle of the night with lyrics running through my head, and I'd jump up and write them down. The next morning I'd "hear" the music for them. And they were really good. I noticed a common element was happening in all of them, even though some of the songs varied greatly, and it dawned on me that element was an emerging "style" that was common to them all. The music was taking on a recognizeable identity and I knew I was experiencing the most creative period of my life....