How music and sports are kind of the same thing
Good morning friends!
My greatest creative inspiration lately has come from books--and science fiction and speculative fiction books in particular.
Out of all the reading I've been doing , nothing has sparked unexpected thought patterns as much as The Galactic Football League series by Scott Sigler.
Scott Sigler's work has been capturing my imagination for years now. He combines a grasp of hard science with a high level of emotional nuance to spin up one-of-a-kind thrillers that really feel like they could happen. No other author I know can put passages of blood-curdling horror, heartfelt meditations on life's great challenges, and poop jokes in such close proximity. All his work also comes with a distinct Midwestern flavor--like spending a little too much time at a local bar with a distant uncle you didn't realize was quite so brilliant. It makes me want to create expansive, thoughtful and rigorous music.
The GFL series, which I put off reading because I thought I wouldn't like it, is targetted at young adults, but I think anyone can enjoy it--even if you think you don't like sports.
The books take place 700 years in the future. The species of the Milkyway Galaxy, including humans, have all come into contact, fought several wars, and currently exist in conditions not dissimilar to ours: a very tenuous sense of peace maintained by nofarious rulers, nations racked with organized crime, and a galaxy-wide deep love for professional football.
The storyline follows the journey of a young star quarterback from a racist "third world" planet as he makes the big time, has to learn to live with and love other races, and slowly gets pulled into the worlds of both cross-species diplomacy and organized crime. It's an epic consisting of six books so far + several novels that starts small and grows wildly complex. For a story that goes from following a football league game-by-game, practice-by-practice, it really goes places you absolutely would not expect.
Thrills and admiration of plot and character development aside, I've personally gotten a lot out of these books.
What I first realized is how much I truly appreciate sports. While I don't have a lot of love for the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc, the actual act of practicing and playing sports is an art in itself.
I grew up playing sports. I was primarily a runner, but I also did a few years of middle school and high school wrestling (which I honestly regret not sticking with for longer), played the adaptive sport goalball, and of course spent thousands of hours practicing skateboarding.
While I eventually found myself more naturally enjoying and exceling in music, and finding closer friends in those communities, I'm greatful for having had the opportunity to really do sports. Even to this day I consider having somewhat of an exercise regimine to be an important part of my musical practice--it's hard to beat the mental clarity a bit of sweating provides.
Getting back to the books though, I think the most impressive part is how Scott Sigler captures the mindset of being dedicated to the game of football. To me, the struggles the characters go through mirror those of mmy adventures in music. Sports and music both require physical skills, mental sharpness, and lots of discipline. To succeed in either (even in a small way) often requires you to make life decisions that go beyond simple logic and comfort. Putting in extra hours of practice before and after games or concerts to perfect your skills, doing research on opposing teams or additional styles of music different from your own (studying the game as it were); and even the challenges of doing post-game press conferences or self promotion of gigs, all while making sacrifices in your personal life. So much familiarity.
Outside of the personal drive for success, the idea of being on a great football team also resonates with my experiences of being in what I consider to be great bands. The tightrope between friendship and boss leaders have to walk; the difference having to bring in a back up or find a substitute musician for a gig makes to a team / band; and the time and intensionality it takes to transform a new group into a seasoned unit all feel similar. The GFL books don't hold back when diving into the strategy of football. The more I learned about everything from assembling a playbook to how much losing even one offensive lineman to injury can affect a team's chance of winning, the more I felt that a football team is just another flavor of band (or maybe a band is just another flavor of football team).
Though I don't see myself becoming a dedicated professional sports fan, I'm very happy to have gone on this literary and creative journey. I can't say how the GFL series will directly affect my composition directly, but I do know my brain feels creatively energized, and that alone is amazing. Down with the dicotomy of jocks vs band kids!