<![CDATA[Official Artist Website - A musical gateway]]>Mon, 05 Dec 2022 11:52:52 +0100Weebly<![CDATA[dance with the stars]]>Wed, 21 Mar 2018 17:25:13 GMThttp://www.alexsharpcole.com/a-musical-gateway/dance-with-the-stars
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]]><![CDATA[Neverending Anthem]]>Thu, 21 Dec 2017 05:27:02 GMThttp://www.alexsharpcole.com/a-musical-gateway/rock-and-rollI once heard a man say...
​rock n' roll can never die
I never knew the reason why /when I looked in his eyes /
I thought I saw a tear inside.

I once heard a band play... with such emotion 
the room was spinnin' in motion
I was blinded by the light
the doorway was in sight.

And then, when I came back
the whole world had changed
the Cold War era seemed to thaw
the European theatre shocked
when the Iron Curtain dropped

Then the vultures descended
true culture undefended
the corporation made us
slaves with a wage lust
in service of darkness.

We will not be chipped or controlled.
We will not be sold.  Commodifying all the things
that matters to we human beings
We serve not your master.

This song will not be made
into your anthem
human art is a right
for this we will fight
and your children will pay.

the part of the show I most remember
was in the end I realized
the writer had us all along
in the grips of a pen
we might change the end again.

Of course I understand the inclination
to romanticize the past 
but now and then it really was - better back then because
money took over..

and history has re-itterations
like in 1969
to the valley one more time
on the day the music shines

 then the whole planet has a human celebration
of what it means to be alive
to exist! with curious minds!
to dream! with open eyes!
-with rock bands playin' in the sky

I once heard a man say... 
The arc of history is long,
  -   but it bends towards justice.

]]><![CDATA[Where do ideas come from?]]>Sun, 01 May 2016 13:16:35 GMThttp://www.alexsharpcole.com/a-musical-gateway/getting-inspirationWhen it comes to lyrics, I find it especially interesting that many of the questions I hear seem to involve some iteration of the phrasing where do they... *come  from.*  
If I feel "blocked" -- the thing that helps me, most of all, is just to stop trying so hard.  
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MATAMOROS, MEXICO - taking a break during the recording of the electroacoustic concept album and sound art piece "Submadreamgun" (Alex Sharp Cole) -- the completed version of which was presented later that year at an art exhibition in San Francisco. ("Into the Hollow")
]]><![CDATA[There is no greater force of *anti-art* than the striving to be perfect.]]>Fri, 29 Apr 2016 07:44:12 GMThttp://www.alexsharpcole.com/a-musical-gateway/thoughts-on-perfectionism-in-music-composition-creative-arts-in-generalNot only is perfectionism's "disciplined" approach unnecessary -- it is actively destructive. It makes beginners feel like they aren´t good enough and experts feel like they are never, ever finished. It is the worst.

The concept of perfectionism is Puritanical and ludicrous -- it presupposes that all we do in the name of "discipline" (a joyless activity) has a positive effect on creative output.

The truth is quite the opposite.  The destructive consequences of this all-too-prevalent attitude in the western world is so extreme that it can destroy the confidence of its practitioners.  ]]><![CDATA[A Message for "the Kids"]]>Thu, 28 Apr 2016 07:57:45 GMThttp://www.alexsharpcole.com/a-musical-gateway/a-message-for-the-kidsI wish that all the kids in the West and, why not, the world, would decide to rebel against their parents at the exact same instant.  And in that moment, all the war and prejudice in the old world would be gone.  

It would be a collective decision to unite in the name of rock n' roll, or some other high ideal.

"... the kids from Brooklyn to Tehran fell into the same silence / as the kids out West with TV sets stopped to listen for a moment / a new world was born . . ."


]]><![CDATA[April 23rd, 2016]]>Mon, 25 Apr 2016 00:38:35 GMThttp://www.alexsharpcole.com/a-musical-gateway/april-23rd-2016]]>