Category: Conrad Askland

Conrad Askland circa 1993.

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This is a portrait sketched of me as a young child. There is no artist signature on the drawing – best guess on painter’s name is Carolyn Voorhees.

In preparing for a big move I’m going through many old boxes. So if you notice odd posts lately, that’s why. Lots of old stuff I’m posting up….I don’t know….just because I can.

This is my second grade progress report. I attended Sherwood Forest Elementary in Bellevue, WA. My teacher, Ms. Rhyne, noted “Conrad’s participation in music is rather passive.” This seemed odd to me since I remember being intoxicated with music at my earliest memories around age 5.

So I asked my Mother about it and she started to giggle. She remembers that report card and at the time had asked me about it. She says my reponse was, “Oh, those kids sing so out of tune I can’t bear to listen to it. I refuse to sing with them.”

This should be funny to those that know me. I’m still very much the same today when it comes to intonation, but hopefully a hair more politically correct and gentle. As I go through all these papers from my grade school years I’m struck with the thought: “Do we really change as we grow older?”. All my early writings give every indication of who I am today – for better or for worse.

Phonics Made Easy by School Zone Interactive. Visit their website at schoolzone.com .

I love this company – let me tell you why. They bought one of my royalty free rap instrumentals and used it in their software (Yes, there’s more to it than just that). My hip hop library was intended for rappers to use for albums, but this company had business saavy and used it for their phonics software. Still falls under the “synchronization license” of my library. My hat is off to the person in this company that thought outside the box to come up with that. Most companies would look strictly at corporate buyout music from business entities, not at my hip hop outlets.

Let me tell you what else I love out this company. Very few people that use my soundtracks give me credit – and that’s really all I ask for many of my royalty free libraries. This company was courteous enough to not only give me credit, but they also sent me a finished copy of their software. It was released several years ago and I just now had the chance to actually load up the software and try it out. The software is made for age 6+ and I got a couple of the answers wrong! Mmmm…….

Thank you School Zone Interactive for being a creative company, and most of all for being upright and straight ahead in your business dealings. I salute you!

Learning beginning phonics has never been so much fun! Your child will explore beginning and ending letter sounds, long and short vowel sounds, rhyming families, letter blends, and more.

Drive South was a Southern California country band I played in during the early 90’s. It was a transition group between two other bands. Bob Gross – Bass Guitar. Peter Klimes – Electric Guitar. Jono Brown – Drums. Vocals – Jolene. Keyboards – Conrad Askland. I’m on the top left.

I kind of like this photo. Was taken back around 1993 or so.

I guess I am simple minded when it comes to the inspiration for why I am in the arts. I have had several conversations with various people in the recent past where they told me the deep seated motivation behind their work in the arts. Concepts from educating the public on social issues to, shocking people into the reality of the state of our world; and many other noble concepts.

Shallow as it may seem – it is entertainment to me. The arts are a way for us to transcend every day living and go somewhere else for a while. A place to be happier, darker, lighter, heavier than we could ever be in the real world. I used to have a t-shirt that said “Art is more important than life.” It certainly is better than everyday life.

I’m proud to be part of that, but have no grand social statement to make through art.

Why am I so superficial about my life’s work? Because it happens on it’s own. In the cracks and crevices of what we attempt to create; things are created that acheive their own social statements without our help.

If you call me up to go to a show and say “This is a social commentary on the state of our world”, I’ll only go begrudgingly. I would much rather see Mary Poppins. I am part of the general audience too. That general audience sometimes referred to as “the masses”, “the uneducated”, “the stupid”. And I want to feel something that moves me.

My experience has been when we try to steer with grand things to say – we fall flat of our intentions. But when we just let art flow and do our thing – a great many people are moved in ways we could never have anticipated.

That is the reward. And one we do not control.

I ran across these photos taken back in 1985 in Seattle, WA. At the time I was heavy into the underground music scene in the Seattle area and Capitol Hill. Being from Bellevue, WA which was widely regarded as the preppy, snobby and uppity suburb of the Seattle area – I would play that up and went to most of the underground clubs wearing suit and tie. Very fun times.

Other person in the photos is Michael Shropshire. At the time he was often mistaken for the lead singer of the Cure. And that was always fun too.

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