There’s much chatter online about the idea that a guy like “Danish Pete” has his own pedal. Sometimes I get emailed questions about what I think when chatter like this happens. I’m pretty bad about responding to emails – I’m the webmaster for one of the 50 biggest school districts in the country and I also do web work and programming for the University of South Florida (Go Bulls), as well as this website, my obsession with classic arcade games, guitar repair, my family, and my own hobby career as an artist (4 CDs on iTunes.) So I’d rather blog about something than answer the same email 20 times.
Did that sound like bragging? It isn’t bragging if it’s true.
OK, deep breath. There’s a duality in my brain. Like most older guitar players, I’m part adult, part 12 year old. The kid part of me is a little bitter when I see people get elevated or elevate themselves based on an “every day musician” skillset. Let’s use Pete as an example. At first glance, he’s a guy who is a very good guitar player who has been on a lot of YouTube videos. Does that mean he’s high profile enough to have his own pedal? The kid in me thinks that it makes sense for there to be a Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen pedal, but some semi-random guy on YouTube is miles and miles away from that. Very good guitar players are not rare – wherever you are right now, there are players that good within 50 miles of your house.
But the adult in me recognizes when I’m being childish. If someone approach me and said “We really like your music and your Strat sound, and we’d like to make a pedal that could give other people that sound and put your name on it and you’ll make money,” I’d be down with that. Hell yes I would. Who wouldn’t? And then there’d be people looking at me and saying “What gives that guy the right to have a pedal? All he does is make crummy music and run a crummy website.”
The music biz has always been full of jealousy, especially when it comes to guitar players. We are literally the worst. Maturity has taught me that while we all have selfish, shallow thoughts from time to time, it’s super important to recognize them and reject them. I’ve been very, very entertained by Pete and the whole Anderton crew for many years. I’d love to meet him, I’m happy he’s doing well, and I want to support anyone and everyone who is out there living the dream.
I think it’s important to recognize that sometimes we do have these jealous thoughts, and that we need to really examine them deeply. Hell, that’s 90% of what’s wrong in the United States right now – people are becoming very tribal and they don’t want to listen to each other and work together to compromise. Don’t worry, no politics here. I want people to respect each other and work together – that’s my politics.
So I’m saying live and let live. Yes, the little kid is still in me. But the older I get, the more I’m learning to make him wait in the car while the adults talk.
