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 Love Letter To A Record 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.
Serina Pech – The Carpenters, ‘GOLD’ (35th Anniversary Edition)(2004)
There is a very simple joy in listening to Karen Carpenter, ‘Sing A Song’ or when ‘Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft’.
When you are finally exiting your emo/Top 40 bubble and begin listening to real music. Honing in those musical tastebuds, ripping 70’s music from torrent sites because you are 17 and can’t afford CDs, (thank God for streaming).
Thanks to a teenager’s insatiability to profusely consume any new bit of information or pop culture they come into contact with, these natural inclinations brought me to The Carpenters. This was probably the first duo or set of performers that I wasn’t ashamed of listening to at any point.
Dear Karen,
I didn’t buy your music but was struck immediately by your tone, so warm and honest and full of character. I love when a singer can make you feel as though you are having a conversation with them as well as being sung to. I pretty much freaked out when I saw you could play the drums as well, but so gentle and so easy were your feathery touches on the cymbals…
and the snare…
and toms.
It felt like a nice, cruisey ride.
Your brother is a big musical nerd, adding to the cheeseball and the genius of the arrangements and thankfully most Filipinos are obsessed with The Carpenters because they love to sing ballads on karaoke. Our meeting was fated. There is something so loving about you and I could feel the sincerity and sentimentality in the way you sang. So softly yet so powerfully to my young being despite the suffering and loneliness you experienced in your life. I am sad you were taken by illness but so happy you were able to grace my ears.
A very influential vocal teacher (Adrian) introduced me to you. He brought all of his sheet music in a suitcase and he got me to sing ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’. That was the first song he’d picked out for me, so it’s pretty close to my heart. U DA Bomb. See-ya!
–
