“Other than the love of my parents, at the age of 4 or so, I think I had never experienced deep love for someone or something until I listened to Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales.”
“Over and over my parents played this album, so over and over I listened and memorized and marinated in the shimmering sounds, quirky intervals, time signatures that challenged my childhood steps, unforgettable vocal melodies, and the glistening arrangements, without knowing that was what I was doing. Honestly, I was very, very young at the time. But the listening ignited a love and a hunger in me, a voracious appetite for beautiful melodies and intricate musical stylings, always seeking unordinary lyrics to explain my own thoughts and questions.
For a long time I didn’t really understand the experience that had been put in front of me. I just learned that album from front to back, learning to love it. To this day, that album is one of my all time favorites and Sting still resides as my favorite musician of all time. And to this day, I style my own compositions, arrangements, and lyrics with as much love as that album first ignited in me.
However, it wasn’t until recently that I really got to experience vinyl in a fuller sense as an adult. My bass player got into collecting vinyl. He lost himself in the search for original pressings in their best condition. I had been partial to the whole vinyl thing for decades, but his incessant collecting birthed several key moments that changed my mind forever. One of these moments was listening to “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles.
We were listening off his new stereo system, listening quite hot. The orchestra section on vinyl sounded completely different than it did from my CD-influenced memory. Things got so loud and there was a certain feeling of entrapment that engaged a hyperfocus.
I was blown away. It was at this moment that I was convinced of the vinyl listening experience.”
—Jesse Brock, guitar/vocals
“Oceans” is taken from Lines in the Sky’s second full length release, Parallel Travel, which is in stores now.
