Date 11-24-18

I first heard Explosions in the Sky in 2004. There’s a chance that I had heard some of their music before this, but really like many, the Friday Night Light movie that premiered in 2004 was undoubtedly my main entry. From the first guitar string I was hooked.

For the last 14 years this is one band that has shaped my world in ways I cannot begin to count. Their music has always been ethereal and otherworldly, and like others on this list, if only their music was left after all humans vanished, I believe it would be a fair and respectable representation of the human spirit.

I had my first opportunity to see Explosions in the Sky in 2006, but due to a comedy of errors it was the first of many that I would never make it to. It wasn’t until September 2011, after 5 years of buying tickets and having to miss the show, and nearly ten years of being a fan, that I was finally able to see them. This would be the first of four shows of theirs I would see within that year.

Within that same year I also was commissioned to produce my first concert poster for a major international artist… Explosions in the Sky.

Within a years’ time I went from desperately seeking for any way of seeing them, to making something that they could feel comfortable putting their own name on.

It was April 2012, at this point it was third time within the year I’d been able to see them, and I had approved the printed versions of the posters not but two days before the show. I was constantly in a mystified state. I couldn’t put words to what was happening.

The show itself was, like it always is, life validating. I stood, mouth agape, and floored that these monsters of rock had just blew the doors off our little mountain venue. I was making my way to leave with the venue owner tracked me down. He informed me that the band would like to have a word.

I had no clue what this meant, but my first thought was, “I hope I’m not in trouble…” As if they were going to admonish me after seeing the printed posters in person. Instead they provided my a signed copy of my poster.

They could have handed it to anyone to give to me, but they said they were obligated as artists to honor artists. All I could muster to say was, “thank you, I’m such a huge fan, everything you’ve given me I’m glad to have been able to give something back.” They smiled, nodded, and looked at me with sincerity. Munaf, the defacto speaker for the group looking at the poster one last time said, “well I think it’s safe to say we are all big fans of your art too.”

Though there are days…weeks… maybe even years where I have felt like I’m trying to catch up to that level of success, it’s not a moment I live in. I’ve worried before that having that signed poster in my office represents holding on to the past; whether in a romantic or naïve lens. This feeling has dissipated, at least for the most part. Instead it reminds me that the only person I have always had to compete with is myself, and because of that, as a creative, I have much more in me to contribute.