I'm glad that I've had the chance to experience the "cassette tape generation". All these kids now-a-days with their rewriteable CDs and perfect sounding songs straight from the internet have no idea what music is all about with all this perfection hanging around. Back when you wanted to listen to a song so bad over and over again but couldn't wait for a new radio show to request it, you'd wait and record it onto a cassette. You'd probably catch the presenters voice at the start and end, but hell, it was worth it. I can remember making mixed tapes with a mixture of songs off the radio and songs off of CDs (back before the real age of CD rewriteables). You got a real sense that music was worth the effort 'cause it took an effort to get what you wanted, it wasn't ever made easy for you.
Long distance mixtapes and memories
Some of my best memories revolve around the cassette. I had a friend who lived in Bristol, some 2.16041514 × 10-11 light years away (that's about 127 miles for anyone who doesn't measure in light years... educate yourselves); she sang and wrote her own stuff but we thought it would be cool to record some covers. We did Linkin Park's 'Numb' and I remember her singing over the song and sending me the file over good ol' MSN Messenger. I proceeded to play the file nice and loud whilst playing my acoustic guitar over the top and having it all recorded onto cassette, as I couldn't plug my guitar in to my PC.
I still have the file kicking around some where on my iTunes and it doesn't sound half bad except for the faint sound of Linkin Park in the background, but that was our shot at "recording" acoustic versions of songs we dug. Me and my brother also recorded us playing New Found Glory's 'Hit or Miss' straight on to a cassette, and given the fact that this was one loud electric guitar and one even louder drum kit, came out surprisingly well. This sort of thing always takes me back to what it must have been like for bands starting out when cassette tapes were still all the rage and they were making that demo that would 'break' them to the record industry. It gives you a sense of pride and hopefulness. Me and John (Brother and now drummer in The City Calls - go check em' out... that's my good deed done for today) would also record some 'demo' tracks (and I use the word demo loosely) that we'd written ourselves. I remember one called "Pre-Hours" that I wrote as a kind of plead to Funeral For A Friend to return to the music that made me fall for them before they released 'Hours'. From time to time I listen to these songs and other 'demos' we recorded. I probably will never share these with anyone else, but I love getting all nostalgic and remembering just how much fun we used to have.
Cassette tapes and aspirations
This also takes me back to how playing music all began for me back when I was sixteen. Young, impressionable and maybe a little innocent, I took up teaching myself guitar. The guitar seems to have this sense of "everything's rock-and-roll" when you're holding it; all you want to do is jump around on a stage and bust out a solo to the admiration of adoring fans. I may have never gotten that far with it, but the times I spent teaching myself and learning were fun, and that's how music should be! Around this time I had been writing a lot of lyrics, but never had the musical skills to put anything tuneful around the words - the guitar allowed me to develop an accompaniment to my lyrics. Sure these songs started off sounding like trash, but you only get better with practise. Needless to say, it wasn't long before I was getting the hang of both this guitar playing and song writing biz.
Around this time, I'd managed to get hold of a cassette recorder (like the ones we used a school).. I quickly set about recording my first "demo" to cassette and then putting it on to my computer and doing some very questionable "editing". With these "edited" acoustics I'd then transfer them on to a CD and proceed to use my parents old Hi-Fi system to play the CD and record these tracks back on to cassette. I found there was something so magical and vintage about a cassette tape that I couldn't settle with just CD copies of my "demo" but a cassette tape also. Probably so that when I was "living the dream" of some high flying songwriter, I'd be able to see my cassette going for a few hundred on bay just like Blink 182's impossible to find Flyswatter demo. This tape recording device mentioned is what my brother and I would use until it mysteriously disappeared. Whatever happened to it I wish I could have kept it, more for the memories it hold rather than anything else.
Old school demos
Thinking again about Blink 182's 'Flyswatter' demo, 'Take Off Your Pants & Jacket' was the first album that I ever bought, just before Christmas 2002.. I must have been about 14 or 15. I fell for the band very quickly and have never looked back. Unfortunately they were so unconvincing on their return that I wouldn't pay to see them again, but I know they're going to sound tight on CD. After purchasing TOYPAJ I soon accumulated the rest of their discography and couldn't stop listening to all of it. Even when my parents threw TOYPAJ out because of the content, I would go out and buy it again, though this time the limited edition runs you had to pay £20-30 for off of eBay. Pretty soon I desperately wanted their first demo tape 'Flyswatter' and so set up my eBay account to remind me if anything of the same description appeared. I think about twice something appeared, both from America and both finally selling for somewhere between $400-500. At the time that was about £200-250. Never having that money to hand, I started saving up so that if by chance it would appear again I could finally buy a true musical treasure. Needless to say it hasn't happened and my money is now being spent on more grown-up things and for the future.
Despite this I still managed to get my hands on a pretty rare Slipknot demo tape for my brother for his birthday. From what I have read and seen these were given out at shows and sent out to record companies just before the bands first record. It's still all sealed up and I feel privileged to have gotten hold of something this vintage and rare, even if it's not mine to own.
The blueprint of your soul
Sure it makes me feel a lot older than I am to look back and think "I remember the days of cassette tapes and what they were all about", but in truth I'm glad I got to experience this 'vintage' age before it died out to the CD. Music always means more when you love something enough to do whatever you can to have it. Jamie Cullum's lyric "I'll make you a mixtape that's a blueprint of my soul" has never felt more true for me. As does the line "This is my mixed tape for her//It's like I wrote, every note, with my own fingers" taken from the Jack's Mannequin song 'The Mixed Tape'. Both of these lines really sum up what making mix tapes is all about. They're your soul and they contain the music that you're all about, they're personal to you.
If you truly understand what I'm talking about here then, in my eyes, you truly understand how much effort music is worth! I'm not saying that people don't make an effort anymore before people totally misunderstand what I've been saying, but there just seemed that bands had to put in a lot more effort "back in the day" to get their music out there and it wasn't such an instant or easy affair when you wanted to get hold of the music you wanted.
I hope you've enjoyed reading about what the cassette tape means to me and I really hope it takes you back and reminds you of the memories you have about that time - never forget!
