Crystle Clark
Mari Wolf
CWIII
Music is the key to the soul For all of time music has been a way to express ones feelings. Right before a Football game the band plays, at a wedding the bride and groom pick one song to be their first dance and at church the congregation sings hymns. Just as each song is unique, so are the musicians that compose the music. This essay will address a dear friend of mine, a musician named Nick Bonner and his many accomplishments, with his education, a band member, and for his future in music. Nick Bonner and I have known each other for many years and he is a dear friend of mine. Nick is very eccentric and unique. The both of us went to Jackson High School and attended Hocking College. He Graduated with an Associates of applied business majoring in music business specializing in audio performance and production. He also has an Audio engineering certification from a production studio in Chillicothe Ohio. Like I said before, Nick is very unique he as always carved out his own path. Nick is a long haired, free thinking, opinionative person. He is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in or to say what is on his mind. I asked Nick what made him want to become a musician and as he sat there at his computer with his guitar in hand, he looked at me and said “first and for most to express myself, secondly I want to make people feel the way my favorite musicians make me feel”. In order to be fulfilled in his career he has to be constantly setting goals for himself. Even if he plays an awesome show he still strives to be better. Nick is just not an average guitarist; he has broken the mold as a multitalented musician. He plays piano, harmonica, drums and he has been writing and preforming since he was a teenager. Nick started out playing guitar eight years ago. That grew and turned into a lifelong love affair with every aspect of music. In that love affair there have been many ups and downs. A few years ago Nick was performing in a Presbyterian church in Logan Ohio. He was going to be singing, playing the guitar and his harmonica. The church was packed, there had been a performer before him and she was introducing Nick. As he walked out on stage all eyes were on him. He started to introduce himself some more and talk about the song he was going to be performing for them. The song started out flawlessly and as he was getting ready to start the harmonica solo he realized he had put the harmonica in his holster upside down. At the last minute he had to scramble to finish the song. He told me it was humbling. No matter how much you practice you have to pay attention to detail, this is a show and people are watching.
Nick is part of a local band called Mind Pulp. The band itself has been together since 2000.The boys of Mind Pulp refer to their music as Rocka-Hillbilly-Funknasty-Metal. Nick joined them in February of this year. The band has been playing with national acts such as Mushroom head, The Devil Wears Prada and Machine Gun Kelly. Nick said that becoming well known is not what he thought it would be like. He thought that the more renown he became the more people would come up to him. This is not the case he says, “It’s like they are intimidated or something”. Nick is the lead guitarist in Mind Pulp, but he also does the majority of their writing and he is in charge of all the recording and editing. Everything Nick does is meticulously planned out. He will re-write, re-listen, and re-record as many times as needed until he is satisfied. . It is truly amazing to watch someone who has so much character and drive preform. It’s like watching a silent movie, he is so animated you can read every emotion just from his body language. Nick told me that one of the most common misconceptions of the music industry is that what we hear on the radio is considered the “best.” That’s totally not the case, mainstream music is about trends. He said “it’s like they’re more interested in selling the art rather than the art itself.”
Emotions have influenced Nick tremendously. He explained to me that musicians that can express their emotions to the point that they can move people are Hero’s in his eyes. Music has a huge effect on your mood or mind set. It’s not just to the point of a sad song can make you cry or a happy song reminds you of good times, it goes way deeper than that. Nick explained to me that there have been studies done on cymatics, otherwise known as the relationship between sound and matter. He went on to explain that music is a series of vibrations that can manipulate matter, and humans are made up of matter. Nick went on to explain that he wants to have that same power as his favorite musicians. He wants to be able to move people and to make people feel good. Nick is extremely talented and driven. When I asked him if what the future might hold he just smiled and laughed. He said “Well that’s the funny thing about the future, no one can say for certain what it has in store for us.” He plans to stay with the band as long as he’s needed, but there are still techniques that he has not mastered. He wants no boundaries or inhibitions standing in his way from expressing himself to the fullest. Music is always going to be a part of human life. As long as we have talented musicians like Nick Bonner filling our ears and minds with their music we will as a whole come together.