YOUR QUESTION

10/05/2020 17:38:02KennyHey Trevor, I'm an aspiring musician, and don't worry, not here to try to get you to check out any of my stuff, but no matter what I create, no matter what style, etc, I'm deathly anxious of showing it to anyone in my family. Friends are perfectly fine, they're musicians too, but despite me having made music for years by myself (kinda hard to keep a band secret from your family), I just can't bring myself to show any of my work to anyone in my family. I guess I'm afraid of being rejected (mostly due to the music being electronic/hip-hop in nature, so it might not be "real music" to them since it was made on a computer), or arguably even worse, praised highly for work that I don't feel like is very deserving of praise.

Given how odd Bungle's releases were, did you have any anxiety about showing them to anyone in your family? How did your family react? And lastly, what advice would you give to someone in my position?

Thanks in advance

MY ANSWER

Being related to someone does not guarantee that you will relate. None of my family understands the majority of my music. That said, my mom, being a jazz fan and lover of live music will come out and see anything whether she gets it or not. I think I understood my black-sheep-ness at a young age and I don’t really go out of my way to share my music with them, with the exception of sending my mom CDs of the more “inside” stuff that I have done. I mean, Bungle used to rehearse in my parents’ living room. They’ve always known I was weird. Other than that, they know where to find my music (and pay for it) if they want to. So I don’t have that anxiety that you speak of. Fear of rejection is real, but so is being true to yourself. Depending on how severe this anxiety is, you may want to seek the advice of a therapist, but mostly I would only worry about satisfying and accepting yourself. If you’re proud of what you’ve created you should bask in that reward, regardless of anyone else’s opinion. My music is not even close to being accepted by all, and I have accepted that for years. That’s just a hallmark of being yourself and ultimately unique