Letter from a young girl ahead of SUPERTRAMP’S Roger Hodgson show in Bucharest, this Saturday

Anastasia S., a 14 y.o. girl from Romania, wrote a letter on the occasion of SUPERTRAMP’S ROGER HODGSON concert in Bucharest, this Saturday evening at Sala Radio. The letter written by Anastasia has a strong message to all music lovers and, especially, to the ones who forgot to appreciate the real artists.

“It was all simple back then. It would only take blue skies to catch my eyes. And so I came by Supertramp’s Breakfast in America album cover, picturing the background of New York’s skyscrapers and the emphasis of a waiter holding a menu and an orange juice. It was this picture that gave me the innocent but rather motivated desire to listen to the album. I was about 6, it was 2010, a year in which simple pictures weren’t exactly the buzz due to the already present and in this case, last season, technological advances. But there was something so specific about this album cover…

It gave me a feeling of vintage, perhaps the setting of a diner. Though I was young and presumably had no notion of time, I got a specific feeling that brought hints of unknown which instinctively led to curiosity.

The first song that I listened to, of course, was Breakfast in America, the title track of the album that sold over 20 million copies worldwide. One’s potential fantasies, described in the song “Breakfast in America”, encouraged my dreams, the many I had at the age of 5. I must say that I constantly listened to it for weeks (when it wasn’t playing out loud, it was playing on repeat in my head).

“Breakfast in America” was also the first vinyl that I listened to, out of my father’s 1,000 vinyl collection. I was born in 2004, a year close to the present, yet I somehow stick to things of the early past, not by instinct (as how could that be?), but by the desire to learn, powered by curiosity.

 It was a stormy night, the powerful storm only a background for the first song on the album, Goodbye Stranger. I was with my brother, who I must state never smiles, and somehow, as the vinyl rotated, he was constantly smiling. This song gave me a blissful feeling, like that thinking of the summer in the midst of winter, or of winter in the middle of the summer when you’re sick and tired of the heat.

Finding out that Supetramp’s vocalist, Roger Hodgson is coming to Bucharest, I was more than just excited, I was rather relieved due to the constant pressure that time is limited until these singers physically remain into the past. Supertramp is a symbolic band to me. It is transmitting more than just music, but rather potential reflections about one’s life, its past, future, regrets, and accomplishments.

Recently, I was watching a movie in which a middle aged man took out a vinyl. His young girlfriend barely pronounced the name on it: Supertramp. A name so self-explanatory and direct, a band so symbolic to me interpreted as something so useless.

Music wasn’t something new to me, not at all. On the contrary, at age 4 I asked my father to play deep Purple and by age 5 I knew all the Rolling stones songs, and now, at age 14, I have been seduced into the universe of Zeppelin. Of course, my taste in music wasn’t something I considered unique or even a misfit, but rather normality. When I hit school and the juicy topic of musical tastes, every subject turned into a debate due to my voice and fragile opinion.

Even so, I am no one to judge what others consider satisfactory. Though I have never judged friends and their taste in music, I often found myself questioned and rather criticized because of my “old” taste in music, music that my friends refer to as “old people music”. In response, I always laugh in my head, getting a feeling of empathy, rather regretful than envious. Little do they know that this “old people music” is what ultimately inspired and determined future songs, though they had deeper objectives to communicate, losing the majority of their meaning in the perspective of the new generation that only pays attention to what is transmitted directly, rather than metaphorically, artistically, and poetically. Today’s music is not a matter of complexity, as evolution should be, it is something that directly defines and portrays superficiality. Indeed, I am part of the new generation. But perhaps opinions should not all be categorized under one label.

I must admit that I don’t know where my musical taste would have been today if it wouldn’t have been with the influences of my parents on this fragile subject. I was, and am, constantly exposed to an atmosphere that lives in the past, through music, not mentally or physically. I grew and grow up with a different music playing in every room, with the only factor in common being that it was recorded before the 2000’s and it integrates in the genre of rock, jazz, blues, or rock’ n roll.

Time passes, bringing new singers and therefore it is important for the ones that brought initiative to be carried into the present, into the future, rather than being stuck into the past.

This is why the new generation has to be informed of the past, as it is what essentially determines, models, and influences the future.

Thinking of the past (the little past that I have at age 14), the saxophone playing in The Logical Song (a representation of one’s thoughts of his past) by Supertramp comes to my mind. I remember the first time I heard this song, by my father, driving through Provence in a cabriolet car, as the sun set. This song, the nostalgia ironic to its major chords, messes with your head and makes you want to think about yourself, not in narcissistic way, but in a reflective way. This song, full of meaning, has inspired me (excuse the cliché), in ways in which I haven’t realized until today. I have found myself writing poems, reflecting on the past as someone who went through life, such as this song’s meaning (far from my situation). Wasn’t the music of yesterday closer to meaning than any today’s music can ever be, referring to the present?

Finding out that Supetramp’s vocalist, Roger Hodgson is coming to Bucharest, I was more than just excited, I was rather relieved due to the constant pressure that time is limited until these singers physically remain into the past.

Parents that now know what to appreciate should bring their children to such concerts, expose them to the past, as it seems that they are open minded to the future that is, based on common sense, harder to perceive. Why should such this music of the past, antonym of superficiality, be left in the past? Is the new generation living on the surface, ignorant of what is in between layers?

Children are easy to influence and it is the duty of their parents to positively model their brains in order to achieve positive outcomes of building the ideal character.

I say this as a child. Yes, hard to believe (modest, I must say). A child thankful of the influences of my parents that make me, me, the music I listen to making me unique, rather interesting, especially to the adults who always appreciate my taste. It is not a matter of not wanting their children to appreciate old music, it is a matter of ignorance and not trying.

Coming back to Supertramp, it is one of the bands that modelled the musical world. Roger Hodgson- A concert that can’t be missed or ignored, not even by the youth. Lack of interest today can be the thank you of tomorrow and the influence upon the new generation. Without this, precious musicians will be stuck in the past, forever. Minor actions such as attending such concerts (as quickly as possible, as it still is possible), and exposing those who seek and need it (whether they like it or not) to such influences can bring the future’s music to something based on complexity, sensibility, rather than digitalized and with lack of meaning to which humans are instinctively vulnerable.

My father listened to Supertramp as the first albums were out. He then told my mother, thirteen years older than me. Now my brother and I appreciate Supertramp more than them both, not only for their music, but rather for their now present history.

When something of value has an impact don’t interrupt the chain of pleasure and appreciation. Such as this concert, this band, represented by a person- Roger Hodgson. Part of the band’s past, brought into the present through his presence.

This is my opportunity to keep the chain alive.”

Tickets for the concert in Bucharest can be purchased via eventim.ro!

The show starts at 8 PM  Acces doors at 6 PM!